Invicta Informant

Something overlooked in the King's New Year's Honours List, is the 1983 World Champion Keith Deller has been awarded an MBE for services to charity: https://www.pdc.tv/news/2023/12/30/keith-deller-awarded-mbe-kings-new-years-honours-list

Not seen any mention of this show on RMweb, but it is due to take place at the Lockmeadow Market Hall in Maidstone (ME16 8LW), located close to Maidstone West station, on Friday 29th & Saturday 30th December 2023. Some more details here: https://www.ukmodelshops.co.uk/event/y2023/26246-MidkentGroup_Exhibition From what I have seen, it is organised by Geoff Martin, who runs a few Toy Fairs at the venue each year: https://maidstonevintagetoyfair.co.uk/index.html

Week 16 NFL Results: New Orleans Saints 22-30 Los Angeles Rams Cincinnati Bengals 11-34 Pittsburgh Steelers Arizona Cardinals 16-27 Chicago Bears Dallas Cowboys 20-22 Miami Dolphins Jacksonville Jaguars 12-30 Tampa Bay Buccaneers Green Bay Packers 33-30 Carolina Panthers Indianapolis Colts 10-29 Atlanta Falcons Detroit Lions 30-24 Minnesota Vikings Washington Commanders 28-30 New York Jets Seattle Seahawks 20-17 Tennessee Titans Cleveland Browns 36-22 Houston Texans Buffalo Bills 24-22 Los Angeles Chargers New York Giants 25-33 Philadelphia Eagles Las Vegas Raiders 20-14 Kansas City Chiefs New England Patriots 26-23 Denver Broncos Baltimore Ravens 33-19 San Francisco 49ers Los Angeles Chargers and New York Giants have been eliminated from post-season contention, while Miami Dolphins and Detroit Lions have secured theirs spots in the post-season.

Week 15 NFL Results: Los Angeles Chargers 21-63 Las Vegas Raiders Pittsburgh Steelers 13-30 Indianapolis Colts Minnesota Vikings 24-27 Cincinnati Bengals Dallas Cowboys 10-31 Buffalo Bills Washington Commanders 20-28 Los Angles Rams San Francisco 49ers 45-29 Arizona Cardinals New York Giants 6-24 New Orleans Saints Houston Texans 19-16 Tennessee Titans Tampa Bay Buccaneers 34-20 Green Bay Packers Kansas City Chiefs 27-17 New England Patriots Atlanta Falcons 7-9 Carolina Panthers Chicago Bears 17-20 Cleveland Browns New York Jets 0-30 Miami Dolphins Denver Broncos 17-42 Detroit Lions Baltimore Ravens 23-7 Jacksonville Jaguars Philadelphia Eagles 17-20 Seattle Seahawks New York Jets, Tennessee Titans, Arizona Cardinals, and Washington Commanders have been eliminated from post-season contention, while Baltimore Ravens, Dallas Cowboys, and Philadelphia Eagles have secured their spots in the post-season.

There is also radio coverage of the World Championships on talkSPORT.

The fondly remembered Birmingham Super Prix.

The PDC World Darts Championship starts tomorrow (Friday 15th) evening with Sky Sports providing extensive wall-to-wall coverage. Highlights, I imagine, will provided by the PDC's YouTube channel. The WDF World Darts Championship concluded with Belgian Andy Baetens defeating Dutchman Chris Landman 6 sets to 1, while Beau Greaves retained the Ladies' Title with a 4 sets to 1 victory over Aileen de Graaf. There hardly any media coverage of the event. I found out (afterwards) that the early stages were streamed live on YouTube, with the final three days on the TV channel Ayozat. It will be the PDC's 31st World Championship since the acrimonious Split in Darts. It is incredible to think that the PDC (or the World Darts Council (WDC) as they first called themselves) went from being pariahs and struggling to give away tickets to their events (not helped by the BDO's psychotic banning of anyone who was "associating with" the WDC), to having greater media coverage, substantial prize funds, and tickets to tournaments selling out pretty quickly. The BDO's stringent ban was such that Phil Taylor's cousin, who was a Staffordshire county player, was warned not to associate with him. The BDO gradually became irrelevant, as more and more players defected to the PDC, and was liquidated in 2020.

Week 14 NFL Results: New England Patriots 21-18 Pittsburgh Steelers Denver Broncos 24-7 Los Angeles Chargers Buffalo Bills 20-17 Kansas City Chiefs Minnesota Vikings 3-0 Las Vegas Raiders Seattle Seahawks 16-28 San Francisco 49ers Carolina Panthers 6-28 New Orleans Saints Jacksonville Jaguars 27-31 Cleveland Browns Indianapolis Colts 14-34 Cincinnati Bengals Detroit Lions 13-28 Chicago Bears Los Angeles Rams 31-37 Baltimore Ravens Tampa Bay Buccaneers 29-25 Atlanta Falcons Houston Texans 6-30 New York Jets Philadelphia Eagles 13-33 Dallas Cowboys Green Bay Packers 22-24 New York Giants Tennessee Titans 28-27 Miami Dolphins The New England Patriots, despite their victory over Pittsburgh, are eliminated from post-season contention. Plus, the San Francisco 49ers have become the first team to secure a spot in the post-season.

Week 13 NFL Results: Seattle Seahawks 35-41 Dallas Cowboys Cleveland Browns 19-36 Los Angeles Rams San Francisco 49ers 42-19 Philadelphia Eagles Carolina Panthers 18-21 Tampa Bay Buccaneers Arizona Cardinals 24-10 Pittsburgh Steelers Atlanta Falcons 13-8 New York Jets Los Angeles Chargers 6-0 New England Patriots Indianapolis Colts 31-28 Tennessee Titans Miami Dolphins 45-15 Washington Commanders Denver Broncos 17-22 Houston Texans Detroit Lions 33-28 New Orleans Saints Kansas City Chiefs 19-27 Green Bay Packers Cincinnati Bengals 34-31 Jacksonville Jaguars The Carolina Panthers have become the first team to be eliminated from post-season contention.

Is this the same layout depicted here?

This recently cropped up in my YouTube 'Recommended'. The original Lineside Look At Model Railways has been up on YouTube from some years now (though split in three parts), but not the sequel.

This weekend just gone, both MotoGP and the Australian Supercars championships have come to their conclusions. In Supercars, Brodie Kostecki wins the Drivers' Championship and his team, Erebus Motorsport, also wins that championship. In MotoGP, Francesco Bagnaia successfully defended the Riders' Championship, Ducati wins Constructors' Title (700 points; KTM were second, but way, way back on 373), while the satellite Pramac Racing outfit beat the works Ducati team to win the Teams' Championship. Also the entry list for the 2024 World Endurance Championship has been revealed.

Week 12 NFL Results: Washington Commanders 10-45 Dallas Cowboys Green Bay Packers 29-22 Detroit Lions Miami Dolphins 34-13 New York Jets San Francisco 49ers 31-13 Seattle Seahawks Kansas City Chiefs 31-17 Las Vegas Raiders Buffalo Bills 34-37 Philadelphia Eagles Los Angeles Rams 37-14 Arizona Cardinals Cleveland Browns 12-29 Denver Broncos Jacksonville Jaguars 24-21 Houston Texans Carolina Panthers 10-17 Tennessee Titans New England Patriots 7-10 New York Giants Tampa Bay Buccaneers 20-27 Indianapolis Colts New Orleans Saints 15-24 Atlanta Falcons Pittsburgh Steelers 16-10 Cincinnati Bengals Baltimore Ravens 20-10 Los Angeles Chargers Chicago Bears 12-10 Minnesota Vikings Also, the CFL (Canadian Football League) season ended on 19th November with the Grey Cup being won by the Montreal Alouettes, who beat the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 28-24. The Carolina Panthers have fired their Head Coach, Frank Reich.

The 'best so-many results count' rule also denied Graham Hill the Drivers' Title in 1964. He scored 41 points across the whole season against John Surtees' 40, but dropped scores/best results meant 39 of the 41 points Hill scored counted. I have seen someone on YouTube, Peter Brook, do a video looking back at all F1 seasons and applying the current points scoring system to all those seasons. Under this, Prost would be a 7-time World Champion, Damon Hill would have 2 titles, Graham Hill would have 3 titles, Eddie Irvine would have won in 1999, Le Mans legend Jacky Ickx would have won in 1970, John Surtees, Jochen Rindt and James Hunt would not have been World Champions, Nelson Piquet, Ayrton Senna, Michael Schumacher and Mika Häkkinen would lose a championship each, and Vanwall would never have won the inaugural Constructors' Championship.

Luke Humphries is victorious again, winning the Players Championship Finals 11 legs to 9 over the defending champion Michael van Gerwen. The World Youth Final was won by Luke Littler. The draw has been made for the World Darts Championship, conducted by Phil Taylor and Dennis Priestley. The top 32 in the Order of Merit start in the second round. Michael Smith is the defending champion. The tournament at Alexandra Palace starts on Friday 15th December 2023 and concludes on Wednesday 3rd January 2024 and is broadcast on Sky Sports. The draw bracket look like this: (1) Michael Smith (ENG) Vs Kevin Doets (NED)/Stowe Buntz (USA) (32) Madars Razma (LAT) Vs Mike De Decker (BEL)/Dragutin Horvat (GER) (16) Ross Smith (ENG) Vs Niels Zonneveld (NED)/Darren Webster (ENG) (17) Chris Dobey (ENG) Vs William O'Connor (IRE)/Bhav Patel (IND) (8) Rob Cross (ENG) Vs Mario Vandenbogaerde (BEL)/Thibault Tricole (FRA) (25) Jose de Sousa (POR) Vs Ritchie Edhouse (ENG)/Jeffrey de Graaf (SWE) (9) Jonny Clayton (WAL) Vs Steve Lennon (IRE)/Owen Bates (ENG) (24) Krzysztof Ratajski (POL) Vs Jamie Hughes (ENG)/David Cameron (CAN) (4) Peter Wright (SCO) Vs Jim Williams (WAL)/Norman Madhoo (GUY) (29) Raymond van Barneveld (NED) Vs Radek Szaganski (POL)/Marko Kantele (FIN) (13) James Wade (ENG) Vs Matt Campbell (CAN)/Lourence Ilagan (PHI) (20) Andrew Gilding (ENG) Vs Christian Kist (NED)/Luke Littler (ENG) (5) Gerwyn Price (WAL) Vs Connor Scutt (ENG)/Krzysztof Kciuk (POL) (28) Brendan Dolan (NIR) Vs Mickey Mansell (NIR)/Xiaochen Zong (CHI) (12) Dirk van Duijvenbode (NED) Vs Keegan Brown (ENG)/Boris Krcmar (CRO) (21) Gary Anderson (SCO) Vs Simon Whitlock (AUS)/Paolo Nebrida (PHI) (2) Michael van Gerwen (NED) Vs Keane Barry (IRE)/Reynaldo Rivera (PHI) (31) Kim Huybrechts (BEL) Vs Richard Veenstra (NED)/Ben Robb (NZL) (15) Dimitri Van den Bergh (NEL) Vs Dylan Slevin (IRE)/Florian Hempel (GER) (18) Stephen Bunting (ENG) Vs Ryan Joyce (ENG)/Alex Spellman (USA) (7) Danny Noppert (NED) Vs Scott Williams (ENG)/Haruki Muramatsu (JAP) (26) Martin Schindler (GER) Vs Jermaine Wattimena (NED)/Fallon Sherrock (ENG) (10) Damon Heta (AUS) Vs Martin Lukeman (ENG)/Haupai Puha (NZL) (23) Josh Rock (NIR) Vs Luke Woodhouse (ENG)/Berry van Peer (NED) (3) Luke Humphries (ENG) Vs Lee Evans (ENG)/Sandro Eric Sosing (PHI) (30) Callan Rydz (ENG) Vs Ricardo Pietreczko (GER)/Mikuru Suzuki (JAP) (14) Joe Cullen (ENG) Vs Jules van Dongen (USA)/Darren Penhall (AUS) (19) Ryan Searle (ENG) Vs Ian White (ENG)/Tomoya Goto (JAP) (6) Nathan Aspinall (ENG) Vs Ricky Evans (ENG)/Simon Adams (RSA) (27) Daryl Gurney (NIR) Vs Steve Beaton (ENG)/Wessel Nijman (NED) (11) Dave Chisnall (ENG) Vs Cameron Menzies (SCO)/Rusty-Jake Rodriguez (AUT) (22) Gabriel Clemens (GER) Vs Gian van Veen (NED)/Man Lok Leung (HKG) Before then, there is the WDF World Darts Championship at Lakeside Country Club, Surrey between 2nd and 10th December. Many players who had originally qualified for this and since qualified for the PDC's event, have opted to play in the PDC, especially as there is more prize money on offer just for qualifying. £7,500 for first round losers in the PDC, against £1,000 for first round losers in the WDF. Plus, the PDC do not permit anyone to play in two World Championships in the same year. The only names that jump out at me in the WDF event are defending champion Neil Duff and 2006 Lakeside winner Jelle Klaasen.

Week 11 NFL Results: Cincinnati Bengals 20-34 Baltimore Ravens Seattle Seahawks 16-17 Los Angeles Rams New York Jets 6-32 Buffalo Bills Tampa Bay Buccaneers 14-27 San Francisco 49ers Tennessee Titans 14-34 Jacksonville Jaguars Los Angeles Chargers 20-23 Green Bay Packers Chicago Bears 26-31 Detroit Lions Pittsburgh Steelers 10-13 Cleveland Browns Dallas Cowboys 33-10 Carolina Panthers Las Vegas Raiders 13-20 Miami Dolphins New York Giants 31-19 Washington Commanders Arizona Cardinals 16-21 Houston Texans Minnesota Vikings 20-21 Denver Broncos Philadelphia Eagles 21-17 Kansas City Chiefs

The Grand Slam of Darts was won by Luke Humphries, who beat Rob Cross 16 legs to 8, to clinch his second TV Major not long after winning the World Grand Prix in October. The next tournament is the Players Championship Finals at Butlin's in Minehead on 24th-26th November, with coverage on ITV4. The 64-player tournament will feature two boards in action in the early stages, and it is the last event before the World Championship, meaning that this event can determine the final seedings for the World Championship and who will have to go through the 'last gasp' Tour Card Holder Qualifier on Monday 27th November, with the draw for the World Championship being held that evening, live on Sky Sports News (in-between the never-ending, meaningless chit-chat about football). Qualification for the Players Championship Finals is made-up from the Top 64 players from the Players Championship Order of Merit, which comprises of prize money won in just the 30 one-day behind-closed-doors events (known as Players Championships) held throughout the year. This why big names such as World No. 2 and European Champion Peter Wright, and World No. 6 and World Matchplay Champion Nathan Aspinall have not qualified (not everyone towards the top of the main Order of Merit does all the events). World No. 7 Danny Noppert, who would have been seeded 9th in this tournament, has withdrawn due to the imminent arrival of his second child. His spot in the draw has been taken by the 65th ranked player in the Players Championship Order of Merit, Dylan Slevin. Before the tournament's final, there will be the World Youth Championship Final, to be contested by Dutchman Gian van Veen and Englishman Luke Littler. The draw bracket look like this: (1) Gerwyn Price (WAL) Vs (64) Ricky Evans (ENG) (32) Kim Huybrechts (BEL) Vs (33) Martin Schindler (GER) (16) Stephen Bunting (ENG) Vs (49) Mickey Mansell (NIR) (17) Gian van Veen (NED) Vs (48) Chris Landman (NED) (8) Ross Smith (ENG) Vs (57) Scott Williams (ENG) (25) Callan Rydz (ENG) Vs (40) Michael van Gerwen (NED) (65/Alt) Dylan Slevin (IRE) Vs (56) Matt Campbell (CAN) (24) Mike De Decker (BEL) Vs (41) Mario Vandenbogaerde (BEL) (4) Dave Chisnall (ENG) Vs (61) Lee Evans (ENG) (29) Chris Dobey (ENG) Vs (36) Raymond van Barneveld (NED) (13) Rob Cross (ENG) Vs (52) Cameron Menzies (SCO) (20) Luke Woodhouse (ENG) Vs (45) Simon Whitlock (AUS) (5) Josh Rock (NIR) Vs (60) Rowby-John Rodriguez (AUT) (28) Gabriel Clemens (GER) Vs (37) Connor Scutt (ENG) (12) Jonny Clayton (WAL) Vs (53) Stephen Burton (ENG) (21) Daryl Gurney (NIR) Vs (44) Niels Zonneveld (NED) (2) Gary Anderson (SCO) Vs (63) Steve Beaton (ENG) (31) Dimitri Van den Bergh (BEL) Vs (34) Jim Williams (WAL) (15) James Wade (ENG) Vs (50) William O'Connor (IRE) (18) Andrew Gilding (ENG) Vs (47) Steve Lennon (IRE) (7) Luke Humphries (ENG) Vs (58) Martin Lukeman (ENG) (26) Radek Szaganski (POL) Vs (39) Ian White (ENG) (10) Ryan Searle (ENG) Vs (55) Boris Krcmar (CRO) (23) Ricardo Pietreczko (GER) Vs (42) Christian Kist (NED) (3) Damon Heta (AUS) Vs (62) Jules van Dongen (USA) (30) Jose de Sousa (POR) Vs (35) Kevin Doets (NED) (14) Krzysztof Ratajski (POL) Vs (51) Maik Kuivenhoven (NED) (19) Brendan Dolan (NIR) Vs (46) Ritchie Edhouse (ENG) (6) Dirk van Duijvenbode (NED) Vs (59) Jermaine Wattimena (NED) (27) Michael Smith (ENG) Vs (38) Richard Veenstra (NED) (11) Ryan Joyce (ENG) Vs (54) Daniel Klose (GER) (22) Joe Cullen (ENG) Vs (43) Jamie Hughes (ENG)

Bletchinghurst & Quarry Falls by Erith MRS members will be in attendance.

They won the manufacturers' championship in the main GTP category (beating Porsche, Acura and BMW), and the drivers' and teams championships with Pipo Derani & Alexander Sims, and Action Express Racing (racing as Whelen Engineering Racing) respectively.

This weekend there is MotoGP from Qatar, the final round of the season for the WRC from Japan, and the Formula 3 Macau Grand Prix.

Week 10 NFL Results: Carolina Panthers 13-16 Chicago Bears New York Giants 17-49 Dallas Cowboys Washington Commanders 26-29 Seattle Seahawks Detroit Lions 41-38 Los Angeles Chargers Atlanta Falcons 23-25 Arizona Cardinals Tennessee Titans 6-20 Tampa Bay Buccaneers Cleveland Browns 33-31 Baltimore Ravens Houston Texans 30-27 Cincinnati Bengals San Francisco 49ers 34-3 Jacksonville Jaguars New Orleans Saints 19-27 Minnesota Vikings Green Bay Packers 19-23 Pittsburgh Steelers Indianapolis Colts 10-6 New England Patriots New York Jets 12-16 Las Vegas Raiders Denver Broncos 24-22 Buffalo Bills

Now that the group stage is completed, the draw bracket looks like this: James Wade (ENG) Vs Chris Dobey (ENG) Josh Rock (NIR) Vs Krzysztof Ratajski (POL) (4) Luke Humphries (ENG) Vs Ryan Searle (ENG) (5) Gerwyn Price (WAL) Vs Gary Anderson (SCO) Stowe Buntz (USA) Vs Andrew Gilding (ENG) (7) Danny Noppert (NED) Vs Stephen Bunting (ENG) (3) Michael van Gerwen (NED) Vs Damon Heta (AUS) (6) Nathan Aspinall (ENG) Vs Rob Cross (ENG) Also a nine darter happened:

SP Rail has uploaded some footage:

If there is a second series, some guests in mind - Roger Daltrey, Rod Stewart, Bruce Dickinson, Michael Palin, Michael Portillo, Ian Hislop.