Stuart Purling

@cjsouthwell1902 What time is the press conference today?

Come and join us! 👇 #NCFC

Right at the end of PMQs as everyone was darting out of the door, the Rt Hon Sir Edward Leigh MP (Gainsborough, Conservative) raised a Point of Order, on the subject of numbnuts Keir Starmer never answering a fucking question. The Speaker admits there is nowt he can do.

Tories ask if Parliament rules need changing to ensure the PM actually answers a question. Speaker, at his best, replies: “there is a weakness in that [suggestion] in that it assumes the person knows the answer.”

🚨Cheltenham festival average traded on Betfair win markets per race (inflation adjusted): 2021 £5.73m 2025 £3.44m 2026 £2.97m 📉 down 48% since 2021 📉 down 14% on last year

@prodnose Was the same at West Ham in the FA Cup 1/4 final supporting Norwich in 1989. Was horrendous crush and no way out. As you say the signs were there..

"So called" fans? I was there. Luton put no restriction on away attendance. It was crushing in our end, my feet were off the floor for much of the first half. People fainted, pleaded to be let out but fences & police dogs hemmed us in. This was a harbinger for Hillsborough.

In 2025, Brent Council paid £33m on ‘Human Resources’ payments to 199 providers. That is around £130k per working day. The Al Sadiiq Cultural Centre was paid £6k for three ‘HR’ payments. The image of the premises is a shop; a Google public review says it used to be a mosque.

@DataGolf Interesting seems to be much less focus on team element this year. Think they realise it’s gained very little traction.

LIV has provided a blueprint for how to create a tour nobody cares about. They have small fields with no turnover, fewer events, global schedule. Maybe LIV was doomed to fail regardless of its format, but it's at least worth considering that these elements aren't helping.

Whatever the future of the PGA Tour schedule looks like we need to get full fields back for the "top" events. Rolling out the same 70-man field 3/4 weeks is not a good formula. It's 4:45 on Friday of the Arnold Palmer and we have 15 players on the course and a fake cut sweat.

We posted this same table in our newsletter two years ago. Somehow interest in LIV seems to have declined since then. For all LIV's faults, it's still shocking that a field with Bryson and Rahm (and others) can't generate more interest than the Puerto Rico Open.

We're covering five tournaments this week, something that only happens once a year. One thing I like to look at during this week is the percentage of profile page views going to players in each field:

@TeeTimesPub Keep taking the drugs

Shane Lowry having to make 40 footers as he fights to hold off a couple of freelance photographers from winning the Cognizant is a sign of how weak the fields have become on the #PGATour.

Nothing is quite as European as demanding that your emergency WW3 meeting must only occur during normal office hours.

A good day to bury Josh Simons. The cynicism of Starmer. “OK, the bombing’s started. People are dying. Tell Josh it’s moving time”.

No team in the Championship has won more points in 2026 than Norwich. In 11 games, they accumulated 24 points under Philippe Clement. Oh, and they have 14 players out injured 😳👏

@chrisgambler247 All this does is encourage you never to withdraw your winnings if you have any for fear of not being able to deposit again…how to promote irresponsible gambling, and this is just what bookies want…

'Nationwide said gambling spending has increased by 9% over the past year, while the number of betting transactions has risen by 7%.' Where are they spending it? online betting turnover in the regulated market has collapsed. gbnews.com/money/nationwi…

Massachusetts unanimously approved a regulation that requires sportsbooks to notify bettors within 48 hours of limiting their account. It will come with almost stunning granular guidance backing the reg. Goes into effect on June 1, pending waiver requests from sportsbooks. 🧵

Here’s the Monster Raving Loony Party policy on immigration.

👀The Electoral Commission give Democracy Volunteers access to polling stations at election time. Only they and the police can go inside. They’ve just issued this report about “family voting” in Gorton and Denton: Democracy Volunteers deployed four accredited election observers across the Gorton and Denton Westminster Parliamentary By-election today. The team attended 22 of the 45 polling stations in the constituency, spending between 30 and 45 minutes in each. The observers worked in pairs using the international standard for election observation - the four eyes principle. Each team assessed several aspects of the polling process, from accessibility to issues around the integrity of the vote. Staff were welcoming to the team and we would like to thank them for their time in accommodating our work. The team assessed two significant aspects of electoral integrity - family voting (where two voters either confer, collude or direct each other on voting) which breaches the secret ballot. The team also assessed the impact of the requirement for voters to show ID before they are issued with a ballot paper. 2023 saw the enactment of the Ballot Secrecy Act, which made the practice of family voting more clearly a breach of the secret ballot, making it more enforceable by staff in polling stations. Signage is now available to discourage the practice. Signage was only seen in 45% of the polling stations observed. The observer team saw family voting in 15 of the 22 polling stations observed, some 32 cases in total, nine cases in one polling station alone. The team observed a sample of 545 voters casting their votes - meaning 12% of those voters observed either caused or were affected by family voting. Commenting John Ault, Director of Democracy Volunteers said; ‘Today we have seen concerningly high levels of family voting in Gorton and Denton. Based on our assessment of today’s observations, we have seen the highest levels of family voting at any election in our 10 year history of observing elections in the UK.’ ‘We rarely issue a report on the night of an election, but the data we have collected today on family voting, when compared to other recent by-elections, is extremely high.’ ‘In the other recent Westminster parliamentary by-election in Runcorn and Helsby we saw family voting in 12% of polling stations, affecting 1% of voters. In Gorton and Denton, we observed family voting in 68% of polling stations, affecting 12% of those voters observed.’ The team also observed cases of voters being turned away, however, in each case this was due to them not being a registered voter for Westminster elections, such as having EU citizenship, and only being allowed to vote in local elections. The team also saw a number of voters taking photographs of their ballot papers and one voter being authorised to vote despite them already having been marked as voted earlier in the day. Democracy Volunteers has informed elections staff at Manchester City Council about our findings today. This Statement is now available on the Democracy Volunteers website HERE. --

They just can’t help themselves. The Bank, not the government, cuts interest rates — and it has been doing so because the economy is flat on its back. Foreign inward investment has been weak. Last year well below 2023 for example. Inflation doubled under Labour (from 2% to almost 4%) within a year and is still at 3%, 50% above the 2% target it inherited. Debt is rising not reducing. There was a budget surplus in January. There always is in January. We’re still on track to rack up another multi-billion pound budget deficit in 2025/26. Gaslighting is now Labour’s default position — and truth a stranger.

@PGASplits101 @PGANatl Been drought conditions though I think so likely to play firm and fast, and perhaps not as thick unless they’ve been watering

@Purlings @PGANatl 2" for many years and then 2.5" last year

Cognizant Classic @PGANatl ⛳️Par 71, 7,223 yds ⛳️Florida, open parkland, Nicklaus/Fazio design ⛳️Mostly flat, forced layups OTT, numerous doglegs, firm greens ⛳️26 bodies of water, fairways average 28 yds wide ⛳️16th shortest course, 7th shortest par 4/5 holes ⛳️2019-2023: +1.14 scoring average (2nd toughest annual course)...2024-2025: -1.32 (14th easiest) ⛳️A record 38 golfers shot -10 or better last year. From 2006-2023, only 11 TOTAL golfers shot 10-under or better. ⛳️Most water danger holes (15) - 10 drives OTT, 8 approaches ⛳️Field has averaged 0.54 double bogeys or worse per round - most on Tour ⛳️70% of approaches from 100-200 yds ⛳️Elite and in-form ball-strikers, experienced "water danger" players, shot shapers/low ball flighters in windy conditions, Bermuda putters ⛳️4 par-3s, 3 par-5s, 11 par-4s - Still the 10th toughest group of par 3s at a combined +0.44 ⛳️Greens: Bermuda, 10th largest, 12 stimp, typically very firm ⛳️Rough: overseeded Ryegrass - up to 3" this year ⛳️"Bear Trap" holes #15-17 used to play at a combined +0.60 - last two years only +0.32