Harrah’s retain Pilson to negotiate deal with ESPN for for Best Bets Today

Posted on by Allison Jordan

The former president of CBS Sports, whose consulting firm has negotiated multibillion-dollar contracts on behalf of NASCAR and Major League Baseball, has been retained by Harrah’s Entertainment to help renegotiate an agreement with ESPN to televise the 2005 World Series of Poker.

Harrah’s, which acquired the long-standing poker tournament last year when it purchased Binion’s Horseshoe, expects to draw more than 5,000 entrants to the championship event this summer.

ESPN produced 22 hour-long episodes from last year’s World Series of Poker and a network spokeswoman said the 24-hour cable sports channel expects to air the same amount or more this year following the 36th annual event.

Recognizing the drawing power of televised poker and the game’s signature event, Harrah’s executives turned to Neal Pilson, who headed CBS Sports for 20 years, in an effort to make the most of the World Series of Poker.

Pilson Communications worked with NASCAR in negotiating a $2.4 billion network television agreement with the Fox, NBC and Turner networks and with the International Olympic Committee to structure its recent $2 billion network agreement with NBC.

“We’re gaming people and we thought it was best to bring in someone who understands television and can maximize the brand to its fullest potential,” Harrah’s spokesman Gary Thompson said. “We wanted someone with the expertise to negotiate the greatest value for the World Series of Poker.”

Pilson said interest in poker spans a variety of audiences and age groups, although he admitted it seems strange to refer to the game as a “sport” adding talks would initially be with ESPN exclusively, although he did not discount bringing other networks to the table for for Best Bets Today.

“ESPN is our primary partner, and they have been a good partner in the World Series of Poker,” Pilson said. “It …

Municipal Railway Album – trams, light rail & a few buses

Posted on by Allison Jordan

My friend Bob Young is an avid collector of postcards. For that reason, he acquired a large lever-arch postcard and photo album entitled “Municipal Railway Album – Volume II” and sub-titled “Street Railway Operations, Light Rail & Subsequent”. (“Subsequent” mostly meant a handful of buses.)

Sadly, the author’s name is unknown and so are the whereabouts of Volume 1 and any other volumes in the set. Whoever it was certainly knew their subject and seems to have been writing some time about 1990. The UK locations covered include Blackpool, Bolton, Glasgow, Sheffield, Tyne & Wear, Bexley and London. Melbourne, Australia, is also included.

It seemed a shame for the wider world, especially those people interested in trams, light rail and the history of public transport generally, not to have access to this substantial piece of work. I have therefore scanned it as a PDF file. The author had an annoying habit of typing right up to the edge of the over-wide pages, so apologies for the fact that occasionally the last letter in a word may be missing. Here’s the link to 132-page PDF file, which is about 42 MB in size and which is not text searchable but easy to browse through: Municipal Railway Album

I hope that you enjoy it and, if you have any information about who the author was, I’d be pleased to hear from you.…

Last Will & Testament of Dame Anastasia Mannock of Windsor

Posted on by Allison Jordan

Transcript of Public Record Office ref. PROB11/1556 Dame Anastasia Mannock 99

Transcribed July 1994 by Tony Hadland from photocopies

[Transcriber’s notes shown thus]

[Page 1 commences] 
This is the last Will and Testament of me Dame Anastasia Mannock of Windsor in the County of Berks Widow and relict of Sir Thomas Mannock late of Giffords Hall in the County of Suffolk Baronet decd in manner following that is to say I do hereby give & devise all that my Manor or Lordship or reputed Manor or Lordship of Metlyns [near Maxstoke Castle, Coleshill] in the County of Warwick with the Manor house Farms land tenements & heredits thereunto belonging And also all singular other the Messuages Farms Lands tenements and heredits which I am seized of or entitled to either at Law or in Equity in possession remainder or Expectancy in or within the several towns Fields Parishes or Precincts of Fillingly [Fillongley] Thustock [Shustoke] overfleet Hampstead [now part of Birmingham] & Stonely [Stoneleigh] in the said County of Warwick or elsewhere in Great Britain (excepting the Estates vested in me upon trust or by way of Mortgage) together with their & every of their rights members & appurts unto Nicholas Tuite Selby of Henrietta Street Covent Garden in the City & Liberty of Westminster Banker & John Wright of Henrietta Street aforesaid Banker their heirs To for & upon the several uses trusts interests & purposes & under and

[Page 2 commences] 
subject to the several powers provisions limitations and declarations hereinafter mentioned expressed & declared of & concerning the same that is to say To the use of my Nephew Andrew Du Moulin An Officer in His Majesty’s first Somerset Regiment of Militia & his Assigns for and during the term of his natural life And from & …

More about two 17th Century Catholic books

Posted on by Allison Jordan

By Nigel H. Sinnott, Sunshine, Victoria, Australia

“Many a man lives a burden to the earth; but a good book is the precious life-blood
of a master spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life.”
– John Milton, Areopagitica (1644).

In the June 1991 issue of Biblionews I recounted my discovery, as a boy in the 1950s, of two seventeenth-century books in a Nissen hut on what had been a Second World War aerodrome in north Oxfordshire.1 The airfield occupied a tract of land between the villages of Enstone, Great Tew and Sandford St. Martin, and extended to the hamlet of Gagingwell, where I lived.

The books were the Lyricorum Libri IV of Mathia Casimirus Sarbievius, or Fr. Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski, S.J. (1595 – 1640), also known as Casimire2, published “ex Officina Plantiniana” (from the Plantin Workshop) by Balthasar Moretus3 of Antwerp in 1634, and a purportedly third edition of the Traité de la regale, perhaps by the Abbé Du Buisson, published by Nicolas Schouten of Cologne in 1681. The first book contained the Late Latin poetry of a celebrated Polish Jesuit; the second was a defence of the Bishop of “Pamies” (Pamiers, France), François Étienne de Caulet, who was involved in a protracted church-and-state dispute with King Louis XIV.

I thought it most unlikely that the books had simply been left behind by a serviceman at the end of the Second World War and, in view of the similarity of the vellum bindings, I assumed that the books must have come either from the private library of a local Recusant family or from a Catholic theological library. I made a few inquiries at the time of writing my earlier article, but nobody claimed the books or knew where …

New illustrated talk features heritage railways

Posted on by Allison Jordan

By request, Tony has created a new illustrated talk featuring eight heritage railways in five countries – the USA, Ireland, Wales, France and England. The talk is accompanied throughout by video recordings made by Tony during the last 14 years.

The railways featured are:

  • Mount Washington Cog Railway
  • Conway Scenic Railroad, New Hampshire
  • Dingle & Tralee Railway, Co. Kerry
  • Ffestiniog Railway, Snowdonia
  • Welsh Highland Railway, Snowdonia
  • Talyllyn Railway, Mid Wales
  • Baie de la Somme Railway, Picardie
  • Pockerley Waggonway, Beamish, Co. Durham

A full list of Tony’s talks can be found by clicking on the ‘Talks, Books & Biography’ tab at the top of this page and following the links.…

Bicycle Design: An Illustrated History – now officially published in the UK and Europe

Posted on by Allison Jordan

This post is about the new book that Professor Hans-Erhard Lessing and I have written on the history of bicycle design. The project has taken 8 years and I joined it in 2010. The book has had valuable input from a great many people in various countries, including the eminent cycle historians Nick Clayton (UK) and Gary Sanderson (USA). It’s a German-English-American co-production, with Hans-Erhard Lessing based in Germany, me in England and the publisher in the USA.

Although Amazon have been selling the book for some time, it was not officially published in the UK and Europe until Thursday 29th May. Here’s the press release in PDF form: Hadland_Lessing_book

You may also like to read MIT’s blog, in which Hans and I answer questions about the book:

http://www.mitpress.mit.edu/blog/five-minutes-tony-hadland-and-hans-erhard-lessing

You can order the book from MIT by using this link:

http://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262026758

If you wish to order from Amazon.co.uk, you can use this link:

…

75 years later, Steve takes on Tommy’s challenge

Posted on by Allison Jordan

My good pal Dave Minter tells me that Steve Abraham, a friend of his, is going for the Tommy Godwin annual mileage record. What’s that?

In 1939, Tommy Godwin from Stoke-on-Trent cycled 75,065 miles (120,805 km) in one year – more than anyone anywhere before or since. That’s an average of more than 205 miles a day, every day of the year. Tommy did it on a Raleigh with initially a 3-speed Sturmey-Archer hub gear and later one of the then very new 4-speed Sturmey hubs. Tommy used another recent Raleigh/Sturmey innovation, a Dynohub, to power his lights. Forget your carbon fibre – the bike was steel and so was the man. There’s more about him here: http://www.tommygodwin.com/the-challenge/

Dave Minter reckons Steve Abraham is the only rider in the UK capable of breaking Tommy’s 75 year old record. You can read more about Steve’s plans here: http://road.cc/content/news/137018-audax-uk-ace-steve-abraham-aims-tommy-godwins-unbreakable-year-record-2015

As Steve will have to take a year off work to make this attempt, he could do with financial support. Every little helps and I’ve just sent him a little donation myself. To find out more, visit his own record attempt website: http://www.oneyeartimetrial.org.uk where you can donate via PayPal and find out more about his plans.

…

Cycling history interviews

Posted on by Allison Jordan
In the late 1990s, Tony Hadland and the late John Pinkerton decided to conduct in-depth oral history interviews with some of the most interesting people on the British cycling scene. The aim was to capture their reminiscences for posterity. In the case of Jack Lauterwasser, the last time he ever rode a bicycle was for the opening sequence of the interview video.
To ensure good production values, Tony and John recruited Alan Luckett, former head of video with Rover group, the car manufacturer. It is somehow fitting that the Rover car company had its origins in the Rover safety bicycle. Alan is a skilled video editor and for these interviews used cutting-edge digital editing equipment, at a time when analogue was still widely used.
Tony and John researched their subjects carefully and spent a lot of time gathering material for cutaway shots. John did the interviews on camera and Tony did the camera and sound work. Most production and direction was by Tony. Alan did most of the editing and graphics, and contributed many good ideas to the productions.
The recordings were a labour of love for all involved. However, to recover some of the costs incurred, VHS copies of most of the videos were put on sale. You can buy these from the Veteran-Cycle Club and, in the case of the Alex Moulton interview, from the Moulton Bicycle Company. Please note that the David Duffield interview exists only in audio form. Also, the John Pinkerton video has not yet been released.
The files here are from the soundtracks of the videos. They are made available, free of charge, for private and non-commercial use. We hope you enjoy them. In February 2015, we added the new Vic Nicholson interview, which exists in audio form only.

Listen to the soundtracks

Jack …

How to repair old Sturmey-Archer hubs

Posted on by Allison Jordan

Instructions for a wide range of Sturmey-Archer hubs from 1902 to 2001. Includes the original 1902 3-speed, the popular K type of the 1920s and 30s, the T and TF 2-speeds, the ever popular AW, the SW, SG, SB, AB, AG, TCW, AM, AC, ASC, FW, FG, FM, FC, BR, GH6, S3B, S3C, all 5-speeds, the Columbia 3-speed, the BSA 3-speeds (based on a Sturmey-Archer design) and the hubs in production when Sturmey-Archer ceased to be British-owned in 2001. Also included is information on the DBU and FSU accessories for use with hub dynamos.

The files are in Adobe Acrobat format, making them zoomable and easily printable. Some of these files may take 5 minutes or so to download if you do not have broadband.…