No Longer Willing To Watch Beat Luke Littler

I've kept seeing a Luke Littler darts event advertised on Netflix and it initially had me intrigued. Unfortunately, I no longer am.

The commercials for Beat Luke Littler teased the prospected of '20 amateurs' going up against the professional live a week from tonight.

Netflix revealed the cast of opponents last night.

Not what was written on the tin. At all.

The line-up includes  players who are far off from being amateurs.

Going by the ad, I expected the most random of players attempting to beat Littler and secure a life-changing amount of money. Similar, in ways to how famous darts players from back in the day would tour boozers across the country and square off against locals. 

Is that still a thing?!

I may have been suckered in from the advertising, but I feel more empathy for those people who jetted into the UK to try out for this show and the chance of winning £501,000.

I urge you to look for the advert and see it for yourself. It's a blatant example of a bait-and-switch if ever I saw one.

It should go without saying my interest level has evaporated.

'Stone Cold' Storm Austen

I received the following text from the National Grid yesterday.

The message warned of potential severe weather from today, through to Saturday, caused by Storm Austen.

I genuinely thought we've already had a storm named Austen before this week. Quick research has led me to realise I was incorrect.

The threat of power cuts is worrying. I have always stated that it would take an Act of God to end my twenty-plus year run of continuous blog posts. If it ends because of 'Stone Cold' Storm Austen then so be it.

As for the text? I suppose it's better use of a message system. Especially after the controversial use of the Government's alerts for the wildfires over the summer.

'That's Funny'

I had one of those 'that's funny' moments last night.

To get to the point, in as quick a way as I can take, I have to tell you something quickly. 

The other day, I was browsing through Disney Plus, to see which college American football games are set for this weekend, and I came across the fact that the streaming service has episodes of ESPN Jeopardy for us here in the UK.

I was actually quite stunned at that. I watched an episode immediately and planned to catch additional episodes across the week. I made it to episode two last night.

Here's one of the answers which came up:

With this being a sports version of Jeopardy, the contestant has to 'answer' in the form of a question. ESPN reporter and presenter - Peter Schrager - correctly asked 'Who is Carlie Irsay?' (okay, it's Carlie Irsay-Gordon, but let's not get too pedantic right now!).

I thought 'that's funny,' because - of all days - it was the one when I had written a post about Carlie Irsay-Gordon yesterday after she made the decision to fire Chris Ballard as general manager of the Indianapolis Colts.

ESPN Jeopardy is hosted by sports commentator Joe Buck. I've written many times in the past about Jeopardy, especially the short-lived UK versions, as being one of my favourite game shows. With this being all sport, then I am in a nirvana.

Also found, during my browse through the ESPN content on Disney Plus, is College Gameday (I thought DAZN had the exclusive rights to that show, so haven't watched any of it at all this season!) and Pardon The Interruption (airs at 11:05pm each weeknight. I used to watch it a lot when it was on the cable channels over here).

So good to see the ESPN content available to Disney Plus users. Fair play.

Colts Sever Ties With Chris Ballard

The Indianapolis Colts called time on Chris Ballard's ten-year stint as general manager yesterday.

In my opinion, the decision was long overdue. I suspected he would end up canned following the Colts' 8-9 2025 season. To highlight how bad that record looks, consider this: they were 8-2 going into a bye.

Daniel Jones' Achilles injury was a cause for the reversal of results last season. However, he currently captains a 2026 season with two wins out of six.

Chris Ballard manning the Colts' phone

Sunday's 20-26 loss to the then winless Tennessee Titans - at home, I should add - was the straw which broke Ballard's back.

Colts owner, Carlie Irsay-Gordon, thanked the ousted GM in yesterday's statement. She reiterated that the urgency in the chase of Championships has 'never been higher'. I question that notion. If ever there was a perfect time to cut bait, it would have been at the conclusion of the 2025 regular season. 

2026 is now a wasted campaign. As could 2027

Ballard and the Colts traded away 2026 and 2027 first round draft picks in acquiring Sauce Gardner from the New York Jets. Thus giving a successor a bad playing field from day one.

I hate to think it, but I believe one way to remedy the situation - to entice top level prospective GMs - is to trade the Colts best player: Jonathan Taylor. He's worth a first round pick. And then some.

It makes sense. 

The Virgin Media Email Situation

I came across some annoying news yesterday afternoon, while searching TAFKA Twitter.

It concerns Virgin Media and email. According to reports, the Internet Service Provider is transferring its active and legacy email services to a third party. 

That would have been okay for me. I would have accepted the move. However, there are costs involved.

There is a 99p transfer fee to shift over to Junara. Following that, Virgin Media broadband, landline or TV customers will get 12 months service for free. However, once that period expires, Junara will charge annual service costs. Those same reports suggest it'll be around £65 a year.

Upon reading the news, I immediately accessed some of my main online accounts and changed my email address.

As an NTL World customer since the early 2000s, I had used my @ntlworld.com email for some important accounts. For example - two separate banks, eBay and one betting firm I opened to place my first-ever online wager.

Fortunately, I used Hotmail for almost everything else. I didn't have much to change yesterday. With that said, I have sympathy for those who might have more online accounts with their Virgin Media (or legacy) email addresses as their first point of contact.

I am even late to the 'OMG, what is Virgin Media doing?' party. It looks like this story is at least one month old. Virgin Media must have emailed me about it on my NTL World account. Thus proving why I cannot justify putting down ££65 a year for an email service.

I rarely use it nowadays.

Survivor Consensus Plays (And Non Play) For Week 6 2026

As I usually do on a Sunday morning, I checked in to see what the consensus has opted for in Circa Sports' NFL Survivor contests.

Today's browse resulted in a couple of surprises. I'll save the best (WORST!) for last.

To start, I noticed that the majority of selections have gone for the Los Angeles Rams to beat the Cardinals later today.

L.A. Rams are Week 6 Consensus Play in Circa Sports' Survivor 

901 people are on the Rams. I know this is a straight up contest, so all the Los Angeles team has to do is win, but they are coming off a Monday night game. I would have avoided it just by that alone. Add in the fixture went to overtime as well, I would have double faded them. 

As I mentioned on Friday, I'm opposing the Rams in the spread contest. The Cardinals are +12.5 road dogs. 

There are eight hundred and twenty-one players looking for the second-best picked side in Circa's contest: The New England Patriots. They're also at home. The Jets are their opposition. 

For what it's worth, my 'Survivor Leans' play - which appears in Taylor's Pro Football Gambling Annual - was Baltimore.  The Lamar Jackson-less Ravens are three-point road favourites to Cleveland. 

Grandissimo 'No Pick' in Week 6

The second surprising story, from this morning's observation of the Las Vegas sportsbook's contests, occurred when I checked in with Circa's Grandissimo consensus.

For those unaware, the Grandissimo is a survivor contest which demands a $100,000 entry fee. One heavy-hitter didn't make a pick.

I looked further into the story and it appears that the player's proxy - a person paid to make picks for absent entrants - didn't hand the selection in in time.

That's stunning. The baddest of bad beats if ever I saw one.

Double Gaffes

Today's Wordle word is 'GAFFE'. I couldn't figure it out, when I played in the early hours of this morning, but - upon realising what the answer was - I rolled my eyes.

Typical. The word 'Gaffe' popped up mere hours after I found out I had made a couple of gaffes of my own.

My friend reached out yesterday evening and alerted to me to some mess ups I made in Taylor's Pro Football Gambling Annual.

Coincidentally, they both appeared in one section of the the chapter for this week's fixtures.

While writing about tomorrow's game between the Baltimore Ravens and Atlanta Falcons, I wrote that the Ravens 'parted ways with Jim Harbaugh after eighteen seasons'.

Those who follow the NFL are sure to know exactly where the screw up is in that line. Jim Harbaugh was not a head coach of the Baltimore Ravens. That job was his brother's. Yep, I typed 'Jim' instead of 'John'.

There's no excuse. However, I think there could be a mild reason why Jim Harbaugh came out instead of his sibling. The new Ravens head coach - Jesse Minter - had worked under Jim at the University of Michigan and the Los Angeles Chargers between 2022 and 2025. It must have been a subconscious 'don't mention Jim' thing... which led to me mentioning Jim.

Either way, that was one big:

The second mess up was a simple typo. I can back it up. I wrote the Atlanta Falcons' head coach's name as 'Kevin Stevanski' when it's actually 'Kevin Stefanski'. I know that. I've written it the correct way at least two other times in the book. 

My friend suggested it was likely because the V and F are close to each other on the keyboard. That's a fair excuse. Still, it's an embarrassing:

At least I haven't written 'San Francisco ho' as I did last year.