Eddie Howe happy to have an English pre-season
By Chris Boden
Published on Tue May 31 11:50:35 BST 2011
CLARETS boss Eddie Howe is happy to have the home comforts of an English pre-season.
Over the last decade or so, the club have been away to Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man, Austria, Italy, America, Scotland and Singapore.
But although Howe had the option to take his players abroad this summer, either to mainland Europe or back to Singapore, the South West of England is the furthest they will travel.
Burnley, after taking on Altrincham and Bury, will travel to face Bristol Rovers on Tuesday, July 19th, before an expected trip to Torquay United the following Saturday – which would be the first meeting between the sides in 20 years since the Fourth Division play-off semi-final.
Howe explained his plans: “First and foremost we didn’t want a big expensive tour.
“We want any money to be re-invested into the facilities and into the team.
“That was a big consideration, but more importantly for us was the football consideration.
“I don’t think travelling thousands of miles does the players any good.
“You can travel a long way and it takes two or three days to recover and pre-season is short enough as it is.
“We took the decision we wanted to stay in England, play a couple of games and get the players away and together for a period of time.
“We think that’s really important and we just wanted to get the distance down and really concentrate on quality training sessions, with some good games as well.
“I think we can get exactly what we need here.
“The positive side of going away is generating your team spirit with a new group of players.
“It doesn’t matter where you go to do that.
“You can do that with a short tour and I think it will have big benefits for us.”
Long-haul tours can be a drain on players, and limit time to work on the training ground, and Howe added: “It’s a big part of our philosophy getting the lads as fit and as strong as they can be.
“It’s difficult when you come half way through a season because you can’t work them as much as you like, so pre-season is going to be important.
“I’m really pleased with the pre-season schedule.
“It looks good. There is a gradual build up in quality, ending with a really good game against Sunderland which will be a really good test before the season starts.
“It gives the fans the chance to come and watch us as well locally and if they want to travel so hopefully they will enjoy it.”
The Clarets will host Premier League side Sunderland at Turf Moor on Saturday, July 30th (kick-off 3pm), the final game of pre-season before the Championship kicks-off the week after.
Admission prices and ticket details for the Sunderland game and further pre-season fixtures will be announced at a later date.
Burnley’s schedule so far is: Altrincham (A) Saturday, July 9th (3 p.m.); Bury (A) Tuesday, July 12th (7-45 p.m.); Bristol Rovers (A), Tuesday, July 19th (kick-off 7-45 p.m.); Saturday, July 23rd TBA; Oldham Athletic (A), Tuesday, July 26th (kick-off 7-45 p.m.); Sunderland (H), Saturday, July 30th (3 p.m.).
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Ash cloud travel update: UK flights resume as German airports close
As the ash cloud moves across northern Europe, UK flights resumed today but the cancellations spread to Germany, closing Hamburg and Bremen airports.
Airlines, including British Airways and easyJet, have slashed some German services as the ash cloud moved across Germany.
Despite the ash cloud from Icelandic volcano Grímsvötn clearing, for the most part, from UK skies, experts have warned that it may return on Friday, in time for the Bank Holiday weekend.
According to the Met Office, a high-density ash cloud will begin to affect southern England by Friday. However, rapidly changing weather makes it difficult to predict what impact the ash cloud will have over the next few days.
Flights across the UK were up and running today, following yesterday’s cancellation of a number of flights from Scotland and also from Newcastle airport due to high levels of ash.
Ryanair claims it’s safe to fly through ash cloud
Flights grounded in Scotland due to ash cloud
High-density areas of ash have been designated “red zones” by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), creating no-fly zones. However these have been questioned by both Ryanair and BA.
Yesterday, Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary said his airline had flown a test flight through a red zone in Scotland and found no evidence of volcanic ash.
O’Leary slammed the CAA and the Met Office, calling the red zone “mythical” and suggesting officials “take their finger out of their incompetent bureaucratic backsides and allow the aircraft back into the skies over Scotland”.
Now BA has also sent up a test plane to judge ash levels.
Willie Walsh, BA chief executive said the test plane flew in a red zone for 45 minutes and had “found nothing”.
Ryanair’s findings were yesterday dismissed by Transport Secretary Philip Hammond, who said that the airline had not actually flown into a “red zone”.
“Safety of passengers and aircraft is our number one priority and we will not be bullied by Mr O’Leary or anyone else from our safe approach,” he said.
However Hammond conceded that the BA flight had been CAA-authorised and the information gathered would now be studied.
Hammond said the ash cloud was expected to come back to the UK on Friday but it could be at such high altitude that planes will be able to fly beneath it.
Sri Lanka won’t tour Pakistan till ICC clearance
By Channaka de Silva
Sri Lanka are not likely to tour Pakistan for a scheduled series later this year as concerns still linger about the volatile security situation in that country and the news reports that suddenly originated from Pakistan yesterday about an invitation by Pakistan Cricket Board to Sri Lanka for the tour, actually contain nothing new.
“There has not been any official invitation from PCB recently as these media reports indicate. About three or four months ago, PCB told us that they would like to host our team as scheduled in the FTP (Future Tours Programme). We told them our stance that we need security clearance first before sending a team there again. Our stance has not changed, and there has been no new invitation though their media have suddenly got excited about it” said Sri Lanka Cricket Interim Committee Secretary Nishantha Ranatunga.
“The PCB invitation and our response was widely publicized in both local and international media at that time. There’s nothing new in these reports” he added.
Meanwhile, SLC Interim Committee Chairman Somachandra de Silva had said yesterday that Sri Lanka responded to the Pakistani invitation saying that they are not going to play the series in Pakistan.
“We have replied back to the PCB and await their confirmation. We are not going to play in Pakistan at this stage and have offered to host the series in our country. If they agree to play in Sri Lanka they will have to bear the entire hosting costs” de Silva told our Mumbai based correspondent Bipin Dani yesterday.
“We have also expressed our willingness to play either at the neutral venue in Dubai or in Abu Dhabi” de Silva had added.
De Silva had earlier told news agency AFP that security and clearance from a Pakistan Task Team (PTT), formed by the International Cricket Council (ICC) in 2009 is essential before considering any tour of Pakistan.
“Pakistan cricket is going through a difficult period, and we are keen to help them out as they are one of our best friends. But we have to consider the safety of our players” said Ranatunga adding that they have not discussed the matter with Sri Lankan cricketers yet. “First we have to get the security clearance. Then only we need to discuss it with cricketers. You have to remember that most of them were victims of the previous attack” Ranatunga added.
“We have sent them a fresh invite to play the series of three Tests, five one-day internationals and one T20 match in Pakistan in October-November” Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) spokesman Nadeem Sarwar was quoted as saying by several international news agencies yesterday.
“We are waiting for their response but we have given them full security assurances.” he has said.
Gunmen, identified as terrorists from Taliban attacked the Sri Lankan team bus as they were on their way to the Gaddafi stadium on March 3, 2009 in Lahore during a Test tour.
Sri Lanka team’s British assistant coach Paul Farbrace, Sri Lanka cricket team captain Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardena, Thilan Samaraweera, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Ajantha Mendis, Dilhara Fernando, Chamara Kapugedera and Muttiah Muralitharan suffered injuries in the attack.
Six security personnel and two civilians including the driver of a convoy vehicle transporting umpires were also killed in the attack which also wounded Pakistani umpire Ahsan Raza seriously.
Foreign teams did not tour Pakistan since then.
News agency AFP said that PCB chairman Ijaz Butt last week met interior minister Rehman Malik who assured him of security for the touring teams and instructed Butt to convince Sri Lanka to play in Pakistan.
The ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat earlier this month said no team was willing to tour Pakistan soon because of its security situation.
Pakistan have been forced to play its home series in the United Arab Emirates, England and New Zealand. They also played a home series against Australia in Sri Lanka when Australia refused to visit Pakistan.
The Afghanistan team has agreed to travel and play against Pakistan ‘A’ team later this month, but the third match, which was to be played at Abottabad, where Osama bin Laden was killed earlier this month, has been shifted to Islamabad.
In March this year PCB Chairman, Muhammad Ijaz Butt said “We are grateful to Sri Lanka Cricket that despite the events of that day they have once again expressed a willingness to tour Pakistan” after SLC Interim Committee Chairman de Silva had told media that they were discussing with ICC about the possibility of touring Pakistan.
When the issue initially broke in the media few months ago, it was clear that Sri Lanka government was unwilling to send the players to Pakistan. “We want the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) home series be played in our country” Sports Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage was quoted as saying by media in March.
Easter travel costs push UK inflation to 4.5%
The UK suffered the highest rate of inflation in two-and- a-half years in April, forcing Mervyn King to write again to the chancellor explaining why the figure was above target, although the latest rise was largely due to distortions caused by a late Easter.
Inflation rose to 4.5 per cent in April from 4 per cent in March. This compared with an average forecast of 4.2% and was more than double the Bank of England’s 2 per cent target. Only a year ago the Bank forecast that inflation would be 1.7 per cent by now.