Reading Roars!

So Reading lost to Man United, who scored the only goal of the game through Louis Saha. The slender scoreline was surprising, as the Royals had three players sent off (Sonko, Sidwell and Kitson) for seemingly no apparent reason (the Konami Difference, perhaps?).

Of course, it was difficult to argue with the ref when the players were merely well-drawn characters on a Samsung screen, for I was playing Pro Evolution Soccer 6 on the Xbox 360.

Yes, in anticipation of the weekend’s hot encounter with the Red Devils, I was guiding the Berkshire Blues, as Reading is termed in Pro Evo, against Ferguson’s men in the hit console game. There wasn’t an Old Trafford to play at, and certainly no Madejski, so instead I played in front of a packed Santiago Bernabeu crowd.

The game was realistic enough: I picked up all the cards (3 reds, 2 yellow), while Man United escaped the wrath of the ref. And there was plenty of time added on.

As for the real clash between the two sides, I predict a draw.

So the big story of the day, splashed on the front page of both the Reading Chronicle and Evening Post, is Reading’s gleaming new Station Hill skyline planned by football boss John Madejski.

Madejski commented on the project:

I am a great believer in the future of Reading and its desire to be recognised as a European city.

“Our Premiership football team has put the town on the world map and I am keen to reinforce this achievement through this property development.

These are lofty (no pun intended) ambitions! Of course, we do need this project, to replace the embarrassing concrete eyesore currently greeting Reading arrivals, but it will take more than shiny buildings (the tallest, at 32 storeys, isn’t even that high - and yes, size does matter when it comes to buildings) to bring the town recognition on the international stage.

I would like us to focus more on cultural efforts, as I believe that it is through cultural expression that the biggest impact is made. Reading is already successfully winning international attention through music and arts festivals, and of course sport (thanks again to Madejski).

Last year the town lost a limb, with the departure of WOMAD to Wiltshire. Let’s fill that void, support our other festivals and invest in other cultural areas, and watch our recognition grow.

I have been toying with new Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 recently. One of the things I like best about it is that it supports RSS (Really Simple Syndication), a way of having news from sites such as this one conveniently delivered to you, pretty useful if you like your news from more than one source.

With Outlook 2007, to my surprise, adding a news feed is really straightforward. I did it with Reading Roars! in 3 steps - click on RSS Feeds, right-click and Add a New RSS Feed, then lastly “enter the location of the feed you want to add”. And that’s it.

Then the fun begins. Articles are added to Outlook in the form of email, and labelled with author name, article title and publication date. As email, you can flag it, or drag it into your To-Do Bar.

You can also configure Outlook so that full article content is downloaded as an attachment to RSS messages.

Changing times, eh.

Steve Coppell is the calmest man in English football. While every game is ‘hyped into a four-day event’ the Reading manager quietly goes about his business - and, despite his team having not a single Premiership appearance between them at the start of the season, he is producing stunning results.

So begins Amy Lawrence’s “Big interview” with Steve Coppell in today’s Observer newspaper. The interview was conducted at the club’s training ground and you can read it on Guardian Unlimited Football.

With delight, I recount the prediction I made several days earlier, following Reading’s defeat of Man City:

Next up: Aston Villa at the Madejski. Reading will surely raze this Villa to the ground.

Two goals by Steve Sidwell ensured that the Royals did just that (my prediction was also more accurate than Mark Lawrenson’s, of the BBC, but then he also forecast a Reading loss against City - why doesn’t he have confidence in the Royals?). The 2-0 defeat of the Midlands club, once European Cup holders (a long time ago), was the club’s 5th win in a row.

Sidwell headed in his first goal from 6 yards within the first 15 minutes of the game, thanks to a Stephen Hunt corner. He added his second in the 90th minute, with an assist provided by Dave Kitson. Sidwell could have completed a hat-trick 3 minutes later from 25 yards out, but was blocked by the Villa keeper.

It seems to me that club most do everything possible to secure Steve Coppell’s services next season. It just wouldn’t be the same in Europe without him. And of course, it would also help that McClaren remains at the helm of our pathetic national side, as the Reading manager is presently very highly coveted indeed.

Wolfgang Osinski has kindly published (and translated!) an article of mine on Düsseldorf Blog.  In the article, I comment on beer and several leading (in my opinion) pubs in Reading - The Hop Leaf, The Hobgoblin and Sweeney & Todd - and how they stand out against the brash, money-guzzling chains swamping the centre of town.

Thanks Wolfgang!

I remember watching Chinese Opera on the streets of Penang and thinking that it was fantastic, even though I couldn’t quite follow the story. On Monday 19 February, somewhat amazingly, the magic of Chinese Opera will come to Reading.

Invited by Dr Ashely Thorpe of the University of Reading, the International Centre for Beijing Opera will be performing “Adventures of the Monkey King” at the University’s Myra McCullock Theatre. Some of the performances will be done in English.

The Monkey King seemed familiar, so I did a bit of quick research. Those of you into video games (as I am, geekily) will remember the character Monkey in the hugely playable Kung Fu Chaos, and there are references in Halo 2 and Soul Calibur. The Monkey King also had a role in the cartoon series Jackie Chan’s Adventures.

Interested? Tickets are just £10 (£7 concessions).