Election fall-out and penalty shoot-outs

Today we have the last word on last week's local council elections after the fun and games of May 5 (and way beyond in Medway's case). What's really interesting is the unpredictability of the result in this part of Kent, which is encouraging because it seems people do vote on local issues - to a degree. There was one consistency which reflected the national trend - and that was the Lib Dems had a pasting everywhere. Fascinating, though, that while Labour took control with a degree of comfort in Gravesham, this was sandwiched between fairly ringing endorsements of the Tory administrations in Medway and Dartford. Our voting system came under scrutiny with the AV referendum and the nation threw its weight resoundingly behind the status quo. An interesting fact in Medway that might show just why the Conservatives are so enthusiastic about first-past-the-post - they gained less than 49 per cent of the total vote and grabbed 70 per cent of the seat. Yet it didn't quite work for them in Gravesham where they were kicked out of office despite gaining comfortably more votes overall than Labour.

Did you know it's the FA Cup final tomorrow? You wouldn't think so, would you. Some of us old enough to remember, will recall the halycon days of the 70s when the nation stopped for a week in the run-up to the Wembley showdown. Still, millions of us will sit down to watch Stoke take on Man City tomorrow. For the neutrals, of whom there will be many, if you want to pin your support on someone - how about the Pottery side? We have an interesting connection as revealed in today's Medway Messenger. Most football fans will know that Stoke manager Tony Pulis used to be Gills boss. You might not know that one of his main coaches Adrian Pennock was the Gills skipper who led the team when Gills won the play-off final at Wembley in 2000. The year before both men tasted a wretched penalty shoot-out defeat to....Man City when Pennock missed a spot-kick. Not much motivation for tomorrow then? C'mon you Stoke!!