Its a tie!!

All the recent banter about fines meetings started me thinking (yup, 4 weeks of preparation for a fines is bad/good news for everyone) about my favourite fines' moments. There are plenty, some more hazy than others, and some which I can't remember entirely such as standing in a paddling pool at the end of my last game for the mighty one-and-one-halves in my......... I'll leave it there for the sake of the kids!!

Anyway, it is quite apt (not the standing in a paddling pool, the favourite moments) because one of my favourite parts of any fines meeting is pitting members of the congregation against one another in some form of a race, dare, or other general activity. Any contest between members obviously requires an independant adjudicator, the time-keeper, who on completion of the competition declares a winner - without bais. Invariably competitions are won by the slightest of margins, as uncompetitive contests are as boring for the participants as for the audience. And VERY often, the independant, objective adjudicator might declare that the contestants were inseparable, hence A TIE!!! The fines chair then has various options at his/her disposal on the manner in which to settle the contest, as no real contect can end a tie. Its like kissing your sister they say.

Clearly no one told the Zimbabweans this, as ysterday they somehow managed to contrive a genuine tie in a cricket match against the Irish at the World Cup. See here for the match report.

There will be no kissing of sisters in any of my fines meetings, and as such all ties will need to be settled with a clear and obvious winner, how ever long it takes.........