And for his next trip...

A phone call from Ned at 4pm yesterday afternoon confirmed that "the eagle has landed" albeit that the connection was far more shaky and crackly than the one that Neil Armstrong had made to Houston in 1969 - Ned and Paul had arrived at John o'Groats, the furthest north that you can travel in the British Isles after departing Lands End (the furthest south you can travel in the British Isles) 14 days previously.

992 miles was the total journey and no punctures thanks to Kevlar tyres, but as you can see in the photograph John o'Groats is a little underwhelming and thanks to the wonders of t'interweb and the ability to view photographs of distant places without leaving the comfort of your armchair I have already made the decision that I have no desire to cycle 992 miles in order to visit the place.

As I spoke to him on the fading mobile phone line he spoke of another, more elderly couple who had completed the ride just an hour before them after taking a month to do the journey - I know Ned is crazy but that old couple should be confined to somewhere secure for the rest of their lives - one month on a bike is the sort of behaviour that used to fill lunatic asylums - and just as we spoke he waved goodbye to a mother and daughter combination who were setting off to do the trip the other way, there is no end to the madness apparently.

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Meanwhile the big news in Leeds yesterday was the meeting of crooks at Elland Rd football ground in order to scramble on the floor for the shrapnel that is now the failed and bankrupt but once proud football club that was Leeds United.

Since their glory days of the 1970's there has been a roller coaster of success and failure culminating in the ultimate failure last month of relegation to the third division of English footbal and their placing into administration just a few hours later - the club is deep in debt and cannot carry those debts forward into next season.

The numbers make interesting reading.

Lets look at just one of those numbers - a mysterious offshore registered company is owed £18million.

Ken Bates, the chairman of Leeds Utd has offered a reimbursment of one penny in the pound to creditors IF his proposal to retain the club in his ownership after the administration is wound up, is accepted - so the mysterious offshore company would receive just £180,000 of its £18million debt.

Another group of investors have offered to oust Bates and take over the club, promising the mysterious offshore company a repayment totalling £8million plus a share in future income.

So, what would your decision be, the Bates offer or the alternative "get rid of Bates" conglomorate ?

Rather suprisingly the mysterious offshore company has opted for the Ken Bates rescue plan, they would apparently rather take the £180,000 against the £8million, a baffling decision until you listen to the rumours that abound around Elland Rd that a significant shareholder in the mysterious offshore company (who are the biggest creditor) is in fact Mr Bates himself, and then suddenly the jigsaw all falls into place and you can see the sense in Mr Bates voting for his own proposal.

The administrator is also backing the Bates bid and has categorically stated that he has investigated the mysterious offshore company and been unable to find any link between it and Mr Bates but that he has met with directors of the mysterious offshore company and they have assured him that Mr Bates has nothing to do with their company - on the other hand they would say that wouldn't they, and the administrators inability to find a connection for himself is not suprising as the mysterious offshore registered company is not mysterious and offshore registered for nothing - its to stop British administrators being able, in British law, to investigate them.

It all stinks.

Highly.