Podcast 22

Jack: Hello my name’s Jack and welcome to this week’s Premier Skills English podcast.

Rich: Hi everyone. I’m Rich and every week we talk about football and help you with your English.

Jack: This week, we’re going to talk about derby matches, the language focus is prepositions of movement and later Rich will make another Premier League prediction.

Rich: And you have another chance to win a Samsung Galaxy tablet in our ‘What’s my Team?’ competition.

Jack: What was the answer to last week’s riddle Rich?

Rich: Ah, yes. Last week it was Gabriel ... his favourite Premier League team is Chelsea.

Jack: We had lots of correct entries so congratulations to everybody who got it right. I think most football fans know that Mourinho is called ‘the Special One’.

Rich: Yes, I think you’re right. We had the most ever entries last week. There must be a lot of Chelsea fans out there.  

Jack: We have selected a winner at random from the correct answers...

Rich: and the fourth winner of the What’s my team? competition is Momcilo from Serbia. Congratulations Momcilo, we’ve already sent you an email and your prize will soon be on its way.

Jack: Well done to Momcilo! Later on in the podcast, you can listen to this week’s What’s my team riddle.

Rich: Last week, we asked you to describe your manager using three adjectives and we had some great responses.

Jack: LordZico from Ghana described Liverpool’s Jurgen Klopp as humble and ambitious.

Rich: And Marcos Alves from Brazil described Newcastle’s Steve Mclaren as quiet and realistic - you must be happy after Newcastle’s 6-2 win at the weekend!

Jack: Many of you described Manchester Utd’s Lois van Gaal. Ayan_Red_Devil said he was mysterious and strict, Verdmead96 from Poland described him as honest and consistent and Rafael24 from Ecuador described Van Gaal as smart.

Rich: We also had a few listeners who spoke about Chelsea’s Jose Mourinho. Abdallah from Kuwait used the adjectives entrepreneurial and unique and SergioDo from Spain said that he was appropriate.

Jack: Surprisingly, the most comments were about Arsenal’s Arsene Wenger. Besian from Kosovo said Wenger was strategic, Nikosonis from Ukraine used the adjectives prudent and optimistic, and Aragorn1986 from Montenegro said  Wenger is persistent.

Rich: Wenger has been in the Premier League longer than any other manager so he is definitely persistent! Sorry if we didn’t have time to mention your comment, but please continue to write your comments and questions in our comments section and we will get back to you.

Jack: Last weekend there were big wins for Manchester Utd, Manchester City and Arsenal but the biggest win of the weekend was Newcastle Utd who beat Norwich 6-2.

Rich: It was The Magpies’ first win of the season and it took them off the bottom of the table.

Jack: Great preparation for the big derby match this weekend.

Rich: Yes, Sunderland are now below Newcastle at the bottom of the table.

Jack: Below Newcastle? They are below everyone if they are at the bottom!

Rich: But Sunderland will get a chance to go above Newcastle if they win this weekend’s  Tyne - Wear Derby.

Jack: As I’m sure you know, a derby match is a match when two teams from the same area play against each other.

Rich: And Newcastle and Sunderland are both in the North East of England and it’s called the Tyne Wear Derby because the river that flows through Sunderland is called the Wear and the river that runs through Newcastle is called the Tyne.

Jack: You said that the River Tyne runs ‘through’ Newcastle and the River Wear runs ‘through’ Sunderland. The word ‘through’ has many meanings but is often used as a preposition.

Rich: It means to get from one side of something to the other side.

Jack: When I went to football matches when I was young, I pushed through the crowd of people to get to the front.

Rich: There will be a big crowd at the Stadium of Light to watch the Tyne -Wear Derby next weekend.

Jack: Yes, it will be exciting. Derby matches are always passionate games.

Rich: Utd are playing City in the Manchester Derby this weekend too! One of the biggest matches of the Premier League season.

Jack: This one is at Old Trafford and both teams are playing well at the moment. If United win this time, they can go above City in the league.

Rich: If Arsenal don’t win against Everton on Saturday, then Manchester United could go to the top and then they’d be above all the other clubs. So two great derby matches to enjoy this weekend! I want to talk more about the word ‘derby’. We know what it means - a match between two local rivals, but where does the word come from?

Jack: There are a couple of theories. My favourite is that the word Derby comes from a type of Medieval football that was played in the city of Derby and region of Derbyshire in England.

Rich: It began in the 12th century and this game is still played today in a small town called Ashbourne in Derbyshire.

Jack: The game is not football like we know it today. The match is played with a football but the goals are about 5 kilometres apart. One goal is on each side of the town.

Rich: And to score a goal each team has to pass the ball across town.

Jack: This means the players have to go through the town centre, past the shops, over bridges, up and down steps and often the ball even goes into the town’s river.

Rich: And the players follow the ball into and then out of the river.

Jack: There are hundreds of players on each team too.

Rich: There are not many rules either. The only rules that I could find are that you’re not allowed to kill anybody and that you’re not allowed to put the ball in a car!

Jack: I’m not sure if today’s Premier League managers would be happy with those rules!

Rich: No! If you want to see some of this ‘football’ game, try googling ‘Ashbourne Football Match.’

Jack: We used a lot of prepositions connected to movement there and there are some activities in the section below and if you want to learn more, I’ve put a link to our learn english website on the right.

Rich: Right, I think it’s time for this week’s competition: ‘What’s my Team?’

Rich: Here is what you have to do. Listen to a Premier League fan, who will talk about their favourite team and then write the name of the team  in the comments section on the Premier Skills English website.

Jack: And for each of the 20 podcast competitions the lucky winner will receive a fantastic Samsung Galaxy Tablet.

Rich: Right, so this week, our Premier League fan is Tom. Listen to Tom’s riddle and try to work out what’s his team?

Tom: What can I say? My club is part of me. Going to Old Trafford is a way of life. The team is the most successful in the Premier League - we’ve won the title a record 13 times i think! What do I remember best? Well it was a few years ago but it was a goal by Ryan Giggs against Arsenal. He ran more than half the length of the field with the ball at his feet to score a sensational goal! What a player! What a team!

Jack: Do you know who Tom supports? I don’t think we need to give you any clues this week. I think it’s time for the Premier League prediction.

Rich: The Manchester Derby. Both teams are playing well and could go back to the top of the Premier League table with a win. City have beaten Utd in 6 of the last 8  derbies so definitely have the edge but I think Utd are looking much stronger recently. I’m going to go for a Utd win a low scoring match. Final score Manchester Utd 1-0 Manchester City.

Rich: What about the Tyne-Wear Derby, Jack?

Jack: Not sure. I think a 1-1 draw sounds good to me.

Rich: Sitting on the fence again I see. If you’ve got a prediction for these matches let us know in the comments section below.

Jack: Well that’s all for now. Thanks for listening. And don’t forget to write your answers to the competition, your Premier League predictions, and any questions you have about the website or football English in the comments below.

Rich: Don’t forget if you sign in, you can score points to see if you can get your club, your country and your name to the top of our leaderboard.

Jack:  Bye for now and enjoy your football.