BERKELEY — Maxime Raynaud continued his early run at ACC Player of the Year on Saturday afternoon at Haas Pavilion, dropping 20 points as Stanford staved off a late comeback effort from Cal, winning 89-81 in Bear Territory. Graduate guard Jaylen Blakes impacted the ballgame as both a scorer and passer, finishing with six assists. Oziyah Sellers, who was born in Hayward and attended Prolific Prep, contributed 16 points, four rebounds and two assists. Andrej Stojakovic, a transfer from Stanford, had a game-high 25 points while taking a career-high 25 shots. Stanford took early control, opening up the ballgame on a 14-4 run over the game’s first five minutes. Cal gradually found its groove on offense, finally tying the game back up at 29 apiece with a little under five minutes remaining before halftime, but the Cardinal proceeded to close out the half on an 18-2 run. The Cardinal held control for much of the second half, but the Bears cut the deficit to as little as six points with 1 1/2 minutes remaining in regulation. The effort proved to be too little, too late.World Football governing body, FIFA has officially announced that Saudi Arabia would host the 2034 men’s World Cup. Asian Football Confederation president Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim al-Khalifa and Saudi Arabia’s minister of sports and youth Abdulaziz bin Turki Al Faisal celebrated the announcement. Meanwhile, of the 15 stadiums identified to hold matches at the 2034 World Cup, four have been built so far. Fifa also confirmed that Spain, Portugal and Morocco will be joint hosts for the 2030 tournament. Three matches in the 2030 tournament will also be held in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay to mark 100 years of the competition. Read Also: UCL: Juve pile pressure on Man City as Arsenal cruise to victory The hosts for both World Cups were confirmed at Wednesday’s Extraordinary Fifa Congress meeting following a vote involving the 211 member nations represented at the meeting over a video link. Nations gave their votes by ‘acclamation’ – clapping in front of their cameras via their video links. Fifa president Gianni Infantino responded to criticism the organisation has received over the decisions. “We are aware of critics and fears and I fully trust our hosts to address all open points,” he said. “We have a transparency that will shape real and lasting change. That is what we expect and what we look forward to – social improvements and positive human rights impacts. “That is one of the responsibilities of hosting a World Cup, and the world will of course be watching.” Opinions Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs. As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake. If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause. Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development. Donate Now
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WOLCOTT – Call it the ultimate place to buy a gift for the person who seemingly has everything. If you can foot the $2,500 to $40,000 price and are willing to stick out the one- to three-year waiting list, you can buy a custom sword from Dragon’s Breath Forge at 10 Swiss Lane. Or, if you’re looking for something a little more modest and utilitarian, there are the custom knives that are on sale for less, but can be used in the kitchen and are so well made, they’ll likely outlive you. If you’re really into the experience, you can even take a weekend class and make your own knife. Those classes are limited to six people at a time and are popular, said Matt Parkinson, one of the forge’s three owners. The forge is owned by Parkinson, Matt Berry and Jamie Lundell, all of whom fell in love with the art of making knives and swords at relatively early ages. Berry, for example, found his passion in seventh-grade shop class in Middlefield. Parkinson, now 48, said he’s been making knives since he was 17 years old. The three came together doing a combination of railing work and Renaissance fairs back in 2005. They moved into their 6,000-square-foot shop in Wolcott about 2011 and developed a reputation for high-quality work. Indeed, Parkinson won the first competition of the History Channel’s “Forged in Fire,” and Berry has appeared on the show twice and won once. And while they all went through their token Tolkien phases, they don’t typically make swords from television shows, films or video games. There’s a copyright issue to contend with, but also those swords are props. The swords the trio make require “a lot of research, a lot of understanding of physics of swords,” Parkinson said. “Our swords aren’t just shaped objects. They’re swords.” “Matt, Jamie and I have also studied originals,” Berry said. “We’ve handled original swords from the eighth-century on. And we know what they feel like when we understand the harmonics, the flex, the thicknesses, the waves, the balance, how they rotate in the hands. ... The originals, you make like racing cars. They need to be as light as possible, as fast as possible. They have to be strong enough. They have to be functional. Because sword fighting, the first to get there, it wins. So if your sword’s a little slower, you don’t make the parry...” Parkinson and Berry said people order from all over the world – including China and Australia – artwork and re-enactments. “I would say it’s a subsegment of the art market now,” Berry said. “We’re still trying to make them like the originals.” Parkinson said his clients have moved away from “the fantasy stuff.” “I’m making a lot of high-end culinary knives now,” he said, showing a book of his work, which includes a knife with the Hanalei, Hawaii, carved into it. Plus, Parkinson said the process of making swords “hurts more.” A knife can be forged in 20 minutes, a sword can take a couple of hours just to forge, and requires far more physical work, Berry and Parkinson said. As the two talked, Lundell gave a demonstration to several onlookers on how a knife is forged. Lundell, the youngest of the three, mostly makes swords and got his start in the early 2000s while in college in Boston. “I took a class up in fine metal working in Boston at the Museum School of Fine Arts,” he said. “And I just fell in love with metal at that point. ... And then I found Peter Burke, who was a bladesmith right near here. And I started working with him over my breaks from school. And then I learned that I could make swords and knives. And I was like, this is what I’m going to do for the rest of my life.” Lundell said he has a waiting list out to at least 2026 for his swords, but people can take classes at Dragon’s Breath to learn how to forge their own wares. “The classes are great,” he said. “People just really enjoy that experience, you know, it’s a one day class, you know, and, you know, in one day we make a knife. And so you have the experience of coming here, forging, kind of feeling what it’s like and having the experience of what a blacksmith kind of actually does. “And then also in the end, you know, you have this thing that you make.” For information on Dragon’s Breath Forge, visit dragonsbreathforge.com.
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