From Rhys Jaggar :
I’ve always found that easy, as I played/participated in about six up to the age of about 35/40: running/fell running; tennis; football; ski-ing; rock-climbing/mountaineering; rugby (didn’t play that much but did enough to enjoy what others can produce); cricket.
Right now, Andy Murray et al have given Britain the best chance of winning the Davis Cup in nearly 80 years.
OK, it’s mostly been Andy Murray, but a few crucial rubbers were won by others too. He made a commitment to Davis Cup this year after winning Olympics, US Open and Wimbledon (maybe seeing how Federer did it last year for Wawrinka et al – if you watched his post-success interviews he made it clear that it wasn’t about him, it was about the others….)
The track and field guys put in an excellent performance at the World Champs – several British records by the women, loads of season’s best performances and a few stand-out things like a hammer thrower coming 4th (when did that ever happen?), a 19-year- old breaking a 30+ year British record in the 200m, 3 British women qualifying for the final of the Long Jump, and almost no athlete not performing to a very satisfactory standard.
The management set tough standards for selection (I actually think they need to lower them a bit in events where UK is weak, as there’s no way you can produce athletes if they can’t compete in championships) and the funding of athletes depends on them performing, which rather is at odds with £100k a week for 5 years even if you coast to mediocrity, doesn’t it??
Of course performance in Rio depends on a squad remaining healthy and training on through this winter and peaking next year, but if all that happened, UK might get 10+ medals in track and field, and when did that last happen?
They might not and the team should be judged on their performances more than medals (because if others under-perform you may get more medals for worse performances than if others over-perform), but that sport is improving year on year. WC in London 2017 should be worth watching……
Cricket is a bit of a circus, to be honest.
I get less OTT about England after they win a test series when the opposition played badly than most, but they decided to break out from an horrendous series of results by saying: ‘bugger attrition, let’s have a go and see what comes’….at least they try new things and some come off…..and TMS on the first morning at Trent Bridge was some of the best radio I’ve ever heard…….
I don’t know if you watched South Africa vs Japan – I only watched the second half live but it was some fantastic pure sport at its best.
Each time South Africa took the lead you thought ‘now they’ll rack up a lead’, they never did. Japan came back again and again, kicked penalties, scored tries and then ‘did a Michael Thomas’ in injury time, twice turning down kicks under the posts for a draw to go for the win. If you looked at all the Japanese fans in the stadium, the only time I’ve seen a reaction like that was when South Africa scored 438-9 to beat Australia in a ridiculous 5th ODI at the Wanderers years ago. Grown men in tears with their arms around their wives…….that’s what sport should really be about.
Even Wales-Uruguay was proper sport.
Yes Uruguay were mostly amateurs and got outclassed in the end, but they played some good stuff and gave as good as they got. I only caught the second half of that too.
New Zealand-Argentina was fantastic – I went out for a run at the end of the first half as I don’t like running on grass in the dark, so I got back with 15 minutes to go when new Zealand were 19-16 up.
That was real sport in front of real fans and an Argentine team that really put the frighteners up the All Blacks – when did you last see New Zealand down to 13, even for 2 minutes??
The NZ attacking back play was clinical and superb, but they can be got at up front and their defence can be breached too, so I don’t think this World Cup is nailed on for them at all…..of course they’ll be there or thereabouts, but, there’s a long way to go yet……
Myles says
When I read you on athletics I hear the Chariots of Fire theme tune and think of screenwriter Colin Welland telling Hollywood, “The British are coming!”
My gambling greengrocer tells me Japan were 70-1.
John said a bloke up North put £2,000 on it.