Category Archives: Sport

No Place For Cheats

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It now seems beyond reasonable doubt that the great American cyclist and seven times winner of the Tour de France, Lance Armstrong, is not so great after all and, if the evidence revealed this week by the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) is true, he is no more than a liar and a cheat.

Like many people, I find the whole episode quite astounding though, for me, the overwhelming emotion is one of disappointment followed by sadness. Here was a man who, defeating the curse of cancer, went on to become one of the greatest cyclists of all time. A man who, when he wasn’t racing, devoted much of his time to charitable causes. How on earth can he have turned out to be a fraud? 
Here was a man admired and respected by the world of sport and beyond. He was a hero to many and maybe that is why the USADA revelations, that he regularly took performance-enhancing drugs in his successful quests for glory, are so shocking. The fact that he was held in such high esteem has meant that his fall from grace has been that much more dramatic. He had longer to fall but fall he has and the rest of us mere mortals can only shake our heads in wonder. 
Sport must learn from this and so must we all. There is a lot of good in the world of sport but there is clearly a lot that is not so good. Whatever your views on the man, one thing should be a given, there can never be a place for cheats in any sport, nor in life for that matter.

Sporting Ecstasy

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I was going to write a blog about politics today, something mundane and depressing about a political party conference, something suited to a dull, chilly Autumnal morning. Then I read the online BBC headlines “Europe pull off record comeback” and “Europe in shock Ryder Cup Victory” and suddenly nothing else seemed to matter! Could this be the same competition that the Sunday Times had described as “threatening to turn into a rout” and the Mail on Sunday had contrasted with the Boston Tea Party, “Europe tipped overboard as US take control”? Was this the same tournament, of which I’d seen television highlights the previous two days, where the home crowd were exulting in glory and bellowing victory to the heavens?

Yes it was and by the end of the first two days of the tournament in which Europe, for the most part, had taken a battering, it would have been a brave man (or fool) who would have predicted a European victory when their American opponents had, in the opinion of most experts, taken a seemingly unassailable lead. The Americans no doubt thought, and with good reason, that victory was theirs for the taking but the Goddess of Sport is the most capricious of deities and as many hard bitten competitors will tell you “It aint over till it’s over”.

This was sport showing us, once again in this wonderful year of sport, how truly magical it can be. This was sport at its very best and at its most compelling. I’m not a golfer and you may not be either, but one doesn’t have to be a golfer to realise that something pretty special, or “miraculous”, as some have called Europe’s victory, took place at the Medinah Golf Club in Chicago yesterday.

The European captain, Jose Maria Olazabal, friend and former playing partner of the great Seve Ballesteros, acknowledging the inspiration his team received from the memory of his late countryman (all the team wore Ballesteros’ colours yesterday), summed up what it meant to him and his heroic team when he said “All men die but not all men live”. What a truly wonderful and profound statement that is and how much better to start the week with that than another moan about politics, don’t you think?

Olympic Legacy

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The Games are over, ending with another gold medal for Team GB, a closing ceremony showcasing our country’s musical talent (an area where we have consistently produced world-beaters) and a firework display to warm the hearts of all who stayed up to watch it. For a few more days perhaps we can continue to bask in the glow before life reverts to normality.

There is talk of the legacy of the Games and what we can take from our country’s success. Here are a few –
·         Pride in the success of our athletes .
·         Pride in the London Olympics organisation led by the indefatigable Lord Coe (also one of the greatest athletes we have ever produced), his work colleagues and the thousands of volunteers who sacrificed so much of their time and energy to ensure that all ran smoothly.
·         Pride in our country’s organisation and, yes, its efficiency.
·         The image of a country confident in itself and with a smile on its face.
·         A superb stadium and infrastructure established in East London to be used for the benefit of the community at large and to receive continued national and international use.
·         Encouragement for our youngsters to take up sport and to try and emulate the achievements of the heroes of 2012.
·         Encouragement for our Government to prevent the disposal of school and local community playing fields and to create new sporting facilities in all state schools and in our inner cities.
Before the Games began just over two weeks ago we lived in a society where the dangers of terrorism, economic depression and the collapse of the European Union were ever present. None of that has changed but we have now seen a different side to our country. We have a great opportunity to build on the success of the London Olympics 2012. We must not waste it.

Happy and Glorious

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Turn on the television news and so much of it makes such grim viewing, the economic crisis, civil wars in far off lands and hideous crimes committed on our streets, that you could be forgiven for turning it off again in dismay. But, the Olympics are still with us, for a couple of more days at least, and the news from the Games seems to get better and better with each new day.

Those who doubted our ability to stage the Olympics and those who doubted the abilities of our athletes (and there were quite a few) have, no doubt,  been pleasantly surprised. The Games have proved to be a  great success for the whole nation on both counts. Yes, it’s true that, politically and economically, we are no longer the nation we once were and, yes, we are now no more than a bit part player on the world’s stage but we can still put on quite a show.
Perhaps more importantly we have shown that we can produce young men and women of supreme skill with the ability not only to win but to win with dignity, courage, determination and grace. They have shown pride in their work, dedication to the team’s cause and respect for their opponents, win or lose. At last, some truly wonderful role models for our youngsters; a pleasant thought, particularly with the football season almost upon us!

Sporting Glory

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What a difference a year makes! In the summer of 2011 our televisions were bursting with images of burning cars and buildings, masked youths trashing high street stores and lines of police trying hard to restore order. By contrast, the summer of 2012 has seen television screens brimful of beaming young British sportsmen and women proudly clutching Olympic medals, earned with blood sweat and tears, as their country shows a much more positive and joyful side to the watching world.

Our Prime Minister has been prominent on our television screens praising our fine young athletes and hoping, no doubt, that some of the reflected glory and pride will fall upon his beleaguered government. I hope he learns the lesson well because if any politician was ever in any doubt about the power of sport to move and to generate such widespread happiness and joy then these Games will surely have dispelled it.
Sport is a vital part of life and, indeed, is a microcosm of life displaying as it does all of life’s realities. Life, like sport, is all about competition.  It is, whether we like it or not, about winning and losing and it is about joy and despair. We just have to convince the politically correct liberals who govern us of these facts and ensure that sport is made available to all and, most importantly, that adequate funding is provided to establish proper sporting facilities in all state schools.

Olympics and Stuff

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The Olympics are now well and truly with us and, in spite of all the fears and reservations of many, I think it is going pretty well so far, subject to Team GB notching up a few gold medals, of course.

I thought that the much anticipated opening ceremony was a great success and showed a lot of imagination and flair by the director, Danny Boyle, and the thousands of mainly amateur participants who worked tirelessly all night to make it work as spectacularly as it did. It showed a lot of what this country was and is about and the criticisms that it was too leftie or politically correct are unfair.

Of course, much more could have been made of our Imperial past but it probably would have been a little distasteful bearing in mind that at one time or another we were at war with most of the countries taking part! Yes, we could have had a scene involving the archers of Agincourt, the sailors of Trafalgar or even a re-enactment of Rorke’s Drift but I don’t think it would have gone down very well!

The whole spectacle was a credit to all involved and, like many others I’m sure, it certainly made me feel proud to be British.

Finally, I  wonder why the British team is called Team GB and not Team UK.  Great Britain is the name of the larger of the British Isles and by implication a reference to Great Britain alone misses out Northern Ireland which is located on a different island. The correct title of our country, as a whole, is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and, since team GB contains some Northern Irish athletes, it should naturally be called Team UK. I hope the Northern Irish aren’t too miffed by this!

Fly The Flag

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I don’t suppose the mix up over the North and South Korea flags on Wednesday evening  was the kind of start to the Games the Olympic organisers were looking for.  To place an image of the wrong country’s flag next to a sportsman’s image is embarrassing at best but to place an image of the flag of that sportsman’s country’s bitter enemy next to his or her face is unforgiveable. To put it in a context closer to home can you imagine the outrage that would emanate from the placing of the Union flag next to the image of a sportsman from the Irish Republic?

Still, we shouldn’t be surprised because, according to the results of a survey commissioned by the Panasonic corporation released last week, the Japanese flag is more recognizable to most British people than their own flag (that’s astounding if it’s true). In addition the survey of 2,000 adults (adults mind you, not infants!) discovered the following gems –

– 1 in 12 thought the Union flag (Union Jack) was the flag of England.
– 1 in 10 thought the St George’s flag was the flag of Wales.
– 1 in 3 thought the Australian flag was the flag of the USA.

Lord help us; to think we once had an empire! Can we really be that stupid? (I ask this rhetorically!)

A spokesman for Panasonic  said –  “With the influx of flags set to come into the UK for the Olympic Games I’m sure fans will enjoy the opportunity to learn them all”.  Presumably he was also referring to the Olympic organisers! The only saving grace was that the Korean cock-up happened before an Olympic football match in Edinburgh and not London. Perhaps it was an attempt by jealous Scottish Nationalists to sabotage the Games!

On a serious note, the Olympic Games officially open tonight and, as with the recent Jubilee celebrations, I’m sure we can all, bar the usual whingeing curmudgeons of course, take great pride in another marvellous showcase for our country. Thousands of people, most of them volunteers, have devoted huge swathes of their time and effort into creating these Games and they deserve our profound gratitude. I don’t doubt that the Games will be a great success and a further source of pride for the whole of our country.

An Historic Achievement

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So many horrible things happen in our world today but, as England awoke this bright Monday morning to sunshine and clear blue skies, our national newspaper headlines trumpeted some astounding sporting success. Bradley Wiggins, the 32 year old holder of three Olympic cycling gold medals, became the first ever Englishman to win the Tour de France, arguably the most gruelling endurance test in any sport.

One has come to expect  hyperbole verging on hysteria in the tabloids whenever someone from these shores achieves even a modicum of sporting success but when our more responsible press are referring to “an historic achievement” and asking “Is Wiggins the greatest ever?” winner of the Tour (yesterday’s Sunday Times) you have to sit up and take notice. We’re not supposed to be good at long distance mountainous cycle races, lacking as we do the vast mountain ranges of Europe and beyond, and any cycling successes achieved in the past tend to have been in time trials and sprints. Wiggins’ victory has quite simply transcended anything achieved by an Englishman before in cycling and as the first English winner in 99 years of the Tour de France he deserves all the plaudits and adulation which come his way.

The Tour is however a team event and his colleagues, Mark Cavendish (who won on the Champs-Elysees stage for a record 4th time) and Chris Froomes (who finished second overall and, in another year, could well have won it himself)plus the rest of Team Sky deserve the highest possible praise. They have all done us proud and further pride may well follow in the forthcoming Olympic Games.

Let’s hope that these sporting heroes provide the inspiration for thousands of youngsters to take up the sport (in fact any sport) and shame our Government into ending the continued sale of sports fields across the land and into elevating competitive sport in schools to the highest possible level.

Football and Tax

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In the midst of the usual wailing and gnashing of teeth following England’s entirely predictable premature elimination from yet another football tournament comes a different take on our national sport in this week’s Private Eye.
It goes without saying that England are simply not good enough to compete effectively on the European (let alone World) stage and many experts have provided explanations for this from the over-coaching of youngsters to too much football played at the highest level. Private Eye, however, put it down to “state-sponsored tax dodging” and I think they have a point.

Due to the UK’s tax rules for non-domiciled residents, the world’s finest footballers can be attracted to this country in the knowledge that their astronomical wages will be largely untouched by the taxman by the use of completely legal offshore accounts. Further, it is cheaper and more tax efficient for an English football club to sign up foreign footballers than it is to invest in English players.

Since money is of course the main driving force of the English Premiership it is obvious that the development of home grown talent is way down on their list of priorities. It seems therefore that unless and until our tax laws are amended England (and all the home countries) will be doomed to perpetual failure and under achievement.

A Brief History of Football

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Football (or soccer as it is also known) is generally acknowledged to have been invented by the English and the first ever football club, Sheffield, was founded in 1857. Within a few years a professional Association Football league was established and, as the British Empire prospered and expanded the game was exported to all corners of the globe. (The name “soccer”, by the way, is derived from the word “Association”). Soon the game was played the world over and by the middle of the twentieth century football was the most popular game on the planet.
In England, the domestic football league thrived and every town in the country had a team in either the national Football League or in one of the many so-called feeder leagues in the lower reaches of the football pyramid. Football had truly become the nation’s favourite sport. By the l960s there were four divisions of the professional Football League although, by the turn of the century the top division had broken away from the League and had become the self governing Premier League or Premiership as it is also known.
 
As well as the League competition the top clubs compete in two major cup competitions, the FA Cup and the League Cup and at the elite level clubs also compete against European opposition for two further cups. You’d think that since we invented this game and boast the home of football in Wembley Stadium, Londonthat, nationally, we would be European or World Champions on a regular basis. Sadly not and, in fact, our record would seem to indicate that we’re not very good at football at all!
 
Apart from one isolated World Cup success in 1966, and even then we were the tournament hosts, our history is one of near misses and unmitigated disaster! Many football experts have tried to come up with an explanation for our repeated failure and have tried even harder to find a remedy but to no avail. Will we just have to accept that Johnny Foreigner is invariably blessed with superior skills and leave it at that or can there be further glory just around the corner for the English?
 

Whatever the future holds for English football there are still those among us who can remember that wonderful summer’s day in July 1966 when Bobby Moore and his band of immortals lifted the World Cup bringing  joy to the nation, causing old men to weep with pride and a generation of younger men to yearn for the day when England can once again be called the champions of the world!