The Importance of Sport (NEW CONCEPTS)

[Mick Harper]

Ukraine 1 England 1

This was a decent performance. We played 'em off the park away from home and they're not a half-bad side. So let's accentuate the negatives:

1. It's pretty shocking that we're opening the international season with old-timers like Henderson, Maguire and Walker still around, even if Walker was man of the match.
2. You can't play four at the back and Henderson and Rice.
3. Saka has become a real problem. His unwillingness to beat a man used to be masked by his general creativity and faultlessness. He now makes mistakes with alarming regularity and his creativity is not so essential if Rice and Bellingham are in the side.
4. If Maddison really is ahead of Foden and Grealish in the flank pecking order, we're in big trouble.
5. Kane. Still.

[Wile E. Coyote]

Argentina tried for tries. England simply dropped goals.

Let's be honest, we simply can't break down defences like other better teams, who are capable of fluid multiple waves of attacks, so we might as well just go over the top.

I know it's cowardly and boring to watch, but it's simple and obvious and demoralises the opposition who have to adjust to conceding 9 points or so without England even trying to breach their ranks.

More please.

[Mick Harper]

I don't watch rugby any more but when I did (keenly) England had never lost to Argentina. Is that still the case? I thought it curious... and possibly significant.

[Mick Harper]

Does anyone else suffer from sudden sport-fatigue syndrome (SSS)? For me, rugby is not alone. I used to be a Formula One freak, then one day I decided it was monumentally boring and never watched another race. Or baseball. I was a big fan, then Bryce Harper moved from my team, the Washington Nationals, to the Philadelphia Phillies and I never watched another etc etc. Athletics. Another biggie. When Brits disappeared, so did I. Ice hockey. That was more of a brief passion, but the same sort of thing. I'm sure there are others.

[Wile E. Coyote]

You really need more unexpected outcomes than you get in F1 these days. No matter how brilliant the driver, if the vehicle is not competitive, he or she has no chance, the skill is in inventing a fast reliable car before the season has started.(boring). The only rivalry really becomes the two drivers who have the best car, and they have even stopped that by the so-called team orders, so the second guy doesn't overtake the guy leading just in case he takes both cars off. Overtaking rarely happens except when a very fast car is lapping a slower one. Even then the slower is expected to allow the fast car through.

They are slowly eliminating the aspects of the sport that makes it fun to watch.

[Mick Harper]

All these factors were present when I would spend an hour watching the qualifying (actually the most exciting part) before spending two hours on the race itself. Somehow I, like zillions of people the world over, persuaded myself that none of the things you mentioned mattered or, worse, was why we watched it!

It's only when the scales have fallen and you have taken yourself off to watch a hundred and fifty cyclists gently perambulating the countryside for six hours that you realise what a fool you were.

[Mick Harper]

Yesterday I was on the verge of adding American football to the list when the New England Patriots fell sixteen points behind after five minutes of the opening game, at home to the Philadelphia Eagles. We eventually lost it at the death due to some chicanery on the part of someone. "Oh ye of little faith," I said angrily to the fainthearts. It looks as though it will be a sixteen-and-one season.

[Grant]

Problem with F1 is that it became popular when lots of people died. The drivers were truly modern day gladiators.

Now the cars are so safe and reliable that most races are won by the best car. Now I know that was always the case but in the old days it wasn't guaranteed because a simple mistake would mean death. You just can't replace that jeopardy

[Mick Harper]

The entire NFL close season -- which those idle sods ensure lasts from February to September -- was spent discussing the move of Aaron Rodgers -- the current GOAT -- from the Green Bay Packers to the New York Jets. Gotham itself was in a frenzy of anticipation partly because gridiron had been in the doldrums so long there, partly because it meant the Jets might at last be worthy to be spoken of in the same city as the Giants. The NFL panjandrums moved the Jets game to Monday night so the entire nation, nay the entire world, could watch this game and this game alone. Even God ceased his labours, pulled up his celestial armchair and settled down to watch the birth of a new era.

After five minutes, Rodgers' achilles twanged and he's out for the season. At his age perhaps for all time. The Greatest Of All Time.

[Mick Harper]

Graeme Souness, who always speaks his mind, told us that Scotland matched England 'in all departments except maybe for strikers'. Mick Harper, who always speaks his mind, told Mr Souness that no Scottish footballer would get into the England set-up except maybe for driving the team bus.

As to the game itself, I cannot say. After five minutes I realised that I had no interest in the oldest, most oft-played game in the international calendar and I'd prolly catch the highlights later. I bet it wasn't a patch on the good old days when Souness was in his pomp and the Tartan Army was laying waste to Wembley goalposts. In fact, knowing Souness, he was probably one of them.

[Mick Harper]

Know Your Footie Teams

[Mick Harper]

I have been misinformed. The first round of the Roman Empire Cup qualifies you for the Medieval Cup. [Calleva is the Roman name for Silchester or something, up the road from Portchester where they landed, Hatty will know.)

[Wile E. Coyote]

[Boreades]

[Wile E. Coyote]

It's time for contra orthodoxy to crack open the Brummy bubbly.


Yes, Birmingham has been bankrupted by the Commonwealth Games, but it is only two and a bit years before it is due to host the 2026 European Championships.

Which is great news. With Starmer in charge, Labour absolutely desperate to rejoin the EU and keep its marginal Midlands seats, they just can't fail.

Yep, it's a relaunch as a moderrn European city, with massive sums of central government funding and all their debts written off.

Let's all drink to the fun and games and, err, the lasting legacy.......