Disorganised and Unfair Olympics
The Winter Olympics in Vancouver have come in for a lot of criticism. I’m not going to be too outspoken, as we have the Summer Games in London coming up, but it does strike me that the Canadians have made some fundamental mistakes, that with hindsight could have been avoided.
They could have done nothing about the lack of snow, unless of course they could have found a way to move Europe’s and the United States’ unwanted snowfalls to where they were needed.
But to me one thing stands out. The Olympic flame is the centrepiece of any Games and they have surrounded their’s with a fence, that obscures it to the public. They say they were worried about vandals and the like, but it would not have been beyond the wit of the designers to protect it with say a moat and a low safety rail. I suspect if they’d asked the keeper of the monkeys at Vancouver Zoo, he would have had a much better idea!
They got a lot of others things wrong, like the finances, but then they did in Montreal too.
I would also criticise them for giving their own competitors more time to try out the tracks and courses, in the hope of winning more medals. I hope we don’t adopt the same attitude for 2012 as Games should be remembered for fairness not cheating.
But lastly, I will criticise them for one small thing, that would have been so easily overcome by a small amount of replanning. The medal ceremony for the ladies’ skeleton bob was held at three in the morning UK time, which was an absolutely wonderful idea for a once-in-thirty-years event for the UK. As it was 24 hours after the event, they could and should have scheduled it for a convenient time for the UK’s news networks.
But then they had expected a Canadian to win!
As I have said many times before, all major projects and events are often judged by the attention to detail by the organisers. Canada has failed with the details.
London 2012 must take note. According to this blog on the BBC, they are!
Good News from Afghanistan
Afghanistan have just qualified for cricket’s Twenty20 World Cup.
Not bad for a country that haven’t played the game for very long and only a few years ago were in the fifth tier of the game.
Policing at QPR
As I walked away from Loftus Road last Tuesday, I was surprised at how many police were on duty.
Obviously, it was because there was a large and angry crowd with a history of violence between the two teams, it was necessary to have this sort of presence of the boys in blue.
But the crowd was 10,000 or so, the Ipswich supporters were their usual well-behaved bunch, everybody seemed to be talking to each other as they walked towards the Tube, I didn’t see anybody who was the least bit drunk and it was all rather cold. Would you really want aggro on a very cold day? Possibly, it would be a way of warming up.
So do the Met just treat all matches the same and send it everything including the kitchen sink and the cavalry, when quite frankly they should be used for something more important than a peaceful football match. Should I for instance report the police to the RSPCA for getting the horses out unnecessarily on a cold night?
The was one unsavoury incident though. The QPR supporters did slag off their club’s owner.
Ipswich at QPR
Last night was the first time this season, that I’d seen Ipswich win. I must admit I was there when they beat Coventry, but I left immediately Coventry equalised, so didn’t actually see the win. I was also at Shrewsbury, when they won in the Carling Cup, but that was on penalties.
I’d never been to Loftus Road before, but I certainly enjoyed the visit. It is a compact ground with good views tucked away behind Shepherd’s Bush. I think though now that the crowd are better behaved than they were years ago, when someone chucked a dummy hand grenade being the opposing goalkeeper. Apparently, he ran very fast.
But as supposedly one of the richest clubs in England, if not the world, the ungrateful crowd really didn’t appreciate the match, giving Flavio Briatore some typical football humour. I’ve just read Briatore’s bio on Wikipedia. I can’t be all true! Can it? Wikipedia doesn’t always get it right.
Note in the pictures, one shows the immaculate minute’s silence for someone who did a lot for QPR.
Erica Roe
Britain’s most famous streaker is Erica Roe who ran across the pitch at Twickenham during an England Australia match on 2nd January 1982. She was mentioned on BBC Breakfast this morning. According to her Wikipedia entry, she and her family are farming organic sweet potatoes in Portugal.
Erica Roe
I wonder who the gent in the left of the photograph is? And note Erica’s belt. We all had belts like that at some time, if you were born before 1960. I haven’t seen one in years.
Is that a ciggie in her mouth? How very 1980’s.
Olympic Progress
This is the new Olympic stadium rising above the ground.
The Olympic Stadium Rises
As I got on the A12 I got a good view of the new Velodrome.
Both looked to be making good progress.
Going Down?
The latest in the Portsmouth saga seems to make matters worse. According to the BBC, Peter Storrie and Avram Grant are not happy that players have been sold behind their backs.
I just think that Pompey are now at the end of the road. They face a winding up petition in the Courts on February 10th and I suspect that unless serious money turns up, they will end up in administration at best.
The point that no-one seems to say is that Pompey are favourites to go down and so the owners will lose a lot of money anyway. So would you put any more money into this type of sinking ship? Perhaps if you were a fool with money to burn. But no-one is that stupid are they? I suppose they could be if they bought a football club in the first place!
So it looks like there’ll be an extra place in Division 2 next year.
Will that be AFC Wimbledon? Now there’s a resurrection for you.
The Premier League Without Portsmouth
I was musing what would happen if Portsmouth should go bust and be unable to fulfil all of their fixtures in the Premier League. That is not to say they will, but HMRC are after a scalp and Portsmouth are an obvious target.
Arsenal and Aston Villa would be the biggest losers at the top, as they have already got six points out of the doomed team from the South Coast. West Ham however would end up bottom, as they lose four valuable points.
So perhaps, there are three clubs, in whose interest it is that Portsmouth don’t fail.
The Big Difference Between Real Tennis and Lawn Tennis
A couple of days ago, Andy Murray beat the giant two metres six centimetres, John Isner, in the Australian Open in Melbourne. Andy Murray himself is not short being about 1.96 metres. If you do want it in those useless Imperial measures that only cause confusion, that six foot three. Rarely, do you see a male tennis player, who is not tall, with some very much like Isner in the giant category.
Last night, I played a man on the Real Tennis court at Cambridge University and he was probably about two metres tall, compared to my 1.71m. We had a very good game, which ended up as an honourable draw over the hour we played.
When I first took an interest in tennis in the 1950s and 1960s, players reflected society. Ken Rosewall, who is probably one of the top ten players of all time was actually shorter than I am at 1.70m. His compatriot, Rod Laver, was just a bit taller at 1.72m.
So why is there no smaller players at the top in tennis?
In my view, high-tech rackets have taken over from the old wooden ones, that incidentally are still used in real tennis, and a crashing serve is now all important. Height makes that serve even better with the new rackets and the whole playing process has been dumbed down. Mainly in the name of money for the sports goods manufacturers, rather than entertainment for those who watch and play the game.
I still like watching the game on television, but I can understand why others are turned off by a spectacle that has got slower and is much more about power than skill, artistry and athleticism. If it doesn’t watch it, tennis will become just another game for freaks like basketball and American football. Rugby Union had better watch its image as well, as size and power are becoming more important than skill. I used to watch it quite a bit, but now it just bores me.
So to return to tennis. I may play the odd game of lawn tennis on holiday, but give me the old game played for centuries any time. It is a game of intelligence, that all ages, sexes and sizes can enjoy equally. It’s even got a handicapping system, which means that players of quite different abilities can have a very competitive game.
Crystal Palace Goes into Administration
Crystal Palace have now gone into administration with debts of about thirty million pounds. Several clubs, including Portsmouth, Notts County, Accrington Stanley and others, have been hovering around this for some months in these most tricky of financial times. It is a big step for a football club, as they are immediately docked ten points and in most cases, such as Leeds and Southampton, it has meant relegation.
But just as Southampton have shown, there can be life after administration.
But there are differences between Southampton and Crystal Palace. Southampton have a modern stadium, which I believe they own, and are in an area without too many other football clubs. Crystal Palace are close to Charlton and it is easy to get to the other clubs over London. Crucially, I don’t think they own their ground. It’s a dump anyway and probably needs to be redeveloped.
So whereas someone looking to invest in a football club might well choose Southampton, they would be unlikely to choose Crystal Palace.
The future looks grim for Palace and especially with HMRC getting a lot tougher, I have a feeling that they would love to see to see a football club cease to exist. As Dan Snow pointed out in his excellent television programme, Empire of the Seas, the shooting of Admiral Byng for cowardice, did wonders for the Royal Navy. As it says in Wikipedia.
Byng’s execution was satirised by Voltaire in his novel Candide. In Portsmouth, Candide witnesses the execution of an officer by firing squad; and is told that “in this country, it is wise to kill an admiral from time to time to encourage the others”
I suspect that if they fail to get the scalp of Crystal Palace, they will get another before the end of the season.
The Anonymous Widower 