Wimbledon’s Roof
The new roof at Wimbledon appears to be a success. I say appears, as so far it hasn’t needed to be used and it looks like from the BBC’s weather forecast that it won’t be needed for the start of next week.
There is a good description of the roof on this web page.
Looking at the design as an engineer, it would appear to be simple, unobstructed and does what it is supposed to. I also think that the policy of the All-England Club of not disclosing the cost may work in the designer’s favour, when they repeat the design elsewhere as they surely will.
So so far so good!
Truly Great British Sportsmen
Andy Murray yesterday showed patches of brilliance to show that he might end up as one of the great British sportsmen and women, who in addition to all that talent, have that killer instinct, where they never give the opposition an even break.
How very un-British!
Tim Henman had a lot of the talent, but you know he could have an upset and never impose himself like he should have done. He would have beaten Ivanisovitch if he’d just a bit of killer instinct.
In my view there are very few, who had both talent and killer instinct.
The first I saw was David Hemery, who most will have forgotten. He turned the 400 metres hurdles in Mexico into a precession and won by an enormous margin. But he was unable to repeat it in 1972.
Seb Coe had both too and for many years he was the greatest middle-distance runner in the world. He won two Olympic gold medals and set eight world records. His 800 metre record lasted 16 years. But perhaps he greatest achievement was winning the 2012 Olympics for London. My late wife, who was a barrister, said it was the best closing speech she’d ever heard. And she’s heard many.
You have to include two jockeys, Lester Piggott and Tony McCoy. We will never see the like of them again.
I won’t include such as Steve Redgrave, good sportsman that he was, as he competed in a sport against a limited number of teams.
But the last of my list will be a surprise to many. Just as Seb Coe honed every skill in his life, so Sir Alf Ramsey honed every skill of what he did. He was a very good Spurs and England full-back in his playing days, but it was as a manager for Ipswich and England, that he showed how he was the greatest British football manager of all time. Others have done better than Sir Alf, but no-one has done it with so little talent and so loved by his players.
It was good to see that his widow has finally been given a winner’s medal for the 1966 World Cup in Sir Alf’s name. Why did she and all the others who didn’t actually play in the Final have to wait so long?
Will Murray join those greats?
Shrieking and Shouting
I’m typing this as I’m watching a match at Wimbledon between two women players; Azarenka and Cirstea.
Why does Azarenka have to shreik all of the time? It really does turn one off women’s tennis. If I had nothing better to do, I’d use the Red Button on my Sky Box to find a man’s game!
It would appear that the punters at Wimbledon feel the same way I do about her. The Centre Court is half empty. Apparently, they booed her in Paris. The French have always had good taste.
Queen’s Message to Murray
Trust good old Liz to do the right thing.
And she used a proper letter too! But we all know that she does text too!
Wimbledon Uniform
As a keen tennis player of the real variety, I’ve been watching Wimbledon.
But the uniform the line-judges wear is awful and totally out of keeping.
And why too was it designed by Ralph Lauren, who is not a British designer. Surely someone like Paul Smith, who was I believe a competent sportsman himself, would have done better.
Michael Jackson and Seve Ballesteros
The news is dominated by the death of Michael Jackson. I wasn’t a fan at all and the outpourings are in my view totally over the top. He may or may not have done things he shouldn’t and we can look forward to large amounts of allegations that can’t be verified one way or another.
Jackson may be dead, but long live the Michael Jackson industry!
Much more important news today is that Seve Ballesteros has made what seems to be a pretty good recovery from his brain tumour.
He was in a far worse state than Jackson and it shows that by focusing on the future and doing everything you can to help, you can make a recovery from the darkest places.
Good luck to Seve!
Setanta
Setanta has gone bust and as a widower living mostly alone, I’m not particularly pleased as I like my football and it also gave me RacingUK at an affordable price. For that now, I’ll need to shell out £20 a month, as opposed to the £12 for Setanta, that included it. Daft!
But there was this in PopBitch about Setanta.
RIP Setanta. A victim of global financial meltdown? A brave underdog bringing choice to the TV football fans? Or a profligate company which had arse-elbow knowledge issues? One Premier League club told us that to screen a live game Sky Sports asked for two car park places and 22 stadium passes, to accommodate crew, pundits and guests. Setanta – 66 car park places, and 120 stadium passes.
If you want to be a success, you must control the expenses in a company.
And very hard!
Memories of Chuck McKinley
Just watching the end of the Murray-Kendrick match at Wimbledon.
Thankfully, Murray won, but Kendrick was taking a leaf out of a fellow American, the late, Chuck McKinley. I must have been 15 when McKinley won the Championships in 1963. He had this great advantage that he would dive everywhere and retrieve almost impossible balls. If like me, you’ve played tennis on grass, you’ll know what is possible 9on that service, but not on anything hard.
I was sad to see that Chuck McKinley died at just 45.
Pictures of Belarus
These are some of the pictures that I took, when I went to support England in Belarus.
The Anonymous Widower 