Yorkshire Would Be Eleventh In The Medal Table
Yorkshire Radio reporter, Jonathan Buchan calculated yesterday, that Britain’s largest county, Yorkshire would be eleventh in the Olympic medal table above Japan, South Africa and Australia. Since then the Brownlee brothers have won a gold and a bronze medal, so they must have moved up a bit.
If they get a couple more, they might just edge above Germany. They’re probably well above Prussia already!
Cornwall Wins More Gold Medals Than Australia
The Aussie press is having a go at their athletes for failing to turn silver into gold, but what has happened to Australian sport? When I was growing up, Wimbledon was almost a suburb of Sydney or Brisbane, with win after win by a never-ending stream of players. Then more recently, the cricketers were invincible. So why has this happened?
I’ve just done a bit of research on London’s Olympic medallists and have found that one of the UK’s least populous counties, Cornwall, has won two gold medals; Helen Glover and Ben Ainslie, to Australia’s one.
Perhaps our athletes are doing better as they get a post box painted gold in their honour, in their home town. It costs us nothing, as we get bankers to do as a tax allowable expense.
And if that wasn’t enough shame, Wales, Scotland and Yorkshire have also got more gold medals than Australia. My adopted county, Suffolk may not get a gold medal. But here’s hoping!
Mickey Arthur Shocked By Aussie Performances
And he’s the coach, so surely he’s shocked at himself as well. The story is here on the BBC web site.
Scotland Has A Better Wimbledon Than Australia
I can remember as a child, when Mens tennis was dominated by Australians. But this year, those small countries; Scotland and Yorkshire had a better Wimbledon.
What’s gone wrong?
I suppose that Aussies can argue they have a world-class driver in Mark Webber, but even he, needs to drive a car designed and made in the UK.
Mitchell Johnson’s Nightmare
It seems Mitchell Johnson‘s tour is not going well and this article in the Daily Mail is a good bit of fun. This is the first couple of paragraphs.
A low-grade rumble went round The Oval on Sunday afternoon. It was the sound of schadenfreude, which until then had always felt like a concept, not a noise. But Mitchell Johnson had just overstepped in his first over – and few things titillate an English crowd more than a Johnson transgression.
Johnson is usually a self-contained problem, a pet project that Cricket Australia keeps telling us is almost there (and God help the rest of the world when he finally cracks it). But on Sunday he was symptomatic. And it was curious to watch.
There’s a lot more in the same vein.
The Australians Have Called For The Bus
It’s just gone six and there is at least 30 minutes to go. But the Aussies have had enough, so they’ve called up the team bus.
It looks like they’ll lose by eight wickets. Even the two video replays haven’t helped.
England Give Australia A Good Polishing
As if Friday’s pasting with a lot of help from an Irish dwarf wasn’t enough, they got supremely polished by England on Sunday. Sadly, England will have to shuffle the pack as two of their team, have got to go to a funeral.
Apparently, Australia are doing special deals on the trains to Edgbaston. If the match finishes early, you can take any train home.
Never Pick A Fight With Small Irishmen
It’s an old maxim amongst experienced police officers, but the smaller the guy you’re trying to arrest, the more backup you need.
Australia forgot this yesterday and Eoin Morgan and England put another team from down-under on the barbie,
So Australia mpve on the Oval one match down to England, and a man short too, as Cummins is going home.
Those Sneaky Frenchies
They nearly got Black Caviar, which appeared to be caught out by the stiff six furlongs and perhaps a bit of not-quite-up-to-standard jockeyship. Every good trainer, I’ve ever met, has always said, that you always use the best local jockey available outside of the UK. Unless of course the normal jockey is one of the top class or has experience of the track. In this race, Thierry Jarnet brought Moonlight Cloud right through or behind the field to get to the rail. That isn’t a tactic on a round course, but is quite common on a straight one. How many races are run on straight courses in Australia? I’ve looked it up and think it’s only one straight course at Flemington. Here, most tracks have a six furlong straight course.
My Worries About Black Caviar
They are not major worries, but the confidence behind Black Caviar in the Diamond Jubilee Stakes is unprecedented and when that happens, things tend occasionally to go wrong.
I once had a runner, Debach Delight, start at odds of 22-1 odds-on in a race at Ayr. Everybody was confident and she did win by over a dozen lengths, but you always worry about something. After all, she might have stumbled out of the stalls and dropped the pilot.
They have shown pictures of Black Caviar and they all showed her running on a round course. Now Ascot is straight. So I have to ask, if she has ever run in a race on a straight course with fifteen runners? It can tend to unsettle a horse, the first time they do it.
The last worry, is that the two horses after her in the betting are French-trained. They always seem to get the odd surprise winner in England. This week so far we’ve had a few Irish winners, one from Hong Kong and one for Germany, but none from the French.
The Anonymous Widower 