It has come to my attention that sports that are not Rugby Union not only exist, but have enthusiastic fans. Here is a brief round-up.
Cricket
As I remember it from Primary School, cricket is a sport played with a tennis ball and tennis racquet (see also: Rounders). It didn’t have a very clear objective other than whacking your opponents in the heid with the ball, if you were batting … or indeed if you were fielding.
Fast-forward about twenty years, and find yourself working in Detroit (the horror), when there is a departmental sports day. Your department is IT-related, so it has a fair number of Brits and a lot of Indians. You have to choose between cricket, rounders baseball, and some other shite I don’t remember, probably American Football or possibly Association Football.
You decide the cricket has the most congenial participants.
What you are not prepared for is the level of trash-talking.
You are throwing the ball worse than my very honoured old, old grandmother.
Happily this was not directed at me.
Sheepdog Trials
I am quite enthusiastic about this sport, at least as a televisual spectator. It has cute, furry animals – as well as dogs and sheep – strategy, tactics and drama, and a Four Nations type of rivalry.
In this year’s One Man and His Dog (although many participants are female, and for the adults there were two dogs), tragedy struck when the most horrendously uncooperative sheep ever bred were assigned to the Irish adult contestant, after the junior Irish contestant had had his dog spooked by a fly-over plane. Even the English commentators were awestruck by the recalcitrance of the sheep. Yer poor man had to call his dogs off before their hearts were broken forever.
Everybody smelt a fix-up.
Ice Hockey
Easily the most watchable sport of the popular North American ones – although there may be some interesting Mexican sports what I wot not of – ice hockey is fast-paced and vicious. Players are not afraid to use their deadly-sharp blades against opponents if they can get away with it.
Yet it’s all kindergarten stuff when compared to girls’ hockey in primary school, where there were no proper refs or television replays of fouls. You will notice that a hockey stick is perfectly curved to hook around the ankle, and hard enough to do serious damage if whacked on bone, by ‘mistakenly’ missing the ball.
I played centre forward, and there are no more exciting yet chilling words than ground sticks, ground sticks, ground sticks, ball. Like rugby, you never knew if you would finish the match with the same number of bones or teeth.
Tennis
Tennis is another one of those sports played with a tennis racquet and tennis ball. It can be a good background to a lazy Sunday afternoon.
Recently we had the spectacle of the relatively unknown Brit Emma Raducanu unexpectedly working her way up from the qualifying rounds, without losing a set, to beat a Canadian meringue for the US Open title. She then sacked her coach, and lost the next match in straight sets.
Maybe she will learn from Cardiff, and hire Dai Young.
Dressage
Dressage is a highly under-appreciated sport* in which the goal is to keep your horse’s head tucked into his or her chest and have him/her prance around in various ways. It is much more difficult than it looks, and especially difficult when your horse is a ‘rescued’ Thoroughbred who is more interested in being scared of everything and consequently galloping blindly over everything that exists in the whole wide world while looking more like a panicking giraffe than a tucked-head dressage clone.
It’s therefore very rewarding when you manage to win a minor ribbon.
*All right, it’s boring as hell to watch, except possibly at the very top levels.
Snooker
This is another sport at which I have some competitive experience. Or, as the mister puts it, You played pool, not fucking snooker. Stop telling them to pot all the balls.
I’m sure we can all agree that he is wrong and that Alex ‘Hurricane’ Higgins – who indeed tried to pot all the balls – was the greatest snooker player to ever live.
Equestrian Cross-Country (see also: Steeplechasing)
Avoid. These people are more insane and fearless than the Terminator.
Onna telly this week
Friday 29th October
| Gloucester v Exeter | 19:45 | BT Sport 1 |
Saturday 30th October
| Castres v Brive | 14:00 | Premier Sports 2 |
| Scotland v Tonga | 14:30 | Prime |
| Northampton v Leicester | 15:00 | BT Sport 3 |
| Montpellier v Lyon | 16:00 | Premier Sports 2 |
| Wales v New Zealand | 17:15 | Prime |
| Bordeaux v Clermont | 20:00 | Premier Sports 2 |
Sunday 31st October
| England v New Zealand (women) | 14:30 | BBC2 / iPlayer | ||
| Harlequins v Saracens | 15:00 | BT Sport 1 | ||
| Racing 92 v Toulouse | 19:00 | Premier Sports 1 |
Ovally Balls 
Cmw – looking at the result I’d say it would be nice if Wales played more like that against England. However, I don’t think we’d play you under those circumstances.
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As I said I didn’t see it, but I’m sure we will have played like that against England, just not for quite a long time. In terms of the circumstances I guess them being match-hardened and us coming into it cold wouldn’t happen against England and perhaps we can blame that a fair bit. The unavailable players due to the window thing looks like a bit of a red herring as it doesn’t cover many starters and the massive injury/illness list is more significant and could happen any time.
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Was on the way back from half-term in Hereford. Very brief trip into Wales while we were there to walk up the Black Hill. The walk was exclusively in England, but getting to the start involved crossing the border a couple of times so some songs were sung. Judging by both the stunning scenery and the prevailing weather conditions when we were up the top I would suggest the border is ever so slightly in the wrong place anyway.
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From Stephen Jones (the bad one)
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Refit – see what I mean. All the hard work of scuppering Wales’ chances had been done by the time Reiko came on. Which was the starting whistle right?
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@refit
Seems par for the course with Jones. Obviously designed to generate clicks / outrage.
Comments like that make me think of my dad – who didn’t like Frank Sinatra (which was fair enough – too many wives, mafia rumours etc) but when he said he couldn’t sing (even meant as a joke to provoke outrage), he came across as stupid (to be candid).
To be truthful, it’s best ignored.
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Not sure Trisk meant for the blog to be ignored for this long…
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It was Refit’s fault.
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Think we can shoehorn Craigs into being blamed too. Just pick any old reason. Knew an aspiring ‘muso’ years ago who said that Sinatra couldn’t sing. He was outraged that anyone would challenge his authority on the matter because he was, after all, a musician. When pointed out that the bulk of the rest of the industry thought Frank could at least hold a tune, he flounced out of the room.
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Talking about things from the past, I love those ‘This Day in History’ type things. 2nd November 2019 was a seismic one for the world, possibly one of the greatest in humanity’s long list of great achievements. Achieved by a small band of incredibly brave and dedicated men and women, against all the odds and facing down a fearsome challenge. I think we should take a moment to reflect on that and smile the smile of those who can fully appreciate what those humble souls achieved. Even the water boy was praised for his efforts that day.
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………and you saw whole of the moon
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Deebs – yes, I remember. It was great. Now let’s never speak of it again.
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@Deebee – Well it’s always a challenge, but me and the girls managed not to upset Mrs CMW on her birthday that year so thanks for the plaudits. Hopefully we’ll manage it again today. Not sure about the waterboy thing by the way, pretty confident it was the weekend that time so the childmindees weren’t about.
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I was once told that what made Sinatra good wasn’t so much his singing as his breathing while singing. After about 1955 it kinda becomes irrelevant whether he can sing or not as he’s become Vegas Frank and the money’s sure to come rolling in. I quite like him as an actor in some films.
He was, unquestionably, a bastard.
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Isn’t his timing the main thing?
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Other than the bastardry of course.
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When are we going to see Rassie’s head onna plate?
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HB to Mrs CMW!
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Frank Sinatra’s voice in the early days was cleaner and more melodic, but he injured his vocal chords around 1950 and it wasn’t the same after that. I think he then started to “interpret” the sonds more and so wasn’t technically as good but people seem to have liked what he did instead.
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Sinatra singing Night and Day in 1943:
And in 1957 he seems to make more use of his head voice, and speaks the words more:
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@Tomp
I thought he was good in the original version of the Manchurian Candidate – one of my favorite books/authors and I wasn’t disappointed by the film.
Possibly it will seem old-fashioned now.
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I have a massive boxed set of Sinatra through the ages – I now feel the need to revisit whilst I decorate
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Disco, the Glasgow stats guy, has been at the books again;
“Pierre Schoeman is the first prop to score a try on their Scotland Men’s debut for more than 71 years.
The last prop to achieve this feat was Grahame Budge against France in January 1950 when tries were worth 3 points.
64 props debuted for Scotland between Budge in 1950 and Schoeman in 2021.”
one of my own, Budge is one of two Lions to have played for the mighty Dunbar RFC, the other being Derek White.
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Slade, I’ve got an LP of my dad’s from the Big Band era. Tommy Dorsey, I think, where Sinatra gets credited with ‘refrain by Frank Sinatra’. Not sure if that was standard in those days, or if it’s from before Sinatra hit the big time.
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slade, that’s my favourite. I also like The Man with the Golden Arm and some of the musicals – High Society, Guys and Dolls, and On the Town, in paricular. The Tony Rome films aren’t particularly good but I’m fond of both.
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I like High Society – but pales with comparison to the non-musical original (The Philadelphia Story) – still, Sinatra, Crosby, Louis Armstrong, AND Grace Kelly – what’s not to like.
My mom never liked musicals and my dad hated (as you know) Sinatra- so I ought not to like ‘On the Town’ or ‘Guys and Dolls’ – but they’re both great…..though Kelly (Gene) owns the first and Brando the other….
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What a sensible mother you have, Trisk.
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President Joe Biden was confronted by a “large, naked Scottish man” taking his picture as he sped to the COP26 conference in Glasgow from his Edinburgh hotel.
Chimpie gives POTUS a warm welcome.
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trisk, I agree about High Society v The Philadelphia Story overall, but, yes, the cast and the songs are great in the former.
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He deserved it, played havoc with the school run this morning, him and his big fancy motorcade.
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something for ‘culture corner’:
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Robert Fripp has gone a bit lowbrow these days
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At least Toyah kept her kit on this time (nearly).
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she’s a bonny lass
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I like the contrast between the two stills of what is very recognisably the same person!
I can just remember Toyah from when my age was in the late single-digits or possibly early double-digits. I liked her then.
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Also Fripp did some fabulous work with Bowie.
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Bok side to face Wales on Saturday:
15 Damian Willemse, 14 Jesse Kriel, 13 Lukhanyo Am, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Makazole Mapimpi, 10 Handré Pollard, 9 Herschel Jantjies, 8 Duane Vermeulen, 7 Kwagga Smith, 6 Siya Kolisi, 5 Lood de Jager, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Trevor Nyakane, 2 Bongi Mbonambi, 1 Ox Nché
Replacements:
16 Malcolm Marx, 17 Steven Kitshoff, 18 Vincent Koch, 19 Franco Mostert, 20 Jasper Wiese, 21 Cobus Reinach, 22 Elton Jantjies, 23 Frans Steyn
My thoughts: The pack is very much as expected and is pretty strong. Duane Vermeulen had a quiet 4N by his standards, but he was coming back from a long lay-off, so needed game time to get back to full match fitness. He’ll need to show though, that he is actually back to his abrasive best on this tour or you feel it’s tickets with just two years to go to the World Cup. A more traditional 5-3 split on the bench, with Marx, Kitshoff and Koch a pretty handy replacement front row, Mostert excellent and tireless in the 2nd row and Wiese abrasive in the back row.
The backs have raised a few eyebrows, with many thinking that Cobus Reinach would get the nod because of his experience of NH conditions, but Jantjies is clearly being groomed as the starter for if/when Faf isn’t available (as is the case this weekend). 10 to 13 as expected, but Kriel to the right wing is something of a surprise: I can only think that the coaches are a bit concerned about Damian Willemse at 15 and believe that Kriel’s experience will serve better than Aphelele Fassi’s raw pace and attacking prowess. I expect Wales to test our back three with some big bombs early on. The bench looks good enough, with Reinach adding some zip to proceedings from 9, Jantjies a more attacking mindset at 10 when he comes on, with Pollard probably shifted to 12 – this has worked well in the past, and Fat Frans booming the ball half a mile from the back to hopefully get a few 50-22 lineouts deep in Welsh territory.
Overall, probably about as good as it gets considering who’s available and in form. Is this the end of Willie le Roux? I think it probably is and hopefully his role will be to mentor the new guys going forward.
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Scotland’s cricketers will have an awful lot of fans today as India hope they can do them a favour against NZ. Kiwis 52/2 after the first six overs despite Sharif having bowled two overs and taken 2/2. Mark Watt now also has the wicket of South Africa’s Devon Conway so NZ in a bit of trouble, but I suspect they’ve already done enough in the non-Sharif powerplay overs to win this.
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C’MON SCOTLAND!!!!!!!!!!
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@Deebee – I can’t hear you above a billion shouting Indians.
Would prefer NZ to go through rather than India so Scotland losing by the finest of margins and getting the respect without the result would be ideal.
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Watt is not from South Africa or Aberdeen, but Edinburgh of all places.
Sharif is from Huddersfield though his age-group cricket suggests he grew up in Scotland, maybe Dunfermline.
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NZ have recovered to 92/3 off 12. That’s 7/3 off 4 against Sharif/Watt and 85/0 off 8 against the rest.
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C’MON NEW ZEALAND!
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Didn’t seem to help. Wheal just got carted for six. Terrible fielding mind you.
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I like Watt, he sometimes bowls (spin) from a couple of yards further back or goes really wide of the crease, things I used to do back when I had some idea of where it might land.
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Sharif’s third over goes for seventeen. Not looking good for Indoscotland.
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I was in the museum with my wife the other day and we saw this old portrait. I was convinced it was of a Scottish inventor, but my wife said it was someone from the French Reformation.
She said, “It’s not Watt, you know, it’s Huguenots”
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And how the Wheal turns! 2 in 2! Onna hattrick! Both set batsmen gone! Only 157 on the board! Bugger. Neesham gets a single.
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Double bugger. Still an over to go.
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Good effort by Scotland, only lost by 16 runs to a strong team.
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