British Sporting Summer
It is a sunny day outside, and after realising that no blog posts have been entered for almost two weeks , I have decided to indulge myself and blog about my most favourite of topics- sport.As an avid, some might say obsessive football fan, I dont generally find much time to be interested in any other sports through the months of August-May, with the notable exception of my love for horse racing (which has become increasingly expensive of late, however as the USA showed last night, all runs must come to an end sometime).
However once the football season has finished, there is a rather large stretch of balmy summer days in which I desperately need something to cure my 'sports fix'. This is something that the British sporting calendar manages quite well, with a raft of sports that manage to captivate my attention and banish the tedium of the endlesss summer transfer rumour mill. Already this summer we have had the twenty twenty cricket world cup, which I actually rather enjoyed, especially since I have had no previous interest in cricket. There has also been the lions tour, the US golf open and some of the finest horse racing you will ever see in the form of the Epsom Derby which was won by the magnficent Sea the Stars, who became in the process the first horse for twenty years to win the Derby/2000 Guineas double. This feat would have been met with a much greater level of admiration had the horse not passed Fame & Glory, my latest in an increasing line of 'unwise decisions' with only just over a furlong remaining. There has also been the glamour and style of Royal Ascot, with the Aidan O'Brien trained Yeats winning his 4th Ascot gold cup in a row, placing him in the pantheon of racing legends.
However, there are two sporting events that occur during this strange period of football limbo that i always look forward to. The first of these started on monday, and is of course Wimbledon. Tennis is a sport that is on virtually all year round, with bountiful coverage on SKY etc, but because I have football to contend with i am largely apathetic towards it. However come the end of June, for two weeks i become a tennis fanatic. There is something that always gets me about the way Wimbledon looks, and with players of the skill of Federer & Nadal to watch, you can't help to be drawn towards it. There is also the very real possiblity that a young Scotsman called Andy Murray could finally end Britains drought of winners at the top table of tennis.
The second event that holds me in raptures is the Open golf championship. I have always fancied myself as a golfer, and like the idea of early mornings on a picturesuqe golf course, prowling the greens like Tiger Woods. However my total lack of patience (read hand to eye co-oridination) has meant that trips to the golf course are often very infuriating affairs, and best not to be done on a regular basis. I find watching the golf very relaxing, and the BBC commentry team of Peter Alliss and Sam Torrence are very interesting and frequently hillarious. I am actually going to the last two days at Turnberry this year, so lets hope for an exciting tournament and either an Iain Poulter or Padraig Harrington victory would be nice.
On top of all this excitement there is the Ashes, the rugby league challenge cup final, aswell as other exciting events that I have probably forgotten about.
This is what will keep me interested untill that glorious kick off in August with teams sporting shiny new kits, your team has signed that silky Zidane esque midfielder that is going to cure all the problems of last season, and willl romp to an undefeated season that will go down in history with my grandchildrens grandchildren still talking about THAT team in in the most reverent of whispers. Then the referee goes and ruins it all by signalling for kick off and you remember that your defenders can't defend and your strikers cant score and that new signing is more like bananna man than Zidane. It's going to be a long season, COME ON THE HOOPS
