What a mess. What happened to international sport? Where did those lofty ideals of fairness, honesty and hard-working competitiveness go to? First it was FIFA, left worthless in a flurry of revelations about corruption. And now the Olympics and International athletics, brought down by cases of pharmacological enhancement. Oh, and by Russia. Though not exclusively. – Read More-
If you’d have offered me a draw against Arsenal yesterday morning, I’d have taken your hand off grabbing it so fast. Spurs playing the Arse is traditionally like England playing Germany. Whatever happens during the 90 minutes is largely irrelevant; the bad guys win in the end. Manchester United were annihilated in the first 20 – Read More-
My wife and I (love that phrase; so royal, so 1940, so classy) recently had a quote for a life insurance policy. In case we kill each other. Then the kids would at least be rich orphans. So our Independent Financial Advisor (spit now) or ‘IFA’ acquired a quote for us, by hiking round to – Read More-
The director who made the movie Senna, which was fab, and Amy, which was brilliant, has just released his third bio-pic. Ronaldo. Man and ego. It takes 5 minutes to sum up the man (he’s a footballer; how long can it take?) and 2 hours on the ego. Because its big. Bigger than big; its – Read More-
I came out of Charing Cross station yesterday and walked along the Strand. As I do. And for some reason, that entire area is ‘wino central’. Tramp District. Every doorway filled with waking, or still sleeping, homeless people. Its tragic, but after a (very long) time, you almost become immune to it. Which may sound – Read More-
There is no French word for ‘morality’. Ok, they use our word and just say it with that ridiculous, allo-allo type accent and say ‘morrrraliteee’, but they don’t mean it. No use for it, no clue as to the concept. Whereas there are 57 words for ‘scumbag’. Why would Karim Benzema try to blackmail his – Read More-
We live in a commercial world. Not always in a good way. Everything has its price. As you may note observing the FIFA fiasco in which World Cup hosting bids were accompanied by bribes and bungs and cases full of cash. A few years ago we had the ‘cash for honours’ scandal when donors to – Read More-
This is what a man looks like. Apparently. And according to the nation’s prison service. Because a man’s prison, in Bristol, oddly and coincidentally enough, was where Tara Hudson was sentenced for 12 weeks for an assault charge after headbutting a barman. Ok, not a very ladylike thing to do but she was provoked. The – Read More-
Yesterday was the most beautiful of beautiful days. Hot. Sunny. That barely happens in July, never mind November. The younger daughter and I sweated on the tennis court in the morning in a proper, sweaty way. Her from the heat, me from the superhuman efforts in the game. And then, as Mel wasn’t bothered to – Read More-
What a day yesterday was. Amazing. My two favourite things: rugby world cup finals, and curry. Brilliant. The rugby was sensational, the curry possibly even better. Though as I ate it the rugby was long over so there was a strong ‘recency effect’ at play. As in: what’s the best thing you can do? The – Read More-