I have never understood the appeal of Speedway.
Basketball is another sport II have never ever wanted to watch – pointless end to end scoring and nothing else.
But my favourite sporting event is a cricket test match, especially one that end with a result during third session of the last day, so I too may be open to criticism.
I see what you mean about the constant scoring in basketball but I can’t think of a sport I’ve watched where I’ve been more impressed by the almost supernatural skills of its top exponents..
Any motor sport, golf, or pretty much anything else where the the whole of the playing area cannot be shown at once if would help the viewer.
Basketball is a brilliant spectator sport. Whilst it’s end to end, there are plays that are wonderful. And the tension just builds if it’s two good sides.
Spot on.
I was a basketball naysayer until I went to see the Knicks at Madison Square Garden.
It was only by seeing a live game that I could appreciate the poetry in motion of a well-executed play.
And it was incredible to see those huge athletes perform with dainty precision and grace.
Wonderful to see, but the end-to-end aspect is still an issue for me. Can’t say I’ve made the effort to follow the sport any more closely since then.
I watched a lot of live Basketball in my youth (Bracknell Pirates were in the top English league). It was mesmarising stuff even at that level.
My daughter now plays netball at a good level and it is great to watch – for the same reasons. Whilst it is end to end, the transition from attack to defence and, particularly, how hard it is to make a flowing move if the defence is on the top if its game, is core to its attraction for me.
I think any elite sport, watched live with a degree of knowledge, is great. If you don’t like a sport, you probably don’t know enough about it. If you love a sport, you probably know it well.
I really like netball. With two top-notch sides, the speed is astounding. You can have three quarters with one side dominant – but then it’s really common for the losing team to find some impetus from somewhere and then close the gap.
My daughter plays at club level and when she was 16, her junior team played against a team of very experienced players in their 30s and 40s. The older team dominated due to their superior skills but in the last quarter the young team were running rings round them. This was good because one or two of the older team were acting like tossers at the beginning, when they weren’t knackered yet.
Netball is great, and I prefer it to basketball for the 3 steps rule — pass and move 🙂
Any sport, regardless of playing or spectating.
It’s all about context, surely?
To put in terms that Wheaty will relate to…
It’s an Ashes match. There’s a history here going back to the 19th century. Maybe one side hasn’t won the Ashes for years… decades even. It’s the fifth test of a five test series. The last day. It’s 2-2 so far and one side is dominant in the final test. The side under the cosh is blocking them out, desperately trying to get a draw.
To someone who doesn’t know what’s at stake, this passage of play is going to look very, very dull; to a long time cricket fan from England or Australia, this is gripping stuff.
I guess it’s the same with any sport.
Yep I’m with you there @dwightstrut
Totally about context, and as you describe.
There’s an Ashes series coming up here in Australia. It looks like most of the first Test will be washed out. That sets up all sorts of implications for the rest of the series, given that Australia would be expected to be favourites to win a first test in Brisbane.
I’m just hoping that the weather for the 3rd test in Sydney is perfect, especially on the 2nd day, for which I have premium tickets
Golf – surely the least spectatory out there.
I don’t mind playing, but watching it?
Hours of televised sky
I loathe motor sports of any kind – just a horrible noise run by rich ego trippers. I don’t understand the appeal of football either – overpaid idiots pretending to be injured and them leaping around like children when a goal is scored, in clubs run by billionaires kept going by poor people forking out ridiculous sums for tickets and replica apparel, which changes in time for Christmas every year. It’s a sickness.
Completely agree about motor sport, especially Formula 1. I genuinely can’t see the point. And top level football can indeed be a bore fest played by overpaid oafs where teams just cancel each other out. But that’s why I turned to non-league football, where local clubs are run (mostly) by volunteers and players are paid on semi-pro wages. You don’t have to buy tickets months in advance and a season ticket doesn’t break the bank. It’s great-genuine local derbies, a real sense of community, and you know, or are at least on nodding terms with, a good proportion of the crowd, and games are still exciting because it’s less like a tactical game of chess. You may be picking up from this that I love it…
Since you mention it…chess!
The world championship is on right now. Well, not right now because today is a rest day. It’s back again tomorrow. 2 men staring at a board for a minimum of 4 hours. Try watching that if you don’t understand it.
It’s been a bit of a snooze-fest so far. The winner gets 1.2 million euros!!
Crikey Colin, that’s sour. Both football and motor sport – indeed pretty much any sport – have a vast base of participants at grassroots level who aren’t billionaire ego tippers or “sick”. Just ordinary people enjoying their chosen sport, often making significant sacrifices to do so.
As ever, I’m bemused at the derision directed at sports people who are able to get rich doing something others like to see, whilst blogs like this one continue to fawn over every burp and grunt released by millionaire rock stars.
I’m going to counter the overpaid sportsmen/women by saying that they might actually be underpaid.
Hear me out…
The top class soccer players have, even by the age of breaking into the first team or reserves, have committed to and devoted themselves to a career to a level that most of us never will. There’s a fantastic chapter in Fever Pitch on this very subject, with Nick Hornby honing in on the unfortunate Gus Caesar and noting that, talented as he was at football, being, throughout his entire playing career, so much better than his peers, he still wasn’t good enough to maintain a career at the very top level.
Those that make it have to have committed solely to this career by the age of 16 or 17 and will have had to live and breathe this life. And this is a career that, even if you don’t suffer a career-ending injury, will be over by the age of 33 or 34. Probably sooner.
And if they make it and have some success, the pressure must be immense. Imagine doing your job in front of 50,000 people and having your actions cheered, booed and then dissected in the papers, on the radio and on TV. And then, if you’re in a decent team, you have to do it all again in three or four days. All at the age of 21 or 22.
And if you dare to stick your head above the parapet and do something outside of kicking a ball about – think Marcus Rashford – you’ll have those opposed to your actions criticising your efforts to feed poor kids.
Remember that people were burning effigies of David Beckham when he was only 23.
Overpaid? If I had to do my job in front of a stadium of people effing at me every time I did something wrong, then have to read about it for three days in the papers and then do it all again three days later, I’d expect to be paid the same or more than these players do.
Sure there can be a circus around football at the highest level but no more so than in any other aspect of life at that level. As in football, so too in music, the movie business, politics and business.
And yet, there are people doing it purely for their love of football. When I lived there, I’d go and watch Bishop’s Stortford play (and go to Highbury to see Arsenal) and there is little to compare the experiences between those grounds other than it was football and it is, by some margin, the best of all spectator sports.
I don’t think most people have any real understanding of just how good top level footballers are at what they do. It’s virtually supernatural.
I’m sure the same is true of many other sports, although I can’t really speak to them.
Very true. They are among the best in the most competitive meritocratic industry in the world. I don’t know how many boys globally play football but maybe 6/7 out of 10. To be the very best in that field is incredible.
I played a reasonable amateur standard of football & remember a group of us trying to replicate Paul Scholes’ debut goal for England. Our most talented players (I wasn’t in that list) couldn’t do it at walking pace.
A second case in point, 30 years plus ago at uni, we played Dundee United & St Mirren over 3 games as pre-season games with both sides featuring an admirable mix of first teamers, fringe & youth team players. I trained like a demon for those games, musing that I just might have a chance of getting picked up by either of them. Within seconds (I tell my kids minutes) I was disabused of this fact, realising that as long as I had a hole in my backside I would never be a pro. Shipping 23/28 of the goals helped, as did the crispness of their striking & passing speed of thought etc & we were no mugs with Scottish unis & 1 Scottish amateut cap playing for us.
Playing in the south east, occasionally you’d get an old pro playing for the love of the game. No matter how aged, fat or slow they were, these guys stood out by miles from the rest of us. I’ve not mentioned tge resilience & strength of character required at the top level.
These guys are exceptional.
I remember having a conversation with the kids badminton coach, who had been a silver medal winner at the Commonwealth Games, about committing to a career in sports.
Whilst this is in the context of Singapore, a small dot near the equator that never wins anything, it still applies somewhat generally. His point was that to just make a living in sport, you had to commit from young to be in th top 2 or 3 in your chosen field, whereas if you were in the top 1000 or so in finance, you would be very very rich.
So, yes I agree with you on them being rewarded for the commitment from young.
As always, your leisure interests are pathetic, mine are noble. Similarly, spending a few hundred quid on a season ticket, a bag or some clothes is outrageous to people who think nothing of dropping car-cash on hi-fi equipment whose superiority they can’t hear, or a guitar they can’t play.
It’s all very odd. I’m never entirely sure why people act like there’s a moral dimension to how people choose to enjoy themselves (always assuming it’s not by torturing animals or something).
I do think that the prices of merch for certain sports is ridiculous, football and F1 being the most obvious. I worked at the Belgian Grand Prix in 2004 and the Ferrari baseball caps were about £45 IIRC. I had a quick look at Manchester United shirts on line: £50 for a kids shirt, £80 adult. I find this hard to justify when ticket prices are already high. The obvious comparison would be concert merch but with a few exceptions, such as the Stones, I doubt there are many bands charging that sort of money for a tour shirt plus they don’t get money for tv rights or at least not in the same way as football and F1 do.
F1 not affected by inflation obviously. The caps were still £45 at British GP in July.
Over priced in 2021, VERY overpriced in 2004
I may have misremembered the price but it was a lot of money for a cap and that was the cheapest item by quite a bit.
There were a couple of cheaper items.
15 quid for a mug
7 quid for a branded lanyard
Judging by the amount of team shirts in the crowd £90 a pop) the merchandisers were coining it in that weekend
Christ, any more expensive than that and you might as well go to a gig.
Glastonbury tickets next year (£280) look like excellent value against F1 (from £249 for 3 day weekend or £199 Sunday only which I assume is race day)
Jeeziz! I didn’t realise F1 was segregated
Thing is Dave, I can’t see how any prices, for merch, event tickets, re release box sets, caps etc can be objectively justified. As Hegde says above, you’re always going to value what you like far above what you don’t. If you hate F1 I’d assume you’d want payment of more than £250 to attend, let alone pay that to get in. But all that tells us is that it’s too steep for you. I wouldn’t pay £3.50 for this week’s Bowie vinyl box set which seems to be a mere £349.99. Indeed, flicking through the box sets in Rough Trade in Bristol a few weeks I thought I’d slipped into some kind of parallel universe. But I’m sure they sell.
Contrast the cost of a 3 day F1 ticket with what I paid to see Elton John in Birmingham – because I wanted to be somewhere in the first 20 rows from the stage, it set me back £370 – although to be fair it included a lanyard and a program. Thankfully I’ve since come to my senses and got a refund.
I don’t mind what people want to spend their money on but £80 for a replica shirt seems excessive. It’s just a sports shirt after all, not a handmade, made to measure garment and the number/variety of acts and activities available at Glastonbury compared to those on offer at Silverstone differ wildly, despite costing a similar amount.
I had no idea what a 3 day ticket to the Grand Prix buys you. Having had a look, it doesn’t seem like all that much but to each their own.
https://f1experiences.com/blog/what-happens-on-a-typical-grand-prix-weekend
….”there’s a moral dimension to how people choose to enjoy themselves ” – not with me there isn’t, feller
good grief ,Uncle.We even disagree about Sports except I’m with you on Basketball.
Right Speedway, It’s 4 laps of blokes on 500cc motorcycles ,powered by jet fuel(Methanol) and the bikes have no brakes. The skill is incredible.Live it’s amazing and great on TV.
Now I was an ex Pro Ice Hockey player and live it’s just the best atmosphere indoors but on tv even I have trouble at times following the puck. For a casual fan they must be totally bemused hence in the US ,they allow more fighting to get people to watch on TV
I’m not a speedway fan but having attended a couple of meetings with friends, it’s easy to see the attraction. Plus, if you like the smell of petrol stations, the pits area at a speedway meeting smells amaaaaazzing.
I went a few times as a very young kid to the old Wimbledon track and it was quite good fun. As you say, the noise and the smell is amazing, plus the races are all over quite quickly which makes them more exciting. Haven’t been since I was about 12 mind…
It’s been about 15 years since I attended a speedway meeting but going to see England vs the USA at Swindon in 1981 got me hooked, and over the next 10 years I attended meetings all over the country. I got a job in the program shop at Swindon and applied the money that saved me to going to Oxford most Friday nights.
At times racing could be predictable – riders often finishing in the same order they entered the first corner in, but when you got two well matched riders, seeing them dice for position at such speed, with balance being so critical was just sensational.
I am sure the riders are very talented.
My memory of watching it on TV is that if you were in front after the first corner you won.
Hence my indifference,
Pfffffft! You ever see that show where they used to ride their bikes along a beam and over a VW Beetle? Against the clock! That’s talent..
Mate, we where clearly not born to be together but long live our occasionally disagreements here!
Did you ever like Supertramp?
I used to think that spectators at horse races were fans of the sport and cheered on their favourite horses. Does anyone watch it for its own sake?
Me. I love it.
Horses are magnificent animals. Watching them move is hypnotic. The jockeys become as irrelevant as if they were just carrying novelty rucksacks.
Can’t abide horse racing. It’s not a sport, it’s an adjunct of the betting industry.
If you talk to people in their twenties you might think the same about top-flight football. Young people are obsessed with gambling… it’s very depressing.
Re: “Can’t abide horse racing. It’s not a sport, it’s an adjunct of the betting industry.”
See also greyhound racing. Maybe even more so. It hardly even pretends to be anything other than an adjunct of the betting industry.
@Uncle Wheaty I have sent you a DM.
Formula 1 and any other formula of motor ‘sport’.
F1 has been mentioned a few times but I love it. This season has been amazing; two drivers and teams right at the top of their game, duking it out, wheel to wheel. Watching the race on Sunday was thrilling. They were super human, racing through narrow streets with very unforgiving walls at 200 mph. The race was full of woah, omg and wtf moments. They go to the last race absolutely even. How much more exciting can sport be?
It has been brilliant this year. F1 is a sport that has individuals, teams, science, art and car chases. I love it.
I’m not sure why but there is a sort of snobbery about not liking F1 or motorsport.
Squash. My one competitive, participative sport.
Absolutely hopeless on the small screen, which explains its declining popularity since a 70s zenith; its absence from the Olympics; its place in the periphery of sport and, of course, advertising revenue.
But from the balcony, with one of my muckers slogging and grunting it out just a few yards away, I am engaged like no other sport.
Playing squash is also my addiction. And whilst as recently as just 10 years ago I would have agreed with you about its complete unsuitability for TV, the advent of HD flatscreens, the PSA Tour and in particular the multi-camera coverage of SquashTV has completely revolutionised watching squash on a small screen.
The modern game is also much more exciting than the more attritional style of the 70s and 80s – it’s now become a truly thrilling spectacle, which makes its continued absence from the Olympics even less understandable.
If you haven’t watched professional squash in the last 7 or 8 years, I think you might be pleasantly surprised.
Funny thing with squash. I loved it too and watching it in the club is great, but you’re right, it doesn’t translate to the screen. Bizarre it’s not an Olympic sport though.
Sometimes it’s just about being in the moment with a bunch of other people, all experiencing the same thing. I am not a sports fan really but I get it. There have been times where I’ve been in a bar somewhere in the US and MLB is on the TV, you get caught up in it, it’s fun, it’s a communal thing.
Most of them, to be honest. I’ve never watched basketball but Twang Jr is a big fan and the odd glimps it looks fun enough. I share the views of motor racing which seems pointless – driving round in circles for hours? Why? Don’t mind a footy match but like others I don’t like cynical top level footy with the diving, play acting and fouling. I do watch the big matches though, and I go down and watch Hitchin sometimes which is fun. Cricket is ok though I get bored fairly quickly – mind you I spent a lovely afternoon on the North Downs sitting under a tree with a pint and a mate watching village cricket. Heaven.
I can’t abide rugby having hated it at school and watching big blokes knock each other over before someone runs at least once per match before communal showers and pissing competitions has no appeal whatsoever. OOAA of course.
Re: “I can’t abide rugby having hated it at school”
Yeah, I hated it at school, too. On December afternoons, I used to linger out on the wing in the freezing cold, hoping against hope that no one would pass the ball to me. Because if they did, within about a second I’d be flattened and stamped on in the mud by a guy twice my size.
Therefore, for decades I never used to watch rugby on the television either. But that’s changed in recent years. I now appreciate that it can be an extremely skilful game, and I really enjoy watching international rugby on the telly – you know, the Six Nations, test matches against the southern hemisphere giants, the British & Irish Lions, etc.
At school games was dossing about. I couldn’t understand why other boys took it so seriously. Come to think of it I never took anything else seriously at school either, apart from “decorating” the French classroom ceiling with chewed-up bus tickets.
None spottier, none more herbertified.
Just remembered I played hockey at school for a while, and had a stint in goal. Absolutely terrifying.
Our hockey sticks were FLICK brand, and everybody inked in the gap between the L and the I. Oh how we laughed.
I was captain of the school football team, never missed a game or training session, played every lunchtime in the playground, etc, but when I knew it would be rugby for a games lesson my asthma always played up and I produced a note from my dad. I sometimes had my kit with me though, just in case it got changed to football. My games teacher used to give me stick about it. He always brought Martyn Moxon up, the ex-Yorkshire captain, who was at my school a few years earlier. He had asthma too, apparently, and never missed a games lesson, no matter what they were playing.
Thing was, I was a skinny kid who never got into any trouble and I’ve never hit anyone in my life, but as a footballer I was a defender and a tough tackler. It was a hard school, but I had the respect of all the nutcases because of the way I played football in the school team, doing things the nutcases would shy out of. It probably got me out of several duffing ups. It was fab being able to crunch the school bullies on the football pitch and they could do nothing about it, cos it would make them look soft.
But rugby was different. It wasn’t the nutcases that used to hurt you, it was just the big lads. They saw it as free license to put their hand through your face as they ran through you with the ball. I once caused a game of rugby to be stopped whilst the teacher explained how well my play was, making myself available for the pass and scoring an easy try. In reality, I was just keeping out of the way of the flying arms when the ball was thrown to me. Being forced to play in the House 7s rugby tournament was one of the lowlights of my school days. Never again would I forget to have a note from my dad in my back pocket at all times!
This was me also, 175cm but love a proper football tackle.
Rugby is for school bullies. Pick the bones out of that generalisation!
Rugby is for the big lumps that couldn’t play football. A good footballer can play a range of sports. A good rugby player is a good rugby player. OOAA of course😉
Not true at all, many backs in rugby have enough skills to play decent football, and many other skills too.
Mervyn Davies was very good basketball player.
Gareth Edwards was offered terms as a footballer.
Jeff Wilson, more recently was dual sport rugby/cricket international. Israel Dagg was very good at both.
Hayden Smith….I could go on, but you should get the picture
Points taken but it would be interesting to see which sports were played first in terms of skill acquisition. Plus the seasonal nature of football/rugby & cricket make them more natural bedfellows as my two lads play both thankfully
I’m 5’7″ on a good day, and about 168 pounds.
I was not, therefore, the biggest person on the pitch. I was also likelier at school to be on the receiving end of bullying until there was a short conversation about how that wasn’t going to be a good idea.
Yeah, there are some big lumps. There is also – even at the level I referee at – some incredible skills and match appreciation.
I only ever saw rugby as a necessary adjunct to drinking(at medical school). Once it became associated with sobriety, it lost it’s thrall.
A few above have touched on this, but watching almost any sport live (when you are actually there) is amazing, whereas the televised version can be underwhelming. A few have berated football, but I have been to a few Spurs games in the recent past (yes, I know….don’t bother), and the athleticism, speed, and sheer physicality is extraordinary. Also cycling – the tour of Britain came through here and you wouldn’t believe how fast they are.
There are a few that I can’t work up any enthusiasm for, and I don’t think seeing them live would help….darts, snooker, rugby league. Some I simply don’t understand – American Football for example.
I won’t have a word said against rugby league, and I’m not even northern.
It’s a magnificent sport and, purely as a physical and athletic spectacle, it absolutely knocks the socks off union. But, in the UK at least, it is traditionally poorly run from the top by a clique who dream of making it a national sport but in practice make sure that power remains firmly in what’s referred to as the M62 corridor. Consequently it suffers from underexposure, and it’s an alien activity to two-thirds of British sports fans, although the recent news that top level League games will be shown on Channel 4 from this coming season is a step in the right direction.
League is it? There are pockets of it in London, Toulouse and of course Oz (hello Maximus), but basically you’re talking Yorkshire and Lancasheer. I’ve no interest in either code but the FC/KR rivalry here in Hull is entertaining in itself.
The snob thing between the codes seems, mercifully, to have dissolved to a great extent fairly rapidly since Union went fully pro.
I’m not a code v code kind of guy, as I do watch both, but the ball is in play for almost twice as long in League, there are more tries (South Africa won two Union World Cup finals without scoring a try),the players aren’t as fat, the players are more skillful, it’s less reliant on simply having one kicker, and fans can see infringements and call them (as opposed to the collapse/invisible-to-anyone-but-the-ref penalties given in Union).
That said, the Union internationals are often worth watching, and League will never get the same international rivalry between teams. Both codes are tough – very tough; I think both lost a lot by turning pro, though, as skill/flair has been somewhat sacrificed for power.
League can be very exciting, but union has much more variety. And there is a place for fat guys who can scrummage and tall guys who can jump etc. Plus the battle for turnovers at the breakdown and the links between forwards and backs make it, for me, much more exciting. Although there are tedious games, witness the recent Lions series.
The players aren’t as fat? That’s the voice of a man who hasn;t seen Josh Papalii from the Canberra Raiders, or Latrell Mitchell.
My background is Union, but on a given Saturday over here I’ll watch the NRL over the Union. The skills of the wingers in finishing are just incredible.
Boring sports for me –
1. AFL (Google it for those non-Australians here)
2. Sailing
3. Horse racing
Something I really can’t stand about sport on TV is the interviews, most of which are ridiculous beyond belief. OK there are occasional ones that entertain, like Kevin Keegan’s “I would love it, LOVE IT…” interview but these are few and far between in these days of bland, media trained answers. The questions don’t help. I remember watching one years ago where Peter Reid was interviewed (by Motson or someone I think) and the opening sentence was “So Peter, an excellent win today.” I so wish he had just responded with “Yes,”
Worth googling Gordon Strachan’s brilliant post-match interviews.
There’s several good ones but my favourite was along these lines :
“So…Gordon…another defeat. How do you feel?”
“Well I’m going to go to my hotel room, drink a bottle of whisky and then kill myself.”
Years ago when I was working on a football show in the North East, one of the post-match interviewers said to NUFC’s manager Kenny Dalglish ‘Kenny, can we have a quick word?’
And the lugubrious Liverpool legend replied ‘Aye. ‘Rapid”
He also once said in a (Liverpool FC) press conference “my wife picks the team”
Stuart Pearce’s wife helped pick the team for his first game in caretaker charge of Nottingham Forest. Good job as he didn’t have a goalkeeper in his chosen 11 players
Ian Holloways meandering stream of mad metaphors are also worth hearing
“To put it in gentleman’s terms if you’ve been out for a night and you’re looking for a young lady and you pull one, some weeks they’re good looking and some weeks they’re not the best. Our performance today would have been not the best looking bird but at least we got her in the taxi. She weren’t the best looking lady we ended up taking home but she was very pleasant and very nice, so thanks very much, let’s have a coffee.”
That subtle transition from the cumbersome metaphor to propositioning the interviewer.. (*scribbles notes in ALL CAPS into notebook of pulling ideas*).
These days sports people have to answer these inane questions the moment they finish playing/running/jumping/standing still*. You’re sweating cobs, breathless and out of your mind on adrenaline and some goon like Garry Richardson is thrusting a mic in your face and saying “Talk us through it please”. Refuse to play this pointless game and you will get monstered as a snooty bastard.
(*If you’re a Latvian goalie…bdum tisssh)
Interviewing defeated boxers shortly after fights is rarely a good idea. Tony Bellew, after finally caving in to Olexsandr Usyk, revealed that he had no idea how many rounds they’d fought, or indeed much else.
These days they’ve all had media training, so a player could score a hat trick on the same day he won the lottery and his girlfriend told him she was expecting their first child and would still reply, ‘Well, at the end of the day it’s all about the team, y’know?’
When media training (or getting your publicist to answer questions for you) backfires…
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/aug/21/gareth-bale-what-makes-me-unhappy-nothing-life-is-what-you-make-it
This is worth looking at if you haven’t seen it.
Apropos the OP: I agree, it’s not even the best song on side 2 of Vauxhall and I. I thangyewww.
The only sports I ever watch with any degree of pleasure are football and cricket, which are the only ones I’ve ever played with any degree of pleasure as it happens. No time for either rugby, AFL, basketball, golf, etc etc, though I can occasionally be found watching tennis in a deep trance. I occasionally watch one of the rugbys with my mother-in-law in Oz, but I’m never sure which – no northern Pom accents on the commentary to give the game away, you see. I didn’t watch a single minute of the Olympics. If anything especially exciting happens in any of them, well, that’s why God gave us YouTube isn’t it?
I thought it might be worth dropping this in here –
Now I’ll not hear a word against synchronised swimming. Dancing and swimming at the same time? Underwater? Holding your breath? And upside down? With a theme? That’s true sporting talent! Absolutely marvellous stuff.
Organised drowning, with rictus smiling. It’s beyond all comprehension.
Much like math rock, just because it’s difficult doesn’t mean it’s good.
Sports I have played I will watch mostly, exception being squash which I have played off and on for about 40 years but no interest in watching on a screen, however seeing top players in close proximity is amazing.
Agree about basketball, too much scoring but the odd part of a game can be exciting if one team unexpectedly gets a big lead at some point.
Anything with horses is absolutely tedious.
In Canada hockey (you call it ice hockey) is effectively a religion and I might lose my citizenship if I say anything against it, but I generally don’t get it, I can’t see the puck and the goals are nearly always so scrappy. However when the playoffs start it goes up a degree of excitement and having seen a few NHL games in person I appreciate it more. Would still rather watch (association) football, rugby (union), cricket, tennis, golf etc though.
I can enjoy a televised International Rugby Match. I’m still not clear on the rules. How the hell can anyone define a penalty when the bulk of the play is a gaggle of blokes immersed in a ‘Beano’ fight in a tangle of arms, fists and legs.
Anyway on the occasions a runaway break is made with some gleefully grinning cheeky bugger hoofing up to the try line with the entire contingent of players behind him it is quite thrilling.
Other than that sport for me is a closed book. The melodrama and hyperbole of the televised coverage pisses me off.
IT’SSSS THE SHOUTINGGGG!
There seems to be a theme on this thread that the problem isn’t the sports so much as the commentators. From my back window I regularly watch an amateur football team and I slowly realised that part of my enjoyment was coming from not having some self-important wazzock yammering in my ear about transfers and stats.
Come on Sculcoates !
I’d be willing to support them aswell. I went to Coates Endowed Middle School (look for it, its still there anymore 😜)
Named after a bloke called Coates though and not olde englyshe for cottage or manor.
Anyway. Yes,
“How the hell can anyone define a penalty when the bulk of the play is a gaggle of blokes immersed in a ‘Beano’ fight in a tangle of arms, fists and legs?”
It is easier than you think. A lot of it is exception visualization.
I’m slowly getting there, untangling the reasons for the blows of the whistle.
I wouldn’t be a ref. Mainly because I still don’t know all the rules.
Does anybody remember Kabbadi which was shown on Channel 4 in the early eighties. I used to watch it with a friend and we couldn’t make head nor tail of it. It was similar to “tag” which we played at school.
As I recall it was effectively a version of British bulldog in which the attacking playing had to prove he was holding his breath by chanting Kabbadi all the while.
Any sport you don’t like can be dismissed with some reductive description though:
F1 – driving round in circles. Football – chasing a bag of leather around and trying to kick it between two sticks. I quite like to watch golf, but I can see why some people would find it incredibly boring. I can’t stand any equestrian sports but my wife loves them, probably because she used to ride horses when she was younger and knows what she’s looking for.
All sport is pretty ludicrous when it comes down to it
So is music. So are books.
And, as Kate observed, so is love.
What’s Love Got To Do With It?
Hey, that would make a good song title, wouldn’t it?
That’s going to break every rule.
All art is quite useless according to Oscar Wilde
Quoth D Couse on the I Am The Greatest LP.
Mind, he also says “I wish I was born before all the good ideas were used” – Tell that to Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus..
According to Raymond Chandler:
“There are two kinds of truth: the truth that lights the way and the truth that warms the heart. The first of these is science, and the second is art. Neither is independent of the other or more important than the other. Without art, science would be as useless as a pair of high forceps in the hands of a plumber. Without science, art would become a crude mess of folklore and emotional quackery. The truth of art keeps science from becoming inhuman, and the truth of science keeps art from becoming ridiculous.”
That’s very good. Never seen that before.
Mmm. Yeah. So anyway, see the match last night?
I found myself listening to dressage on the radio this summer. Not a fucking clue what was going on but it’s medals innit?
Listening to dressage? are you sure it wasn’t just “Bring on the Dancing Horses”?
I only really watch football on TV. But as Nigel said upthread, being at a live event is a different kettle of fish. Whether it’s non-league football, motorsport, wrestling, rugby…etc, it’s a much more thrilling experience being there. Never been to a cricket match mind.
Never been to cricket either, but don’t mind having it on the box occasionally when drifting off on a summer afternoon. Come to think of it, I actually quite like the idea of going to a cricket match. A few pints whilst sitting in the sun, what’s not to like?
I regularly meet up with old mates at Taunton to watch the cricket, and it’s a lovely day out….a few pints, a nice lunch in the restaurant. Mind you, the catering went right downhill this year (presumably Covid related).
I’ve long regarded cricket the same way as Uncle regards speedway. But watching the Hundred and the T20 has became quite diverting and so I’ve invested in a Somerset White Ball season ticket for me and a friend for next season – Somerset Stand Block 2. Give us a wave.
I love cricket but unless you have a really good seat it is hard to see what is going on at times. If games had to be dry then crowds would be well down.
You really do need to be behind the wicket and ideally at some height in order to follow the path of the ball with ease. A side view makes it impossible to judge what a bowler is doing.
I’m another Somerset attendee. I’ve been a member in the past, but not currently. My preferred place in the past was the old Stragglers pavilion, and I usually go for one of the benches on the ‘mound’ nowadays, as close to behind the bowler’s arm as possible. What was the Trescothick stand has a very good view with a nice angle, too. I’m not bothered with the limited overs matches, so what was the lowest price membership which covered the four-dayers was fine for me.
We go for seats in the front of the rebuilt pavilion, underneath the media centre and camera positions. I do hope things look up on the catering this year – I wrote to them about it, but didn’t get a response!
Tennis gets a bad press as being upper class, elitist etc but up close the top players are incredible. Physically fit too.
A good tennis match is gladiatorial, and I enjoy that unlike team sports it isn’t over till it’s over. Until the last point is scared it’s always possibly for the losing player to make a magnificent comeback with the clock running out on them.
I agree.
Tennis is a great sport to watch for exactly the reasons you describe.
I tend to try and arrive at sport on TV about two minutes from the start so as to avoid all the “expert” opinion beforehand.
One ex-player on the radio the other night asked whether – if Newcastle lost to Norwich City it effectively meant that Newcastle were relegated. It wasn’t even December… so the answer is – “It ain’t gonna help any, but f****** “No,” you pratt!”
There’s never any comeback for these guys either. In 2014 Tony Gale said of Wayne Rooney before the inevitable disaster of a World Cup campaign: “If were are going to get an important chance in the match (v. Italy) you’d still want Rooney in the team.”
No you wouldn’t, he’ll miss ‘cos he’s shite (that’s me talking from my sofa in 2014).
Match v. Italy, ball falls to Rooney eight yards out – the important chance – and he misses the goal by eight yards.
Where’s the comeback? Gale should have been made to explain himself afterwards. Hey, maybe viewers could have been invited into the Sky studio to throw rotten fruit at him. All for charriddee, of course.
Ahh yes, that useless Rooney, just the 53 goals for England (Lineker 48, Greaves 44, Charlton 49 etc).
What shall we do, what shall we do, with allll this useless Rooney….
To be fair, Rooney and everyone since has played in the era of pointlessly one-sided fixture bloat, so you need to look at the goal ratio per matches played.
*Beep*
Automatic Pundit Comment Generator ….printing…
“There are no easy games in international football anymore”
*ends*
“you can only beat what’s in front of you”
Has anyone mentioned handball yet?
No?
OK, I will:
Handball.
I don’t enjoy watching it.
Erm … that’s about it, really.
Was this comment meant for the trousers thread / subsection: pockets with holes?
Big sports fan. Will watch most on the television, but favourites would be Football, Cricket, Rugby League (Union not so much), Horse Racing, Baseball and Speedway.
Growing up in the West Midlands the main two sports I watched live were Football and Speedway. In those days (70’s and 80’s) Speedway was well supported and a good, close Speedway meeting under lights with a noisy crowd was a great night out. Nowadays the domestic product is much weaker and its hard to see a rosy picture for it as professional sport in the UK. The Grand Prix series featuring the elite riders is well worth watching – both live and on the box.
A day at the races is still a good day out and I love racing enough to enjoy it without the need for a bet.
The one sport I just can’t take to is Formula One.
I like and watch/listen to Formula 1 and golf.
I love watching sport – all sports, really. If you commit to it and try to understand it, any sport will be entertaining to watch IMO. Sure, some are more immediately fun than others, of course, but very few (if any) are 100% boring. A truly great commentator helps, as does picking a favourite to win.
But I hate participating in sports, especially team sports…I was handy with balls (steady on, Moose…) at school, but only enjoyed playing the non-official playground games (“Roof”, “Wall” etc).
Not being someone who watched football, I do remember when we started playing it in games – the sudden intrusion of rules was very dispiriting. You’re only allowed eleven people in your team! There are lines you have to stay inside! There are positions other than striker and goalie! You can’t just push people over!
I’m really looking forward to skateboarding being an Olympic sport in 2024.
Not because I particularly enjoy skateboarding, but it is one step closer to me getting an Olympic trophy to match my 1996 World Champion trophy in the Sport of Kings*.
(*) Stilton Cheese Rolling, obviously.
After being saved a mercy dash up-country tonight to stand in the middle of a field to watch a football match (postponed – feigned disappointment – actually delighted), this weekend has a Rugby match at a relatively low level and another (on Sunday) nearer the top of the pyramid.
Personally, I prefer sport where I can avoid queues, drink a beer or three (no more), walk up and down the sideline, and – most of all – imagine the history of the sport, and so it’s the Saturday one I’m most looking forward to.
The ground (apart from a grandstand – with no visual obstruction incidentally) has barely changed from the 1920s… and that’s just how I like it.
It’s the only place in the last decade where a minute’s silence for the war dead seemed to have any resonance… mind, I do have a minute’s silence at EVERY SINGLE fixture I go to now.
When did that start?
Said it before on a similar post… I don’t trust anyone who doesn’t go to sport on a Saturday afternoon.
Don’t like them, don’t like Tories, don’t like 60s-dodgers, don’t like lager drinkers, don’t like men, don’t like anyone really.
I’ll be on me own tomorrow.
What are 60’s dodgers?
Are you new?
Retrospective research may have found the answer.
I’ve always assumed they are people who choose not to be racist, misogynistic or sexist.*
*Could apply to other decades too.
Or have central heating.
A baseball team of yesteryear. They won the World Series in 1963 and 1965.
Do they still do Ice Speedway? That used to come up on World of Sport when I was a small lad. Spikey wheels on one side IIRC.
Oh yes,they do – and it’s bloody brilliant!
Wimbledon. I can see one advantage of it, that it’s not golf.
Wimbledon isn’t a sport, it’s a tube station.
I’m quite good at Air Hockey. They have two tables at the Leisure Centre. 50p a go, mind.