Thursday 26 April 2012

ICuts-Sports: More Competition and Less Procession Please!

ICuts-Sports: More Competition and Less Procession Please!: Four Grand Prix races into the 2012 F1 season and there have been four different winners. Is it typical that now the BBC have effectively h...

More Competition and Less Procession Please!

Four Grand Prix races into the 2012 F1 season and there have been four different winners. Is it typical that now the BBC have effectively halved their commitment to showing races this is likely to be the most interesting season in years? I say this because, sadly, I don’t have Sky Sports. I am having to resort to the limited highlights show for every other race.


Not only have there been four different race winners but they have been racing for four different manufacturers. I hopefully suggest this means a number of teams all competing at a similar level which means the season will be competitive throughout and not a one-man walk-over as it was last year. Take nothing away from Sebastian Vettel. His achievements last year and the year before have been mightily impressive, however for the viewer it was mightily boring.
I have often complained that F1 is a bit of a procession and races are more often than not decided in the pits. I know there are other forms of motor sport to watch but I keep being drawn back to F1. There are more drivers who have been crowned World Champion competing this year than ever before and this has served to make the racing even more interesting. Whilst Michael Schumacher continues to struggle the returning Kimi Raikonnen has shown he has lost little of his skill behind the wheel.

When one person or team dominates a sport you have to doff you cap and applaud their achievement but as a sports fan it is much more interesting to have a number of challengers. For years the Premiership was dominated by Man Utd, Chelsea and Arsenal. It is now much more interesting to see the emergence of Man City (regardless of the financial input) as a challenger for the title and, this season, Newcastle who have impressively managed to maintain their push for Champions League football.
Many other sports are similar. Tennis over the last number of years largely dominated Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal in the men’s game and the Williams sisters in the women’s. The emergence of new players who are competing and wining titles, such as Novak Djokovic and several teenage Russian females whose names I can neither pronounce or spell, just make the whole game much more pleasurable to watch.
I can also appreciate that fans of said teams and individuals do not find this boring in the slightest. To this end, I am coming from a largely neutral sports fans perspective. Aside from Aston Villa and England Rugby, whom I follow and support with unwavering passion, I can watch most sports with my goal to enjoy the sport itself rather than one team over the other. I do of course have certain teams and sportsmen and women I would prefer to win. Worcester Warriors are my preferred Rugby Union club side, Jenson Button F1, LA Lakers Basketball, Jessica Ennis Athletics, and Warwickshire Cricket.


What impresses me about those competitors at the top of their sports is that even when they continue to win with little apparent challenge they still celebrate like its their first. Upon winning his umpteenth race last season Vettel could be heard on his pit-to-car radio celebrating like he had won the lottery. No boredom or complacency there! Congratulations to him, I just hope he isn’t doing it too much this year so I can get more satisfaction from the F1 season.
Fair play to those who dominate their sports. I just enjoy competition.

Wednesday 11 April 2012

The Boat Race has Restored my Faith in Sporting Conduct.

There is no other way to say this. Ashley Young is a cheat. I watched his blatant dive to gain a penalty for Man Utd against QPR at the weekend convinced his actions would result in a yellow card for simulation. Not only was a penalty given but the defender, Shaun Derry, was sent off. The fact that Young was clearly offside notwithstanding, the contact between attacker and defender was a light brush of the shirt at best and certainly not enough to send the forward tumbling theatrically to the floor.
I would like to point out I am not a QPR fan and this is not a rant against Man Utd or Young in particular. Its a rant against being unsporting. I’m glad not all sports are like this and over the same weekend I watched the Boat Race. I would like to say thank you to the Oxford and Cambridge boat crews for going a long way to restoring my faith in sporting conduct.
Alex Woods the rower in the bow seat of the Oxford boat collapsed shortly after crossing the line. The fact he was in distress was not picked up on by his crew mates for several minutes due to his position at the back of the boat. His condition was serious enough for him to be treated for some time before being taken to hospital.

The Cambridge crew, to their eternal credit agreed to cancel their celebration and presentation of the trophy. In the television interviews they gave to the irritating BBC presenters their first concern was the heath and wellbeing of Woods. This shows no small measure of their class. These guys train as hard as professional athletes in preparation for the Boat Race and to win it means everything.
Woods, for his part, mirrored their respectful conduct. Once well enough, he telephoned the crew of the Cambridge boat and their coach individually to apologise for spoiling their celebrations!
Its not as if the example set by these people cannot be followed buy others. It was once said that football isn’t life and death....its much more important. The football community has disproven this emphatically with its responses to Fabrice Muamba and Stiliyan Petrov. It is heartening to see Muamba making what appears to be fantastic progress following his heart attack and my thoughts are with Petrov and his family as he begins his treatment for acute leukaemia. Messages of support for both have been sent from sports around the globe.
I know that unsporting conduct is not generally rife in professional sport, I’m just prompted to speak when I see two incidents which are polar opposites. One which exasperates and angers me and one which makes me proud of the sports I enjoy and their exponents.