Last summer, in this piece, I compared “The New Trivia Season” with the start of the English football season. New series of the following three quiz shows began in July, all screened on BBC2: “University Challenge”, “Only Connect” and “Mastermind”. They all reached their series finales in March and April this year. First was “Mastermind”… Continue reading The Trivia Season comes to an end
Manchester City are the new Premier League Champions. Thanks to West Brom’s win at Manchester United two weekends ago “the blue half of Manchester” can celebrate their team’s third league win in seven seasons. It also means that, for the fifth season in a row, the top team in English football wears blue kit. This… Continue reading Blue is the colour, five years in a row
April 2017 was, for me, a terrible month for sport. All of the teams and individuals that I follow fared badly. Kilkenny’s hurling team failed to make the League Final. Leeds United FC, after spending many months in the top 6 of the Championship, dropped to 7th and failed to make the play-offs. Cambridge lost… Continue reading Already a better month for sport
It’s two days late I know, but a belated Happy St Patrick’s Day to you. In Ireland you still have a few hours to commemorate the national saint on this Bank Holiday Monday but the rest of us are done for another year. The next time that St Patrick’s Day falls on a Saturday will… Continue reading Grand Slam
In the late 1990s the former footballer Ian Wright hosted a chat-show called “Friday Night’s All Wright”, on ITV. (It was on Friday nights, understandably.) He was a great player, and back then he was Arsenal’s top goal-scorer of all time (Thierry Henry overtook him in 2005). I have positive memories of the show. Wright… Continue reading “Get the Nike [Adidas, Reebok] out my face, man”
Two weeks ago, in this Word of the Week piece, I was looking forward to cheering Elise Christie to her first medals at a Winter Olympics, from several thousand miles away. We were able to see her semi-final and final in the 500m speed skating event the following day, during the children’s half-term, but her… Continue reading Word of the week: gutted
After last week’s featured word (Superbowl) here’s another with a sporting theme, prompted by the start of the Winter Olympics from Pyeongchang in South Korea. “Luge” is defined by the Oxford Dictionaries website as a noun (“A light toboggan for one or two people, ridden in a sitting or supine position”), a mass noun (“A… Continue reading Word of the week: Luge
I didn’t get enough sleep last night. Like many other sports fans here in the UK I stayed up late to watch the Superbowl, Philadelphia Eagles winning their first title against defending champions the New England Patriots. Unlike most other sports fans I hadn’t planned to spend the early hours of Monday morning this way,… Continue reading Word of the week: Superbowl
The FA Cup 4th Round takes place this weekend. For the first time in all the years that my wife and I have been together neither of us is interested. Her team (Arsenal) and mine (Leeds United) were both knocked out three weekends ago in the 3rd Round, by teams from lower leagues (Nottingham Forest… Continue reading When your team is knocked out of the FA Cup
Well, that didn’t last long, did it? In November I wrote this piece in anticipation of this winter’s Ashes series, planning my sleep patterns and my mornings to keep up with sporting events in Australia. Less than a week ago, as we approached the halfway point of the five Test Matches, I wrote this piece… Continue reading Final Ashes update
