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My Sporting Weekend

I cannot remember the  last time England produced two golf winners on the same day. Matt Wallace won the Indian Open after a play-off with Andrew “Beef “Johnston and Paul Casey only his second PGA victory at the PGA. However the big story, especially with the Masters 3 weeks away, was that Tiger Woods finished runner up.

I was on Justin Rose but his form deserted him particularly on the putting green and he fell away. England was not the only one to produce 2 winners recently as I had tickles on George Coetzee and Phil Mickelson the previous weekend. How I would have loved to boast about this to dear Arthur Davidson. So if anything those wins saddened me.

Paul Casey is a smiling popular golfer like his peer Justin Rose. He will be a great asset to the Ryder Cup team.

Possibly he was helped by playing after Tiger thereby avoiding the brouhaha that accompanies the 14 time major winner. American sporting audiences tend to be raucous and discourteous. They well think nothing of rushing off to get prime positions for the next hole whilst the other player is making his stroke. So Casey had the advantage being -10 in the club house though Patrick Reed would have been co-leader had he not bogeyed the 18th.

Perchance I caught a 15 programme on the SKY golf channel called The Concession, the story of the 1969 drawn Ryder Cup at Royal Birkdale when Jack Nicklaus conceded the final putt to Tony Jacklin.

The 18-time major winner himself conceded that this made him unpopular with US captain Sam Snead but”this seemed the right thing to do”.

Jacklin was at the top of his game and the draw revived a competition that the USA was winning so often that its feasibility was being questioned across the pond. In my opinion the Concession was the greatest piece of sportsmanship I ever witnessed.

Otherwise I fared reasonably well. If the odds are favourable I always bet against a side playing Mourinho. To my surprise Liverpool were the favourites at Old Trafford so I laid them.

I enjoyed the game and admired the tactical micro-management of Mourinho, as opposed to his brashness, as he kept copious notes in his notebook and gave detailed instructions to each sub. You don’t see that from Arsene Wenger any more.

Without being any sort of expert I thought England would win by up to 10 points in the Six Nations in France but came unstuck. I really did not like the coverage especially the over-technical analysis of Brian Moore. I found myself missing  Bill McLaren and Ian Robertson who had the gift of bringing the game into your living room, better voices and a turn of phrase.

As ever there was something plodding about England, solid yeomanry not dashing dragoons.

Spurs let me down at Bournemouth.

I thought there would be a post-Juve reaction when once again an Italian team had the nous to stay in the game for an hour and then execute the coup de grace.

Something was salvaged as I had Justin Rose each way. Justin is the favourite of both Arthur Davidson and I. Oh dear I miss Arthur terribly.

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About John Pargiter

John Pargiter’s biggest claim to fame is his first-ever work experience job, as ‘legs’ (or runner) for Henry Longhurst. For many years he worked in insurance at Lloyds. After retiring he has returned to his favourite sport of golf and is a keen recreational sailor and grandparent. More Posts