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Against the odds

Last night, not least seeking refuge from BBC1’s annual fundraising orgy Children In Need, I tuned in to watch Harlequins play away in the Premiership against Gloucester on BT Sport. Gloucester is one of the great English rugby institutions. There’s no football to speak of in the vicinity and [...]

November 15, 2014 // 0 Comments

The withdrawal method

When it comes to sport, the dealings of FIFA and IOC over the past twenty five years leave them both vulnerable to accusations of corruption. I would not be the first to suggest this as a strategy, but it does seem to me that the best way forward for the UK sporting authorities concerned would now [...]

November 14, 2014 // 0 Comments

Life’s too short

Spotted on the website of The Guardian today, a main course-sized plate of common sense from columnist Suzanne Moore. I could not have put it better myself and am happy to admit it – see here – MODERN [...]

November 13, 2014 // 0 Comments

A player and man to admire

Yesterday I travelled to Brighton to attend an evening meeting of the Sussex Cricket Society as the guest of a pal of mine who had recently joined it. The guest of honour and main speaker was Alastair Hignell, the former England rugby international and Gloucestershire cricketer. Aged 59, he had [...]

November 12, 2014 // 0 Comments

No Picture

Well fancy that!

At the end of a fairly hectic weekend, yesterday for want of anything better to do I prepared a light supper and settled down to watch BBC1’s Countryfile programme which was being transmitted at 6.30pm after the early evening news. It turned out to be a World War One special, with three of the [...]

November 10, 2014 // 0 Comments

Some things never change

The England rugby team flattered to deceive yesterday in losing 21-24 to New Zealand, a game I watched on television. It wasn’t a great match by any stretch of the imagination but it demonstrated the essential strengths that allow the All Blacks to dominate world rugby. Don’t get me wrong, they [...]

November 9, 2014 // 0 Comments

and I missed Have I Got News For You for this …

The LV= Cup is an Anglo-Welsh competition which, like the Premiership ‘A’ League, gives non-first team starters, academy players and those coming back from injury the opportunity for some game time. Last Sunday Quins lost to their London nemesis Saracens in the Cup, narrowly enough to dispel [...]

November 8, 2014 // 0 Comments

Remembering the fallen

Yesterday I had been invited to a small launch party in the West Stand of the RFU’s Twickenham Stadium to unveil a brand new oil painting by Shane Record, based upon a photograph of the England rugby team that played against France at Stade Colombes in Paris on 13th April 1914. It is intended to [...]

November 8, 2014 // 0 Comments

Watching the world go by

Yesterday I drove around the M25 to the South terminal of Gatwick Airport in order to collect my son Barry, who was arriving on a flight from Faro in Portugal. Perhaps inevitably – and partly it was my fault because I had allowed extra time because of the ‘reduced lanes’ road works that [...]

November 7, 2014 // 0 Comments

Getting a grip

I called my father last night in order to discuss our arrangements for the remainder of the week. First, however, he wished to tell me about his expedition earlier in the day from the coast to central London in order to have lunch with an old friend – in both senses of the word – at an hotel in [...]

November 6, 2014 // 0 Comments

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