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Hemingway & Ken Burns

A colleague of mine on the Rust sent me a revealing interview with Ken Burns on documentary making. See here – THE GUARDIAN He revealed that he can take 10 years to make a documentary and – though the funding is a problem as he operates in the public broadcasting sector – he would [...]

July 21, 2021 // 0 Comments

Cricketing Lives/Richard H. Thomas

This is less a compendium of the lives of colourful cricketers than a broad sweep of cricketing history to the present day. Charlie Blythe It’s well informed, witty and entertaining but did not tell me much I did not already know. It’s particularly interesting on Victorian cricket, an era [...]

July 20, 2021 // 0 Comments

The Open: competitors and coverage.

Saturday is known as ‘moving day’ but in truth it was more or less the same leaderboard at the end of the day of Louis Oosthuizen, Collin Morikawa and Jordan Spieth. Oosthuizen and Spieth especially found it difficult. The problem with Spieth’s game these last three Major-less years is his [...]

July 18, 2021 // 0 Comments

Six days to the Lions first Test match against South Africa

I find myself in broad agreement with Tom Hollingworth’s view that the greatest elite-level sports, tournaments and games are severely diminished when they take place in stadia devoid of fans and spectators. The Covid pandemic has been (and still will be for some time into the future) extremely [...]

July 18, 2021 // 0 Comments

The Open/First Round

Going to an event on the first day always generates an exciting anticipation on me. As I made my way on foot my mind went back to 1993 when  my father and I witnessed Greg Norman – so often the gallant loser – win the claret jug in a field where the top twelve were or became Major [...]

July 16, 2021 // 0 Comments

The Open

I was last at St George’s in 1993 when Greg Norman roasted the field. I followed him early and stayed with him to the 18th. Since then Ben Curtis and Darren Clarke have won the claret jug here. Like all links courses, it’s weather dependent: wind in your face – a wood, wind with you [...]

July 15, 2021 // 0 Comments

Recent fiction: Barcelona Dreaming & Widowland

Both the above two books – written by Rupert Thomson and C.L. Carey – were favourably reviewed but I had not heard of either author. Barcelona Dreaming is three interlocking short stories set in modern Barcelona. In the first Amy, who has a curio shop, meets a young Moroccan outside [...]

July 14, 2021 // 0 Comments

It will get worse before it gets better

IS IT FOOTBALL, OR ACTUALLY A SECTION OF THE BRITISH POPULATION, THAT IS THE PROBLEM? Sitting my editorial suite in Rust Towers was an interesting experience once J.S. Bird’s strident post yesterday on the aftermath of 2020/2021 Euros tournament had “hit the airwaves”. It would be [...]

July 14, 2021 // 0 Comments

Par for the course, I’m afraid

Today, courtesy of the pages of The Rust, I present to the world my uncompromising and woke-free sixpenny-worth on the troubling subject of the background, the circumstances and, of course, the crowd control and innumerable other events and incidents surrounding the staging of 2020/2021 Euros Final [...]

July 13, 2021 // 0 Comments

La Piscine (1969)

My Alain Delon season has been interrupted by the Euros but I saw this film last night. It reflects the best and worst of French cinema. The best? A beautiful villa location in St Tropez with beautiful people – Alain Delon, Romy Schneider, Jane Birkin. The worst ? It has its longeurs and the [...]

July 13, 2021 // 0 Comments

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