My TV sporting weekend

I’m not the biggest fan of Formula One, regarding it as no more than a sponsored procession and lacking that essential ingredient of sport – ebb and flow.

However, the publicity got the better of me and at 1.00 pm for the final Grand Prix at Abu Dhabi  I was tuned into Radio 5 and Channel 4.

The commentators were presented with two difficult situations to unravel.

Should Hamilton be penalised for leaving the track on the first lap after he took the lead as result of Max Verstappen “lunging” and, after Latif crashed, should the lapped cars be effectively removed?

Generally they did a good job and the two incidents added to the drama of the championship going to the last lap. I did not re-assess FI as a compelling sport.

After all it the driver, or the car?

In most sports it is clear that the champion has the prowess. As I write this Mercedes are protesting the decision.

The best sport watch came from an unlikely source.

Surfing the channels in the morning I happened on  the classic title boxing encounter of Roberto Duran v Sugar Ray Leonard (1981).

I cannot recall seeing more gripping boxing.

Leonard went toe to toe with Duran and the three judges – one of them Harry Gibbs – awarded Duran the fight in a  split decision. Ferdy Pacheco, the great Ali ring man judged Leonard to have fought a courageous fight but the wrong one.

This was a golden age of welterweight/middleweight boxing with 4 legends – Thomas  Hearns, Marvellous Marvin Hagler, Sugar Ray Leonard and Roberto Duran, who had moved up a weight from lightweight.

Ebb and flow certainly comes with the Harlequins territory, indeed it’s a good description of them.

Ebb as they inevitably fall behind in the first half, flow as they throw the ball around typified by an Alex Dombrandt surging run after some tidy passing.

Although I have seen Quins play more expansively they did really well to beat Castres narrowly – a side unbeaten at home this season – and last defeated at their own stadium in European competition in 2015 also , as it happens, by Quins.