Quinswatch (Match 2): even the radio is misfiring
Aviva Premiership 9th September 2016: Sale Sharks v Harlequins at the AJ Bell Stadium, kick-off 8.15pm. Result: Sale Sharks 19 (4 league points) Harlequins 10 (0 league points).
In my lifetime I have twice driven up Manchester way in order to attend Harlequins away matches against Sale Sharks – a long journey to a part of the world that seems to be permanently grey, cold and wet and always necessitates an overnight stay – and at no stage had I contemplated doing it again last night. Furthermore, given that the match was not being shown on BT Sport, the only manner in which I might be able to keep abreast of proceedings was to go to the BBC Sports website on my iPad and listen to the live commentary being broadcast on Radio Manchester.
Ideally here I would have wished to give a nod to the Radio Manchester rugby commentator at the mike last night but I cannot tell you his name because, despite trawling the internet in an attempt to discover his identity, I have failed to find it. [I do know that his co-commentator and pundit was introduced as a former Sale player and Premiership referee].
Although, with all good intentions and the best will in the world, it remains in the DNA of the territory that local radio sports commentating is some of the most one-eyed in the world I am happy to report that last night the (sadly anonymous) lead commentator was outstanding. He was knowledgeable, direct, fully in command of his preparatory research and detail and professionally adept at describing what he was witnessing. I could not fault him.
Whether it was down to my own technical ineptitude or the vagaries of the BBC radio network I cannot say, but my attempt to tune in to last night’s match was only partly successful.
At 8.00pm I retired to my bedroom with my iPad and, having dialled up the BBC Radio Manchester commentary upon the match and positioned myself in a comfortable semi-sleeping position beneath my duvet sporting large heavy-duty headphones, it took until nearly 8.10pm before I received any commentary sound at all – by which time, of course, I was already panicking that I was going to be denied it throughout the proceedings.
But suddenly, there it was.
Briefly.
Twice before the game started (nearly five minutes late due to one of the assistant referees having problems with his communications equipment which had to be rectified before kick-off could take place) I ‘lost’ the broadcast and, not knowing which alternative would be more likely to resume service, spent my time going back and forth between lying there listening to silence (in the hope that it would return of its own accord) and frantically stabbing at the screen on my iPad hoping thereby to prompt it to come back.
Eventually the commentary was restored just before kick-off and I settled in – the better to be able to report my impressions to my readers on the Rust.
Within 90 seconds of the start, Kyle Sinckler put in a heavy hit on the Sharks back-rower T.J. Ioane which required the game to be stopped for approximately nine minutes whilst the medics, physios, doctors and St John’s Ambulance Brigade duly took the field to ‘stabilise’ the injured player, chuck him on a stretcher and convey him to the dressing room.
Not an auspicious beginning.
And that’s about all I can impart, folks. I managed – with two further significant breaks in transmission – to listen to about the first twenty-two minutes of the first half before becoming sufficiently frustrated that I decided to give up and go to sleep instead.
You may call this ‘dereliction of duty’ if you wish but I’m sixty-four years old and I’ve got better things to do than fight as best I can to stay awake listening to a faulty radio broadcast – something I last did probably in about 1962 at my boarding prep school when seeking to ‘connect’ with Radio Luxembourg.
I awoke this morning to the news that Quins had gone down (not so gloriously) 19-10 in a fractious game in which our props Owen Jones and Kyle Sinckler were both yellow-carded and back-rower Mat Luamanu received a red card for a no-arms tackle on the Sale captain Josh Beamount, son of Billy.
I take no pleasure in recording that, on the evidence of our first two Aviva Premiership games, my forebodings about Quins’ fortunes this season are already seeming to be coming home to roost.
