Sporting Saturday
With the Cup Final and US PGA on ‘moving day’, I was embarrassed by riches and swerved a tight and exciting victory of Northampton Saints over Saracens.
That the Cup Final has declined as “THE National Sporting Event” is evidenced by it not even being the front page story in The Times’ Sporting Section (instead this was Mo Salah calling out Liverpool fans for their treatment of Trent Arnold) and, inside the pages of The Times pages, Everton leaving Goodson Park was given more space.
We needed an epic Cup Final and we got one full of controversy and one – in my opinion – showcasing the most exciting English player since John Barnes in Ebanichi Eze.
Everyone likes to see an underdog win, even the supporters of Bournemouth and Brentford who might both now miss out on European competition as the coveted 8th place might be lost.
Palace, astutely coached by Oliver Glasner, won the trophy for the first time and it was thoroughly deserved although the scowling Pep Guardiola might not agree.
Having no wish to listen to the valediction of Gary Lineker – and indeed welcoming his departure – I opted for ITV’s coverage. I had to suffer the loquacious Ian Wright but Ally McCoist and Lee Dixon are better analysts than that supposed know-all Alan Shearer.
I switched over at the final whistle to the PGA.
In severe windy conditions the heavy hitters had a field day, with Scottie Scheffler carding -11 as tourney leader with Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau in a chasing pack which included no Rory McIlroy but a resurgent Matt Fitzpatrick.
Finally I must eulogise Brian Glanville who passed away at 93.
He was beyond the pack of football writers who are full of bile as he wrote for Corriera della Sera and was deeply knowledgeable on Italian football. He also wrote a body of fiction and plays. As he was outside the mainstream “sports hack” culture of heavy drinking he was labelled a ‘crank’ and – to be fair – he could be rude and did not knowingly report soccer matches outside West London, but he was a one-off and will surely be missed …
