Then and now … and then some
For those of generations after mine – and indeed my own to the extent that memories may be fading – one of Britain’s light-entertainment stars of yester-year was proud Yorkshireman Wilfred Pickles (1904-1978).
Pickles’ signature radio programme Have A Go graced the BBC airwaves from 1947 to 1967 and at its peak attracted weekly audiences of 20 million, a figure that performers in 2019, when television audiences are fragmented by hundreds of channels not to mention the internet, would kill for.
That fact alone is worth noting because it highlights one of the differences between ‘then and now’.
Arguably, when human means of communication were few and far between the sense of national community – cue perhaps references to other radio shows such as Sunday 
lunchtime’s Two Way Family Favourites and television staples such as Morecambe and Wise, The Two Ronnies and Mike Yarwood that could boast similar audiences for their Christmas Specials and the phenomenon of office ‘gatherings at the water cooler machine to discuss last night’s edition’ which was then an actuality – was as great (if not greater) than that generated on today’s social media such as last week’s Instagram spat between WAGs Coleen Rooney and Rebekah Vardy.
I mention all this because one of the recurring ironies of life is – to use Wilfred Pickles’ famous catch-phrase – “There’s nowt so queer as folk” and I’m taking its sentiment as my text for today.
I do so conscious of my status as a senior citizen which may to an extent colour my attitudes and for that as usual I must beg indulgence from any younger Rust readers.
The fact is that in these days of ‘anything goes’ PC-driven diversity and inclusivity – and with all due respect to individual examples – I have great difficulty in accepting ‘new’ sports as worthy of global attention and particularly admission to seminal events like the Olympic Games.
I don’t need to provide an over-exhaustive list to make my point but let us start with the Olympics since I’ve mentioned it.
At one time or another the following have been Olympic sports: club swinging, solo synchronised swimming, tug-of-war, live pigeon-shooting, obstacle-swimming, ballooning, roller-hockey and rope-climbing.
And here are some that will be included in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics for the first time: baseball/softball, karate, skateboarding, sports climbing and surfing.
And we mustn’t forget those currently under active consideration (breakdancing for the Paris 2020 Olympics possibly along with chess, squash and billiards).
Personally – simply on the grounds that for any Olympic sport its Olympic gold medal should be the ultimate yardstick of excellence – I am still struggling to accept golf and even tennis as Olympic sports.
And I’m sorry, nobody is ever going to convince me that darts or the version of wrestling known as WWE – the latter which 
makes no secret about its choreographed nature and routines (and, I understand, encourages its participants to join Equity and other actors’ unions) – are proper sports.
Things were so much simpler in my day when it was rugby and football in the winter and athletics and cricket in the summer – perhaps a sprinkling of golf, cycling, sailing and skiing in there somewhere – but basically all other minority pastimes, including conkers and rolling cheeses down steep hills, were left alone to their own devices and were happy to just get on with it.
Which brings me to Formula One.
Perhaps ill-advisedly if I’d thought about it, in a recent extended and multi-generational family gathering, a propos of nothing in particular and out of the blue, I offered up my opinion that not only was it was stultifyingly boring, devoid of any genuine competitive edge (essentially nothing more than an annual cleverly-contrived promotional circus devised for the benefit of high-end motor manufacturers) but it was losing its audience and was entering its death throes.
Au contraire, came back the consensus response.
I was immediately pigeon-holed as an out-of-touch oldie talking out of my hat.
(I should perhaps add that my own daughter, who was present, has connections with motor sport and was one of the most vociferous of my accusers).
Afterwards I was in a somewhat chastened state but still firm in my views – perhaps the conversation in question was indeed a sign of me being out of touch and I should just get used to the fact.
I post today because overnight I spotted the following pieces in the British media:
FORMULA ONE
Oliver Holt interviews Damon Hill who claims that Lewis Hamilton doesn’t get the acclaim and respect he deserves – see here, on the website of the – DAILY MAIL
(I’m afraid that for me, the very fact he’s making this point actually serves to make mine for me. The reason Hamilton is not the biggest star in British sport by a country mile is because these days Formula One, seen by the public for what it is, is losing its popularity).
WWE
It has been reported that of all things Tyson Fury has just signed to fight a WWE wrestler called Braun Strowman in Saudi Arabia on 31st October – see here for a report by Jack de Menezes as appears today upon the website of – THE INDEPENDENT
If there was every anything more unintentionally designed to further reduce the already-tarnished reputation of all concerned – and indeed the sport of professional boxing generally – I don’t think I could have dreamed it up.
