Being a British sport fan

UKRob said:
The responses to Peter's original post are truly dispiriting. What started out as a celebratory post has been pissed on (to use a favoured expression of one of the pissers). You should be ashamed of yourselves.
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Your post leaves me somewhat confused.

Having just re read Peter's original post, along with the subsequent responses from other members, it is clear that Peter was initially expressing his opinion and that this was then followed by the opinions of others; none of which may I say were posted in an offensive manner and the only one to contain what some may find as an offensive word being your own.

So what is the problem?

Is this not freedom of speech?

I would be interested to know whether the moderators of this forum agree with the statement made in your post.
 
I'm Welsh but consider myself British first and Welsh second. I'll always support Wales over the other home nations when they're up against each other, but otherwise I support all of our home nations.

I remember a couple of years ago when England football team were doing quite well in one of the international competitions, the pubs in the small corner of Wales that I'm from were all decked out with English flags.

I've lived in England for 20 years now and don't have much of an accent so it always amuses me when I hear English workmates stating how much they hate (and I mean hate - which is a strong word to use) all Welsh/Scottish - without realising I'm one of those they hate.

Oddly, in the 18 years I lived in Wales, I never heard anyone say that they hated the English...
 
Anyway... getting back to the tennis, and its coverage in our media.... Much was made in the press of not having had a British winner at Wimbledon, in 77 years? Forgive my geographical-confusion, but where did Virginia Wade hail from? (I'm sure most of us here can cast our minds back to 1977). The British media, ignorant, biased AND sexist? Surely not!!
 
Leaving all this aside, I am just so happy this week. I have loved tennis all my life and cannot recall not watching the Wimbledon Final live on TV. I have watched Andy Murray since his teenage years and seen him grow up on and of the court. He was petulant and sulky in the early days - characteristics that made him hard to like for some. People expect their sportsmen and women to be charismatic, nice, sometimes nasty but never bland. So even the likes of Samprass and Borg got some stick in their day. Andy Murray is a bit dull but he was obsessed with becoming a Champion. He has put in an incredible effort to make himself the best he can be - in an era of truly great players. And so he lost his first four grand slam finals. Who against? Perhaps the best players of all time.

Now in 12 months he has become Olympic Champion, US Open Champion and Wimbledon Champion. It's a stupendous achievement. We saw in the ladies final someone destroyed by nerves. Can you imagine the pressure on Andy Murray? To take the title against the World No 1 the way he did was just brilliant to behold.

So that's why I'm happy today.

And I think I'll sit in the garden and look back on some of the other great sporting events I've seen.

And get ready for the Ashes.
 
SAINT12661 said:
Didn't Murray respond in the past with "anyone but England" when asked who he wanted to win in another sporting event?
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yes he did when its put like that but if you read the whole interview it was banter between henman, murray and the interviewer when they took the piss out of him for scotland not being in the world cup.

its been a milstone round his neck ever since

I am welsh on dads side english on mum

so its wales for rugby and england for football, always like that, in my part of wales we had bbc and htv west so it was always english football

if my teams are not playing i never support anyone else regardless of where they come from
 
Re: RE: Being a British sport fan

Jute Man said:
Anyway... getting back to the tennis, and its coverage in our media.... Much was made in the press of not having had a British winner at Wimbledon, in 77 years? Forgive my geographical-confusion, but where did Virginia Wade hail from? (I'm sure most of us here can cast our minds back to 1977). The British media, ignorant, biased AND sexist? Surely not!!
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That was also the year when a lot of the "big" names didn't come... Dispute over low prize money or something.

She was the original choker... Could be a set up serving for the match at 5-0 40-0 and still lose in 3 sets (6-0 in the third)...
 
Why is it that Radio 4 sees fit to broadcast seemingly endless conjecture and opinion about The Ashes, the teams, the state of pitches, the ever-loving Silly Mid-On/Off and other cricket related, unintelligible-to-the-likes-of-me topics? Endlessly!!

Do Wales or Scotland have cricket teams? The Irish have more sense and better games, besides!
 
Bechet45 said:
Why is it that Radio 4 sees fit to broadcast seemingly endless conjecture and opinion about The Ashes, the teams, the state of pitches, the ever-loving Silly Mid-On/Off and other cricket related, unintelligible-to-the-likes-of-me topics? Endlessly!!

Do Wales or Scotland have cricket teams? The Irish have more sense and better games, besides!
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No so Carl. Both Scotland and Ireland have teams that appear in the World Cup. Wales is part of the England and Wales side - it's officially called that.
 
UKRob said:
Bechet45 said:
Why is it that Radio 4 sees fit to broadcast seemingly endless conjecture and opinion about The Ashes, the teams, the state of pitches, the ever-loving Silly Mid-On/Off and other cricket related, unintelligible-to-the-likes-of-me topics? Endlessly!!

Do Wales or Scotland have cricket teams? The Irish have more sense and better games, besides!
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No so Carl. Both Scotland and Ireland have teams that appear in the World Cup. Wales is part of the England and Wales side - it's officially called that.
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Are you serious??? The great rivalry between England and Australia is actually between the Aussies and the England and Wales side???? It gets worse!!
 
Bechet45 said:
Are you serious??? The great rivalry between England and Australia is actually between the Aussies and the England and Wales side???? It gets worse!!
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Absolutely. However as you can imagine, apart from England and Wales being represented, there is an opportunity for better Irish and Scottish players to be included. A current England player is Eoin Morgan (Ireland strangely enough) and a previous captain was Scotland's Mike Denness.

Let's see how many other Scots, Irish and Welsh names the thread throws up now.
 
So why, in the name of all that is traditionally English, is the side called "England" and not "Britain" or even "All us Pommy Bastards"?? Nah! that last just is not cricket, is it!
 
Because Scotland is separately affiliated to the ICC whereas England and Wales are joined in a single membership. The acronym ECB is short for 'The England and Wales Cricket Board' in its full name.

Remember that the serious money making cricket is tests and they are played between the leading countries only - which, I guess, means that qualification rules are a bit more relaxed than other 'International' sports.
 
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