Fields of glory : 'His life, his skill, his service all merited the highest honour ... I pay humble tribute to his memory.' Don Bradman's reaction to the death in action of his great cricketing adversary Hedley Verity reminds us of an era when sportsmen excelled bravely in battle as well as on the pitch. As Remembrance Sunday approaches, we recall feats of true heroism and fortitude: from the pioneering black English footballer who died on the Western Front to the RAF fighter pilot who opened the batting for England to the rugby Lion who became commander of the SAS.

posted by Pete to culture at 03:37 AM - 1 comment

Football fans are idiots : Football is pricier, more uncompetitive and less atmospheric than ever. So why do supporters still lap it up, asks a bemused Sean Ingle

posted by Pete to soccer at 03:22 PM - 73 comments

Maradona the beacon in a noxious build-up : I don't think I've ever looked forward to the beginning of an English football season with less enthusiasm. For some of the reasons outlined in this article and the fact that my team are moving to a new stadium without any parking (!) I for one won't be counting down the seconds to the start of the new English football season. I'm going to the Ashes tomorrow, perhaps that will cheer me up!

posted by Pete to soccer at 02:59 PM - 4 comments

Diminuitive urn continuing to capture imagination: You can keep the return of the Premiership, the Tour de France and Wimbledon, this is the sporting event of the summer. The Ashes have it all, five matches that will determine that world's best cricket team. If you don't know anything about cricket this is the time to find out. If you want to go, you can't. It's easier to buy dodo's eggs than to pick up Ashes tickets at face value (and I've got my tickets - I'm so excited I could wee!)

posted by Pete to other at 12:38 PM - 23 comments

Liverpool consider deal to bring unhappy Owen home : The EPL is only a month away (if it ever really went away) and there's quite a bit of movement on the transfer front. Liverpool fans, would you welcome Owen back? Is Peter Crouch the answer? (IMO, only if the question is who is the most overrated, one-season wonder currently playing?) Surely no one would be silly enough to blow bucks on Luis Figo? I thought the Premiership had moved on from the days when it was a pension-fund for over the hill continental stars. By the way, no one has mentioned the departure of Vieira from Arsenal, do you think Arsene knows what he's doing? Is PV a spent force? Wasn't he Tony Adamson's appointed successor? What's gone wrong? Is Jermaine Jenas really being considered as his replacement? Say it ain't so!

posted by Pete to soccer at 05:51 AM - 6 comments

The American Edition: The always excellent Observer Sports Monthly has dedicated the current issue to US sports (which typically get little or no coverage in the UK press). Lots of excellent articles, as a starter, check out the the ten greatest moments in US sport and My Team

posted by Pete to general at 03:14 AM - 3 comments

Australians find inspiration in France : The Ashes is arguably the biggest sporting event of the summer for England and Australia. There is so much history between the two countries and the biannual competition means so much to cricket fans in both countries. There's a lot riding on it for both teams, the Australians are aging but still awesome whilst the English have beaten all comers recently but haven't yet been tested by the best. This article shows an interesting way for the Australian cricket team to prepare for the contest and very different to anything you might see in the shallow world of football. If you've never watched cricket before, the Ashes is an excellent starting point.

posted by Pete to other at 12:58 PM - 7 comments

Same old formula keeps real stories in the shadows : An excellent article from everyone's favourite US-based English rabble rouser. As usual, amidst the exaggeration there are some pearls of wisdom from the boy Swells.

posted by Pete to culture at 02:18 PM - 3 comments

Holy Goals: When he wasn't being the head of the Catholic church, apparently the late Pope was a major football fan.

posted by Pete to soccer at 02:01 PM - 8 comments

The search for integrity : Here's the latest column from Steven Wells - I know we have a number fans amongst us. It's a bit different to his usual postings...

posted by Pete to culture at 12:49 PM - 10 comments

Homesick Harmison's winter blues : For those who don't know who Steve Harmison is, he's a cricketer and is/was England's best bowler last year - he ripped apart New Zealand and the West Indies and became the best bowler in the world according to the stats.

People wanted him to do well on the current tour to South Africa to cement his position as number one, he seems like a genuinely nice guy. However on England's current tour of South Africa he has been nothing short of appalling.

It's always been known that he's a home body and would prefer to spend time at home rather than tour overseas but this seems to have crippled him now. It's almost painful to watch him bowl.

Is it reasonable to criticise him for giving in to home sickness? Is it a natural response to being away from home for a young father? Should he just grow up and do what he's paid (extremely well) to do?

Reading between lines you could have seen it a mile off before the tour but still it happened. Are the critics being overly harsh or has he let his team mates down?

posted by Pete to other at 02:35 PM - 3 comments

Knockout prose: The always excellent Observer Sports Monthly is looking for the top 50 sports books of all time. It gives a some examples of top reads here. What would SpoFiers pick as their top three sports books? After ten seconds' deliberation, for me, it would probably be Fever Pitch (Nick Hornby), Broken Dreams: Vanity, Greed and the Souring of British Football (Tom Bower) and Basil D'Oliveira: Cricket and Conspiracy—The Untold Story (Peter Oborne). Anyone daring to pick David Beckham: My Side - The Autobiography will have their internet connection taken away from them!

posted by Pete to culture at 02:31 PM - 17 comments

Swells Awardz 2004: For the Steven Wells fans out there here's his new column and his end of year awards.

posted by Pete to culture at 01:28 AM - 6 comments

England happy to leave but a bad smell lingers: Possibly we're done this one to death but I thought this article made a couple of interesting points. Just cos the tour's over, doesn't mean the problem's have gone away.

posted by Pete to general at 10:34 AM - 2 comments

The highs and lows of sports writing: We had a thread a few months back on US sports writing, this is the short list for the William Hill award, the prize celebrating the best in British sports writing. I'm not a fan of sports books myself, for every one good one, there are a hundred ghost-written hack jobs just written for a quick buck. Of course, there are good sports books - the best ones are good books not just good books about sport and would be interesting whether or not you follow that particular game. American sports writing is usually held up to be the best - in terms of quality and range so what do our American listeners think of this list? What would a comparable US shortlist look like?

posted by Pete to culture at 02:25 PM - 18 comments

'I've waited for this moment for 50 years': More World Series stuff. You don't get a lot of baseball coverage in the British press but the Times is doing quite a bit this week. They're getting Bill Bryson to cover it for them which should be interesting.

posted by Pete to baseball at 03:56 PM - 5 comments

The games writers play : Interesting article from the Guardian. There is a great tradition of novels about sport (or rather involving sport)in the US - something which doesn't seem to exist elsewhere. Why is this? Why is writing about sport seen as a lower form of writing in the rest of the English-speaking world? Hemingway, Roth, Updike - nothing lightweight about them.

posted by Pete to culture at 03:59 AM - 4 comments

Flower: tour is bad news: This is an issue that won't go away and no one's found a proper answer to it. No one's denying what kind of person Mugabe is and what he's done to his people but is it sport's job to take a stand when international business is happy to trade with Zimbabwe? No one's calling on British Airways to suspend its flights to Harare or for Barclays Bank to close its branches. Why is cricket tearing itself apart over this issue when football (soccer) is happy to play anyone and even the Olympics will be held in China - no one's idea of a democracy? Or should sport, something which can unite people of all nations, take a moral lead where politicians and business men have let us down again?

posted by Pete to other at 02:30 PM - 4 comments

Show me the money: This is an interesting article on the NFL draft system from the always excellent Observer Sports Monthly. I’d heard of the draft but never really understood it before, it’s an interesting idea but does it work in practice? Does it even up the league and make it more competitive? Or do the big boys always end up getting their way as they did in this case? Does it mean that no one team can have a monopoly on the best young talent or do they all end up going to the Giants and the other giants at the end of the day? On a related note, would it make it more interesting from a fans perspective to have promotion and relegation in the leagues? It could certainly make dull fixtures more interesting and give you something to play for.

posted by Pete to football at 03:34 AM - 10 comments

Souness to Newcastle!: Didn't see this one coming. This should make for some interesting dressing room talks. I would like to see Dyer and his cronies pull the same tricks on their new manager. Hopefully he will sort out some of the toon egos and disruptive influences. Mind you, is his track record with players that good? He seems to have fallen out with more players than he's ever bought!.

posted by Pete to soccer at 06:01 AM - 14 comments

Radcliffe was a sore loser: To get you up to speed, Paula Radcliffe was widely expected by the UK press to be a certainty for the marathon and when she pulled up/gave in/collapsed was regarded as some sort of Olympic hero by the more confused elements of the British press. I think this article puts a more logical viewpoint on the issue. Surely the ‘Olympic ideal’ is to compete and to complete the event whether you come first or last and to triumph over adversity - not to give up if you realise you’re not going to get on the podium.

posted by Pete to other at 03:40 AM - 18 comments

Why America hates football: The best-selling author of The Meaning of Sport explains

posted by Pete to soccer at 03:34 AM - 18 comments

A very American tour of duty: A little more on Lance.

posted by Pete to culture at 01:47 PM - 6 comments

David Millar - A cautionary tale: Anyone interested in cycling should read this article from the Guardian (UK).

posted by Pete to other at 03:21 AM - 12 comments

Coming to America!: An interesting and positive piece about football in the US

posted by Pete to soccer at 08:10 AM - 6 comments