12/03/24
December 25, 2014
How Boxing Day Became a Highlight of the Sports Year: Tomorrow is Boxing Day in England, a secular holiday for giving gifts to tradespeople and servants -- people who had to work on Christmas -- that has become one of the biggest sports days of the year. "The curious origins of Boxing Day sport date back to 1860, when two of the world's oldest football clubs met in Sandygate Road in Sheffield," writes one explainer. "One hundred and twenty-six years later, while the sport itself has gone through several transformations -- technical and commercial -- the traditional Boxing Day fixture continues to be the most anticipated of the annual football calendar."
Would be even more awesome-sauce if the Premier League could schedule rivalry games on Boxing Day. Burnley-Liverpool (don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled to get three points today), West Brom-Man City, Leicester-Tottenham, Man Utd-Newcastle, Everton-Stoke, etc... don't really stir the blood.
Boxing Day should be derbies where possible, something meaningful as second choice and best remaining for the rest. I know there are lots of scheduling constraints but this should be practical.
Happy Boxing Day to all the SpoFi tradesmen and servants!
posted by billsaysthis at 03:13 PM on December 26, 2014
Ipswich won 4-2 at third placed Brentford, meaning we were top of the league for 10 minutes, before Bournemouth scored against Fulham.
Mick McCarthy is doing a fantastic job with a team that cost a total of 10,000. People are sniffing around Murphy (14 goals) and Mings (very comfortably replaced multi-million sale Aaron Cresswell), and we had offers in the summer for McGoldrick. If we lose those three then I suspect we'll slip backwards after January, so I have my fingers crossed the Chairman will decide we can afford to ignore offers, at least in this window.
posted by Mr Bismarck at 11:07 AM on December 27, 2014
The boxing day test match between Australia and India is happening right now, but I can't find a working stream. *sigh*
On edit: found one! There's also New Zealand v Sri Lanka.