01/08/2012
And it was all going so well….
Tonight’s 200 metre breaststroke swimming final is going to be a bit of an acid test for the boys and girls at the BBC. For amazingly, there amongst the robotical Chinese, the dudesome yanks and the Jammy French, ‘TeamGB’ has managed to get not one, but two swimmers to qualify.
One is Michael Jamieson, the other is Andrew Willis.
According to the BBC, Willis was born in Surrey and is therefore British. Jamieson was born in Glasgow and is therefore Scottish. During yesterday’s qualifying rounds, we were constantly reminded of that fact – it was like after a couple of days trying really, really hard to treat everyone who batted for ‘TeamGB’ as a Briton, ‘Jolly-Hockey-sticks’ Clare Balding and co just couldn’t help themselves. ‘The Scot Jamieson’ became the default identifier – and as if to reinforce his ethnic credentials, after qualifying for the final, Mr Jamieson whipped off his ‘TeamGB’ standard issue red swimming cap to reveal a non-standard Scottish blue one.
After the umpteenth example of ‘The Scot Jamieson’ by George Riley a BBC 5Live sports reporter, we banged off this Tweet to him this morning….
…’If “Scotland’s Jamieson qualified”, why didn’t “England’s Willis” do the same? Why do you pple ALWAYS omit English nationality?’…
Mr Riley, replied, ‘reasonable point, will pass it on’…..
So the message is clear. BBC habits of nationality (Scottish, Welsh, Irish and British) will only change if enough people in England complain – and you can do that, here.http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/
Florence and the white water machine…
World number 1 David Florence was our big Olympic hope for yesterday’s Canoe Slalom final at the Lee Valley White Water Centre. After all, he’d won Silver at Beijing and was now top of the rankings - so with the right preparation, Gold was a nailed on cert. I mean, what could possibly go wrong?
As Roy Keene used to say ”Fail to prepare, prepare to fail”…. So with that in mind, and in order to give him as good a chance as possible, some two years ago, Florence moved down to live near the newly built centre and has been practising on its tricky waters ever since.
The course has a drop of over 5 metres from start to finish, so it was seen as absolutely vital that Florence practised, practised, practised to make absolutely sure nothing was left to chance…. Absolutely nothing.
Over that time, all manner of course configurations were tried out, every single eddy, current and flume imaginable was thought up so our Great White Water Hope could do the bizz for TeamGB when it really mattered….. Which was yesterday…
Unfortunately, Florence had a ‘mare. He didn’t even reach the finals – being unceremoniously knocked out in the semis. Overall, he came 10th. The BBC’s newest white water specialist sports reporter – former hop-skip-and-jumper Jonathan Edwards anxiously hopped-skipped-and-jumped over to see what had gone wrong. Florence was non-plussed. He couldn’t put his finger on exactly why he’d cocked up so badly, why he’d smacked a few gates and given a reasonable impression of never actually being in a canoe before.
After a bit of soul searching, Florence concluded that it was a bad day at the office and just ‘one of those things’.
To make matters worse, the gold was won by a Frenchman…. Oh, and if you’re wondering exactly how many runs David Florence has done on that course over the past couple of years in order to make sure he properly prepared for glory?…. He’s been down the course over 2,900 times – about 2,850 times more than the winner….
27/07/2012
Welsh players don’t know some English words – SHOCK! Daily Mail article.
Last night, the ‘Team GB’ footy team played the mighty Senegal at Old Trafford, Manchester. We were told that pomp, circumstance and lashings of prideyness flowed from the Team GB players in the dressing room. Team GB captain, Welshman Ryan ‘Winston Churchill’ Giggs was said to have given a rousing speech of patriotic vim, vigour & Victoria Crossyness – Dunkirk met Agincourt and Waterloo in a ‘we shall fight them on the beaches’ kind of way…
And out they strode in their patriotic Blue, Blue & Blue jerseys upon this green sward, this corner of a foreign field in Manchester that will forever be just a little bit of GeeBee.
Eleven warriors stood proud, erect, prepared for the battle to come. The anthem stirred into action. The camera panned down the line of this little band of brothers united together to fight the common foe (apart from Scottish players obviously as the SFA have taken their ball home – and also the Northern Irish because their players are all rubbish) ……
…And do you know what? Not one Welsh player sang anything. Not one word! Not a ‘God’, a ‘Save’ or a ‘Queen’… nothing – No one from the Principality sang a note – not even captain Winston Giggs!
The boy Gary Lineker was not happy. He tweeted; ‘Welsh players tight lipped during National Anthem’…
And then, presumably because loads of people had tweeted their disapproval, the Gazzler back-peddled a bit; ‘Calm down everyone. It was just an observation. Which is sort of my job as a journalist. It’s their prerogative’……
Their prerogative to diss’ the YouKay’s magnificently uplifting anthem, Gary?
I love this union dividend, don’t you?
BBC: London 2012: A 12-part guide to the UK in 212 words each
The English are British…
It’s just like thrush…
I wonder if Paddy Power is taking bets as to what will be the most irritating catchphrase of this 2012 Olympic Games?
Will it be ‘Come on Andy’, or ‘Here’s another hanky, Andy’ or ‘Never mind Andy, there’s always Rio in 2016’…. Or maybe ‘Oh no, the GB relay sprint team has dropped the baton, AGAIN!’…?
I think there can only be one – because it is already irritating the bloody hell out of me and the Games proper haven’t even started yet. ‘Team GeeBee’ is the baby. And it’s being championed to death by the BBC and other Brit-proud media outlets. And yes, it’s yet another cynical attempt to tell us that all in the UK is rosy & bright – and togetherness is our default position, when everyone knows, it isn’t..
Is it?
