Feb 22 2008
Last week Charlotte and I had a really romantic Valentine’s night out; three pints in the Time Bar and then off to the Y Theatre to see Stewart Lee do some stand-up (his tour coinciding with the Leicester Comedy Festival). But it wasn’t sex that filled the air in the theatre, it was brains. Continue Reading »
Jan 31 2008
I haven’t written anything on this blog for ages. My excuses are, in chronological order: 1)going on holiday and 2) getting loads of books for Christmas. Also it’s been cold, and I have become obsessed with making soups. I’ve finally got round to thinking about posting a new entry, and by some strange coincidence the Northern Hemisphere’s international rugby season is starting up again after the World Cup. This isn’t a rugby blog though, so I am not going to comment on the likelihood of England beating the Ospreys by about 30 tomorrow, or on the recent improvement of Scotland forming a counterpoint to the decline of the Irish. In fact, I’m not really going to comment on anything, as I have to go and make tea. But I might just list a few of the things that have been in my brain over the past three months, in an attempt to fill up space. It will make me feel better, at least. Continue Reading »
Oct 14 2007
Only four weeks after being awful, the England Rugby Union team is now marvellous. It’s been a quite dramatic turnaround; the Rugby World Cup pool game between England and South Africa back in September saw England receive a 36-0 thrashing and led to the widespread belief that England had not a cat in Hell’s chance of defending their crown. Headlines such as ‘Worst World Champions Ever’ proliferated (ahem) and many observers doubted whether the team would even qualify for the tournament’s knockout stages. Fast-forward four weeks and, by beating hosts France, England have booked their place in next week’s final, amazing all but the most patriotic of pundits and giving themselves the chance of being the first nation ever successfully to defend the Webb Ellis trophy.
So how did it happen? God only knows, but it seems that being so totally written off engendered in the English team a bloody-mindedness and a ‘back to basics’ approach that enabled them to slowly battle back towards form. After that, a combination of scrummaging power, fortunate bounces, last-ditch tackles, immense heart and keeping Lawrence Dallaglio off the pitch until the dying seconds has seen England to their current, unfeasible position. Their matches haven’t been flashy, but even the neutrals must have admired their spirit.
But despite this comeback of Barrymore-like proportions, the fact remains that England’s record over the past four years has been poor. Before last week’s shock victory over Australia, the team had won just 19 of their past 44 games. So we can still justifiably, albeit bizarrely, call England the worst world champions ever even at the point where they could become the best world champions ever. Go figure.
On an entirely unrelated subject, I have just discovered that I am taller than the average Brazilian. Admirável! But shorter than the average Lithuanian. Po Kelmais!