Well , if there was a gold gong for jingoistic twaddle then the BBC commentators would win it in a canter.
The Olympics proper kicked off this morning at nine.
By five past the hour the testosterone filled BBC reporter from Radio Five Live who was covering the Archery at Lord's announced in no uncertain terms that the Team GB men's four was looking good for gold.
In hushed tones this very excitable reporter advised us that all the guys had to do was breeze past the Ukraine team (who the reporter simply didn't rate) then deal to the world champion Koreans, a team who our intrepid reporter suggested were "out of sorts".
It was all over in twenty minutes. Team GB were simply blown into the weeds by these no account Ukranians.
What's the matter with these Eastern Europeans? Didn't they know they were simply there to make up the numbers and act as target practice for the all conquering British four?
No matter, the next event was the ten metre female air rifle shooting.
The most articulate English commentator advised us that after four shots the Team GB competitor was leading the field with four perfect bulls eyes and was a shoe-in for either Gold or at worst , Silver.
Looking good , looking very good.
Hang on a minute, we have just received an update confirming that no fewer than thirty five competitors had in fact nailed perfect scores after four rounds.
Roll onto the ten o'clock news update.
Bad news. Team GB's sole entrant in the ten metre shoot had been eliminated in the first round.
Change of tone from the English reporter. We now discover that said competitor was in fact a Scot. Bloody hell, who let her into the team?
At this point I'm reminded of the fact that as and when the Brit Andy Murray fails at every tennis major, the following morning all, London papers report that the Scot Murray has once again fallen short.
OK, enough of the negativity. None of these side issues count for much.
What really matters is the Men's Road Cycle Race.
The result is a forgone conclusion. The five man GB team includes last week's Tour de France winner Bradley Wiggins and the mighty Mark Cavendish. You should recall at this point that at the last Olympics in Beijing Mark Cavendish was the only male member of the Team GB team who failed to pick up a medal.
Redemption day has arrived.
We wanted to get into the act so wandered down to the course and positioned ourselves smack bang out front of Buck House, a possie 300 metres from the finish line.
We actually didn't arrive until about 1115 so missed the mass start. One thing led to another and we got into a discussion with a couple who had made the two hour trek up from Winchester to witness Mark Cavendish ordained as the worlds number one road cyclist.
In discussion I put it to this manic fan that maybe a Cavendish win wasn't in the bag as the other one hundred and forty plus riders might have a different view.
I was promptly advised that I should stick to rugby and that Cavendish's win wasn't even worthy of debate.It was a no brainer.
As the riders weren't due to return to Constitution Hill and The Mall for a number of hours we decided to high tail it off to one of our favourite pubs The Audley for lunch.
We couldn't be bothered going back to the course to await the final stages of the race as we were not big on just sitting around in the sun doing nothing .
So it's off home to watch the final act on tellie.
I switch on the box to discover that the Team GB plan has turned to custard , everything has gone wrong, and in the final analysis the much vaunted team finished way down in the Paleton .
Never mind, there are fifteen days to go and a truck load of water to pass under the bridge.
I have every confidence that the local team will start delivering the goods, preferably sooner rather than later.
This is nation desperate for success
They are just as bad as those pesky Crusaders and All Blacks supporters
No comments:
Post a Comment