Equestrian events at the Olympics and another vote for golf. And an honourable mention for the 50km walk, which quickly gets boring after the initial cheap laugh at everyone's ridiculous gait.
Was that the test where the huge, almost empty ground was reverberating to the Barmy Army's near constant singing? It was a sleep deprived night well spent listening to that on Test Match Special.
My old man was on his school's tiddlywinks team in the late 50's. They used to have away matches against rival schools. Admittedly this was a rather bizarre boarding school that is no longer in existence, but take from it what you will.
The attendance at Silverstone in 2022 for the British Grand Prix was 401,000 over the three days, with 142,000 tickets sold for race day on the Sunday. Many of these fans camp out overnight to get the best vantage point. I think that qualifies as 'masses'.
However, the issue is that all seven GPs so far have been won by the Red Bull team (5 wins for Verstappen, 2 for Perez), and in previous years it was Hamilton / Mercedes who dominated. It has become a technological contest, with 95% of the performance due to the car, and only 5% the driver.
The sport needs to get back to the 1970s, when all the cars were more or less equal, and the skill of the driver was the deciding factor.
Saturdays used to have the highs of wrestling Big Daddy, Giant Haystacks, Kendo Nagasaki, and Catweasel followed by boring horse racing which meant that it was time to go out and play football or throw something mud, sticks and such like at other gangs of kids.
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Derek Randall came to my school summer fair in West Bridgford, Nottingham. You could pay to bowl at him.
After a couple of my schoolboy deliveries he swapped his bat for a stump and proceeded to hit me around the park with that..sheer class.
Equestrian events at the Olympics and another vote for golf. And an honourable mention for the 50km walk, which quickly gets boring after the initial cheap laugh at everyone's ridiculous gait.
Was that the test where the huge, almost empty ground was reverberating to the Barmy Army's near constant singing? It was a sleep deprived night well spent listening to that on Test Match Special.
My old man was on his school's tiddlywinks team in the late 50's. They used to have away matches against rival schools. Admittedly this was a rather bizarre boarding school that is no longer in existence, but take from it what you will.
In my view, for any sport to be interesting (as a spectator) there are 3 key elements:
It has to be understandable to the person watching,
There has to be an element of human skill,
It needs to be between participants of roughly equal capabilities so that the outcome is not foreseeable.
Contrary to this though, watching any genuinely great proponents of their sport at the height of their powers is often a delight.
I also think the most legitimate sports have to be accessible to the masses. F1 falls at the first hurdle there.
The attendance at Silverstone in 2022 for the British Grand Prix was 401,000 over the three days, with 142,000 tickets sold for race day on the Sunday. Many of these fans camp out overnight to get the best vantage point. I think that qualifies as 'masses'.
However, the issue is that all seven GPs so far have been won by the Red Bull team (5 wins for Verstappen, 2 for Perez), and in previous years it was Hamilton / Mercedes who dominated. It has become a technological contest, with 95% of the performance due to the car, and only 5% the driver.
The sport needs to get back to the 1970s, when all the cars were more or less equal, and the skill of the driver was the deciding factor.
Participating wise you mean?
As it's easily accessible to watch. But clearly not many are going to be wheeling around town at 200mph.
Although in some areas of Wycombe at night...
Yeah - you've got to be absolutely minted to even get a foot in the door.
We can all play football...but not at the pace or with the skill we see on TV...
Archery has yet to win me over.
I like snooker but I do think that billiards is the most pointless game ever.
Saturdays used to have the highs of wrestling Big Daddy, Giant Haystacks, Kendo Nagasaki, and Catweasel followed by boring horse racing which meant that it was time to go out and play football or throw something mud, sticks and such like at other gangs of kids.
Does anyone remember kabbadi on Channel 4? Now that was a sport.
Great shout for a sport @Chris, anything but boring though!
Saturday mornings in the 90s were kabbadi, NFL and Gazzeta football Italia for me. With an elaborate coffee or an ice cream
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Lk40MugP6Og&pp=ygUdZ2F6emV0dGEgZm9vdGJhbGwgaXRhbGlhIDE5OTI%3D
So many wondrous things going on here, it's not even worth comment
I still remember how the Seria A scoreboard used to look:
1-0
0-1
0-0
0-1
1-1
1-0
0-0
In those days, 2-0 was a thrashing and 2-1 was an absurd goalfest.
ht
https://youtu.be/llqzVVjikbE
It’s marginally more interesting than shooting events. For me, the most tedious of sports.
Cross country skiing. Hours of traipsing across snow interspersed with shooting.
Holding hands, holding your breath chanting kabaddi kabaddi, trying to slap someone on the opposition.
And teams such as the "railway men".
Brings it all back.
The tension and drama was fantastic wasn't it?
Railway companies did seem to hold sway didn't they?
Not many people know this but the above from Malone were the original lyrics for 'Sweet Caroline'
What about that Big Frozen Conkers With Triggers Broom On Ice sport?
I struggle to think of anything duller than bloody golf.
Scrolling gasroom in close season?
You really don't enjoy the gasroom do you. 🤣