Winner! (July 8th, commonsense-uk) Considering how much we British love our sport and how many games have their spiritual home in this land it’s a shame that we don’t win more than we do. I know our athletes had an outstanding year in 2012 and I know too that British cycling is in the midst of a golden era but in many other sports we tend to underachieve. In cricket, England are not too far off the pace and in rugby union Wales were unlucky not to win the 2011 world cup though they may do so in 2015. In golf, there are signs of improvement and the Northern Irish, in particular have punched way above their weight in recent years. In rugby league Great Britain are still some way short of the pinnacle and as for football, well, considering we invented the game, we are pretty inept on the world stage. How on earth England are officially ranked as high as 15th in the world is beyond me! That is why what happened on Sunday, July 7th, 2013 is so momentous. Wimbledon is without a doubt the most prestigious tennis tournament in the world and, when interviewed, nearly all players worldwide say that their aim is to win there. For the last 77 years we had grown used to seeing a procession of foreign players take the glory as British players floundered in their wake. Now, at last, a man from these Isles has won the trophy and has, at last, removed the monkey from the nation’s back. Andy Murray, a proud Scot, made history yesterday and the whole of Britain, not just Scotland, can rejoice in his success. Though admiring his undoubted skill and tiger-like fighting ability, quite a few Britons found it hard to warm to the man, although I confess to the tears in my eyes when he was interviewed having lost last year’s final! Yesterday’s success was wonderful and his victory speech, referring to a win for “the British” rather than Scotland (which must have really irritated the watching Scottish Nationalist Party leader, Alex Salmond!) was, to me at least, a sign of Murray’s maturity and a realisation of the enormity of what he had done. We must hope that Murray’s success is the start of a new era, not just for him, but for tennis and sport in the UK generally. There are not enough tennis courts in this country and there are not enough sports fields either. I’ve said before in this blog that sport in schools is vital and that all children must have the chance to participate in as many sports as possible. Politicians must stop the sale of school and community playing fields, they need to reverse the slide and create as many opportunities as possible for children to participate and compete. Competition is a dirty world among the politically correct liberal elite who govern our land but if they want to know the effect sport can have on people’s lives they should purchase and retain a copy of every one of today’s national newspapers and frame them on the walls of their Westminster offices!
Posted on: Mon, 08 Jul 2013 09:25:46 +0000