Sports Category
Sports news, commentary and scores with wit and added value. We compare and contrast the best and worst sports reporting in the mainstream press, blogs, TV and online. We love the English Premier League (Arsenal, Liverpool, Spurs, Manchester United and Manchester City) and all things football but we cover cricket, rugby, the Olympics, tennis, golf, F1 and highlights of the sporting year.
A musical tribute to the looming football season: footballers of the world
A MUSICAL tribute to the looming football season:
Dundee Courier says Sir Roger Bannister did light Olympic flame
THE death of newspapers: Olympic Special:
“Midnight had come and gone before the ceremony ended but the huge crowd finally saw the most iconic moment of any opening ceremony – the lighting of the Olympic cauldron by the greatest of British milers Sir Roger Bannister” – Dundee Courier
Sir Roger looks very good for an 83-year-old:
Spotter: Private Eye
Where were you when ‘Britain’s’ Katie Taylor won boxing Gold at London 2012? Photos
WHEN Ireland’s Katie Taylor won Olympic gold in the women’s light 60kg fight with victory over Russia Sofya Ochigava, where were you? The paper listed Taylor as being British, a mistake which it apologised for but not before Fergus Murphy had offered a swap deal: “Dear Daily Telegraph. Katie Taylor is IRISH. However, please feel free to claim Ronan Keating, Jedward, Louis Walsh…” Australians merely saw the fighting Irish women and chirped every stereotype in the book. Peter Hanlon of Australian media group Fairfax being the worst culprit, offering up: “Dark-haired, deep-eyed and engaging, Taylor is not what you’d expect in a fighting Irishwoman, nor is she surrounded by people who’d prefer a punch to a potato.” Nice. Here’s Katie:
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London Olympics 2012 day 13 – the best photos
Our daily look at the best photos of the London 2012 Olympics. Day 13…
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London 2012 hairstyles of the day
SO long as they’re not sitting in front of me…
(From the left) Juliet Cooke, Chris Wilkinson and Josie Todd model hair sculptures by the Catalonian performance artist Osadia, who has recreated London landmarks to celebrate the 2012 Olympics.
Picture date: Thursday August 9, 2012. Photo credit should read: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire
McDonald’s medal table says Team USA are beating Team China
HOW is Team USA getting along in the 2012 Olympics? Well, it turns out that in spite of winning fewer gold medals than China, the Americans are winning. The McDonald’s Olympics table on NBC shows that Team USA are well ahead of Team World. It’s all those bronze medals, readers – which is understandable given that McDonald’s gives its own staff gold stars aplenty…
Spotter: DaiBaker
Posted: 9th, August 2012 | In: Sports | Comments (2)
Russian high jumper Ivan Ukhov hits the (vodka) bar – video
OLYMPIC watch focuses on Russian high jumper Ivan Ukhov, winner of the gold medal in the men’s high jump. One highlight of the competition was seeing Ukhov mislaying his vest and jumping in a T-shirt. Ukhov has form. In 2008, he earned a “strong warning” by the IAAF for jumping while under the influence of booze. Here he is at the bar:
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London Olympics 2012 day 12 – the best photos
OUR daily look at the best photos of the London 2012 Olympics. Day 12…
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Piers Morgan v ‘Bradley Wiggins’ on Twitter – only one winner
‘BRADLEY Wiggins’ v Piers Morgan on twitter – allegedly.
PS – The real Bradders is too cool to be bothered about arguing on Twitter.
PPS – Piers Morgan is innocent.
Spotter and brains behind this spoof here.
Posted: 8th, August 2012 | In: Sports | Comments (4)
Australia’s Olympic losers get Taiwanese animation treatment (with tasteless dingo)
AUSTRALIA’S Olympic losers get Taiwanese animation treatment (with tasteless dingo):
Posted: 8th, August 2012 | In: Sports | Comment (1)
Aussie media boxes itself into a racist Corner over Katie Taylor
NOT only did the Daily Telegraph (Aus) claim Irishboxing star Katie Taylor as one of their very own (see left) but journalist Peter Hanlon of Australian media group Fairfax produced a stunningly stereotypical piece on the success of the Olympian in the aftermath of her victory over Team GB’s Natasha Jones on Monday.
Hanlon’s article, which was run in the Age, the Sydney Morning Herald and the Brisbane Times, practically jumped out at the reader dressed in a leprechaun’s outfit shouting “Bejaysus”.
Take the headline itself, which successfully covers the old drunken Irish stereotype –
“Punch Drunk: Ireland intoxicated as Taylor swings towards boxing gold”
However, Hanlon’s not done with the drunken angle yet. He then adds a few individual drinks into the mix for good measure.
“For centuries, Guinness and whiskey have sent the Irish off their heads. Now all it takes is a petite 26-year-old from Wicklow.”
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Posted: 8th, August 2012 | In: Sports | Comment (1)
Daily Mail wonders if Z is for Zara Phillips or Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz?
THE Daily Mail’s quest for a twitter story took in Mike Tindall and his wife, Zara Phillips, who won Olympic silver in the Team Eventing Jumping Final. In ” Tweets for my sweet,”, the Mail’s man with a laptop wrote:
AS his wife competed for her country, Mike Tindall decided to provide a running commentary of the action on Twitter for the benefit of those who couldn’t be there.But unfortunately, some of his tweets had readers scratching their heads. Tindall repeatedly referred to his wife as ‘Z’ – leaving some of his 49,000 followers wondering what on earth he was talking about. ‘Z next to go in about 15 to 20 minutes,’ he wrote at one point.
Z..? Whatever could he have meant?
Daily Mail says golden Olympic dressage hero Carl Hester is ‘gay’ – horse deeply upset
MORE dressage (say it to rhyme with message) rubbish in the tabloids as the Daily Mail proiles two part of Team GB’s ‘three-man’ winning Olympic team, Laura Bechtolsheimer and Charlotte Dujardin. Alison Boshoff and Katherine Faulkner combine heads to tell readers a bit about them and their team-mate Carl Hester:
Miss Dujardin lives in a small cottage on Hester’s equestrian estate with her fiancé Dean Golding and their boxer dog Winnie. She rides for up to six hours a day, and is superstitious – always wearing the same set of clothes to compete.
Hester, who is gay, allowed her to ride his young horse, Valegro, as a novice, planning to ride the animal himself when he reached international standard.
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London 2012 name of the name: horse riding is for Rich Fellers
RICH Fellers is a horse rider for Team USA at the London 2012 Olympics. Horse riding is, after all, a sport for Rich Fellers. More nominative determinism when you spot it:
Spotter: RosieT
London Olympics 2012 day 11 – the best photos
OUR daily look at the best photos of the London 2012 Olympics. Day 11…
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Daily Express produces 22 carat crap front page: mistakes Dutch dressage team for British
THE Daily Express has made a decent fist of producing the worst front-page ever. Having hailed 22 carats as the benchmark of golden excellence at London 2012, the paper puts the tin lid on its Olympians wrongness by saluting Team GB gold medallists Alistair Brownlee (triathlon), Laura Trott and Chris Hoy (both cycling). And hats off to Adelinde Cornelissen, Edward Gal and Anky van Grunsven of the bronze medal winning Dutch team.
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Those London 2012 gold medal are more Argos jewellery than 22 carats
YAAAAY! Team GB is winning gold hand over fist. Sod football – let’s make athletics the national sport. We’re good at it. Very good at it. It’s 22 gold gongs so far! The Daily Express leads with the headline: “22 CARAT GOLD.”
Presumably, when the GB athletes had 9 gold medals the Express toyed with the headline “9 CARAT GOLD”, it being a benchmark of excellence and Argos jewellery. Only, those medals are not all that golden:
The gold medal is made up of 92.5% silver, 1.34% gold, with the remainder copper (a minimum of 6g of gold).
The silver medal is made up of 92.5% silver, with the remainder copper.
The bronze medal is made up of 97.0% copper, 2.5% zinc, and 0.5% tin.
The medals weight between 375 and 400 grams, (depending on the alloy) .
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Arsenal’s Robin Versie smiles through the agony
MORE football insight with the Daily Mail, which reports on Robin Van Persie’s training session with Arsenal in Germany. The headline tells readers:
Can I go now? United target Van Persie looks miserable at Arsenal training camp
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Liverpool’s Daniel Agger is worth £90m (Chris Hoy might be cheaper than Van Persie)
ANYONE missing the Premier League? No. Thought not. All those tossers like John Terry and his ilk, demanding respect and giving none clash horribly with the grace, drive and charisma of the Olympic athletes. While we wait for athletics to replace football – a sport none of the Home Nations are much good at – as the national sprot, let’s see what football-related bollocks the papers are talking about. Eyes turn to Daniel Agger, a decent-but-uninspiring defender currently playing at Liverpool. News is that Manchester City want to buy him. But how much is he worth?
“Manchester City are continuing to press for Liverpool’s Daniel Agger. The defender, 27, is valued close to £30million” – Daily Mail
“Manchester City have been told they have to pay a club-record fee for a defender – more than £22 million – if they are to convince Liverpool to part company with Daniel Agger” – The Times
“Liverpool have told Manchester City they can have Daniel Agger… but he’ll cost them! The Reds have slapped a £20million price-tag on the Denmark defender, and will refuse to do business until the Premier League’s moneybags champions agree to pay that much” – The Daily Mirror
“Manchester City have upped their bid for Liverpool defender Daniel Agger to £18m” – MEN
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Daily Mirror publishes 4-year-old ‘Tyson Homosexual’ story as its own breaking news
THE greatest story ever? Maybe. When the American Family Association opted to replace the word “gay” with “homosexual”, they duly renamed 100 metres Olympian Tyson Gay ‘Tyson Homosexual’ on their site OneNewsNow. The story reached the world in 2008, when Mary Ann Akers reported on it for The Sleuth. She spotted it at scienceblogs.com, goodasyou.org and PageOneQ.
A mere four years later, the Daily Mirror screams:
It’s “Tyson Homosexual” in fourth place… Christian website’s automated filter changes name of US sprinter
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Iraq goes mad for Iran’s gold medal wrestler Hamid Soryan (says Fox News)
SO. How did Fox Sports report Hamid Soryan gold medal performance in Greco-Roman wrestling at London 2012? With the headline: “IT’S IN THE BAGHDAD!” Soryan is from Iran:
Posted: 7th, August 2012 | In: Sports | Comment (1)
London Olympics 2012 day 10 – the best photos
OUR daily look at the best photos of the London 2012 Olympics. Day 10…
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Dutch judoka Edith Bosch bashes the London 2012 100m bottle tosser
DUTCH courage at London 2012:
It is being reported that the man who threw a bottle onto the track just before the start of the men’s 100m final was punched by an Olympic judo bronze medallist before being taken away by police…Dutch judoka Edith Bosch was in the stands at the Olympic Stadium and tweeted that she had punched the “drunken” culprit.
What odds it was a bottle of wife beater the twat tossed on the pitch?
London Olympics 2012 day 9 – the best photos
OUR daily look at the best photos of the London 2012 Olympics. Day 9…
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Vania Stambolova falls at London 2012 Olympics: nominative determinism
Woman falls over in the 400m hurdles & doesn’t finish. Look at her name. You couldn’t make it up…
She never stood a chance:
