Concerts and Cricket weekend

5 thoughts on “Concerts and Cricket weekend”

1. Yes, the Conservative Party are the Party of today and the future. Unfortunately for Labour supporters the Labour Party is taking a step backwards by installing, in Gordon Brown, a Leader who is very much yesterday’s man.

2. Incidentally, I see that your esteemed leader has gone back into his shell after his hollow victory. So, as leader of Bury Council just when is Councillor Bibby going to pop his head above the parapet again? When will Bibby’s great leadership skills be finally demonstrated to his adoring public? Since the local elections his website has been constantly down, showing a message that rather sums up his policies and your party:

   ‘Currently updating, please call back later’

3. Thank you for your OPINION on my tastes in music. By the way my favourite artist is Kate Bush!
   Thanks to MotP for your long post. I agree that sport often mirrors life and I often ose sport to illustrate points I make.
   You say Michael Vaughan showed some defiance on the first day of the Adelaide Test well he might have done but he was not in the team!
   Why do the Aussies and some other Countries punch above their weight when it comes to sport? I think it is a combination of factors eg climate, lifestyle and the attitude to sport. I am utterly opposed to the idea of not letting children of any age lose at a game or sport. It just gives children the wrong idea about life. That is not to say that we should not teach compassion for those less fortunate and how to accept both defeat and victory with the same spirit, but children need to know that sometimes in life you take part in an activity and you lose.
   Finally, I don’t think Lancashire will benefit a great deal from the 2012 Olympics but I hope they will improve our general sporting performance.

4. I can’t believe you can shamelessly admit to going to see Meatloaf! I wonder if Boris Johnson would still think the Tories are the “funkiest, most jiving party on earth” if he knew of your awful music tastes.

5. Mr Nuttall,

   I see you’re off to watch some cricket this weekend. Very nice too, weather forecast not up to much though. As a matter of fact, I was in Australia to witness the Eng defeats in Adelaide and Perth. Great humiliating defeats they were too, all well before the expiration of the allotted five days. As a proud Englishman it wasn’t pretty to watch and other than the first day in Adelaide, when Michael Vaughan showed some defiance, it all had an air of inevitability. We knew what was coming and after the usual middle order collapse the end came fairly quickly on both occasions.

   I started to wonder why we are so far behind Australia and why our cricketers appeared to be so inferior man for man. There must be reasons (as opposed to excuses) and I thought of the usual ones, namely, Australia is a sports-obsessed country blessed with a beautiful climate and excellent facilities and Australian children spend virtually their whole lives playing out in sun-drenched open spaces.

   By contrast we have a lousy climate and thanks to liberal politicians we live in a fear-obsessed society where we daren’t let our children walk a few hundred yards to school because of the perceived threat of abduction. We live in politically correct times where those who govern us tell us that it’s not good for children to be competitive because some poor little dear has to lose. We have governments who make no attempt to encourage sport and who stand back and let greedy developers buy up school playing fields and open spaces. Add to this the fact that many state schools don’t even play cricket and you can see that we do have something of a problem.

   It’s not just cricket though is it? Our national football team, for example, seems to comprise nothing more than overrated, overpaid, over-pampered under-achieving big girl’s blouses. You’ll probably disagree? So ok, but when did we last win anything? They say that sport mirrors life and that sport is the lifeblood of a country.

   Choose whichever cliche you like but the fact remains that sport is a fairly accurate barometer of the country’s health and well-being. Sporting success creates a feel-good factor as the reaction in the Australian press to their Ashes success clearly demonstrated. Closer to home remember how excited we all were when we beat Argentina in football at the World Cup and thought we had a chance of making real progress in the competition? We should all lobby our MPs and tell them to stop the sale of school playing fields, eradicate the cancer of political correctness and provide the funding of decent sports facilities for all our schools.

   What then of our sportsmen? Why, with some notable exceptions like our national rugby union side (and even they haven’t won anything of late), are we so poor on a world stage? Well, I think with one or two exceptions (Steve Redgrave and Paula Radcliffe come to mind) we’ve become soft. We seem to lack inner strength and belief. We seem to lack streetfighters, men and women who never give up and who don’t know when they are beaten. We don’t seem to have the necessary hunger. Maybe our sportsmen are overpaid. Maybe they don’t have enough meaningful competition in our country to enable them to acquit themselves properly on a world stage. Maybe the important factor is financial reward as opposed to national pride. Perhaps it’s a combination of all these things. What do you think?

   Success though, as any top sportsmen will tell you, is largely in the mind. Self-belief is vital. Sure, a large element of skill is required but many successful sportsmen say that 70% (or more) of their success is in the mind. If you really believe you can do it then the chances are that you will succeed. That doesn’t go for politics and electoral succes by the way. Take a look at the anatomy of a winner. Contrast the world’s number one tennis player, Lleyton Hewitt (another Aussie – don’t they make you sick!) with our own Tim Henman. Hewitt is skilful, positive and hungry. He’s a streetfighter and a brawler. He’s nasty, he never gives up on a point and never relents until victory is secured. At all times he exudes confidence. He’s a winner. Henman on the other hand is skilful, a nice chap, from a nice comfortable middle class background, plays like a gentleman, chokes on big points and wins nothing. Who would you rather have on your side?

   We need to put more time and money into our sport. We need to take it seriously, very seriously indeed. We need to improve not only the facilities in our schools but the facilities in our towns and cities. We need to encourage our children to play sport, we need to cast the net far and wide into the shires and inner cities.

   We need to get hold of our own streetfighters, get hold of children with hunger and fire in their bellies. Get a hold of these children, put a bat and ball in their hands. Give them all the encouragement and help in the world. Tell them that with skill, dedication and desire the world can be theirs. If we don’t the gap is just going to get wider and wider and we may as well just get used to watching a never-ending procession of triumphant French, Brazilians, Americans and Australians. Final point – how will Lancashire benefit from the 2012 London Olmpics – when vital sporting funds are already being re-directed to the south?

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