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caz9999

Listed below are comments made by caz9999 between Monday, 27th October 2008 and Friday, 3rd July 2009.

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Owen worth Man Utd gamble 11:26am on 03 Jul 2009 wonder how many of the liverpool fans mocking utd for signing a "has been" were also over the moon at the return to anfield a few years ago of an overweight, unfit fowler, whose scoring record since leaving anfield was far worse than owen's?
Not just salmon and champagne 2:32pm on 30 Jun 2009 i am aware of the economic arguments, and they are at least relevant to the debate. to be honest i would be a lot happier here if coverage of the event were restricted to the sport itself, the bbc does have this antiquarian habit of advertising the social aspects of such events (henley, ladies' day at ascot, the boat race) when they should be an utter irrelevance to all bar the attendees.
i'm sure there are some tourists who come to britain thinking it is nothing but a nation of beefeaters, morris dancers, and stripey blazered pimms drinkers, but is that really the image we wish to portray? is it a mere coincidence that cycling, a sport with far more participants nationally, and which is every bit as demanding as rowing, receives next to no coverage - or at least did receive next to no coverage until we suddenly realised we were quite good at it. where for instance is the coverage of squash - not a sport i like myself, but again a far more popular sport in the uk than rowing?
and as a final point, the argument that these people devote their lives to a physically demanding sport is an utter irrelevance. the participants can train as much or as little as they want, but as spectators we are - or should be - interested in their end product rather than the means by which they achieved that end product. sport should be a spectacle, and whether they trained hard for it or not does not add to the spectacle itself. to put it simply, no one ever decided that george best was not worth watching just because his idea of training was a packet of lamberts, a bottle of bubbly, and a dolly bird.
Not just salmon and champagne 1:38pm on 30 Jun 2009 no one is questioning the importance of the event to those who take part - nor the social importance of it for those who attend, for what it's worth - but the question is whether coverage of it is particularly useful to those who do not take part.
i take it as read that people who participate care about the outcome - i saw clips the other day of the world cup stacking championships, who can arrange a pile of paper cups into a pyramid in the fastest time, and boy were the winners whooping it up - but when the licence fee, which apparently cannot stretch to much live football, or any live cricket, is lavished on such nonsense then of course people have a right to complain.
the bbc should be free, and possibly has a distinct role, to cover such minority sports, but when its coverage of the most popular sports is so patchy it does encourage a critical attitude towards things like henley.
Not just salmon and champagne 11:13am on 30 Jun 2009 yawn yawn yawn, the admission that this is more a social than a sporting occasion says it all. always interesting to compare the coverage the rowing world championships receive vs the coverage the boat race/henley receive.
Brits in pieces 12:13pm on 25 Jun 2009 couldn't agree more with 57, surely the whole point of taxpayers' money is to invest in kids playing sports, not effectively to subsidise failure. government money is occasionally available to fund other jobs in life (eg teaching) because that is seen as useful to society, but in most careers you pay for your own training and if you're not good enough then tough. why it should be seen as especially useful to society for someone to become a decent tennis player i don't know. and i had absolutely no idea that murray's coach was paid for with taxpayers' money, which seems both staggering and shameful, whether he is no.3 in the world, no.1, or no.33 is irrelevant.
read an article once on ivanovic - ok, there were a few pictures in there i admit - referring to her growing up and practicing in a drained swimming pool in between bombings of her hometown, she had to rely on sponsorship from local businessmen (well, i might have been tempted...) rather than handouts from the government. bet that type of upbringing would toughen up the brits...
Boat Race returning to the BBC 09:13am on 19 Mar 2009 yippee, the boat race is back on the bbc....no cricket, very little live football, no boxing, virtually nothing of interest comes out of bbc sport these days, but at least they're raiding the licence fee to broadcast a bunch of toffs in boats.
Stanford inquests begin 7:55pm on 20 Feb 2009 i have to say that for all the clear flaws in his arguments - pointed out by almost everyone who reads this blog it seems - my main objection to this journalist is simply that he is so boring. Pompous, self congratulatory and self important in spades, but threadbare when it comes to genuine insight.
Sheikh ya money! 6:15pm on 15 Jan 2009 if kaka really does belong to jesus then the FA will need to look at this signing very carefully, we don't want another tevez situation a year down the line.
Harry in a hurry 7:11pm on 27 Oct 2008 Juande (At A Time Sweet Jenas)

Don't know whether that is Spurs fans or Robbo wit, but either way it is sheer genius!

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