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A first for the blog, a very brief piece of fiction, for this festive time. Let me know what you think! And apologies for the terrible pun in the title.
Christmas was not a happy time at The George for Reg.
In the last week of November Cathy the barmaid had hung up the Christmas decorations. Reg, being Reg, threatened to tear them down. In the end, he only removed the tinsel that hung over his seat in the corner. He also removed the mistletoe that mysteriously appeared there soon after.
If nothing else, Christmas made Reg punctual. At noon each day he would be waiting as the doors were unbolted, primed to secure his seat. He would not risk losing it to an unsuspecting gentleman wearing a paper crown.
By mid-December, Reg was plagued by the parties of revellers patronising The George. At any one time there was guaranteed to be someone acting festive.
On one occasion a group broke out a rendition of ‘Deck The Halls’.
“Tis the season for bloody amateur drinkers, more like,” grumbled Reg, to no one in particular. “Bring on January, when they’ll all have gone back to their gyms and widescreen televisions, and us proper drinkers can get some peace.”
Reg drained his pint of Best, got up from his seat, and left the pub, letting in some snow on his way out.
A gentleman wearing a paper crown immediately slumped in Reg’s seat. “Tis the season to be jolly,” he sang, raising his pint of lager, to no one in particular.
Footballers are increasingly perceived as being removed from the ‘real world’, and countless post-match interviews see players (and indeed managers) making excuses for poor performances. Supporters pay good money to watch bad football, often with no explanation or apology from those concerned afterwards.
Wigan Athletic’s 9-1 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur yesterday was obviously a very different beast. The best spin doctor in the world couldn’t squirm out of that one.
But even so, the Wigan players have responded in a creditable fashion today. Club captain, Mario Melchiot, announced that Wigan’s players would pay out refunds to each and very Wigan supporter who had made their way down to London yesterday to watch their team.
The statement read, “We feel that as a group of players we badly let down our supporters yesterday, and this is a gesture we have to make and pay them back for their tremendous loyalty.”
How wonderful and novel would it be if all sportsmen responded to bad defeats in this fashion? I’m not suggesting that every team that has a shocker should refund their fans, but it would be refreshing if more sporting professionals took responsibility for a poor performance and apologised to their (often long-suffering) fans. Who, less we forget, pay their wages.
So, what sporting performance would you have liked a refund, or at least an apology, for?
And outside the sporting sphere, do you think we hear the word “sorry” enough?
A minor milestone for the blog, as this is my 100th post here. In recent days, the blog has also tipped over the 1,000 pageviews mark. Neither are massive achievements by any means, but have certainly given me a just a little bit of pleasure. The blog has limped forward from having extremely sporadic posts read by nobody, to having reasonably regular posts read by at least a few people. And you know what? That’s enough for me.
I have never really had any ambitions when it comes to this blog, but it is always nice to know you’re being read, and especially satisfying to get responses – so thank you to everyone who has ever commented!
Anyway, enough of the Oscar speech, and onto the matters at hand. I’ve decided to treat myself and the blog to a proper domain name, so you can now access the site via http://waituntilnextyear.net. However, the old address, http://waituntilnextyear.wordpress.com will continue to work just as well.
I’ve also been thinking about the content on the site, and how I could improve it and perhaps make it more enjoyable, for me to write, and for you, dear reader, to read!
I’m aware that despite positioning this as a general ’sport’ blog, I’ve only really been covering a couple of sports in any depth. And, to be honest, I only have so much time to watch sport, much to my consternation, and to my Significant Other’s relief.
So, there were two options. I could either focus my efforts further, or alternatively, widen my reach beyond sport and just blog about whatever comes into my head.
I’ve read enough ‘how to blog’ sites to know the former is the sensible option. However, the second option sounds a lot more fun to me. So, while the prime focus will remain on sport, I am going to play around with other subjects from time to time. It might make the blog more messy, it might stunt its growth and put people off, but I reckon it could make things a little more interesting. And that’s a good thing, right?
I do have some ideas about the various directions I’d like to take the blog and my writing in the next few months. I’m thinking of sticking up some writings on music, as we all know the internet needs more half-baked album reviews. I also think that us living in such a fascinating time, with wave upon wave of new technology, is probably worth commenting on. In terms of sport, I might end up writing some posts with me actually learning some stuff, rather than just blithering on with my ill-informed opinions. Oh, and there will be plenty of my usual blithering on with ill-informed opinions. It is what the internet was built for!
So, to round off this ego-post, I’d be delighted to hear any feedback, thoughts on where the blog could go from here, or any suggestions for new content.
Thanks for reading!
Quite a week for the blog – comments and people actually reading it and everything! Thanks in particular to Steven and Nathan for their comments. Do check out their sites.
Now onwards and upwards with sports stuff I’ve enjoyed this week…
Baseball
Faith and Fear in Flushing write the letter the New York Mets should have sent to their fans after a very disappointing season.
Wezen-Ball looks forward to the play-offs with a Simpsons clip and some choice dialogue.
Ninety Percent Scar Tissue considers a simple way to improve baseball.
Football (soccer, for our American friends!)
The ever reliable Twohundredpercent praises floodlit football.
Pitch Invasion looks at FIFA and potential bias towards larger countries.
A bit of a two-sport week, then, links-wise.
So, what have you enjoyed reading this week, in whatever sport? Has there been any decent commentary on Rio’s successful Olympic bid?
I’d love to hear about more of the good stuff out there…
A shocking day yesterday, and now the project is down about 10 points overall. While probably focusing on a couple of races would be more sensible, the scattergun approach has won out again today. Another day like yesterday (one place finish) and maybe I’ll rethink. I really need two or three of these to come in.
Anyway, today’s losers…
2.10 Swingkeel (7.50) 2pts
2.45 Chapeno (7.00) 2pts
3.25 Paco Boy (4.33) 1pt and Forgotten Voice (29.00) 0.5pts ew
4.00 Highland Glen (7.50) 1pt and Akmal (11.00) 1pt
4.35 Damietta (7.00) 2pts
5.45 Something (13.00) 1pt and Purissima (5.50) 1pt
12 points staked.
