Category: Sport

Mac Dupreez

The exodus of Southern Kings players continues. There can be but a handful of our Super Rugby squad announced in January still plying their trade here in the Eastern Province. The latest? Cornell du Preez.

“Watson (Kings president) confirmed yesterday that Cornell du Preez had also been released from his contract with immediate effect, to sign with Edinburgh Rugby in Scotland.

Watson said he was excited that Du Preez had been given the opportunity to further his rugby career.

“There is no doubt that Cornell was one of the stalwarts during the Southern Kings campaign and he has continued to play superb rugby for us during the Currie Cup First Division. We wish him everything of the best.”

Watson said he knew Du Preez aspired to build towards playing for Scotland, and did not feel he would be given the opportunity to play for the Springboks, because of the depth of loose forwards, if he remained in South Africa.”

And in other news … Continue reading “Mac Dupreez”

Make Bales of hay while the sun shines

The last minute transfer scramble on football’s deadline day continues to keep aficionados glued to the TV screen in the hope their club has landed a big fish. The cash is splashed without a care in the world. During this transfer window English clubs spent a record £630 million on players! It’s no secret I’m a football fan myself but even I find the money Real Madrid forked out on Gareth Bale beyond the pale. Gareth, fine player that he is, will take home a cool £300,000 a week in wages. No doubt, there will be other bonuses and perks in the small print to boost his coffers.

When will this Madness stop? When will the limit be reached? There is no way this can be sustained. Throughout Europe there have been teams that have faced financial difficulties and gone to the wall. Some of these clubs have dallied in the upper reaches of the game but what needs to happen is for a Real Madrid or a Manchester United to get into trouble before sanity, and lower pricing structures, comes into force.

Blast from the past, the second

When Warner and Rogers left the pavilion separately this morning to bat at the Oval, a commentator was reminded of the days of the Gentlemen and Players, who disappeared (allegedly) from English cricket 50 years ago.

So I found this piece from Wisden which tells the tale.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/wisdenalmanack/content/story/573224.html

PS as I write, Warner is out for 6. Is he an amateur?

Blast from the past

Seated one day at the keyboard, I was weary and ill at ease, and my fingers wandered idly over the noisy keys……..(sorry Adelaide)……. when suddenly I noticed a tweet about the fourth Ashes test from (fanfare) Phil Slocombe! I was transported back to the darkest days of MyT when the inimitable Qum Slo Feel (dubbed in honour of his long-sufferíng Chinese spouse resident with him in southern Spain) held forth on things sporting and topical. Had he re-emerged to cast his pearls before us once more?

No. The tweeting Mr Slocombe is a former cricketer for Somerset. A rose by any other name….. But I wonder if his namesake ever sold his house down on the Costas and returned to Chendu? Did Ron, his mate at McLaren, ever heed his advice? Did the judiciary of Chester ever appoint a better JP? Ah, the memories….

Hey pal! See you! Shcum so ye are!

Rab-C-Nesbitt(Apologies to Jay Dubya about the weegie stereotype but he cracks me up.)

The Beeb are most definitely over egging the pudding. In fact I would say there isn’t any pudding just egg.

Apparently this year there is going to be some kind of sports afternoon in ol’ Rab’s neck o the woods.

Yesterday the website selling tickets opened for business then promptly had a seizure and shut down again. The Beeb reports “because of the overwhelming demand … yada yada yada”. It turns out, there were 16,000 people trying to get a ticket. Most of those will be corporates and touts looking to make a quick shilling no doubt and yes some of them will be genuine fans of sport who would like to watch some pillock throw a stick further than another pillock.

Here’s the eggy bit. The Weegie website fell over because 0.025% of the UK population tried to use it.  16K out of 64 million people doesn’t exactly sound like a stampede to me, but the Beeb reckon its a landslide.

On the flip side of the coin. A wee note tae a’ ye sweaties who wad be free.

If you can’t even put together a www page for a “global event” that can withstand a miniscule portion of people looking sideways at it before it self destructs, perhaps being expected to tie your own shoelaces is not for you. Maybe you had better leave things like running a country to the grown ups.