Manuel Orantes

Manuel Orantes playing at the 1974 Wimbledon tennis tournament.

Tennis in the Street

Central Johannesburg, 1977.

Referees Hate England

A scrappy win for England Rugby away at Stadio Flaminio in Rome, and one that was in the balance right up to final whistle as Italy bowed out all guns blazing.

Fair play to the Italians, they fronted up and played some great rugby. They never dropped their heads even as England were stretching away by the end of the first half. In the second half they gave it a lash.

But only because they were allowed to.

Here are some stats for the second period:
possession - Italy 68:Eng 32
territory - Italy 62:Eng 38
penalties against - Italy 3: Eng 15

Eh?

The referee is, in essence, saying that Italy were so good that England were reduced to cheating to keep them from scoring. Yet the match was not like that. Furthermore, these are Premiership players with bags of experience. They don't do it in the league so why would do they do it in the test arena?

The answer is they don't. The answer is a lot of international referees secretly hate us.

Today it was Irishman Alain Rolland's turn. A twerp with a chip on his shoulder he's got form too. For it was he that almost lost us the World Cup 2007 quarter-final against Australia when England's forwards were shitting all over the Australian pack yet we got given nothing.

This is happening too many times for it to be a coincidence. The most notable occasion of course being André Watson's almost surreal non-performance that almost cost us the World Cup in 2003. Our scrum in that match was clearly, obviously, 110% the dominant force yet he kept on not only nullifying it but actually penalising us for, in effect, bullying the poor Australian front row.

It's time someone spoke out about the celtic and antipodean bias against England. We're getting royally screwed almost every game we play. We have to play twice as well as the opposition just in order to win by a couple of points. What's the matter with these people? Did they get bullied when they were young? Do they have mental issues with the success of our fair isle? So what if they think we're arrogant? They're still supposed to play by the rules. Our arrogance or otherwise is irrelevant. I note that the refs who give England the fairest shout are the Frogs - whose own sense of arrogance is such that they're above having a chip on their shoulder.

Enough! Grow up and get over it colonials. You owe it to the game.

Pancho Gonzalez and Lew Hoad

Two classic tennis players from 1970s, Sancho from North America and Lew from Australia, team up for a photo before their match at the 'Clows Classic' in Johannesburg, South Africa (1971).

Gloucestershire Cheese Rolling

On this blog we like to cover all the classic sports - tennis, football, golf, cricket. And cheese rolling. The old west-country sport of chasing a cheese down a hill. Celebrate the skill and athleticism of the competitors in the following video.

Gloucestershire Cheese rolling 2007
Uploaded by Gloucestershire

Frankly, it's a wonder that our New Labour uberlords have not yet banned this annual test of bravery.

Vijay Amritraj

Picture of a very young Vijay playing in the USA in 1974. A claasic player and strong in doubles with his brother where they used lots of cunning angles and creative wristy shots.

Chrissie Evert

A picture of a young Chris Evert in action at the 1974 Forest Hills tournament.