Sports thoughts from the weekend

It's on... again - Photo IvanAndreevich CCA

Haven’t we been here before?

It’s the second week of a Grand Slam tennis tournament, and we have a Briton playing well facing a big quarter-final. Since the mid-nineties, this has been the point at which we begin to hope almost relentlessly for victory, a burden which had been carried by Rusdeski and Henman, and has now rested exclusively on Andy Murray’s shoulders. Four games played, twelve sets won, none dropped. So far, so authoratative. Next up, however, is Rafa Nadal - and failure to negotiate him, or his prospective semi-final or final opponent, will be perceived as another instance in a long line of ‘bottling it’. Let’s hope for Murray’s sake that given there will inevitably be a disproportionate reaction to his performances next week that is one of euphoria rather than disappointment.

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Normal service resumed in international cricket

The Australians are continuing their habit of destroying their opponents at home - after winning three Tests against the Pakistanis, including one from the most improbable overnight position of 80 runs ahead in the second innings with only 2 wickets left, they’ve returned to handing out drillings to away sides in the ODI format. Meanwhile, the Bangladeshis, about whom India’s Virender Sehwag courted controversy when he suggested that they did not have the bowling attack to take twenty wickets, are currently not taking twenty wickets against the Indians and are in turn sliding towards a second consecutive defeat. At least you get full value when watching the English play; at the moment, anything could happen, and even though more often than not it’s a battle to save a losing cause, there’s always the consolation that you have no idea what form the collapse will take.

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Bowling balls

The World Bowls Championship Final was interrupted yesterday by a streaker, a delightful incident which captured the very best of the sport. The BBC cameras directed their focus elsewhere just in time, and the commentary team steadfastly for several minutes spoke of merely ‘a delay’, which could only be translated into nakedness by the shocked expressions on the young girls’ faces in the audience.  The players, Greg Harlow and Stewart Anderson were able to exchange a joke in the middle of proceedings as they waited to start the next end, and only once the incident had drawn to a close did the commentators confirm the incident which had gone before, albeit with a wonderfully British sense of aloofness and derision. The game continued, and Harlow won his first title. Unfortunately, the BBC have surprisingly not opted to upload the moment on to the web, so because no Monday morning should really begin without a little bit of streaking, we present to you the best reaction to a streaker ever, courtesy of Andrew Symonds just two years ago: