BS: Wimbledon 2013

Subject: BS: Wimbledon 2013
From: gnu
Date: 07 Jul 13 - 06:01 AM

In three hours, I will pour cold skim milk on strawberries which I eat only once a year... today is the day. Too early in the day for opening the small bottle of Spumante Bambino, tho. Of course, if Murray takes it, I shall have no choice but to do so.

Gonna be a nail biter!

Subject: RE: BS: Wimbledon 2013
From: GUEST
Date: 07 Jul 13 - 06:18 AM

Haven't eaten a strawberry since I worked on a Strawberry farm forty one (41) years ago

Subject: RE: BS: Wimbledon 2013
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 07 Jul 13 - 06:22 AM

The BBC now rate Wimbledon more important than world news.

Dave H

Subject: RE: BS: Wimbledon 2013
From: gnu
Date: 07 Jul 13 - 07:15 AM

I would expect so... for about the next 8 hours.

Subject: RE: BS: Wimbledon 2013
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 07 Jul 13 - 07:41 AM

Hope for a good Gentlemen's Final [as they still quaintly call it,uniquely among the Grand Slams and other tournaments!]. A pity poor lovely Sabine Lisicki's temperament let her down in the Ladies'. She had shown herself the Comeback Queen against Williams & Radwanska, coming back against both after 0-3 in the final set; and was coming on strongly yesterday towards the end of the second; but couldn't quite get it together in time.

To take nothing from Maria Bartoli, mind, who played a fine game. Well done to her!

And nice to see their warm, friendly embrace at the end ~~ fine contrast to Aga Radwanska's unaccountable mannerlessness at the end of their semi-final. I suspect she just wanted to rush off court to cry somewhere in private.

~M~

Subject: RE: BS: Wimbledon 2013
From: gnu
Date: 07 Jul 13 - 08:48 AM

Agreed MGM.

Subject: RE: BS: Wimbledon 2013
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 07 Jul 13 - 08:49 AM

The graciousness of both girls at the end was impressive, to say the least. Both had very nice interviews, Sabine Lisicki in particular was a credit to the game and her nation in a touching display of grace and dignity in defeat.

Subject: RE: BS: Wimbledon 2013
From: GUEST,Musket sans racquet
Date: 07 Jul 13 - 09:18 AM

Better a British champion than a Scottish loser eh?

Subject: RE: BS: Wimbledon 2013
From: gnu
Date: 07 Jul 13 - 11:31 AM

Forgive my Canuckistanian but... FUCK YEAH!!!!!!!! My Throat is already hoarse. The bubbly is on ice.

Over here, John McEnroe is one of the commentators. After Novak screamed at the ref and asked, "What is going on here?", the other guy said, "He was yelling pretty loud at the umpire wasn't he? (long pause) John?" I nearly split a gut laughin!

Subject: RE: BS: Wimbledon 2013
From: gnu
Date: 07 Jul 13 - 12:12 PM

Bubble bubble... bubble bubble...

Subject: RE: BS: Wimbledon 2013
From: Will Fly
Date: 07 Jul 13 - 12:30 PM

Pop! Glug, glug... :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Wimbledon 2013
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 07 Jul 13 - 01:01 PM

W H E W !

Subject: RE: BS: Wimbledon 2013
From: GUEST,Musket sans devolution
Date: 07 Jul 13 - 01:11 PM

Ah but Fred Perry did it in long trousers.

At least from now on, commentators will have to find better statistics than their obsession with never having a British winner.

Mind you, if Alex Salmond has his way, all bets are off.

Tennis anyone?

Subject: RE: BS: Wimbledon 2013
From: gnu
Date: 07 Jul 13 - 01:19 PM

Ditto... ditto. Wow!

And Novak! What a cool guy. I saw him look up at his box and smile after he royally fucked up and I knew immediately that it wasn't over. His whole body just seemed to loose the "tenseness"... his shoulders relaxed, his breathing slowed and his just started playing calmly and with ease. It made for an amaing finish.

The post game was as good as the game. I did kinda freak out when Andy turned to start his descent back to the court. I hollered at him* "What about Mum!???? Glad he heard me and went back. >:-)

Loved every minute tho I actually said out loud when he was down 4-2 in the third, "I wouldn't mind watching one more set."

Good on ya lad!

And, good on Wimbledon and the fans... THE most exciting tennis tournamnet there is.

* Why, yes, I do live alone. Even if I didn't, I would still rant and cheer and clap. Just like those in the players' boxes and all over the world.

Subject: RE: BS: Wimbledon 2013
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 07 Jul 13 - 04:17 PM

Whatever happened to the understatement that was supposed to be a central part of "Britishnness"? The BBC has gone hysterical.

All about 77 years since a male British victory at Wimbledon.   I hesitate to think what they'd do in the unlikely event there was an English winner some day...

Subject: RE: BS: Wimbledon 2013
From: akenaton
Date: 07 Jul 13 - 05:31 PM

Best moment?....Alex Salmond waving a saltire over the head of David Cameron.....:0)

Subject: RE: BS: Wimbledon 2013
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 07 Jul 13 - 05:39 PM

The stuff about "British" would still apply technically even when it ceased to be possible to talk about "Great Britain" as if it were a country rather than an island.

Subject: RE: BS: Wimbledon 2013
From: gnu
Date: 07 Jul 13 - 08:17 PM

Ohhhh knock that shit off eh? I admire the lad himself. Always have. Been a fan since I first saw him play 7 years ago (heard John McEnroe say he was impressed and I took note... McEnroe was quoted on my TV today as sayin he was impressed with the lad when he was 17 - 9 years ago - and said he would win majors some day). Is he a "Brit"? Yeah... AND he's a Scot. Do the "Brits" embrace him? Apparently they do. I think people all over the world embraced him today. I certainly did as I have followed his career.

Did it mean anything to me that he is a Celt? Welllll... a weeee bit if I didn't lie about it. >;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Wimbledon 2013
From: Gutcher
Date: 07 Jul 13 - 08:41 PM

Strange that the lad could not get the required training on this Island----- Considering the amount of money being pumped into "British" tennis, are some of the blazers taking money under false pretences?
What do they know in Spain that is not known here.

Subject: RE: BS: Wimbledon 2013
From: Pete Jennings
Date: 08 Jul 13 - 06:50 AM

Difficult to believe that it was a straight 3 set win. Felt a lot longer than that! Well done to both players, but YAHOOOOOOOO!

Subject: RE: BS: Wimbledon 2013
From: clueless don
Date: 08 Jul 13 - 09:47 AM

But ye know the Scots folk canna play the tennis to save their lives!

Maybe Murray is a blancmange?

Subject: RE: BS: Wimbledon 2013
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 08 Jul 13 - 10:26 AM

"Strange that the lad could not get the required training on this Island----- Considering the amount of money being pumped into "British" tennis, are some of the blazers taking money under false pretences?
What do they know in Spain that is not known here."

Probably nothing.

But they do have a far better, warmer climate, as indeed does Florida where AM has a property and spends a fair amount of time playing and training in their heat, so that when he's playing in championships in hot countries he's not disadvantaged by being unused to the conditions.

And, of course, few of the top coaches live in the UK.

Subject: RE: BS: Wimbledon 2013
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 08 Jul 13 - 10:39 AM

Who WAS the British Gentleman who was champion 77 years ago? His name seems quite forgotten, at least in reports I seen or read. Give him his last hurrah...name him...he will now be even more obscure (except to diehard fans of the game) than before.

Subject: RE: BS: Wimbledon 2013
From: MikeL2
Date: 08 Jul 13 - 10:44 AM

Hi

Now that the dust is settling.....

Yes Murray Mania will continue without doubt.

I don't really feel any different now that we have a "Gentlemens" Singles winner.!!!!

Looking to the future I don't see any likely successors to Andy in our latest crop of young players. He's ranked 2 in the World ( at the moment !!); the next one to him is seeded 219 !!! We seem to get some good boy and youth players and then they seem to disappear into the atmosphere.

Same in the Women's. We have Laura Robson looking to have potential. Hope it's not just a flash-in-the-pan.

Gnu - Isunk a few glasses of cold bubbly while watching the Final. Nice dish of strawberries too....but then we have strawberries most days.

I thought it was a good tournament on the whole. The early shocks opened up the competition and it was good to see some new faces playing in the later rounds for a change.

Cheers

M

Subject: RE: BS: Wimbledon 2013
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 08 Jul 13 - 10:58 AM

JftSC ~~ Might seem like that over there. But Fred Perry is still a much revered name here among tennis followers. Can't imagine where you got the impression he was a forgotten man, or ever likely to be.
Have a look at his wikipedia entry to find where he is commemorated by statues, street names [including 3 in USA] &c.; and how he features in all lists of greatest players by such as Jack Kramer and so on.

~M~

Subject: RE: BS: Wimbledon 2013
From: Pete Jennings
Date: 08 Jul 13 - 11:25 AM

And, of course, his brand of clothing lives on...Fred Perry.

Subject: RE: BS: Wimbledon 2013
From: gnu
Date: 08 Jul 13 - 11:45 AM

MGM... I am sooo tempted to make a joke but being the gentleman I am, I won't.

Whadda youse laughin at?

Subject: RE: BS: Wimbledon 2013
From: Bill D
Date: 08 Jul 13 - 12:06 PM

Murray did a fine job... no matter how you want to classify his residence.

Last year, Bradley Wiggins won the Tour de France, and this year Chris Froome is leading. I still remember Roger Bannister breaking the 4 minute mile.

and... from The Guardian: (about Virginia Wade)
"The Andy Murray headlines have ignored the fact that a Briton won a Wimbledon singles title in 1977. Ah, but she was a woman"

Keeping prespective is important. The UK has many more sports winners to be proud of.

Subject: RE: BS: Wimbledon 2013
From: Bill D
Date: 08 Jul 13 - 12:08 PM

From that same Guardian article:


"Four British women have won Wimbledon since Fred Perry? Yep. Partially deaf player Angela Mortimer won the championship in 1961, and underdog Ann Haydon-Jones beat legend of the sport Billie Jean King to win again in 1969."

Subject: RE: BS: Wimbledon 2013
From: Jim McLean
Date: 08 Jul 13 - 12:12 PM

I cringed a bit when I saw Alex Salmond wave the Saltire behind Cameron but then as that flag was banned at the Olympics and Cameron ensured that Scottish winners were wrapped in the Union flag, I just smiled!

Subject: RE: BS: Wimbledon 2013
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 08 Jul 13 - 12:13 PM

Not laughing at anything, gnu. Have in fact not the remotest idea of what you are on about.

Subject: RE: BS: Wimbledon 2013
From: Gutcher
Date: 08 Jul 13 - 12:14 PM

Nothing???
Strange that the obsession with winning on these shores has not produced results commensurate with the amount of finance "invested", when you consider that the move to train in warmer climes is a fairly recent development.
I would have thought that home grown players would have had a distinct advantage when playing in our variable climate. the word that comes to mind is acclimatization with very few of the players from other climes having this advantage plus the fact that grass court tennis is a relatively rare game on the international tennis cicuit.

Subject: RE: BS: Wimbledon 2013
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 08 Jul 13 - 12:54 PM

A fine win. Andy Murray deserves the accolades.

Perry was one of my heroes when I was learning how to play back in the dark ages.

Subject: RE: BS: Wimbledon 2013
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 08 Jul 13 - 01:44 PM

Money pumped into Tennis? All over the country publicly owned tennis courts are being closed, thanks to the cuts. So are sporting facilities of all kinds used by young people. Rich kids might get a chance of having a crack at developing their skills, but others won't have a chance most of the time.

Subject: RE: BS: Wimbledon 2013
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 08 Jul 13 - 04:16 PM

As for only "diehard fans of the game" remembering Fred Perry, I couldn't really give a toss about the game, and I'm familiar with the man's name.

Subject: RE: BS: Wimbledon 2013
From: gnu
Date: 08 Jul 13 - 04:45 PM

That may be a good thing, MGM. Both my jokes were in my usual poor taste. >;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Wimbledon 2013
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 08 Jul 13 - 09:36 PM

MtheGM--

My post was not meant to offend!! The reports I saw did not mention Mr. Perry by name. I would have thought they would have, and I think it a reporting faux pas. I, of course, am too young to have been aware of his playing days, his Wimbledon crown being prenatal for me. But I do know of him. Was he involved as a non-player coach or captain later on?

I first started to really follow Tennis when I was in high school, the days of the Aussies Hoad and Rosewall. When I stopped playing the game on weekends, about 25 years ago, I lost much of my interest in the sport. Except for the sisters Williams, I don't even know the names of active USAns in tennis.

Subject: RE: BS: Wimbledon 2013
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 09 Jul 13 - 01:10 AM

No,John; later on Perry turned pro and rather faded out, according to the interesting Wiki entry ~~ which I recommend if you really want to know all details of his career.

~M~

Subject: RE: BS: Wimbledon 2013
From: Gutcher
Date: 11 Jul 13 - 03:10 AM

Anent the finances spent in training players.
Yesterdays Times states that the total annual grant for tennis in England is £38,000,000, with the chief "blazer" being paid an annual salary of £460,000, add to this the cost of his junckets to overseas climes, expenses and the cost of his back up staff and I would reckon there would be no change out of £1,000,000, how many other "blazers" are on the gravy train and what is the total annual waste of scarce resourses being paid to these non producers?---current results show that they are certainly failing in their core remit of producing players who can compete on the world circuit.

Subject: RE: BS: Wimbledon 2013
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 11 Jul 13 - 07:30 AM

Murray is the first SCOTSMAN to win Wimbledon and Perry (also a champion table tennis player) was the last Englishman. My poem "Musing on Wimbledon" - http://walkaboutsverse.blogspot.co.uk/2010/05/walkaboutsverse-195-of-230.html

Subject: RE: BS: Wimbledon 2013
From: s&r
Date: 11 Jul 13 - 01:36 PM

And Murray is the last Briton to win Wimbledon, and Virginia Wade is the last English and British woman to win Wimbledon. Of course being a woman means she doesn't count anyway.

Cheers Cobber

Stu

Subject: RE: BS: Wimbledon 2013
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 11 Jul 13 - 04:40 PM

Three British women have won since the war ~~ Angela Mortimer, Ann Jones, Virginia Wade. None of them is a Dame: Wade OBE, the other two nothing. So why all this insistence that Murray must be knighted? We shouldn't grudge it him; but when are they going to be DBEs, then?

~M~

Subject: RE: BS: Wimbledon 2013
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 11 Jul 13 - 06:53 PM

I wasn't born the day the day Alf Ramsey's British team won the FIFA World Cup, Stu. And Andy Murray DID used to talk like a Scottish nationalist - mentioning supporting opponents of England's football team, e.g.

Subject: RE: BS: Wimbledon 2013
From: Gutcher
Date: 12 Jul 13 - 05:34 AM

W.V. We must be living on a different planet--have never heard or seen the succesful 1966 world cup winners referred to as British and we certainly get many reminders that Mr Ramseys team were succesful in that competition. Murrays racket had not cooled down on Sunday before the success of the 1966 football team was mentioned on the BBC and I can assure you it was not claimed as British.
On the other hand maybe it is just up here in Scotland that the broadcasters and newspapers have to keep reminding the natives that it was not a British team who succeeded in that competition, who knows they may get ideas above their station if they were to be allowed to bask in the reflected glory of that achievement.

Subject: RE: BS: Wimbledon 2013
From: s&r
Date: 12 Jul 13 - 11:58 AM

I was born on the day that English cricketer Len Hutton set a world record for the highest individual Test innings of 364, during a Test match against Australia. It doesn't make me English or Australian. Andy Murray babbled as a child. What's your point? Please stop using Latin abbreviations.

Stu

Subject: RE: BS: Wimbledon 2013
From: The Sandman
Date: 12 Jul 13 - 01:13 PM

mean while the queen makes a lot of money out of wimbledon

Subject: RE: BS: Wimbledon 2013
From: GUEST,Ed
Date: 12 Jul 13 - 01:48 PM

the queen makes a lot of money out of wimbledon

Eh??? How do you work that out?

From here

"Funds generated by The Championships, less tax, are used by the LTA to develop tennis in Great Britain.
In December 2008, the Club and the LTA agreed that the LTA to benefit from receiving 90 per cent of any distributable financial surplus resulting from The Championships until at least 2053."

Subject: RE: BS: Wimbledon 2013
From: GUEST,Allan Conn
Date: 13 Jul 13 - 01:50 PM

"And Andy Murray DID used to talk like a Scottish nationalist - mentioning supporting opponents of England's football team, e.g."

In the first instance whether a Scot supports the English football team or not has nothing to do with politics. It is a sporting rivalry which long predates modern Scottish nationalism.

Murray didn't actually make anti-England statements. Both Murray and Tim Henman were being interviewed and as it was the run up to a World Cup the inteviewer asked Henman if he was looking forward to watching England. Henman joked that he was but that Andy wouldn't be looking forward to watching Scotland as they hadn't qualified. Murray laughed and said he would enjoy watching anyone who was playing England. It was just young guys having some friendly banter. Other journalists and people on the net turned it into a story where Murray was anti-English, some claiming that he'd even bought a Paraguay shirt, despite both Henman and the original journalist repeting that it was only banter. Murray received quite a bit of bad press and even hate male which resulted in him ever since being extremely guarded when being interviewed.

As to his comments re the referendum as far as I know he is a don't know as he has commented that he doesn't have enough information to make a decision. Though as he lives in Surrey he won't have a vote anyway! But reading between the lines it seems he is neither a committed nationalist nor unionist.

Subject: RE: BS: Wimbledon 2013
From: GUEST,Allan Conn
Date: 13 Jul 13 - 05:17 PM

I don't understand the idea that Fred Perry is forgotten. The BBC rattles on about him non-stop so it would be just about impossible for British tennis fans at least to not know about him. I'd imagine that as far as athletes from the 1930s go he must be just about the best known one there is. Perhaps apart from some famous footballers.

Subject: RE: BS: Wimbledon 2013
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 13 Jul 13 - 05:59 PM

The confusion over the new ‪‎Wimbledon‬ champions nationality occurs elsewhere in the sporting world, where an English boy, for example, can hope to play (perhaps managed by a citizen of a nation they may compete against) football for England/Great Britain, rugby-league for England/Great Britain, rugby-union for England/British Isles, athletics for England/U.K., golf for England/Europe, cricket for a combined England and Wales, or tennis for Great Britain - but Wimbledon is still The All England Lawn ‪Tennis‬ Championships…Anyone for friendly-rival republics?! (From http://davidfranks.blogspot.co.uk/p/messages.html)