Category: sport

Easter Weekend continued…

Posted on

The Waterfront was, as promised, packed. Mainly with the entirety of the Man U and Liverpool supporting hordes from Mitchell’s Plain, who waited long and hard in the sun to have their photos taken with the UEFA Champions League Trophy, exchanging age-old insults as they passed each other around the herpetic queuing system.
I’m a patient kind of guy, so I’m happy to wait til Sheffield United bring it back to Beautiful Downtown Bramall Lane in May 2011 and I’ll pop over and see it then.
In the meantime, I snapped a couple of quick photos, since I had a camera in my hand and it seemed silly not to:

          
Flickr set: link

My worst fears that the event was going to be drowned out by constant renditions of that god-awful choir singing that they are “The Chammmmpions! THE CHAMMMMMPIONS!!!!” weren’t realised, but I still can’t get it out of my head now anyway. Self-inflicted torture.
(Note to self: would save CIA time and money – suggest at next top secret meeting.)

The African leg of the Heineken-sponsored Champions League Trophy tour started in Nigeria at the end of February before moving on to Algeria, Egypt and then to Cape Town. The tour ends next week in Johannesburg where the trophy will be stolen in an armed raid that no-one could have foreseen. Right.
As it was, there were some big blokes in dark suits with green Heineken security passes positioned near to the trophy, slightly further away from the trophy and actually quite a long way away from the trophy, all trying to blend in with the seagulls and tourists, none of whom were wearing dark suits or the green badges. Tough ask.

This is South Africa, remember? Evidently, our reputation precedes us.

Tomorrow brings with it the obligatory egg hunt in the back garden (assuming that the seasonal bunny hasn’t been trapped and eaten by some bergie in these desperate economical times) and then a lunchtime birthday party at a local pub. Things could be worse.  
And then Monday – Panic at the Disco, Snow Patrol and Oasis at the CokeZeroFest in Somerset West. From the reviews of the Jo’burg event yesterday, it’s going to be superb and almost entirely sugar-free.

Going Up!

Posted on

…fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eigh… oh, hello!

I was just counting my chickens before they’ve hatched. 
In other news, following a nail-bitingly tight 1-0 win at Reading, my beloved Sheffield United now occupy second spot in the Championship. That’s an automatic promotion place, which means that they’ll be back up where they belong in the Premiership next season. Bring it on!   

Good Friday passed without too much incident. There was some muffin making and some kalahari kreef braai’ing.


Yum. Seriously Yum.

Tomorrow brings with it the chance to go and see the UEFA Champions League Trophy on display at the V&A Waterfront, which won’t be busy in the middle of the school holidays. It’s fine – I can cope with a few thousand screaming children.

Hmm.

Good luck Pammie!

Posted on

While I’m not lazing in bed on Sunday, 6000 miles…regular and blogrollee, Ordinary Life (aka Pamie Jane), will be spending (she hopes) around 14½ hours swimming, cycling and running around and around the sleepy village of Port Elizabeth in the Ironman South Africa triathlon.

For those of you who are wondering, that’s:

  • 3.8km swim (through shark-infested waters, nogal!)
  • 180km bike ride, and then, just because you do,
  • a full (42.2km) marathon.

Nuts. Completely and utterly nuts.

If you want, you can track Pamie LIVE on the day via the ATHLETE TRACKER link on ironman.com.
Her race number is 875.

Good luck Pamie, from all of us at 6000 miles…

Note: regular readers will be aware of my dislike for large-scale athletic events which disrupt the daily lives of local residents. This event, however, is completely fine by me as it is some 750kms away in PE.

Those Argus Results in Full

Posted on

Congratulations to all those who took part in this year’s Cape Argus Cycle Tour and especially to those who managed to complete the 109km course on what turned out to be such a horrendously windy day – not great conditions for cycling, I’m told. Or at least I’m about to be, over and over and over again.

Anyway, while this website may have become known as a rather vocal critic of the tour and those who choose cycling as their religion of choice, I would like to make it clear that I have the utmost respect for those who get up at stupid o’clock in the morning, dress up in outrageously funny clothing and paralyse the Southern Suburbs for a few hours on a Sunday morning. “Well done”.

With that in mind – here are a list of the whining winning riders and some notable other achievements from the 2009 Cape Argus Pick n Pay Cycle Tour.

Winners:
1st Lance van Steroid (Team EPO)
2nd Ivan Russianaround (Syringe Boyz)
3rd Steve McCheat (Team McCheat)

Most red lights ignored during training:
Markus Botha (Pretoria) 2,618 – including a remarkable 159 in 2 hours during a reccie visit to Cape Town in February

Widest peloton during training:
19 by UCT Table Tennis Club on M3 Southbound, 4th March 2009, completely blocking the road for 2¾ hours

Squashed by Chappies rockfalls:
James Fortune

Best excuses given for not completing race:
“Bruised left testicle” – Jennifer Viljoen
“Fear of sharks” – Andrew Howard, Danielle Smythe
“Rockfall on Chappies” – James Fortune (from back of ambulance)
“567 Road Show playing Celine Dion in Camps Bay” – 1,691 riders

Best excuses given for not going “sub-three”:
“Like, the wind was just so hectic at Smitswinkel, man.” – Everyone

Yeah, yeah, I know.
More serious special mentions to the Tall Accountant and the Blonde Sales Chick for giving it a go this year and (presumably) surviving.

And – it’s over for for another year. Can we have our peninsula back now, please?

Swings and Roundabouts

Posted on

Or rather, Roundabouts and Swings

Said he “the job’s the very spit of what it always were,
“It’s bread and bacon mostly when the dog don’t catch a hare,
“But looking at it broad, and while it ain’t no merchant kings,
“What’s lost upon the roundabouts, we pulls up on the swings.”

Roundabouts and Swings by Patrick Chalmers

Poetry on 6000 miles…hoodathunkitt? But I always wondered where that expression came from.

After my minirant regarding the injustices of football and the backward mindedness of the FA, Karma (which I really don’t believe in) was happened – or whatever Karma does – yesterday as my beloved Blades scored an offside goal and a really soft penalty to win 2-1 in a crunch match against Birmingham City.  
I now expect to find similar rants all over the web from Birmingham City fans. Or at least I would if any of them could write. I guess that’s a bit of an ask when you’ve only mastered the basic vowel sounds.
And even those, incorrectly.

It’s hard to remember – especially in something as emotive as football – that things do tend to even themselves out. Thus, Birmingham’s “bad luck” will probably be passed onto whoever they play next and so on and so forth.

Of course, humans being what they are these days, with the general “glass half-empty” approach to life, will never believe that they are getting anything but a raw deal, especially us bloggers, desperately narcissistic, craving attention and sympathy like some sort of Münchausen Syndrome victims. Twitter just concentrates the effect.
You know who you are.
And if you’re thinking “maybe he means me,”  then I probably don’t, but you’re obviously heading that way. 

More happy “Joy of Rusk” style posts, please. With smiles and stuff.
Which, I accept, this one isn’t.

Ooh ,the irony.