So we’re now into September. So far I’ve won not a single penny on my football bets. I’m getting a little uneasy. You start fearing it just may be one of those seasons. The pressure is on.
Author: Admin
What does a guy do on such nights??
With adding BT Sports to the Sky Sports package, it’s all well and good having access to a range of top level sports. But I only have one pair of eyes and only one television. This is developing into a major issue.
Happy memories of a bygone era
We all love a bit of nostalgia and football fans of my age are no different. In this sanitised, dispassionate, greed-is-good world of top-level football, it’s heart-warming and a little sad to be be reminded of how it used to be.
BT Sport has a series called PlayBack and it broadcasts games from the 70s and 80s. The game was completely different in that era and being a football fan during the 80s was often a chastening experience. Football hooliganism, awful facilities and decidedly poor quality fare (especially if you were an Arsenal fan) was commonplace. But looking back, I enjoyed myself immensely. It was raw, honest and a whole lot of fun for an impressionable youngster.
“Paying the wages of Michael Owen??”
That was the reaction of one of my friends when I told them I had just signed up with BT Sport for the next 18 months. My reply was, well you pay for the wages of Steve Claridge and Garth Crooks when paying your TV licence.
It works out that I’ll be paying at extra £10 per month. I spent in excess of that watching us beat Chelsea on Sunday. I’ll still head out to the pub for the big games, but it there are many reason for wanting BT Sport, in addition to my Sky Sports package. Having access to the extra Premiership games, as well as the FA Cup will be great on occasions. And I’m a huge fan of Italian football, so watching the Rome derby on a Sunday evening will be the perfect end to a weekend. But the real jewel of the crown is the Champions League games. I just couldn’t face the prospect of missing out on watching Europe’s finest (and Manchester United) in action after a day at work.
“Yeah, but it’s only a friendly”
Don’t you believe it my Chelsea supporting friends. Wenger’s finally got the best of Jose. If you looked at the face of the classless one at the final whistle, then don’t believe for a second that the result didn’t matter. Well, it did in my mind.
I didn’t bother attempting to get a ticket for the game. I do detest pre season friendlies and even the prospect of beating chelsea and winning some silverware didn’t tempt tempt me to chase a ticket. So I watched the game in a pub, with few people in attendance really focused on the game. I don’t usually believe in the notion that such results in pre-season games strike a psychological blow for the victor against the loser. But on this occasion, I went to bed dreaming that Chelsea as a club would be crushed by losing the prestigious and much revered Community Shield. Roll on September 19.
A perfect day in the sun
The day spent at Lord’s exceeded even my lofty expectations. It might not have been the most exciting day’s play but it was great sporting theatre.
The venue undoubtedly added to the spectacle. I worked at Lord’s for a brief few years back in the 90’s, so I was familiar with many of the special nuances of the place. But even I was impressed by the magnificence of the ground. The place looked majestic.
Late nights and missing semi-colons…
My ongoing education in the field of front-end web development is steadily moving forward. It’s a maddening experience at times, but I’m enjoying the minor victories amongst the mandatory expletives as I search for that elusive missing character.
I’m loving the challenge of mastering, which is at times, a pretty complex field. I keep on saying to myself the hour-long search to debug a broken site is productive time. I’m storing up a memory bank of solutions to common, often repeated mistakes when building a web page. A huge source of comfort remains the web community, who are on hand to assist when I’m pulling my hair out.
An event needing a marketing makeover
It occurred to me as I stumbled across the highlights of the 20/20 game between Hampshire and Glamorgan when channel surfing, that generally, we often make a pretty poor attempt at marketing our top level sports.
You can’t help but compare our short over competition with the IPL in India and the Big Bash in Australia. They really know how to promote the event globally. I readily concede that the world’s stars were tempted by the big salaries to play in those competitions. The TV revenues far exceed the sums Sky are paying for our competition. But maybe there lies the problem. We need to get some momentum behind the T20 blast. A real desire to invest in the tournament and to back our ability to compete with the rival competitions.
“If it doesn’t sell, it isn’t creative”
Having worked in a number advertising agencies, I have some sympathy with David Ogilvy’s quote. But who am I to comment. The greater my involvement in the advertising world, the less is my understanding of the people who work in the field.
Indeed there isn’t much in the world of advertising that I do truly understand. There are adverts I like, ones which move me and draw me in. But it’s largely an alien field. I still can’t work out why Mo Farah telling me to eat corn is going to get anyone to rush out and to such tasteless fare.
A ‘free bar’ did you say?
It’s a common fact that in London especially, the way to really attract a crowd is to offer a free bar.
With many places in the west end and the city charging over £5 for a pint (especially those sophisticated European beers in the fancy tall glasses), the opportunity to indulge in some free booze needs to be grasped. But my real motivation for going to General Assembly’s Graduation Evening is to catch up with the tutors and fellow students I met during my recent course in Front End Web Development. Honestly.