Taking a Pen. – thoughts of a small-time sportswriter
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Sports news reflections from somewhere in the sports media attic. Author Jeffrey Prest has been a veteran of various strata of sports media, as both gamekeeper and poacher, covering league games of varying importance. He has also covered cricket, golf and North American sport here.
Taking a Pen. – thoughts of a small-time sportswriter
8M ago
Toto Wolff is fast becoming the poster boy for the old adage that if you want to know the true measure of a person, watch how they deal with the bad times rather than the good. The Mercedes F1 team principal was a smooth, poised pitlane operator while his team was rattling off seven straight ..read more
Taking a Pen. – thoughts of a small-time sportswriter
8M ago
Christian Horner did what every good boss should do on Sunday. Defended his people. Responding to suggestions that his Red Bull team’s dominance this season and much of the last might be making Formula One a little dull, Horner responded thus… “You have to recognise and applaud what Max is doing at the moment. It’s ..read more
Taking a Pen. – thoughts of a small-time sportswriter
1y ago
My grandmother loved Match of the Day; hated the goal celebrations. “All that kissing and cuddling,” she scornfully called it. Which is why death’s merciful side should not be overlooked. She left us in 1987, and so was spared the nonsense that has consumed the game since. Insatiable greed, football clubs as billionaires’ playthings and ..read more
Taking a Pen. – thoughts of a small-time sportswriter
2y ago
When they occupy a cherished corner of your home, you like to think football programmes are a cut above the cliched destiny of newspapers as tomorrow’s fish and chips wrapper. When writing some of those programmes put food on your table for over three years, that veneration only intensifies. And yet I now find that ..read more
Taking a Pen. – thoughts of a small-time sportswriter
2y ago
In just a matter of days, my household has seen quite the transformation. Younger Son, a mad-keen golfer, has been greatly tickled by my view that the Ryder Cup is the most embarrassing freak-show in professional sport. Embarrassing because of the mountainous fall from grace that this biennial ‘handbags’ squabble has come to represent. The ..read more
Taking a Pen. – thoughts of a small-time sportswriter
2y ago
Those whose idea of ‘commentary’ oscillates between calling someone “a legend” or “worse than Hitler”, based solely on whether his opinion tallies with theirs, should click away now. I come from an era where ‘nuance’ is not merely the name of a nightclub, however, and where black and white are frequently separated by numerous shades ..read more
Taking a Pen. – thoughts of a small-time sportswriter
2y ago
I smiled when they said replay technology was coming to football. I laughed out loud when they said it would improve the game. Many times since the advent of VAR, when a decision has come down from on high, only for the whining among footballers to continue regardless, has my cynicism been vindicated. Last week ..read more
Taking a Pen. – thoughts of a small-time sportswriter
2y ago
Not being a Spanish speaker, I naively assumed that Carlos Reutemann’s daughter was merely Tweeting birthday greetings to her old man. Then I ran her words through Google Translate and I realised with horror that the Tweet was an epitaph. My second-favourite Grand Prix driver of all time was dead. If Gilles Villeneuve’s maverick brilliance ..read more
Taking a Pen. – thoughts of a small-time sportswriter
3y ago
I don’t write this post lightly. Back to back blog entries taking shots at my hero, and the vague, nagging dread that I’m starting to sound like this man (minus the aggression and kidnapping, I hasten to add). Alas, Martin Samuel stumbles on from his weird flip-flopping over Gareth Southgate to a piece of tosh ..read more
Taking a Pen. – thoughts of a small-time sportswriter
3y ago
Daily Mail sportswriter Martin Samuel is one of my heroes in this business. This morning, however, he had me scratching my head. Seven days ago, his Mail column included a segment beneath this headline: Why do the FA want to tie down Gareth Southgate for the next Euros now? Today’s column, meanwhile, starts… Gareth Southgate ..read more