Sporting Miscellanies
A week before Wimbledon, fears mount that the BBC is taking positive discrimination to absurd lengths by hiring acute amnesiacs for its tennis coverage. Shortly before Andy Murray's facile win at Queen's Club, 5Live's Eleanor Olroyd trailed the match against James Blake as "potentially the biggest win of his career" . . . a notion swiftly underlined by tennis correspondent Jonathan Overend's uncertainty as to whether or not this constituted "the biggest final of his career". I would remind them that Queen's, although sweet and endearing, is a minor warm-up event carrying very few ranking points; that Andy appeared in August's US Open final; and that although he lost that, he has won three Masters Series titles, each infinitely more lustrous than Queens.
John's sporting chance in the wool-sack chase
What an omen for John Bercow that the election for House of Commons Speaker falls on the first day of Wimbledon. The Tory schmoozer, currently a warm 5-4 favourite, was Britain's No1 ranked tennis junior as a teenager until a bout of glandular fever ended his prospects. Now that those rumours about Betty Boothroyd being wrestler Kendo Nagasaki have been discredited, Mr Bercow would become the first Speaker with a sporting background. So would Sir Menzies Campbell, a fine sprinter who held the British 100m, but the 20-1 shot has more chance of beating Usain Bolt's world record than becoming Speaker.
Sir Nick could face the chop if not careful
Warmest congrats to Nick Faldo on his knighthood. As a personality Nick isn't to all tastes. But he will remain the finest sportsman Britain has produced unless and until Andy Murray wins his seventh major title (those are the really big finals, Mr Overend; check out the rankings breakdown on the ATP website). One word of advice to Sir Nick. When you go for the dubbing, try not to replicate that legendary Wildean thrust, as aimed at the Press on winning the 1992 Open, by thanking Her Maj "from the heart of my bottom". Not with a sword in her hand.
