salmacis’s profile

"Go ahead, you try going to a rugby game and writing about it. Soccer?
Ninety minutes of whatever and then maybe one goal scored by accident. Tough to create a coherent narrative out of that."

Any sports writer who can say that and actually believe it is clearly far too stupid for me to bother reading.

posted at 05:59 AM on October 02

The bloke in the background of the World in Motion video (holding up the sign which reads EN-GER-LAND. 3:19 in the video) looks like the guy playing the Sheriff of Nottingham in the new Robin Hood series on BBC America.

I've not watched the video, but the article states the lyrics were by Keith Allen.. who played the Sheriff of Nottingham.

posted at 10:09 AM on September 24

1976? Luxury! My lot haven't won anything since 1968. BTW, I was born in 1971.

posted at 07:57 PM on September 03

Ironic that a group called United bought City..

The real losers in all this are Liverpool. As it is, they seem to be struggling to hang on to the coat-tails of Man Utd, Chelsea and Arsenal. If they are to be deprived of Champions League football that could be disasterous, considering the debt the owners have accrued.

posted at 02:30 PM on September 02

You know, my reaction wasn't that dissimilar to Michael Johnson's. An unbelievable run.

posted at 04:25 AM on August 18

I'm finding it really hard to read comments with the new SpoFi. Is it possible to make the "posted by salmacis at 12:00 AM - reply" line made smalled and/or with a different colour background?

posted at 11:34 AM on August 15

Is it against soccer rules to do shit like, I don't know, form a 6 man phalanx around the player with the ball while he patiently and slowly dribbles it upfield?

What, you seriously think that would make for a better game? (And yes, it would be an indirect free kick for obstruction.)

Listen. Association Football is by far the most popular spectator sport in the world. It doesn't need Americans monkeying about with the rules to make it more popular over there. (In fact, MLS got rid of the innovations which marked it out as different: Fixed clock, shootout, etc.) As owlhouse pointed out, there have been plenty of rule changes over the last 30 years, and plenty of innovations in tactics. Just because you don't see them doesn't mean they don't exist. I don't know of tactical or rule changes in basketball, but I'm sure they exist.

Back to the a11 offense. I'm sure it could work at high school level, and it might even work at college level. But NFL? Sounds like a great way to get both of your quarterbacks out for the season.

posted at 11:29 AM on August 15

lbb, I don't follow or agree with your reasoning at all. Either this place is open for all sports fans to join us, or not. We're not some clique.

posted at 03:14 PM on July 30

Well how can you count the number of posts about rugby when they have to be categorised as "other"!? Seriously, cricket and rugby are such major international sports that it's ridiculous not to have them as categories.

posted at 10:38 AM on July 30

I've set up a team in the Guardian league as well.

posted at 06:47 AM on July 25

Actually, the fact that squealy, as a Midlander, has never heard of Salford City Reds, despite the fact they were in the Superleague last year, shows just how low the profile of league is outside the heartland.

posted at 09:57 AM on July 23

Actually, it's two perfectly cromulent sports.. ..and Wakefield weren't overlooked. Owlhouse, I live well outside the league heartland and rugby league has a very low profile here. Sky Sports gave a shedload of money to the RFL, which means that if you don't have Sky Sports, actually watching any league is difficult. Unlike football, pubs are unlikely to show it. The BBC has a weekly highlights show, but it's on at a useless hour and not very good. Match Of The Day, it ain't. The BBC does at least get to show the Challenge Cup. Woo. The Sky money has enabled all Superleague clubs to be fully professional, and crowds, although small compared to football, are on a par with union. Clubs like Harlequins, Huddersfield and Wakefield can't draw flies. National newspapers will provide coverage of games, but the amount of space given is small compared to rugby union - which is again tiny when compared to football. Sometimes I have to look results up on the BBC website. I imagine that northern editions of the national papers give far more space to rugby league, and the northern local papers obviously will. Generally, rugby league is seen as northern, provincial and working class. I'm pretty sure many fans are annoyed at the inclusion of Celtic Crusaders simply because they are outside the traditional heartland. All in all, league does well enough in it's niche, but over the last 20 years club rugby union has got its act together, and league will have to find a way to reach beyond it's traditional areas.

posted at 09:55 AM on July 23

Some background info: Firstly, this is about rugby league, not rugby union. Different sports, different governing bodies. The Rugby Football League was formed in 1895 when northern clubs broke away from the Rugby Football Union, over charges of professionalism. Since then, the sport has been popular in northern England, but struggled for attention in the rest of the UK. The current top tier of competition is Superleague - a league of 12 clubs, with promotion and relegation to the National League. There are currently 10 clubs within the league "heartland" (an corridor stretching from Liverpool across to Hull), plus Harlequins RL (London) and Catalans (Perpignan, France).

In 2007, the RFL announced that the competiton would be expanded to 14 clubs, and a bombshell: there would be no more promotion and relegation, and clubs - including the current 12 - would have to apply for one of the 14 places. The idea was to raise standards across the game, forcing clubs to improve youth development, stadium facilities and attendances, but also to try to expand the game outside it's traditional areas.

Celtic Crusaders were set up only three years ago, when the Welsh Rugby Union contracted the Celtic Warriors in the Magners League. While they have made great strides in that time, doubts still persist as to whether rugby league can survive in an overwhelmingly union area.

posted at 10:42 AM on July 22

Thanks Hal, I think you've cleared that one up pretty effectively. And it was me who, for some reason, started calling him "Pretorius". Mea culpa.

posted at 03:06 AM on July 21

Wheelchair athletes are faster than their ambulatory counterparts. Does that mean we should allow wheelchairs in the Olympics as well? There's no way of knowing whether Pretorius' blades give him an advantage or not, but he clearly isn't running in the same way as everyone else. It's got to be a level playing field or it makes a mockery of the sport.

posted at 05:50 AM on July 20