Fat Buddha's profile

Fat Buddha
446
Name: pete bowler
Location: South Wales U.k
Gender: Half man half biscuit
Member since: May 24, 2002
Last visit: January 09, 2024

Fat Buddha has posted 88 links and 718 comments to SportsFilter and 10 links and 577 comments to the Locker Room.

Sports Bio

Being a Birmingham City fan I have attended far more disasters than triumphs. This all changed on 12-5-02.
After 16 years out of the top flight we qualified for the play offs for the 5th year running. After a pretty lame draw in the home leg of the semi final we won with a last minute goal in the away leg, prompting a major riot by the home fans.
Onto the final and the most emotional day of my life (outside births deaths marriages etc). I can only just bring myself to speak of it and still haven't watched the video; far too emotional. I hated every last minute of the game, even when we were winning. At one point I was convinced I was about to die; palpitations, inability to breathe, inability to speak, overwhelming desire to burst into tears.
Anyway, we won, after extra time and penalties. A young kid called Darren Carter, a lifelong Blues fan who wasn't even in the first team squad at the beginning of the season, smashed home the deciding penalty. The place went crazy, well half of it did. Never again will I experience scenes and emotions like that because it can never happen again. Never again we will be in the position of perennial underachievers who had never won a penalty shoot out. Never again will it mean so much to 35000 diehards who had lived through some very bad and embarrassing times. We are up with the elite now and no tickets will be on sale to the casual or skint supporter. That day, in May, glorious as it was, has changed everything.
Supporting Blues has been character forming and helped me to cope with lifes vicissitudes with equanimity. I am going to miss the bad days.
I also saw Ian Botham score one of the fastest centuries in history at Edgbaston, but that hardly seems to matter.

Recent Links

Tracing footballs tribal roots: is a good article, which might be of interest to aficionados of the beautiful game. Should there be a daily world cup huddle where stuff like this can get posted?

posted by Fat Buddha to soccer at 02:48 PM on June 09, 2010 - 4 comments

The comedy club of Newcastle Utd F.C: Continues to have us all rolling in the aisles. When he was at Wimbledon, Joe Kinnear, Newcastles caretaker manager used to come across as quite avuncular and jovial, as soon as he turned up at Newcastle though, he looked old, sad, lost and bewildered. Time (a full week) in the job seems to have taken its toll, if this transcript of a press conference is anything to go by. You need to read right until the end for the full belly laugh.

posted by Fat Buddha to soccer at 02:58 PM on October 03, 2008 - 8 comments

Feck off to Vile Park: is a favourite response to opinions that may be unkind to my chosen team on the various message boards that I frequent. It's the same on every other board, apparently. This is a great article which one or two on here might relate to.

posted by Fat Buddha to soccer at 11:28 AM on February 08, 2008 - 6 comments

Belated birthday wishes: to football! Sheffield FC, the oldest club in the world celebrated its 150th birthday yesterday. Meanwhile, the muscular Christians responsible for starting many of our clubs also deserve a bit of recognition. Who would have thunk it, from a sport which was popularised as result of attempts to keep scraggy arsed working class males from marmalising one another in pubs ............................to David Beckham.

posted by Fat Buddha to soccer at 05:38 PM on October 25, 2007 - 5 comments

More fantasy soccer: I appreciate that we already have a perfectly good league and don't need another. However. The Sunday Times reckons its new game is more cerebral than the others, requiring more thought and analysis. The scoring system is more complex and transfers have to be negotiated with other managers. It could be good, it could be crap, who knows. Anyway, I have taken the liberty of setting up a spofi league with room for 15 teams. Feel free to join. The league name is Spofi and the password is Lebowski

posted by Fat Buddha to fantasy at 03:04 PM on July 28, 2007 - 15 comments

Recent Comments

SportsFilter: The Monday Huddle

Looks like Kalinic of Croatia has been banished from the squad after refusing to go on a sub in the 88th minute, claiming a bad back. Drama.

posted by Fat Buddha at 04:46 PM on June 18, 2018

SportsFilter: The Tuesday Huddle

A bus carrying 50 Russian fans has been stopped by riot police, intending to deport them, as UEFA state that Russia has been given a suspended suspension. As it were.

If their fans play up again, the team will be kicked out. This only applies to incidents in the stadium, though, so they can do what they like outside.

No word yet on whether the carrying of concealed gum shields is to be made illegal

posted by Fat Buddha at 07:26 AM on June 14, 2016

SportsFilter: The Wednesday Huddle

The Louis van Gaal press conference today was powerful, emotional and rivetting.

It was good to see a high profile manager let the assembled press vipers see how their malicious words and relentless pursuit of the sensational affects people.

It was telling that not one of them would admit to feeling uncomfortable.

Of course, being the pack dogs that they are, seeing him wounded, they won't back off, they will go in for the kill, with glee.

posted by Fat Buddha at 02:58 PM on December 23, 2015

Chelsea Sacks Jose Mourinho

I think it's pretty standard for yo yoclubs like Birmingham and West Brom to have a relegation clause. It benefits both parties: if the team goes down they can't afford prem wages, and the player wants neither a drop in wages or status.

It's a right old merry go round at the top, isn't it? Mourinho gone, and likely to fetch up at Manchester Utd when Van Gaal gets the boot, Pellegrino likely on his bike to be replaced by Gardiola. It's like musical chairs and none of 'em know where they will be when the music stops.

Meanwhile, here's a brilliant article on the special gone

posted by Fat Buddha at 12:31 PM on December 22, 2015

SportsFilter: The Saturday Huddle

New Zealands Sonny Boy Williams is my new favourite rugby player, after giving his medal away to a nipper who had fallen foul of a shithouse security man

posted by Fat Buddha at 05:23 PM on October 31, 2015

The Rugby World Cup Final is on Saturday

New Zealand are streets ahead of anyone else, but I hope Australia find a way to beat 'em, for the following reasons: New Zealanders tend to be arseholes, not all of 'em, but enough of 'em to put you right off the bastards; Michael Chieka is a witty and droll motherperson; and David Pocock has a hinterland.

I think the formline for Australia is a bit false. Fair enough they got through the so called group of death unbeaten, but England were not very good, and neither were Wales. Any tier 1 team would expect to beat Fiji, however spirited a performance they put up.

So fair play, they beat 3 poor teams, mind you, they did effin hammer England.

Then they struggled against Scotland, a team who would finish bottom of the 6 nations every year, if it wasn't for the hapless Italians, before beating Argentina by the tiniest of gnats cocks.

You don't get to a world cup final by being lucky, they deserve to be there, and I hope they win, but they're going to get hammered.

posted by Fat Buddha at 06:08 PM on October 30, 2015

Craig Finn's guide to the best ever sports music

Well, hello. I'm badly in need of a misery song after Englands extraordinary achievment in snatching defeat from the jaws of victory at the rugby world cup

posted by Fat Buddha at 05:03 PM on September 27, 2015

Craig Finn's guide to the best ever sports music

I've always considered Todd Rundgren's "Just One Victory" to be one of the great sports songs, but I think I'm on my own.

posted by Fat Buddha at 09:06 PM on September 25, 2015

Liverpool Sells Luiz Suarez to Barcelona

Typically astute of Suarez to head for Barcelona as they are on the slide, while Liverpool are on the way up. If he sees out all 5 of his contracted seasons, I will eat my hat

posted by Fat Buddha at 06:25 PM on July 11, 2014

MetaFilter User Proposes New Site Called 'Sportsfilter'

I don't understand the daily huddle. It frightens me. That's why I stopped coming.

posted by Fat Buddha at 06:24 PM on July 10, 2014

Join SportsFilter's Fantasy Premiership

When I made my awful, useless team, it automatically put me in the Spofi league. I am surmising that this is the incorrect league?

posted by Fat Buddha at 05:26 PM on August 24, 2012

Football's Back!

I don't usually have much interest in Liverpool Bill, being as they are usually at the top end and we usually stuff 'em, but I am interested this year, because of the signings since January. I read about the owners and how they go about recruitment in the baseball (or is football) teams in the USA, and it doesn't really seem to add up.

posted by Fat Buddha at 06:26 PM on August 12, 2011

Football's Back!

I'm not a fan of the top end of the prem, but there is some fascinating stuff at the bottom and the middle.

Swansea tend to try and play a version of the beautiful game so I am looking forward to see how they do.

I'm hoping Martinez has a great season with Wigan, for at least 2 reasons.

I'm hoping, and predicting that McLeish has a rubbish season with Villa.

I'm intrigued by all Bruces buys at Sunderland.

I'm wondering how Pardew will cope with second season syndrome at Newcastle

Jol's appointment at Fulham bodes well for some entertainment, if only in the press conferences.

I'm looking forward to Hodgsons gnomic post match comments.

And, Bill, dear boy..football started back last week, for gawds sake!

posted by Fat Buddha at 04:16 PM on August 12, 2011

EPL Fantasy

Ta. No messing about this year. No sentimental desire to pollute my team with rubbish Birmingham players. Everyone will be hanging on to my coat tails!

posted by Fat Buddha at 04:08 PM on August 12, 2011

EPL Fantasy

I might be in and I might not, I can't figure it out

posted by Fat Buddha at 01:37 PM on August 11, 2011