Nelson Galaxy

It’s been a rather impressive weekend of loss for England’s sporting giants. England have now lost in the Rugby World Cup and Lewis Hamilton was defeated in Formula 1 (he may be reprieved). This follows England’s football defeat by Russia, which could mean the national team will not take part in the Euro Championships, this wouldn’t be Roo-markable. All around all losses.

I don’t like sport though. It’s a lot of fuss and bluster about nothing much. I have attempted to watch England matches during the World Cup but I know what’s going to happen. I will end up feeling frustrated and depressed when they get knocked out during a particularly shoddy penalty shootout. Ahhh, Gazza’s tears.

I have had some good experiences with sport. When I lived in White Hart Lane Tottenham beat Nottingham Forest in the 1991 final. There was an amazing party atmosphere on the streets of Tottenham. When England beat Germany for the first time in years I accidentally found myself in Trafalgar Square – people were going crazy and they were happy. And I felt happy for them.

However, this has a dark side. I was in a pub near Liverpool Street on a Saturday afternoon (with a rather lovely Swedish lady) when the bar started filling with football fans – using the station to get to their required matches. The pub became packed very quickly and everyone seemed on good terms, singing and being merry. Then a number of fans of an opposing side arrived and things went very dark. Myself and the girl I was with had to run for our lives as a sea of pint glasses started flying through the air and fists met faces.

Seeing people leaving the pub on Saturday looking dejected because the English rugby team didn’t win the World Cup I was happy in the knowledge that I felt no empathy for them. I’ve seen the dark side of sport and it was rather unpleasant. “Ball ball ball, footy footy footy,” as Adam and Joe once sang.