A random thread for sport things that don't really warrant a thread of their own

[mrcharly-YHT]

Dougal has only 50odd km to go today, which would get him the record at 40 days.

However, his blood sugars are not in a good state - 16.5 mmol/l this morning and he hasn't started moving yet.

Hope he can get this sorted, it sounds dangerous.

[mrcharly-YHT]

And he's done it.

40 days to circumnavigate mainland Britain.

Taking 27 days off the previous record.

[CrazyEnglishTriathlete]

In discussion with a student we googled how much English league 2 (that's the third division) players make. On average £2.5k

(click to show/hide)

a week

So more than an MP, average GP, headteacher at a secondary school.....

[Wowbagger]

Isn't English League 2 the 4th division in old money?

[Cudzoziemiec]

Isn't English League 2 the 4th division in old money?

Yes.

[DuncanM]

I think the lower league salary numbers are distorted by a couple of properly big clubs going down the divisions with players on contracts from higher up. Sunderland, Portsmounth, Bolton etc. Also, players who are on loan from bigger clubs massively inflate the numbers. If you look at the clubs who are run as tier 4 clubs, their whole turnover is in the low millions a year, and that's everything from player, coach, academy, and staff salaries, travel, stadium rent/upkeep, tax etc. You can see some actual numbers here: https://footystats.org/england/efl-league-two/salaries

Being a lower league professional is a stressful life - they are almost always on 1 or 2 year contracts, and they know that one significant injury (or just a loss of form or losing your place) can chuck them out of the professional game for good. A couple of clubs a year seem to go bust and not pay players or staff, you may have to move yourself and family every year, and even if you manage to stick it all the way to the end of your career you are done at 35 and unlike the premier league players, you've got to go get a job.

[rafletcher]

When I was a newly minted Engineer in Glasgow in 1978 one of my colleagues wore Pierre Cardin (when the name meant something) silk shirts to work. I wondered how on the wages we were paid. Enlightenment came when I was informed he was semi-pro for Clyde.

[Wowbagger]

Not really much to do with sport, but a brilliant anecdote from David Lloyd, former Lancashire batsman, in a chat show.

I always recall Lloyd with great affection. He's a lovely, down-to-earth Lancastrian with a brilliant sense of humour, which always makes a pleasant change, I feel, from the usual run of test cricketers. I could listen to him talking all day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwhKkyEdQPo&ab_channel=TheHowieGames

[Cudzoziemiec]

The football/fashion crossover is complete. Football is fashion, fashion is football. And it's happened in, I believe, Mr Larrington's 'hood (though that's probably not him in the photo – probably not a footballer either).

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2023/jul/31/east-london-football-club-walthamstow-fc-releases-william-morris-inspired-kit

[Mr Larrington]

We do have a Wm. Morris museum but in spite of having lived in E17 for almost 27 years I've never set foot in the place, because I are a unkultured oaf.

[Cudzoziemiec]

You don't need to visit it now, you can buy your own replica kit of the 'Stow FC and be a kultured footie fashionista instead.

[Wowbagger]

Randomly looking around the internet just now, it came to my notice that Graham Gooch has never been knighted. Given that the four most recent English cricketers to be knighted are Botham, Boycott, Cook & Strauss, I'm a bit puzzled by Gooch's absence from this list. He's scored more runs for England than anyone else, when you combine first class and "List A" matches, he has the highest individual score in any test (333 & 126) and his 154 at Headingly in 1991 is considered by many to be one of the finest test centuries of all, given the context and the opposition (W. Indies in their pomp). I'd argue that in pure cricketing terms, Gooch's achievements are greater than the other four I've mentioned.

I'm not a fan of the honours system, but I can't help but think he's done something to upset those who make such decisions. Could it have been his role in the rebels' tour of S. Africa? That seems unlikely, because Boycott was also heavily involved.

Curious.

[Wowbagger]

A little moment for the Lahndahn premiership purists today:

1 West Ham
2 Tottenham
3 Arsenal

It won't last because Man City have yet to play, but I don't recall seeing a top 3 like that before. Much more likely to be Lancs & Environs.

[Tim Hall]

Not only did my grate frend Frank go to Swindon on Saturday,but he then saw his team lose 6-0.

[Wowbagger]

Weestaaam go top again with an away win at Luton.

They'll never believe it at Upton Park...[/bill_mclaren]

[Basil]

Last cricket of the season today at the Llandysul ground.  Wales seniors v Pembrokeshire seniors.
To play for the seniors you have to 60s 70s.
Seems a bit unfair on ex Wales players in their 80s who fancy a bit of slow spin.

[Wowbagger]

Are you not out there turning your arm, Basil?

[Basil]

Are you not out there turning your arm, Basil?

Never played for Wales or any Pembrokeshire club, so not eligible.

[Wowbagger]

Once described as the man who bowled "at 100mph from mid-off off the wrong foot", Mike Procter's international career was limited to just seven Tests due to South Africa's exclusion from world cricket during the apartheid years. Instead he plied his trade for Gloucestershire and in the Currie Cup, before forging a high-profile career as a match referee, selector and broadcaster.

INTERVIEWER: Is it hard for you to reconcile yourself to the fact that you lost what may well have been a fantastic career as an international cricketer?

MIKE PROCTER: No, it's not. Yes, I lost a Test career. But what is a Test career compared to the suffering of 40 million people? Lots of people lost a great deal more in those years, and if by missing out on a Test career we played a part in changing an unjust system, then that is fine by me.

INTERVIEWER: At the time South Africa was barred from international competition, did you know that you would never play Test cricket again?

MIKE PROCTER: Yes, I always thought that I wouldn't play again. It was no surprise. Actually in April, 1971 [after the South African government had intervened to stop the South African selectors picking non-white players for a tour of Australia] a group of us ➖ Graeme and Peter Pollock, Barry Richards, Denis Lindsay and I ➖ walked off the field at Cape Town after one ball of the game between Transvaal and the Rest of South Africa and issued a statement supporting selection by merit regardless of skin colour. At the time we did that, I thought we wouldn't play again. And we didn't do that to save the tour to Australia, as some have claimed. We did it to try and change the whole rotten system of the country. We were opposed to the government.

Mike Procter was an amazing player, and arguably one of the greatest all-rounders of all time. I didn't realise what a thoroughly decent bloke he was until I read this.

[Peter]

That is wonderful to read.  I'm trying but failing to remember the name of the hugely talented rugger international who expressed the same views.

I remember meeting a South African serviceman who was doing some sort of survival training in North Wales in the 70s and "discussing" the iniquities of the apartheid system.  He responded that "Here in UK, you've got a better karnd of bleck."  He was a big bloke and I still had a show to do*, so I just turned away without actually saying, "No, I think we've got a better kind of white."  Sadly, I'm not sure that's true, anymore!

* I'd already done my anti-apartheid song, which is what sparked the encounter.

[rogerzilla]

Women footballers for The Villa fear match turning into a wet T-shirt competition:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/66932993

The manufacturers have really messed up there, and their logo is on the shirts.

[Kim]

Women footballers for The Villa fear match turning into a wet T-shirt competition:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/66932993

The manufacturers have really messed up there, and their logo is on the shirts.

Came here to post this.  You'd think PE kit would be a solved problem...

[L CC]

Castore are also Newcastle's kit supplier- although they will be reverting to Chav's favourite Adidas for 2024-25 onwards.

Their shirts aren't wet with sweat. I see a colour/tech spec issue.

[Basil]

Wales Veterans 9 - Llandysul Veterans 1

Well, what were we expecting?
 

ETA.  Football

[Wowbagger]

Taken from tonight's Graun - Spain v Scotland, football.

The Spanish no 10 is 1.64m tall. The Scotsman behind him is 1.93m tall.