Pure Sporting Theatre and The Cricket World Cup

Yesterday I was absolutely glued to my television from 7pm onwards as I watched the final round of The Masters golf tournament from Augusta. It was everything that live sport should be. It had none of the contentious umpiring/ refereeing of other sports and no cheating or diving. It was just the skill of individuals manipulating a tiny ball with a selection of clubs, and my god is skill the right word. I've only watched golf for a year or so and only closely over the past 6-8 months, but I will certainly continue to do so. I knew my life had changed and my perspective of the sport had changed during the Open Championship last year when I clapped a tee-shot by Tiger Woods, much maligned for his personal life, hugely questioned and lacking form, but he produced one piece of magic that made me clap at the TV... it takes something pretty special to get that kind of reaction believe me. Going in to the final round and the result was still wide open, and the drama started immediately. Tiger Woods began a charge that left him in the hunt, and at 1 point, having been seven shots back at the start of the day was tied for the lead at 10 under par. Ultimately this wasn't enough as Charl Schwarzel birdied the last 4 holes in a miraculous show of nerves and ability to take the much coveted green jacket. There was immense play, there were strange shots, and there was the horrid luck that saw Rory McIlroy, who led going into the final round, turn a bad start into a tragic story of what might have been. I look forward to the rest of the years majors and a test of Rory's character as well as more sporting theatre at its best. On the same theme, the cricket world cup has not long finished. Unlike the last tournament, held in the Caribbean, this one seemed to go down well. It certainly seemed to have everything, and most of it involved the England team. A dramatic high scoring tie against India, a dramatic high scoring throw-away against a hugely promising Ireland team, a dramatic turnaround in a low-scoring game against South Africa and they also managed to dramatically snatch victory from the jaws of defeat against the West Indies to make the quarter finals before being unceremoniously dumped out by finalists Sri Lanka. So one thing the tournament wasn't short of was drama... India were deserving winners and I'm pleased for Sachin Tendulkar who has achieved everything on a personal level and is now a world champion too. One final word on the tournament though; Ireland and the other associate nations won't get a chance to compete in the next tournament as the ICC looks to downsize, I'm sure they have their reasons, and the standard is one obvious one, but how will teams like Ireland improve if they're excluded?

Taylor Swift: Goddess

On Wednesday 30^th March I had the pleasure of seeing Taylor Swift at the o2 Arena. Words cannot describe how good she was. If I loved her this much before that night -------, It was this much afterwards! ------------------------------------------------. Singing a set made up of her biggest hits from her 2^nd album and the cream of her latest one, she had the whole audience in raptures for the whole thing. Whilst myself and my friend felt like the oldest people there when we arrived, we soon realised we weren't, and Taylor was adored by men, women, girls and boys of all ages. To think that 90% of the audience in a 20,000+ seat arena loved this one person was amazing, and the cheering and applause fitted that theory. She could have stopped singing after her opening song and just stood and received the love and attention of the audience for the rest of the night, and the show would have still lasted a couple of hours. Unlike Michael Bublé, who I saw at Wembley in October, her vocals are not world class, but they are still very good and her stage presence and personality more than make up for anything she may be lacking in that area. She acted out each song as she sang them and you could tell that they each meant something special to her. She was also very gracious in her acceptance of the love of the audience, and was either genuinely touched by it all or as good an actor as singer. Whilst I have a sneaking suspicion it may bit a bit of both, I believed everything she sang, said and suggested with her facial expressions. All in all a night worth every penny and a singer worth her weight in gold, who I will go to see again without a second thought. Brilliant!

Item 1: Apologies for Absence

Now I have a 3 week break from university and deadlines I have no excuse but to get back to writing this regularly and continuing the long continuous rant that my life has been so far. As well as being busy and lazy, there was also a third reason for this long absence of my usual nonsense. This was that I was starting to wonder if what I was about to write would be of any interest. Thinking more deeply into this and I realised that I shouldn't be considering this when writing the blog, because the blog was simply what I think, and as the title suggests I am wondering if anyone cares. So now that I have remembered that I'm sure my rubbish and drivel will become regular once more!