Roar Pro
Joined November 2016
10.9k
Views
20
Published
47
Comments
Writer on boxing and occasionally cricket. My work has appeared in print for Boxing News, Boxing Monthly and multiple other outlets. Cricket for Wisden's The Nightwatchman. If you like my stuff you can follow me on Twitter: @LWOSGarryWhite
Published
Comments
Ross Gregory, Hedley Verity and Ken Farnes were not only great cricket players but more importantly they were war heroes whose lives were cut way too short.
Pat Cummins steered a ball on off down towards the boundary, with the resulting misfield allowing it to reluctantly kiss the rope and bring…
Runners live their lives by the stopwatch. Perhaps, in its own way, an accelerated metaphor for the heart-drumming business of life. Sir Roger Bannister…
Anthony Joshua (19-0) has done something altogether rare in modern boxing and accepted the IBF's request to face their mandatory challenger. Kubrat Pulev (25-1),…
Conor McGregor will finally fight Floyd Mayweather this weekend. At last the battle will take a positive turn from the verbal to the physical.…
The giant Italian heavyweight champion Primo Carnera once fought a Kangaroo. Not as you might imagine in the cold and desperate days after the…
Billy Collins Jr had something about him, it is fair to say. When you look at the old pictures from the early 1980s he…
Take the train to London Bridge station. Get off and walk under the shadow of the bashful Shard Tower. Stroll all the way down…
So, Ugo Ehiogu. I will be honest and admit that I had entirely forgotten about him until his name came sharply back into focus…
Are you a 'die-hard'? I'm not really. Not anymore. There used to be a time when I was but that ship has long since…
Where did that come from? Leicester City played a blinder this morning and left a listless Liverpool vanquished by a 3-1 margin. It was…
What is sport and why does it matter? Is it about the quality of the competition and the occasion? Is it just something to…
It seems to me no coincidence that the principal sponsor of the Big Bash League is KFC. KFC is Colonel Sanders' famous brand that…
I heard that Graham Taylor had died through one of those Sky Sports alerts on my phone - I don't normally read them as…
Back in those hard-hitting and intoxicated days before Christmas and the New Year, a mere stitch back in time when the elastic on my…
“Say it ain't so Joe” the little kid may have said to baseball legend Shoeless Joe Jackson. Or Ray Liotta, depending on whether he…
Back in the 1950s and 60s, there was a youth sub-culture known as the 'Ton-Up Club'. This club was populated by the 'Ton-Up Boys'…
“You can’t bat for toffee” a South African gentleman once told me in a club cricket match. At least I think it was toffee.…
If you type the name Ross Gregory into your search engine you will immediately be struck by two very different pictures. The first manages…
“I never thought it would happen with me and the girl from Clapham.” So, went the 1979 pop hit from Squeeze. When I first…
Don’t you just hate it when they do that… I enjoyed the line about “parking his triumph at first slip” though…
If 'The Fonz' were a cricketer
I agree with all the comments on the thread. The plight of Coventry is especially sad as despite growing up on the South Coast they were always a team that I held a soft spot for. It dates back to the 1987 FA Cup final where as a 10 year old I watched (on the TV) them beat Tottenham in the FA Cup Final; Keith Houchen’s diving header and all. Happy days when the FA cup still meant something. Sad old competition now… farmed out to a Saturday evening for the TV companies and its historical legacy chipped away at.
English Football can bang on all it likes about its history but at the top end it is largely a system of foreign owned franchises, with foreign coaches and players. This by itself is not actually bad. But it is obvious that there will be certain consequences to this change. Its a sad fact that many of the owners that come into Football are singularly unsuitable for it… megalomaniacs, glory hunters, snake oil salesman or incompetents. Orient, much to their misfortune, have an owner that ticks all of these boxes.
The globalisation point is a good one. I take my kids (primary school age) to a football club to train. I live about 20 miles from London (Bournemouth is my team – proof that good things can happen!!) and expected to be met with loads of little kids in Chelsea, Arsenal, Spurs or even Man City, Liverpool and Man U strips.
To my astonishment It mostly wasn’t. Over half the kids wore Barcelona shirts and considered themselves Barca fans. What hope do orient have when even Chelsea or Man U aren’t even high profile enough for todays kids.
The positive is that the further you go down the levels in England the more it feels like the old game. I have some friends outside of England that marvel at how well the game is supported down the divisions in England.. Even as far down at the conference North / South level..
The “We” will not stop coming despite Coventry being in League 2. The Pot hunters will.. But who needs them anyway!!
Leyton Orient FC and the glorious 'we'
Not as bad as the IPL though… Plastic brand and gun for hire players… Fans seem to love it though. Or is it as The Jam once sung… “The public wants what the public gets”..
Leyton Orient FC and the glorious 'we'
Ah. Sorry!! Definitely finish it. This is a hot topic at the moment especially as we will be seeing a city based T20 cricket franchise competition in England this summer to rival the county version. I don’t understand what people get out of supporting plastic made up teams and is little more than a business marketing tool.. Looking forward to seeing article!!
Leyton Orient FC and the glorious 'we'
A fine. that would be sweetly ironic. They forgot the first rule of preparing a dodgy pitch or an absolute road… Make sure you win the toss!
BCCI could be fined for Pune pitch
With mostly the same squad and the same manager how were they sublime last season and abysmal this season? Surely the payers must play some part within that? So, if the manager is wholly responsible for performance and them being clueless this term He must by default be singularly responsible for them being sublime last season It seems a shoddy way to treat a manager who by your own measurement was outstanding last season. The board owed him some time at least. You could argue that he was given enough time this season already but based on last years remarkable achievement I think he deserved longer.
You are correct that I am not a Leicester fan although I do actively follow other teams. I would be interested to understand your definition of what a “real fan is”?
“Romantic tosh”.. made me chuckle. if sport isn’t about romance then what is it about? Surely that is the reason we follow sporting teams as a vicarious extension of our own dreams. Without that and loyalty there is very little else to get excited about, save a neutral appreciation of the skill. But that clearly wouldn’t make me a “real fan”. That is why your response to my article is so passionate. We demonstrate passion as an extension of that romance and maintain loyalty to our teams through thick and thin. That loyalty should also be reflected back in the case of Ranieri.
The current culture within the premier league is to use that passion against the fans for cold commercial ends. Endlessly mugging them off on ticket pricing and merchandising. The cruellest cut of all is that they have conned the fans into thinking the same way. Winnings trophys doesn’t seem to matter for many clubs anymore… just a sterile survival within the PL. Romance replaced by Balance Sheet management. I can go to work for that and thus want something different from sport…
Leicester City 3 – Integrity 0
Or winning the league by all accounts. It is impossible to look at this season and the sacking outside of the context of last season…
Leicester City 3 – Integrity 0
Good article Eddy. Totally agree with the tone and posted a similar article “Leicester city 3 – Integrity 0” following the Leicester resurgence against Liverpool last night. EPL is all about commerce. Decency and loyalty totally lost..
Loyalty is lost in modern football
With the exception of Brett Lee, I picked only English examples? Who would you pick as your Australian or other nationalities as the embodiment sport. Would be interested to see what qualities everyone looks for…
Jimmy White, Andrew Flintoff and the embodiment of sport
Totally agree. Modern Boxing is full of these type of match-ups. So called up and comers against stiff’s brought into lose. It needs competitive matches but they are few and far between. They hope the audience is too dumb to realise but sometimes stick a plastic title on the line as extra security. Just check out the book makers odds for most fight cards. That tells you just how uncompetitive the majority of the so called action is.
Quade Cooper vs Jack McInnes was a farce of epic proportions
Ha.. Not really a classical music fan, but deinitely a fan of that “jungle music” that followed. I don’t think anywhere I said that T20 was rubbish or watched by philistines. But, I can understand the intimation.
I even went as far as to say it was entertaining and enthralling.
It absolutely has its place as a 10 or 20% version of the game. However, it is not inconceivable that it could become the premier version of the game. The agenda driven by money and the best players naturally following the money train. I don’t see that as a positive. It is consumerist and easy to market but that doesn’t make it better or even on a par with other versions..
The Big Bash: Serving up bargain bucket cricket
Haha the Trump parallel is an interesting one. It could equally be argued that it was this kind of “dumbed down and let’s not think too hard society” that has been instrumental to him reaching high office. Can’t think of many other reasons!!
The Big Bash: Serving up bargain bucket cricket
Thanks for all the comments and the healthy debate. The future of first class / test cricket is an interesting one. To really properly explore the themes I would have needed about 50,000 words rather than 1500. So, there were many loose threads.
Regarding day / nighters I can see a case for them outside of the countries that no longer have a core fan base that is interested in tests.. Basically everywhere but England and Australia. It is sad to see test matches played in front of empty stadiums. I prefer NZ’s solution though of switching tests to smaller venues. It hides the gaps but also offers something a bit different I.e. A family day out with a picnic etc.
I don’t think The Ashes needs day night matches though. I also don’t think they are needed in England. Our stadiums are much smaller than in Aus and we can usually fill them. If we cant
then it is due to extortionate ticket prices or the other reasons that I laid out e.g. Not on terrestrial tv, not played in schools etc, general lack of access to the game amongst non-private school educated kids or those whose parents are not connected to clubs etc.
I could have gone much further into those last points but didn’t want to drone on too long. Thanks all!!!
Why first-class Cricket is stuffed
Jeremy, I agree. It is the same in England, probably worse. Rural clubs are really struggling to put out sides and are folding in reasonably large numbers. The bigger clubs seem to be getting bigger and fielding 5 or 6 sides on a Saturday. The little clubs that just one team are gradually going under. The reasons are complex and not all to do with Cricket. When little Cricket is played in state schools and not available on terrestrial TV either… Access and interest to the game will ultimately be damaging.
Why first-class Cricket is stuffed
Thanks Chris. I totally agree. He was a decent and honourable person that was vilified in the very worst possible way..
Remembering former England manager Graham Taylor
Thanks. Glad you liked it. I always perceived Taylor as a gentlemen.
Remembering former England manager Graham Taylor
I posted a short piece in tribute to Graham Taylor today. He always came across as a decent and honourable person. Treated disgracefully by the media in England and sections of the fans. I hope I have done him justice.
Former England soccer manager Graham Taylor dies
Cheers Peter! Glad you liked it. I haven’t been to a Championship 4-dayer in a while. That probably makes my piece a little bit hypocritical. The last game I saw in the flesh was actually a domestic T20. It was to introduce a German friend of mine to the game. Should have started him with a 4-dayer for the full religious / empty cathedral experience…
Loved Championship Cricket. Great chance to get away and get some piece and get some proper beer on. No queues at the bar either..
Why first-class Cricket is stuffed
That makes sense. The whole red card concept just looks like a marquee type solution. A grand gesture sent out with full fanfare. When actually, looking at where the red card bar is set, it will do nothing to arrest the problems in the amateur game.
Red cards in cricket: The case against
Any thoughts anyone? Do you think it is a good or bad idea?
Red cards in cricket: The case against
Ha-ha… The best way. I too am apt to go off at tangents!!
If 'The Fonz' were a cricketer