A weekend of rugby fixtures led me to realise that England's rugby is in a mess. Is it the fault of Martin Johnson and his coaching staff? I simply don't have enough knowledge to give an opinion, despite the fact that the press are filling hundreds of column inches saying that if Johnson doesn't go, the rest of his coaching team should be sent to the tower. The cricketers, however, had a great weekend, smashing South Africa with a brilliant bowling display from James Anderson, and now we're two-one up in the series, with one match to go, there's everything to play for. Mr Atherton tells me this morning in The Times, that whoever wins the toss in a day/night game in Durban wins 9 times out of 10, so, Mr Strauss, have your spinning finger ready for Friday.
On Sunday I was a guest of Barclays Bank for the ATP World Tour tennis finals at the O2 arena, between Nikolay Davydenko (this was his sixth final) and Juan Martin del Potro ('Del Boy' to the cheering crowd). I'm afraid it was a below-par match, as only one of the two players had come to the party. Davydenko won 6-3, 6-4 in under an hour, and frankly never looked like losing. In this morning's papers, they are rightly claiming that over 250,000 people watched the finals over the week, which is on a par with Wimbledon, but the truth is that this would have been a rather bad quarter final at the All-England Club, because in the end, all the players raise their game when it comes to a major tournament. Nevertheless, it was my first visit to the O2 - a magnificent arena - and it was interesting to see the speed at which tennis is played now, compared with the days of Laver, Hoad and Rosewall, though I have a feeling that those three gentlemen would have adapted to modern conditions, and still be the champions they were.
On Sunday I was a guest of Barclays Bank for the ATP World Tour tennis finals at the O2 arena, between Nikolay Davydenko (this was his sixth final) and Juan Martin del Potro ('Del Boy' to the cheering crowd). I'm afraid it was a below-par match, as only one of the two players had come to the party. Davydenko won 6-3, 6-4 in under an hour, and frankly never looked like losing. In this morning's papers, they are rightly claiming that over 250,000 people watched the finals over the week, which is on a par with Wimbledon, but the truth is that this would have been a rather bad quarter final at the All-England Club, because in the end, all the players raise their game when it comes to a major tournament. Nevertheless, it was my first visit to the O2 - a magnificent arena - and it was interesting to see the speed at which tennis is played now, compared with the days of Laver, Hoad and Rosewall, though I have a feeling that those three gentlemen would have adapted to modern conditions, and still be the champions they were.
1 Comments:
Dear Lord Archer
Just a thought, in Durban, the England captain doesnt have to get his spinning fingers ready, he would be the visiting captain and the Proteas captain Smith will be spinning the coin, maybe Andrew Strauss can practise saying Heads.
I have been an ardent fan of yours since i first read 'not a penny more, not a penny less' some 20-25 yrs back, and since then have read and re-read all your books about a 100 times each. Looking forward to your next book, and in the interim making do with re-reading yr old books and following you on yr blog.
Cheers
Sachal Lakhwani (Pakistan)
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