By Stewart Weir
Saturday
Alex Higgins had plenty written about him during his career. It appears there could be just as much written about him in death.
The notorious and troubled genius, who died last year, is the subject of a new book by Tony Francis, Who Was Hurricane Higgins?
For those who don’t know, Francis regularly presented ITV’s coverage of snooker during the 1980s.
I might eventually read it. Or I may just see how many words I can make my own experiences of and dealings with "Alexander Gordon" stretch to. I’m sure I could, with a bit of embellishment, massaging and padding, come up with 50-odd thousand words. Certainly my tales, usually of the unexpected, with Alex would be as entertaining as anyone else’s – perhaps even more so.
It will be interesting to see how that title sells against that of another Irish snooker legend, 1997 world champion Ken Doherty, whose biography, Life In The Frame – My Story, is out now.
Doherty enlisted the assistance of David Hendon, regularly heard on Eurosport and a superb journalist (I need to say that, having once hired him), to get the words in the right order.
I am more likely to thumb through this one, given that I know Ken and some of those names who feature in the book. Always interesting to see what folk say in print compared to what they say in private …
Sunday
24 years of wait, hurt, anguish, pain, frustration, over-confidence and under-achievement is finally put behind New Zealand as the All Blacks triumph in the Rugby World Cup final against France.
Not the crushing margin many – especially the bookies – had expected. But 8–7 it was, and that was enough to put New Zealand on top of the rugby world. And deserved, too – although praise must also go to the moody Bleus who made a real fight of it.
Me, I was just delighted at the popularity of one of my Tweets. I Twittered: “#RWC2011 excellent #Haka from #AllBlacks. #France offer Can-Can line-up in response, but fail with high kicks ...”, which was re-Tweeted 38 times. #fairchuffed, in twitter parlance.
What I didn’t know was that the French would be fined £2,500 for facing up to the All Blacks as they performed their famous war dance.
So a highly motivated and fiercely patriotic team of professional sportsmen are supposed to stand and watch as another team goes through a choreographed dance routine? Give me peace.
In other words, you can be seen to be the aggressor, threatening, and throwing down a direct challenge to an opponent, but if they defend their position, they get fined. Does Kenny MacAskill have anything to do with the International Rugby Board?
If that game was tight, there was nothing close about the Manchester derby with United (at home, they wear red) humbled, battered and humiliated 6–1 by City (away from home, and in blue).
Sir Alex Ferguson declared he’d never lost a game by that margin, conveniently forgetting he’d been a member of a Dunfermline side beaten 6–1 by Clyde during the 1965–66 season.
Of course, that result doesn’t count because it wasn’t in the English Premier League or on Sky Sports.
And anyway, in 45 years' time, Sunday’s scoreline will have slipped Sir Alex’s memory …
Monday
I usually lead into such tales with the Craig Brown line about young players believing lager makes them invisible. So why break the habit of a lifetime?
But following a long line of infamous Scots, it’s reported that Aston Villa midfielder Barry Bannan was arrested on suspicion of drink-driving after a motorway smash on Sunday morning.
The 21-year-old was unhurt after crashing his Range Rover into the central reservation of the M1 at 5:30am, but was breathalysed and then held for nine hours at Nottingham's Bridewell police station.
At least he didn’t park his Range Rover on the M1, as Bob Malcolm did three years ago.
I’m not going to – although it might sound it – get all moralistic on such matters. But there are those who are watching and thinking that if Carlos Tevez can be threatened with the sack and fined half a million quid for sitting stone-sober, minding his own business, what punishment could a football club inflict on someone, unfit, behind the wheel of two tonnes of metal?
Tuesday
Under the "there but for the grace of, and all that" category this week comes this offering from the BBC’s Phil Dawkes, charged with live copy updates from the Carling Cup ties.
It’s amazing how quickly people pick up on errors now in this electronic era, as I found out on Twitter with a "devine" rather than "divine" interlude this week (thanks again to @TopFenceClimber).
For Mr Dawkes didn’t get away with his faux pas either, as he reported:
2133: Aldershit threaten again and it's that man Gutteridge who has a free-kick from the edge of the area saved by Manchester United keeper Ben Amos. They're doing their best to take at least one fond memory away from this game.Dawkes then duly grovelled:
2142: With regard to a now corrected earlier entry, AlderSHOT I'm sorry. I'm so, so, so, so, so, so sorry. Sorry. That's sorry. Once for good measure; sorry. 2146: I think it's fair to say the last few minutes haven't been my finest work. Thank goodness not many people noticed. Just to check that's the case I'll have a quick check on Twitter... oh. Oh dear. As an American sports journalist similarly skilled to myself once said, boom goes the dynamite.A correction was quickly uploaded, but it did happen. And I have the screengrab to prove it! Wednesday David Beckham's love-in with the Major League Soccer is nearly at an end, with Paris Saint-Germain appearing favourites to land the former England captain in November. Indeed, confidence is such that the French club has (according to radio station RTL) ordered 20,000 shirts from Nike adorned with the former Manchester United, Real Madrid and occasional AC Milan star’s name. Ligue 1 is becoming a more likely home for Beckham, who has a good relationship with the Paris club's director of football, Leonardo, as he tries to keep himself in the frame for a place in Team GB's Olympic football squad. While the shirts may have the Beckham brand, his previously favoured numbers – 7 and 23 – are currently occupied by Jérémy Ménez and Mohamed Sissoko respectively. If I was to take a bet, I’d go for 12, if available – Olympic year … Thursday And the medals for next year’s Olympics are now being struck at the Royal Mint in Wales. I was interested to read that 4,700 medals will be produced, each one struck 15 times with 900 tonnes of weight, rolled through a 750-degree furnace three times, and taking ten hours to make. The gold medals will contain a minimum of six grammes of gold, only 1.34 per cent of the component materials, 92.5 per cent being silver. Forget the IOC. Do Trading Standards know this? Friday Speculation remains rife about the future of Dundee United manager Peter Houston. A slump in form has put his job in jeopardy, but the Scotland no.2 has come out fighting, claiming that in terms of what has gone before him at Tannadice, “I have the second-best winning record behind Jim McLean.” I’ve tried to think of a sporting comparison, and I have. Remember the gap between Usain Bolt and the second-placed guy when he broke the 200m world record? That’s how far Houston is behind McLean in real terms – assuming he isn’t beaten by Ivan Golac on the rails … – Tweet Stewart Weir with thoughts and comments, @sweirz
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