feather_ghyll

Day eight: ( Read more... )

Day nine: ( Read more... )

Day ten: ( Read more... )

Final day: ( Read more... )

Or the Paralympic Games Opening Ceremony and days one to three.

The opening ceremony:

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Days one to three: ( Read more... )

Day eleven: ( Read more... )

Day twelve: ( Read more... )

Day thirteen: ( Read more... )

Day fourteen: ( Read more... )

Day fifteen: ( Read more... )

Happy new year! Here's my 2022 in books, tennis and some other things.

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What I didn’t mention in my last post about the Olympics was ( Read more... )

I've been following the athletics world championships in Beijing via the BBC for the past 10 days, either by watching the night sessions live or via the highlights programme. What will I do without it?

Of course, the whole thing has been clouded over by the claims about doping over the summer, and a little voice wondered how many of these medals will be taken away over the next few years. But I nearly teared up as Jessica Ennis-Hill underlined her dominance in the heptathlon in the 800m; I enjoyed watching Bolt win it, speedy Price-Fraser and her incredible hair, smiling Schippers, smooth Felix and many other sprinters.

I also really enjoyed many field competitions, well, the jumps, anyway. The more we saw of them, the more they created their own dramas, especially with the run up to the pit in this fast stadium. Generally, it was great fun to have the build-up of heats and semis for the track events, where you could watch who was doing well and try to gauge how much they were holding back. Although it's weird to have three heats in 'semi-finals', the usual top two plus two fastest qualifiers felt fair. After all, if you just needed to run fast enough to win, that's be as fast as you would run, but people who had run well under that time had proved they deserved to be there too. When British athletes were in that fastest loser spot, it became quite nervy.

I presume that budget cuts led to the main studio being in Salford, with some commentators then flying back early from Beijing. Steves Cram and Backley were impressive, as ever. I mostly like Gabby Logan as a presenter and Michael Johnson is a class act (although the producers over-rate him as a voice over guy. He has a resonant voice, but he doesn't quite know how to use it like an actor would.) Yes, there was a lot of repetition and padding while there wasn't any live athletics on, but, overall, I enjoyed it.

I've kept meaning to post about the US Open. It's been strange not to be able to watch it, but to have to check up online and on sports headlines to see what's been happening. Highlight clips aren't the same! It was particularly heartening to see Robson building on her Olympics and having such a good run in the first week. Getting beaten by a defending champion is not too shabby. ( Read more... )

However, I've been able to watch the Paralympics. After last night, it feels churlish to say that, of course, the coverage hasn't been as good as the Beeb's would have been, but I haven't been able to switch to other sports when stuff I have no interest in watching comes on etc, although I've sat gripped in front of the swimming and athletic races. Claire Baldwin is an ace, I like it when former Paralympians get all technical (for instance about how individuals' disabilities affect them and what they have to do to adjust) and the fact that we move from heats to finals (in the races) and that there are so many different categories makes it all the more explosive. Then there are the moments where you realise what these people who run or swim so fast must have to face in their daily life. There's a lot more to say about disability , elite sports, gender and a myriad things than is getting raised – there’s a consensual attitude about certain topics in the coverage that I don’t always agree with, although if both the Games get girls who thought they weren’t able to ‘do sports’ to get up/out and exercise more, that is a good thing. But then, while the Paralympics are going on, sports coverage is tending back towards the belief that what the boys and their managers in the Premier League are doing is all that sport is, which is, frankly, depressing.

This is far from a timely review, as I saw it last weekend...

Fast Girls (2012) (12A)
Directed by: Regan Hill
Written by: Jay Basu, Noel Clarke, Roy Williams and Jon Croker
Starring: Lenora Crichlow, Lily James, Noel Clarke, Rupert Graves,

http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt1700808/

If you’ve seen the trailer for this film, I can confirm that it doesn’t cheat you, the film is exactly what you’d expect it to be. As far as I was concerned, that was a good thing.( Read more... )