Call me nostalgic

[xiaolan]

If I had to name three highlights from a lifetime, too much of which has been spent watching televised sport and too little reading Homer and Hesiod, they would be Gareth Edwards’ try for the Barbarians against the All Blacks in 1973 (though that final http://www.carolinahurricanesofficialonline.com/Adidas-Cam-Ward-Jersey pass from Quinnell was surely forward), Geoffrey Boycott’s hundredth hundred against Australia in 1977, and Red Rum’s third Grand National victory, also in 1977. The fact that all three come from the 1970s no doubt demonstrates how important sport was to the teenage me, but it might also suggest how central sport was then to the national psyche.  In Notes Towards a Definition of Culture, published in 1948, TS Eliot included Derby day and the FA Cup final in his cultural unifiers, alongside wensleydale cheese, beetroot in vinegar and the music of Elgar. For Eliot, sport was part of “organic” society: it was in the soil and the soul; it had a resonance, a meaning beyond the moment Corey Peters Jersey or the match itself. That’s why of the three events I’ve listed, it is Red Rum’s third triumph that easily wins the day. He had won twice and been second twice in the previous four races, and here he was, http://www.official76ershop.com/authentic-13-wilt-chamberlain-jersey.html in his dotage, http://www.officiallachargersshop.com/Jatavis_Brown_Jersey_Cheapcoming back to win “like a fresh horse” as the great Peter O’Sullevan said in his BBC commentary, in front of an adoring crowd on the course and a vast audience on TV. It was Willie Snead Jersey a TS Eliot moment: a nation stopping for a moment for this act of shared homage. They don’t make them like that any more. Red Rum was of course a once-in-a-lifetime horse – trained to greatness by Ginger McCain from the back of a car showroom in Southport – but something more fundamental has changed. Just as the Derby is now just another weekend horse race rather than a nation-stopping Wednesday ritual, and the cup http://www.footballbillsofficial.com/Marcell-Dareus-Jerseyfinal can be safely ignored, whereas once coverage started at 9am on a Saturday with a not-to-be-missed opportunity to meet the players’ kids, so the Grand National has become just another long-distance steeplechase. The reason the country no longer stops for the National is partly cultural: we do other things on Saturdays now, don’t watch the telly as families any more – once everyone would have had a bet and been glued to the race – and might just glance at the result on a smartphone instead. Society has fragmented; it is no longer organic; there are no more TS Eliot moments. But the Aintree authorities have also undermined the race by making it too easy: the old wooden stakes in the fences have been removed, so Jake Butt Jersey horses can plough through them without falling; the fearsome ditch at Becher’s Brook has been levelled, and other modifications have been made in response to a sustained campaign by animal rights activists who said the race was cruel. The death of Dark Ivy at Becher’s in 1987 was a key moment in the battle between the sport and the animal rights pressure groups. Dark Ivy was a grey – instantly visible in any race, beloved of casual punters – and strongly fancied to win. When he fell at Becher’s first time round and broke his neck in a horrible fall, the whole mood of the race changed from celebration to wake. Few remember that year’s winner, Maori Venture, but many will recall with horror the death of Dark Ivy. It was the moment many fell out of love with the race. National-haters are of course entitled to their opinion. Tragic deaths do happen, but they happen in all racing, with jockeys at risk as well as the horses. Experts suggest a horse is more likely to die in a hurdle race (over much smaller obstacles) on hard ground at some out-of-the-way course than they are in the National, Michael Floyd Jersey where horses run more slowly because the race is longer and they are jumping bigger fences. But the National, being the National, gets all the attention.http://cguniverse.net/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=11838
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