James Hamilton on Sport History and Psychology
This was taken on board the relatively new 270mph Shanghai Maglev train. As the train accelerates, you can get an idea of its speed from passing traffic, in much the same way as you can on that M1 stretch of the St Pancras – Sheffield route. But only at first. At about 180mph, something curious…
Given the personal shocks of the last couple of days, it was good to have my faith in humanity restored by this account of the marathon at the St Louis Olympics of 1904. Highlights follow. Accompanying the human drama of amateur, underfunded athletes is the tradition of having amateur, underqualified athletes at the Games. In…
This isn’t to do with sport or any of the usual things. I met von Bismarck a number of times when I was at Oxford, and liked the man I met. Warm, funny, generous, open-minded and extremely intelligent. That he had a reputation for parties I shan’t deny, but so did many others, some of…
Orient’s comeback FA Cup victory over Chelsea in 1972: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRDH0qV5Jf4] It’s that strange football-only phenomenon of a terrible, terrible game that isn’t terrible at all. Some of the Orient players featured in Brian Clough’s analysis (see part one of my Clough series for that) including Peter Allen. I doubt that the original broadcast was in…
It’s been suggested I write a post about football songs. (Hat tip plus sincere apologies for what follows to Mark Holland). This sums up my attitude to the genre: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMBnZylPdu8] Something you see a lot in British football broadcasting and writing these days is a determination to find charm and tradition and ancient values in…
George Szirtes was thinking out loud about music: Thinking about the fortieth anniversary of Sergeant Pepper, I started wondering about those occasions when I had only to hear a bar of music to know that something had radically changed. …if anyone has the inclination, you could send me an email with a link (or if…
From the fascinating Plunketts website, which is well worth an hour of your time, a colour image of Norwich City’s then brand-new stadium at Carrow Road in 1935. There are some surprises here – at least, they would come as surprises to the good-old-days crowd, but I doubt that anyone who visits here would count…
I’ve spoken here of football being an emergent phenomenon of industrial urban society, of the kind of world that’s largely disappeared in the United Kingdom in recent decades. I’m going to be unable to update here with anything substantial until the weekend, so I’m going to leave you with a link to a photograph by…
We all know how to put our national game to rights. Get the old values back; show passion and commitment; get a proper English manager; get our kids to learn their skills playing football in the street just as we used to. Kick the money men out of the game and go back to the…
..all the drinks were dead/And all the glasses dirty (Philip Larkin Unpublished 1965) It’s happened, so it’s finally safe to say it now: Owen Hargreaves has joined Manchester United for approximately £16 million. No one is saying that his injuries of last season have lost him a yard of pace – whatever that actually means….