Today I've mostly bin...

[Looby]

It was!! Great picnic in the carpark afterwards with 30-something English and French friends then home for a curry and to watch it again on the TV and hear the comentary.

[Bunnylump]

Sounds good. Did you have nice weather like we did here too?

[Looby]

Brilliant sunshine all day!

[Bunnylump]

Lovely! Especially for a picnic. You must have done something very good in a previous life!

[Looby]

Who? Me?

[giraffe]

It was!! Great picnic in the carpark afterwards with 30-something English and French friends then home for a curry and to watch it again on the TV and hear the comentary.

Watching rugby once would be bad enough, but twice ......Yuk!

[MBH]

I'm with the Giraffe on that one.

I was asked if I wanted to go to a football match. It told them (in all honesty) that I've been to one so why would I want to go to another one?

{I'm not a spectator of any sport. Used to enjoy Pot Black when it was the ONLY snooker on the telly}

[kathlyn]

I'm with Giraffe and MBH on that too, rugby and football yuk.

but i do like to watch some athletics, gymnastics and of course anything horsey.

[giraffe]

We were offered the chance to go to Edinburgh this last weekend to see the rugby with optional shopping for the ladies. (I don't like shopping, but it was starting to sound quite attractive) We cried off in the end because the trains back on Sunday would have meant about 5 changes. There were direct trains there from Crewe on Friday, but coming back would have been horrendous.

[clvrlad]

i must agree
im not one for wathcing sport either
im more for a good book and a quiet pint or sat amongst noisy friends.....

[giraffe]

It's not sport in general, just rugby, which is far too violent for my liking. I love watching cricket and most other sports.

[LAT]

I used to hate watching my son play rugby, he was youngest in his year and very average size for his age so some of the boys were much bigger than him. But he was very good at dodging the ball altogether, on one occasion I wouldn't have needed to wash his kit at all if a team mate hadn't decided he looked too clean and tackled him after the end of the match!! Luckily he gave up rubgy for football and then later took up tennis and squash, much more civilised.

[clvrlad]

well the violence doesnt bother me
id much rather play than watch
but then i can put up with it ina bar with some mates...thats more like social drinkingn anyway;-)

[MBH]

I love watching cricket...

OK - now I'm confused What's so fascinating about watching grass grow?

I spent over 10-years behind the bar at the local Cricket Club, and every year I had someone tell me how to read the score board. If anyone asked who was playing I told them I didn't know but "they're wearing white kit!"

Any game that relies on 5 variables to decide who wins has a few serious flaws

I'm afraid the only team I'm likely to play for is the Apathetic SAS team - our motto "Who cares who wins?"

[Looby]

I enjoy watching most sports but I draw the line at soccer on TV. I think many players are so overpaid that they forget that it's a game. The fact that they argue with the ref annoys me - they should bring in the law from rugby that any dissent and you give away 10 yards.
And at least with rugby the fans are safe and don't need to be segregated and can all drink together afterwards.
I used to enjoy watching my son play football when he was younger, but that is a different game!

[giraffe]

I've liked cricket since I was about 12. I sat next to a girl in biology at school who was mad about cricket and talked of nothing else, so I learnt the rules so I knew what she was talking about. I used to go to Edgbaston to watch as a teenager as it was local.

Fernando plays quite a lot and I spend many evenings in the summer sat with the other mums watching (Some of them haven't a clue what's happening, and as they sometimes play pairs and sometimes proper rules it can be confusing). It's great fun unless it's so cold we're all huddled under blankets, or until the midges come out as it starts to get dark.

[Scurra]

Trying to explain the appeal of any sport that you happen to like to someone else is a no-win situation, mainly because whatever reason you give will sound silly, but none of that matters if you "get" it.
(Although I don't see the problem with watching grass grow myself. After all, they seem to think that showing paint drying makes for good television, so why not?!)

That's true of trying to explain the appeal of anything, though, I suppose. Why do we happen to like puzzles? And yet we know how people react when we try to explain why we do...

[MBH]

I think in the main I appreciate SKILL. I'll watch the top 10 goals of the season, but wouldn't want to sit for two hours hoping something will happen. (Let alone 5 days...... I know - 20/20 cricket, etc )

[Interetsting that nobody asked what the 5 variable were ]

Things like the gymnastics I'd go along with to some extent, because the skill is amazing from the first seconds and everything is done inside a couple of minutes. I'd throw 'dance' and 'ice dance' in the same mixture.

As a kid I'm sure I enjoyed the Harlem Globetrotters shows on the TV - even though it's the same tricks every time. That wasn't sport to me, that was entertainment

Speaking of basketball - I wonder if this guy couldn't get on the team because he wasn't tall enough?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUv18zfYCHQ

[kathlyn]

I wonder if he took as much time on perfecting his school work

[Scurra]

I think I have to disagree with you there, MBH. Every sport requires immense skill. In some sports this is very visible to the spectators (e.g. football) whereas in others it requires considerable knowledge of exactly what is going on (e.g. cricket.) That merely makes one sport more accessible to spectators, it doesn't make one sport less skilful than the other.