'Great God, this is an awful place!' Yes, they were the words I used when I came to interview at Leighford High all those years ago, but I was actually quoting Robert Falcon Scott, who got to the South Pole exactly 100 years ago today, only to find a little tent in the white wilderness with a Norwegian flag pinned to it. It had been placed there by Raold Amundsen, the month before.
How must Scott have felt? I would have comforted myself -
a) in the knowledge that Amundsen had cheated by using dog sleds and
b) at least I wasn't on the Titanic.
In other news ...
The year is young, but I am sure that even so my loyal reader will have noticed that I am not a great cricket fan. As a spectator sport, it equates with watching paint dry, but I do have a little nostalgia for the sound of leather on willow and remember the great days when large, wheezing smokers and beer-drinkers strolled around English greens wearing whites. It was all so civilized, with a smattering of applause every now and again, slightly muffled by a cucumber sandwich or slice of seed cake. So, what went wrong? Well, in 1933 we killed it stone dead by using the 'bodyline' bowling tactic. Purists will disagree with me but it was essentially an attempt by British bowlers to kill - or at least seriously maim - Australian bowlers. It took a while, but the result today is plain to see: American baseball caps (why?); more body armour than the gladiators wore; and a profusion of sweat shirts and colours that have turned the game into a circus. Dressed like that, they might just as well be playing darts.
