I WAS THINKING of dear old Meat Loaf on Sunday, as I reflected on the sporting week-end; in particular to his song: “Two out of three aint bad.” England's cricket team is enduring a bit of a doing from the Indians at Edgbaston – and while you can never discount “Bazball” - it isn't looking good for them, even if the heavens over Birmingham have opened this morning. Meanwhile the hugely over-hyped “Lionesses” lost to France in the opening game of their European Championship defence. Against this, let's be fair, congratulations to their Rugby Union team for a terrific win over Argentina in La Plata.
Not quite full-on Schadenfreude for we “Rebellious Scots” to relish, but hey – cue old Meaty.
Meanwhile, up here in the football boondocks, BBC Shortbread had a fascinating interview with wee Billy Dodds. Billy and I are in an exclusive club of two: John “Big Swim” Hunter” - Sir Tom's uncle and for many years, Director of Football at Cumnock Academy – told me one day: “in all my years at the school, the only two players I ever had that I couldn't see what they brought to the game were You and Billy Dodds.”
I'll take that, even though I had to occasionally kick his erse when he was a young boy, I have always had a lot of time for Doddsie. He worked bloody hard for his success and if a few more-naturally-talented Scots had had Billy's enthusiasm and work ethic, our game would be in a much-better state.
Now back adding a bit of class to the Shortbread tin of talking heads – ok, that wouldn't be difficult, but, credit where it's due – Billy was giving us a look behind the scenes at his time back at Rangers as a member, with Barry Ferguson and Neil McCann of the reformed “Boy Band – Hun Direction”.
There was a lot of intelligent good sense in what Billy had to say and I still feel, history might show, Rangers should have stuck with the boy band rather than – again – bringing in new blood without a deep understanding of what it will take to turn things around at the club.
Mind you, although the Glen isn't my primary Junior side, I'd still rather see him back home in New Cumnock, sorting-out Glenafton Athletic.
SPEAKING OF “Junior Football” - I see The Scottish Junior Cup is no more. I understand the trophy itself, a magnificent example of Victorian silversmithing, will continue to be the prize for winning what we must now call: “The Scottish Communities Cup”. That's great, but, I think the new name is a bit naff; never mind, we don't expect incisive thinking along Hampden's Corridor of Power.
The management model in Scottish Fitba has long been a combination of muddling through and It'll be alright on the night. Great brains don't hang around Hampden too long, it can be a lonely place when you have more than one working brain cell, so, I don't see my idea ever being taken-up, but, having made this plea regularly over some 30 years or more, I will make it again.
The first and second round draws for the renamed competition were made and released last week. On the basis of, it's the small details which make the difference, I hereby suggest – again – that, the organisers release the various cup draws in alphabetical order. Thus, if Auchinleck Talbot get a home tie, that is listed before Cumnock Juniors' home tie, and so on. But, as things stand, if Yoker Athletic's tie comes out of the pot before Clydebank's, then that's the order in which it is printed.
TEST MATCH SPECIAL on Sunday morning, with the start of the final day of the Edgbaston Test Match delayed by rain, was broadcasting gold. First they repeated a minor classic from Saturday, a piece involving 12 year old, visually-impaired cricket fanatic “Ravi” - the kid was magic. They followed this up with former England Captain Michael Vaughan and the legend that is Jonathan Agnew selecting the England attack for the Lords Test, from the leading bowlers in the County averages.
Such an exercise would never work in Football, since, even in these days of OPTA ratings, we don't really have the statistical evidence to make an applied judgement of one player over another. I fear it will be a year or so, perhaps a decade or so, before – for all Brighton and Hove Albion's current reliance on analytics – we see “Moneyball” being used in Fitba.
Mind you, Vaughan did say there is a difference between even the top tier of club play and international play – a fact which holds perhaps even more in Football than in Cricket. There might still be something to be said for Craig Brown's occasional ploy of capping someone, just to prove the press were talking mince when boosting certain players' international credentials.
I'VE KNOWN Charles Young Esq since the days when he had a clear chin and hair on top of his head. One of my favourite one-liners from the Court Jester of Scottish Fitba was his classic: “This season's Junior close season is on a Thursday”. There was occasional truth on that, I remember one year, covering Annbank United's first pre-season friendly on a Saturday, and Auchinleck Talbot's final game of the previous season the following Tuesday.
In truth, I am against the modern fashion for “never mind the quality, feel the width” as Fitba becomes ever-more an all-year-round sport. It's been coming for years, Arthur Milton, in 1954 was the last English dual-internationalist (Cricket and Football). Scotland's last such dual-internationalist was, of course: “The Goalie” Andy Goram, in 1991. The Goalie looks increasingly likely to be the last member of an exclusive club: Dr John McDonald (Edinburgh University) back in the 1880s, future Rangers' Manager Scot Symon in the 1930s, Hearts Legend Donald Ford in the 1980s are the others.
One of the reasons, other than self-interest on the part of England and Scotland, for the demise of the Home International Championship 40 years ago was the feeling, the season was going-on for two long and the players wer over-tired; it hasn't been curtailed in the intervening period.
There is, I feel, something to be said for the shorter seasons in the mega-bucks North American professional sports. I fear for the likes of Manchester City and Chelsea in the new season, following their participation in the absurd World Club Championships, which is dragging on at the moment.
