I mean, jeepers. If you asked GPT4 to design the ultimate sports star for the 21st century, it would look like this
She really could earn more than Tiger Woods. I don’t remember him chatting in Mandarin on Chinese TV
She also has a charm that I don't think Woods ever had....
'There's a running joke in my team because before my first-round qualifying match I lost my Airpods,' she told ESPN.
'I was basically running around the changing rooms three minutes before my call to go on trying to find it but I lost it and I was thinking to myself "you know what, if you win this match you can by yourself a pair of Airpods and that's become the running joke!'
And her joking about no clean kit at Wimbledon, and having her flight booked back from USA two weeks ago.
She only started on Twitter in 2019. You can follow her rise in about 100 tweets (and all of them sweet, charming or polite, nothing to dig up for the haters). She’s patriotic, royalist, likes to party (within reason), wants England to win the euros, and worries about her A Levels. An admirable grammar school girl
Suddenly she has 450,000 followers and she’ll probably have a million by next week.
At the risk of making this worse. I can see her wearing red with blue trim. 2 of the colours of Romania, sure. But 2 of the UK too. To be implying Romania there'd need to be yellow. That's what I associate the Romanian football and rugby team with.
Yellow visor, DD.
Ah. OK. I really didn’t notice. But I am famously unobservant. Maybe this kind of thing is why Wimbledon insists on white.?
Part of it, I think, yes. I did notice her outfit, also her opponent's, and I was happy with both of them, but I didn't make a connection with the Romanian flag. Then again, although I'm no flags ignoramus, I don't have a good mental picture of theirs.
I certainly noticed that her outfit matched the colours of the Romanian flag, but I didn't really think anything of it beyond that. I've never understood the need that some people have to force everyone into some kind of bland monocultual straight-jacket, identity wise. Where we live, and where Raducanu lives, it's quite normal for kids to have a range of identities reflecting the heritage of their parents. It doesn't stop them being British. I think the Tebbit test types just feel threatened by these more cosmopolitan people in their midst, maybe a bit jealous? It is nice to see the public embracing people like Raducanu but if they accept her as British why are we still deporting "foreign" people who have lived here since they were babies? So much of the debate on these issues is so totally divorced from the reality I see around me every time I drop my kids at school. Maybe London is just another country. I'm sick of living under rules made by people who don't seem to understand or even like the country we are now.
Dr Rosena sums it up rather well, I think:
Emma Raducanu’s parents are Romanian and Chinese, she herself was born in Canada but she still proudly identifies as British- she’s just won the US Open.
Remember this, being British can comprise a real mix. It’s why we must be an open and welcoming country.
She could also be Romanian, Chinese, Canadian. She has chosen to be British but it wasn't mandatory. Good for her doing so.
She's grown up in Britain. She's 18. She's been here since the age of two. She is British by default – anything else would be a "choice".
But aren't people missing something? Tennis is not played between countries (with two exceptions) so Emma was not representing any country in the US Open, or at Wimbledon.
We know Emma is British because that is how she describes herself and thinks of herself. But in tennis terms, it does not really matter until the Paris Olympics.
I mean, jeepers. If you asked GPT4 to design the ultimate sports star for the 21st century, it would look like this
She really could earn more than Tiger Woods. I don’t remember him chatting in Mandarin on Chinese TV
Is it that incredible to be speaking her mother's language? I know what you mean though in terms of the optics.
Yes it’s the optics. Not the mere feat of speaking her mother’s tongue. She just instantly plugs into the world’s biggest market and most important economy in a way no other sports star has done (that I can remember)
Just realised who Emma Raducanu reminds me of. Tiger Woods. Both of mixed European/Asian descent. Both have this completely calm self-confidence. And supreme skill. She could dominate female tennis the way Woods dominated golf
Obviously there are differences. She has is more charming (tho that could just be her youth). Hopefully she won’t echo Woods’ later career…
And the manner of her breakthrough. Seed 150, a qualifier, only 2nd major, no sets dropped, goes on to win. That is unprecedented in top world sport. The only comparison that occurs to me is one of those amateur Spanish matadors that used to jump out of the crowd and fight the bull with such style they went on to be huge pro stars.
Good spot. That was my first thought as a cf. She won't end up quite that mega - TW was Michael Jackson with clubs - but yes, definite similarities. Tiger WAS pretty charming with the media, btw, when he first hit the big time. One slight difference is he was a noted child prodigy in golf, and all fans of the sport knew about him as a junior.
She could easily out-Tiger the Tiger. Tennis is potentially bigger than golf (if it isn’t already). She’s also young, female and extremely telegenic and she has that backstory that everyone can get behind - in their different ways.
She could be THE biggest sports star in the world (excepting football, of course)
Can she handle the pressure, tho? She looks like she can, but wow. Wimbledon next year will be insane, for her
No argument on how big she could be. She's big now and could be huge huge HUGE. There's almost no limit on how enormous this girl could become. But not as big a global icon as Tiger. That's not possible. It just isn't.
No, it's not possible. Golf is massive (in the US in particular) and I suspect is the most participated-in sport on the planet. Tennis is rather niche in comparison.
And with Woods, a very charismatic young black man exploding into a sport associated with being staid and old and white and elitist, the only blacks being on the bag or cleaning the clubhouse, a sport that cannot really be dominated by a single player and yet doing exactly that for 15 years; and then we have the sordid sex scandal and the serial injuries, the failed comebacks and finally the glorious redemptive one, life back on track, a humbler 'nicer' persona, another Masters at age 43, and then, for good measure, let's crash a car at 100 mph, nearly die and (probably) play no more. As regards individuals in sports and in global terms there has never been a bigger story than Tiger Woods.
Maybe she feels British cos she's always lived here? While feeling an affinity to Romania, and identification with the Chinese diaspora, and retaining a strong affection for Canada as the country of her birth? And do so simultaneously without giving it too much deep thought? Perhaps she doesn't have much of a view on grammar schools either?
Alright, but if she doesn't have a view on AV I'll go right off her.
Well quite, but let's think positive - if she plays her cards right she could be a Labour councillor in Bromley...
At the risk of making this worse. I can see her wearing red with blue trim. 2 of the colours of Romania, sure. But 2 of the UK too. To be implying Romania there'd need to be yellow. That's what I associate the Romanian football and rugby team with.
Yellow visor, DD.
Ah. OK. I really didn’t notice. But I am famously unobservant. Maybe this kind of thing is why Wimbledon insists on white.?
Part of it, I think, yes. I did notice her outfit, also her opponent's, and I was happy with both of them, but I didn't make a connection with the Romanian flag. Then again, although I'm no flags ignoramus, I don't have a good mental picture of theirs.
I certainly noticed that her outfit matched the colours of the Romanian flag, but I didn't really think anything of it beyond that. I've never understood the need that some people have to force everyone into some kind of bland monocultual straight-jacket, identity wise. Where we live, and where Raducanu lives, it's quite normal for kids to have a range of identities reflecting the heritage of their parents. It doesn't stop them being British. I think the Tebbit test types just feel threatened by these more cosmopolitan people in their midst, maybe a bit jealous? It is nice to see the public embracing people like Raducanu but if they accept her as British why are we still deporting "foreign" people who have lived here since they were babies? So much of the debate on these issues is so totally divorced from the reality I see around me every time I drop my kids at school. Maybe London is just another country. I'm sick of living under rules made by people who don't seem to understand or even like the country we are now.
Dr Rosena sums it up rather well, I think:
Emma Raducanu’s parents are Romanian and Chinese, she herself was born in Canada but she still proudly identifies as British- she’s just won the US Open.
Remember this, being British can comprise a real mix. It’s why we must be an open and welcoming country.
She could also be Romanian, Chinese, Canadian. She has chosen to be British but it wasn't mandatory. Good for her doing so.
She's grown up in Britain. She's 18. She's been here since the age of two. She is British by default – anything else would be a "choice".
But aren't people missing something? Tennis is not played between countries (with two exceptions) so Emma was not representing any country in the US Open, or at Wimbledon.
We know Emma is British because that is how she describes herself and thinks of herself. But in tennis terms, it does not really matter until the Paris Olympics.
Just realised who Emma Raducanu reminds me of. Tiger Woods. Both of mixed European/Asian descent. Both have this completely calm self-confidence. And supreme skill. She could dominate female tennis the way Woods dominated golf
Obviously there are differences. She has is more charming (tho that could just be her youth). Hopefully she won’t echo Woods’ later career…
And the manner of her breakthrough. Seed 150, a qualifier, only 2nd major, no sets dropped, goes on to win. That is unprecedented in top world sport. The only comparison that occurs to me is one of those amateur Spanish matadors that used to jump out of the crowd and fight the bull with such style they went on to be huge pro stars.
Good spot. That was my first thought as a cf. She won't end up quite that mega - TW was Michael Jackson with clubs - but yes, definite similarities. Tiger WAS pretty charming with the media, btw, when he first hit the big time. One slight difference is he was a noted child prodigy in golf, and all fans of the sport knew about him as a junior.
She could easily out-Tiger the Tiger. Tennis is potentially bigger than golf (if it isn’t already). She’s also young, female and extremely telegenic and she has that backstory that everyone can get behind - in their different ways.
She could be THE biggest sports star in the world (excepting football, of course)
Can she handle the pressure, tho? She looks like she can, but wow. Wimbledon next year will be insane, for her
No argument on how big she could be. She's big now and could be huge huge HUGE. There's almost no limit on how enormous this girl could become. But not as big a global icon as Tiger. That's not possible. It just isn't.
No, it's not possible. Golf is massive (in the US in particular) and I suspect is the most participated-in sport on the planet. Tennis is rather niche in comparison.
And with Woods, a very charismatic young black man exploding into a sport associated with being staid and old and white and elitist, the only blacks being on the bag or cleaning the clubhouse, a sport that cannot really be dominated by a single player and yet doing exactly that for 15 years; and then we have the sordid sex scandal and the serial injuries, the failed comebacks and finally the glorious redemptive one, life back on track, a humbler 'nicer' persona, another Masters at age 43, and then, for good measure, let's crash a car at 100 mph, nearly die and (probably) play no more. As regards individuals in sports and in global terms there has never been a bigger story than Tiger Woods.
But, globally, golf just isn’t that big and never was (except maybe in the USA, a market now in steep relative decline)
Golf itself is dwindling away very quickly. A dying sport. Golf courses are being turned into housing worldwide
Tennis is bigger - it has way more players and viewers worldwide.
That said, what Tiger Woods achieved WITHIN golf is unique, I agree. Raducanu has a looooooong way to go to be anything like that. But the potential is there
I mean, jeepers. If you asked GPT4 to design the ultimate sports star for the 21st century, it would look like this
She really could earn more than Tiger Woods. I don’t remember him chatting in Mandarin on Chinese TV
Is it that incredible to be speaking her mother's language? I know what you mean though in terms of the optics.
Yes it’s the optics. Not the mere feat of speaking her mother’s tongue. She just instantly plugs into the world’s biggest market and most important economy in a way no other sports star has done (that I can remember)
She speaks "diaspora Mandarin" too. With a slight hint of a NE accent. Not the harsh (to our ears) official Beijing version. Wonder if she can read and write too? That would be another level.
I wonder if she's related to Romanian rugby player Cristian who defected to the UK in 1989 from an Edinburgh bar, through the South Bridge Vaults evading the Romanian Securitate guarding the exits.
Possibly distantly. Her parents were bankers/financiers and he’s a carpenter in Edinburgh.
Tried to murder Hamilton, such shocking driving, he ended up on top of Hamilton's car, the halo saved Hamilton's life.
The twat didn't even check on Hamilton.
That exact incident happens 10x every Italian Grand Prix - except the cheeky sod up the inside always goes over the bumps if they're not in front. Once again Max is too special to yield an inch, the race track is his and his alone. Full confidence in large FIA penalty coming to Lewis for this one.
Just realised who Emma Raducanu reminds me of. Tiger Woods. Both of mixed European/Asian descent. Both have this completely calm self-confidence. And supreme skill. She could dominate female tennis the way Woods dominated golf
Obviously there are differences. She has is more charming (tho that could just be her youth). Hopefully she won’t echo Woods’ later career…
And the manner of her breakthrough. Seed 150, a qualifier, only 2nd major, no sets dropped, goes on to win. That is unprecedented in top world sport. The only comparison that occurs to me is one of those amateur Spanish matadors that used to jump out of the crowd and fight the bull with such style they went on to be huge pro stars.
Good spot. That was my first thought as a cf. She won't end up quite that mega - TW was Michael Jackson with clubs - but yes, definite similarities. Tiger WAS pretty charming with the media, btw, when he first hit the big time. One slight difference is he was a noted child prodigy in golf, and all fans of the sport knew about him as a junior.
She could easily out-Tiger the Tiger. Tennis is potentially bigger than golf (if it isn’t already). She’s also young, female and extremely telegenic and she has that backstory that everyone can get behind - in their different ways.
She could be THE biggest sports star in the world (excepting football, of course)
Can she handle the pressure, tho? She looks like she can, but wow. Wimbledon next year will be insane, for her
No argument on how big she could be. She's big now and could be huge huge HUGE. There's almost no limit on how enormous this girl could become. But not as big a global icon as Tiger. That's not possible. It just isn't.
No, it's not possible. Golf is massive (in the US in particular) and I suspect is the most participated-in sport on the planet. Tennis is rather niche in comparison.
And with Woods, a very charismatic young black man exploding into a sport associated with being staid and old and white and elitist, the only blacks being on the bag or cleaning the clubhouse, a sport that cannot really be dominated by a single player and yet doing exactly that for 15 years; and then we have the sordid sex scandal and the serial injuries, the failed comebacks and finally the glorious redemptive one, life back on track, a humbler 'nicer' persona, another Masters at age 43, and then, for good measure, let's crash a car at 100 mph, nearly die and (probably) play no more. As regards individuals in sports and in global terms there has never been a bigger story than Tiger Woods.
But, globally, golf just isn’t that big and never was (except maybe in the USA, a market now in steep relative decline)
Golf itself is dwindling away very quickly. A dying sport. Golf courses are being turned into housing worldwide
Tennis is bigger - it has way more players and viewers worldwide.
That said, what Tiger Woods achieved WITHIN golf is unique, I agree. Raducanu has a looooooong way to go to be anything like that. But the potential is there
The golf market has expanded massively during Covid.
At the risk of making this worse. I can see her wearing red with blue trim. 2 of the colours of Romania, sure. But 2 of the UK too. To be implying Romania there'd need to be yellow. That's what I associate the Romanian football and rugby team with.
Yellow visor, DD.
Ah. OK. I really didn’t notice. But I am famously unobservant. Maybe this kind of thing is why Wimbledon insists on white.?
Part of it, I think, yes. I did notice her outfit, also her opponent's, and I was happy with both of them, but I didn't make a connection with the Romanian flag. Then again, although I'm no flags ignoramus, I don't have a good mental picture of theirs.
I certainly noticed that her outfit matched the colours of the Romanian flag, but I didn't really think anything of it beyond that. I've never understood the need that some people have to force everyone into some kind of bland monocultual straight-jacket, identity wise. Where we live, and where Raducanu lives, it's quite normal for kids to have a range of identities reflecting the heritage of their parents. It doesn't stop them being British. I think the Tebbit test types just feel threatened by these more cosmopolitan people in their midst, maybe a bit jealous? It is nice to see the public embracing people like Raducanu but if they accept her as British why are we still deporting "foreign" people who have lived here since they were babies? So much of the debate on these issues is so totally divorced from the reality I see around me every time I drop my kids at school. Maybe London is just another country. I'm sick of living under rules made by people who don't seem to understand or even like the country we are now.
A strong 'yay' to that. To me, living for 40 years in London, the most ethnically diverse place in the country, 'multiculturalism' isn't a theory, or some plot/experiment designed to undermine our traditional values and way of life, it's simply an organic fact; lots of people with family origins, recent or less recent, in different parts of the world, or in the rest of the UK, a mosaic of identities, all living in the same city, no big problem, no big deal. It feels natural. The opposite - 'monoculturalism' - is what feels weird to me.
Yes, I live in a pretty monocultural area, nearly all of whom seem pleasant people, not all of them as wealthy as people think about Surrey - but I do miss London and Nottingham for just that reason - it feels OK, but a bit two-dimensional.
That poll has the Democrats only 1% ahead in its Congress poll.
Given the Democrats won the House by 3.1% in the popular vote but just 9 seats in 2020 that should be enough for the GOP to regain the House in the mid terms next year
I wouldn't want to live there permanently but I'd love to visit. Spend a few nights in the Cavern Club and the Marquee Club for starters, watch some of the newly introduced Deltics on the ECML perhaps. Travel on some of the lovely branch lines before Beeching closed them.
Hmm.
It was especially safe for children, and we were allowed to roam the suburbs and the countryside, on foot and by bike, quite unsupervised in a way that now seems utterly impossible. But it was so.
The most infamous child murders in British history - the Moors Murders - began a year later. Is Hitchens really saying that everything was all wonderful and safe for children until the clock struck midnight on 31 December 1962 - then all hell broke loose?
It's a load of nostalgic hogwash by Hitchens. The 1960s were safer for children in one respect: there was much less traffic, and many roads were empty, so kids could wander more freely and unsupervised. But there was no culture of safeguarding, and children who were abused, physically and sexually, had no recourse, usually just keeping quiet. I'm very confident that a lot more children were beaten or abused in other ways by their parents, or through religious institutions, Boy Scouts etc. in the 60s than are now. But it was mainly hidden away, as is apparent from historic child abuse cases.
On any aspect of life you care to mention Hitchens will find the past to be preferable. He never lets the side down on this, not with the teeniest slip; he's solid, low key, completely dependable, just quietly goes about his business of lamenting the way things are today. He really is the reactionaries' reactionary.
I wouldn't want to live there permanently but I'd love to visit. Spend a few nights in the Cavern Club and the Marquee Club for starters, watch some of the newly introduced Deltics on the ECML perhaps. Travel on some of the lovely branch lines before Beeching closed them.
Hmm.
It was especially safe for children, and we were allowed to roam the suburbs and the countryside, on foot and by bike, quite unsupervised in a way that now seems utterly impossible. But it was so.
The most infamous child murders in British history - the Moors Murders - began a year later. Is Hitchens really saying that everything was all wonderful and safe for children until the clock struck midnight on 31 December 1962 - then all hell broke loose?
It's a load of nostalgic hogwash by Hitchens. The 1960s were safer for children in one respect: there was much less traffic, and many roads were empty, so kids could wander more freely and unsupervised. But there was no culture of safeguarding, and children who were abused, physically and sexually, had no recourse, usually just keeping quiet. I'm very confident that a lot more children were beaten or abused in other ways by their parents, or through religious institutions, Boy Scouts etc. in the 60s than are now. But it was mainly hidden away, as is apparent from historic child abuse cases.
On any aspect of life you care to mention Hitchens will find the past to be preferable. He never lets the side down on this, not with the teeniest slip; he's solid, low key, completely dependable, just quietly goes about his business of lamenting the way things are today. He really is the reactionaries' reactionary.
Kids who grown up multi-lingual, especially in more than 2 languages, are fascinating.
I have friends, who through their nationalities, family backgrounds and where they were located when their kids were born, now have kids that have spoken 4 different languages from birth. It is quite something to see their youngest just flit between all of them.
Kids who grown up multi-lingual, especially in more than 2 languages, are fascinating.
I have friends, who through their nationalities, family backgrounds and where they were located when their kids were born, now have kids that have spoken 4 different languages from birth. It is quite something to see their youngest just flit between all of them.
With apologies to @TSE serlewis didn't give him enough space into turn 2. Verstappen alongside, Hamilton cut him off.
This is why we have the halo.
Verstappen has a long history of causing crashes.
Hamilton doesn't.
Ah, so if I have a record and am involved in an incident it must be my fault?
I can believe it was Verstappen's fault, as you say he has history, but the BBC description has one commentator saying Hamilton left enough space, the other saying just a racing incident.
Kids who grown up multi-lingual, especially in more than 2 languages, are fascinating.
I have friends, who through their nationalities, family backgrounds and where they were located when their kids were born, now have kids that have spoken 4 different languages from birth. It is quite something to see their youngest just flit between all of them.
At the risk of making this worse. I can see her wearing red with blue trim. 2 of the colours of Romania, sure. But 2 of the UK too. To be implying Romania there'd need to be yellow. That's what I associate the Romanian football and rugby team with.
Yellow visor, DD.
Ah. OK. I really didn’t notice. But I am famously unobservant. Maybe this kind of thing is why Wimbledon insists on white.?
Part of it, I think, yes. I did notice her outfit, also her opponent's, and I was happy with both of them, but I didn't make a connection with the Romanian flag. Then again, although I'm no flags ignoramus, I don't have a good mental picture of theirs.
I certainly noticed that her outfit matched the colours of the Romanian flag, but I didn't really think anything of it beyond that. I've never understood the need that some people have to force everyone into some kind of bland monocultual straight-jacket, identity wise. Where we live, and where Raducanu lives, it's quite normal for kids to have a range of identities reflecting the heritage of their parents. It doesn't stop them being British. I think the Tebbit test types just feel threatened by these more cosmopolitan people in their midst, maybe a bit jealous? It is nice to see the public embracing people like Raducanu but if they accept her as British why are we still deporting "foreign" people who have lived here since they were babies? So much of the debate on these issues is so totally divorced from the reality I see around me every time I drop my kids at school. Maybe London is just another country. I'm sick of living under rules made by people who don't seem to understand or even like the country we are now.
A strong 'yay' to that. To me, living for 40 years in London, the most ethnically diverse place in the country, 'multiculturalism' isn't a theory, or some plot/experiment designed to undermine our traditional values and way of life, it's simply an organic fact; lots of people with family origins, recent or less recent, in different parts of the world, or in the rest of the UK, a mosaic of identities, all living in the same city, no big problem, no big deal. It feels natural. The opposite - 'monoculturalism' - is what feels weird to me.
Yes, I live in a pretty monocultural area, nearly all of whom seem pleasant people, not all of them as wealthy as people think about Surrey - but I do miss London and Nottingham for just that reason - it feels OK, but a bit two-dimensional.
At the risk of making this worse. I can see her wearing red with blue trim. 2 of the colours of Romania, sure. But 2 of the UK too. To be implying Romania there'd need to be yellow. That's what I associate the Romanian football and rugby team with.
Yellow visor, DD.
Ah. OK. I really didn’t notice. But I am famously unobservant. Maybe this kind of thing is why Wimbledon insists on white.?
Part of it, I think, yes. I did notice her outfit, also her opponent's, and I was happy with both of them, but I didn't make a connection with the Romanian flag. Then again, although I'm no flags ignoramus, I don't have a good mental picture of theirs.
I certainly noticed that her outfit matched the colours of the Romanian flag, but I didn't really think anything of it beyond that. I've never understood the need that some people have to force everyone into some kind of bland monocultual straight-jacket, identity wise. Where we live, and where Raducanu lives, it's quite normal for kids to have a range of identities reflecting the heritage of their parents. It doesn't stop them being British. I think the Tebbit test types just feel threatened by these more cosmopolitan people in their midst, maybe a bit jealous? It is nice to see the public embracing people like Raducanu but if they accept her as British why are we still deporting "foreign" people who have lived here since they were babies? So much of the debate on these issues is so totally divorced from the reality I see around me every time I drop my kids at school. Maybe London is just another country. I'm sick of living under rules made by people who don't seem to understand or even like the country we are now.
A strong 'yay' to that. To me, living for 40 years in London, the most ethnically diverse place in the country, 'multiculturalism' isn't a theory, or some plot/experiment designed to undermine our traditional values and way of life, it's simply an organic fact; lots of people with family origins, recent or less recent, in different parts of the world, or in the rest of the UK, a mosaic of identities, all living in the same city, no big problem, no big deal. It feels natural. The opposite - 'monoculturalism' - is what feels weird to me.
Yes, I live in a pretty monocultural area, nearly all of whom seem pleasant people, not all of them as wealthy as people think about Surrey - but I do miss London and Nottingham for just that reason - it feels OK, but a bit two-dimensional.
You’re free to move, why don’t you if you have such disdain for where you live ?
I can see that lad getting the Patel, Javid, Sunak treatment on twitter....because it appears he has the "wrong" opinion for somebody non-white about this subject.
I mean, jeepers. If you asked GPT4 to design the ultimate sports star for the 21st century, it would look like this
She really could earn more than Tiger Woods. I don’t remember him chatting in Mandarin on Chinese TV
She also has a charm that I don't think Woods ever had....
'There's a running joke in my team because before my first-round qualifying match I lost my Airpods,' she told ESPN.
'I was basically running around the changing rooms three minutes before my call to go on trying to find it but I lost it and I was thinking to myself "you know what, if you win this match you can by yourself a pair of Airpods and that's become the running joke!'
And her joking about no clean kit at Wimbledon, and having her flight booked back from USA two weeks ago.
Tiger was charm personified when he first appeared. And that grin of his ... it knocks Emma off the park.
Love Emma of course. Totally. But PLEASE let's stop it now with the TW comps. Fruity Leon and myself have both noted and commented on some similarities, but that's it. There's no more road with this one.
How about this radical idea, just taking the brightest and the best....post A-level results application is the fairest way of doing this.
Theyvve proven themselves incapable of that. Time and time again the studies show that state school educated pupils out perform private school pupils at Cambridge. So clearly Cambridge's entry process is failing - hopelessly biased to private schools.
Yes but that is comparing private school and state pupils with the same A level grades who have already got into Russell Group universities. Not state school pupils with lower A level grades than their private school contemporaries at a top university
You’re free to move, why don’t you if you have such disdain for where you live ?
It's where my job is - it's be over an hour's commute to live somewhere more diverse. Disdain overstates it - it's perfectly OK, but I do miss the variety.
Kids who grown up multi-lingual, especially in more than 2 languages, are fascinating.
I have friends, who through their nationalities, family backgrounds and where they were located when their kids were born, now have kids that have spoken 4 different languages from birth. It is quite something to see their youngest just flit between all of them.
*Waves*
I can speak seven languages.
"TSE's got friends in every town and village from here to the Sudan, he speaks seven languages, knows every local custom, he'll blend in, disappear, you'll never see him again. With any luck, he's got the grail already."
[Cut to middle of fair in the Middle East, TSE wearing bright suit and red trainers, sticking out like sore thumb]
Kids who grown up multi-lingual, especially in more than 2 languages, are fascinating.
I have friends, who through their nationalities, family backgrounds and where they were located when their kids were born, now have kids that have spoken 4 different languages from birth. It is quite something to see their youngest just flit between all of them.
I mean, jeepers. If you asked GPT4 to design the ultimate sports star for the 21st century, it would look like this
She really could earn more than Tiger Woods. I don’t remember him chatting in Mandarin on Chinese TV
Is it that incredible to be speaking her mother's language? I know what you mean though in terms of the optics.
Yes it’s the optics. Not the mere feat of speaking her mother’s tongue. She just instantly plugs into the world’s biggest market and most important economy in a way no other sports star has done (that I can remember)
She speaks "diaspora Mandarin" too. With a slight hint of a NE accent. Not the harsh (to our ears) official Beijing version. Wonder if she can read and write too? That would be another level.
How about this radical idea, just taking the brightest and the best....post A-level results application is the fairest way of doing this.
Theyvve proven themselves incapable of that. Time and time again the studies show that state school educated pupils out perform private school pupils at Cambridge. So clearly Cambridge's entry process is failing - hopelessly biased to private schools.
That's why I said post A-Level results applications. Then we get rid of this nonsense of guessing grades and how good one person is versus 6 months out from them actually doing their exams.
The obvious other thing to do is make it so that an applicants school is unknown. It should be irrelevant to the whole process anyway, you have their actual results.
That depends what A-levels are supposed to indicate. Achievement? A crude and unreliable intelligence test? Fine, take the ones with the best grades.
But for potential, for estimating how much a candidate will benefit from a university education, then if public schools are better than state schools, then the state pupil with a B might have more potential than a public school A-student. So it is hard. Fwiw, I'd run admissions post-A levels and without interviews, personal statements or any other malarkey that wastes everyone's time and adds little if any value. A decent computer could place everyone in a day.
At the risk of making this worse. I can see her wearing red with blue trim. 2 of the colours of Romania, sure. But 2 of the UK too. To be implying Romania there'd need to be yellow. That's what I associate the Romanian football and rugby team with.
Yellow visor, DD.
Ah. OK. I really didn’t notice. But I am famously unobservant. Maybe this kind of thing is why Wimbledon insists on white.?
Part of it, I think, yes. I did notice her outfit, also her opponent's, and I was happy with both of them, but I didn't make a connection with the Romanian flag. Then again, although I'm no flags ignoramus, I don't have a good mental picture of theirs.
I certainly noticed that her outfit matched the colours of the Romanian flag, but I didn't really think anything of it beyond that. I've never understood the need that some people have to force everyone into some kind of bland monocultual straight-jacket, identity wise. Where we live, and where Raducanu lives, it's quite normal for kids to have a range of identities reflecting the heritage of their parents. It doesn't stop them being British. I think the Tebbit test types just feel threatened by these more cosmopolitan people in their midst, maybe a bit jealous? It is nice to see the public embracing people like Raducanu but if they accept her as British why are we still deporting "foreign" people who have lived here since they were babies? So much of the debate on these issues is so totally divorced from the reality I see around me every time I drop my kids at school. Maybe London is just another country. I'm sick of living under rules made by people who don't seem to understand or even like the country we are now.
Dr Rosena sums it up rather well, I think:
Emma Raducanu’s parents are Romanian and Chinese, she herself was born in Canada but she still proudly identifies as British- she’s just won the US Open.
Remember this, being British can comprise a real mix. It’s why we must be an open and welcoming country.
She could also be Romanian, Chinese, Canadian. She has chosen to be British but it wasn't mandatory. Good for her doing so.
She's grown up in Britain. She's 18. She's been here since the age of two. She is British by default – anything else would be a "choice".
But aren't people missing something? Tennis is not played between countries (with two exceptions) so Emma was not representing any country in the US Open, or at Wimbledon.
We know Emma is British because that is how she describes herself and thinks of herself. But in tennis terms, it does not really matter until the Paris Olympics.
How about this radical idea, just taking the brightest and the best....post A-level results application is the fairest way of doing this.
Theyvve proven themselves incapable of that. Time and time again the studies show that state school educated pupils out perform private school pupils at Cambridge. So clearly Cambridge's entry process is failing - hopelessly biased to private schools.
That's why I said post A-Level results applications. Then we get rid of this nonsense of guessing grades and how good one person is versus 6 months out from them actually doing their exams.
The obvious other thing to do is make it so that an applicants school is unknown. It should be irrelevant to the whole process anyway, you have their actual results.
That depends what A-levels are supposed to indicate. Achievement? A crude and unreliable intelligence test? Fine, take the ones with the best grades.
But for potential, for estimating how much a candidate will benefit from a university education, then if public schools are better than state schools, then the state pupil with a B might have more potential than a public school A-student. So it is hard. Fwiw, I'd run admissions post-A levels and without interviews, personal statements or any other malarkey that wastes everyone's time and adds little if any value. A decent computer could place everyone in a day.
Actually I think one of the benefits of the Oxbridge system is the interviews, where you can challenge candidates "potential".
I am not sure I would have got in had I not interviewed well. My grades were good, but I wasn't top of my class. But I went through the problems they set pretty well, at least I think I did, with the logical progression and some hints.
I agree on the personal statements nonsense, it really shouldn't matter at all that you sold girl scouts cookies or whatever. Nor any sort of interview assessing how charming they might be.
As I stated afterwards, I think its fine to note particular if a candidate had particular poor schooling or something really out of the ordinary in their childhood.
You’re free to move, why don’t you if you have such disdain for where you live ?
It's where my job is - it's be over an hour's commute to live somewhere more diverse. Disdain overstates it - it's perfectly OK, but I do miss the variety.
That’s fair enough. Do you ever go back and visit Nottingham or where you used to live in London ? I wonder if this sentiment is more nostalgia. Like people who think TV used o be great in the seventies who remember shows like Play for Today but forget endless reruns of The Virginian.
Kids who grown up multi-lingual, especially in more than 2 languages, are fascinating.
I have friends, who through their nationalities, family backgrounds and where they were located when their kids were born, now have kids that have spoken 4 different languages from birth. It is quite something to see their youngest just flit between all of them.
*Waves*
I can speak seven languages.
Translate this post into all seven.
Not a challenge with google translate around.
My ultimate test for being fluent in a language is being able swear fluently in that language.
Kids who grown up multi-lingual, especially in more than 2 languages, are fascinating.
I have friends, who through their nationalities, family backgrounds and where they were located when their kids were born, now have kids that have spoken 4 different languages from birth. It is quite something to see their youngest just flit between all of them.
Proof that backwards progress is possible: my great grandmother could apparently speak about 6 languages. I can only speak one.
I can see that lad getting the Patel, Javid, Sunak treatment on twitter....because it appears he has the "wrong" opinion for somebody non-white about this subject.
Yes, it’s an interesting perspective and I think he has a point.
I don’t doubt the white saviours will give him the same treatment. Sad really.
Kids who grown up multi-lingual, especially in more than 2 languages, are fascinating.
I have friends, who through their nationalities, family backgrounds and where they were located when their kids were born, now have kids that have spoken 4 different languages from birth. It is quite something to see their youngest just flit between all of them.
*Waves*
I can speak seven languages.
Translate this post into all seven.
Not a challenge with google translate around.
My ultimate test for being fluent in a language is being able swear fluently in that language.
I think it's important to note the Scottish element in Raducanu's development. She won an Amazon award that Andy Murray helped set up which paid her £30k pa for two years and included mentoring from him.
Hurrah!! Just caught the news that vaxports are not going ahead.
Sense has prevailed.
Outstanding news.
just await the next u turn
Indeed. Still we should get a couple of weeks or so of peace before this particular pile of crap is back on the table.
And I suspect Johnson has been told that he has seriously pissed off his backbenchers enough with NI tax so that they wouldn't take vaxports this autumn on top.
At the risk of making this worse. I can see her wearing red with blue trim. 2 of the colours of Romania, sure. But 2 of the UK too. To be implying Romania there'd need to be yellow. That's what I associate the Romanian football and rugby team with.
Yellow visor, DD.
Ah. OK. I really didn’t notice. But I am famously unobservant. Maybe this kind of thing is why Wimbledon insists on white.?
Part of it, I think, yes. I did notice her outfit, also her opponent's, and I was happy with both of them, but I didn't make a connection with the Romanian flag. Then again, although I'm no flags ignoramus, I don't have a good mental picture of theirs.
I certainly noticed that her outfit matched the colours of the Romanian flag, but I didn't really think anything of it beyond that. I've never understood the need that some people have to force everyone into some kind of bland monocultual straight-jacket, identity wise. Where we live, and where Raducanu lives, it's quite normal for kids to have a range of identities reflecting the heritage of their parents. It doesn't stop them being British. I think the Tebbit test types just feel threatened by these more cosmopolitan people in their midst, maybe a bit jealous? It is nice to see the public embracing people like Raducanu but if they accept her as British why are we still deporting "foreign" people who have lived here since they were babies? So much of the debate on these issues is so totally divorced from the reality I see around me every time I drop my kids at school. Maybe London is just another country. I'm sick of living under rules made by people who don't seem to understand or even like the country we are now.
A strong 'yay' to that. To me, living for 40 years in London, the most ethnically diverse place in the country, 'multiculturalism' isn't a theory, or some plot/experiment designed to undermine our traditional values and way of life, it's simply an organic fact; lots of people with family origins, recent or less recent, in different parts of the world, or in the rest of the UK, a mosaic of identities, all living in the same city, no big problem, no big deal. It feels natural. The opposite - 'monoculturalism' - is what feels weird to me.
Multiple, monocultural silos does not an integrated society make.
Integration is key but it doesn't require uniformity. English language skills, plus respect for the law, plus social & workplace mixing, plus time passing, and there we are. I'm not particularly worried about multiculturalism in the UK. I don't have it in my top 10 concerns or even bubblin' under.
It seems a racing incident, but I'd put most of it on Max given the car's positions going into the first corner.
The other thing: Max didn't even appear to give aa glance to see if Hamilton's okay. I wonder if he's inherited his dad's (ahem) spirit....
(Jos Verstappen has a long and nasty history of beating people up. Including giving someone a fractured skull, and various issues with his ex-wife and girlfriend.)
"According to the witness, the driver punched a 45-year-old man, fracturing his skull and leaving him hospitalised for several months. Trouble flared when Verstappen wanted to use the karting circuit alone with five other drivers. But some youngsters joined in with Verstappen reportedly losing his cool after one had overtaken him."
Anybody tell them it is F1, not bumper cars at the local fair?
I just don't see where there was supposed to be a gap for Verstappen there. The only way they didn't collide is if Hamilton came off the track. I think he's been a bit naughty there and seems very content to get out of Monza with no damage to his points advantage.
You’re free to move, why don’t you if you have such disdain for where you live ?
It's where my job is - it's be over an hour's commute to live somewhere more diverse. Disdain overstates it - it's perfectly OK, but I do miss the variety.
That’s fair enough. Do you ever go back and visit Nottingham or where you used to live in London ? I wonder if this sentiment is more nostalgia. Like people who think TV used o be great in the seventies who remember shows like Play for Today but forget endless reruns of The Virginian.
Yes, I've been back - it does feel like home (but it's only been a few years anyway). When I rtetire in ?5? years I'll hope to go back.
Not making a big deal out of it, there's nothing actually wrong with where I live - I was just mildly agreeing with Kinabalu that when you do get a good cultural mix it adds something special.
"After a week of wondering why every serve sounds like it’s hitting the net cord, I’ve found out tonight that the second noise is the feet of the serving player landing on the floor… and my mind has been somewhat blown! #USOpen"
Just realised who Emma Raducanu reminds me of. Tiger Woods. Both of mixed European/Asian descent. Both have this completely calm self-confidence. And supreme skill. She could dominate female tennis the way Woods dominated golf
Obviously there are differences. She has is more charming (tho that could just be her youth). Hopefully she won’t echo Woods’ later career…
And the manner of her breakthrough. Seed 150, a qualifier, only 2nd major, no sets dropped, goes on to win. That is unprecedented in top world sport. The only comparison that occurs to me is one of those amateur Spanish matadors that used to jump out of the crowd and fight the bull with such style they went on to be huge pro stars.
Good spot. That was my first thought as a cf. She won't end up quite that mega - TW was Michael Jackson with clubs - but yes, definite similarities. Tiger WAS pretty charming with the media, btw, when he first hit the big time. One slight difference is he was a noted child prodigy in golf, and all fans of the sport knew about him as a junior.
She could easily out-Tiger the Tiger. Tennis is potentially bigger than golf (if it isn’t already). She’s also young, female and extremely telegenic and she has that backstory that everyone can get behind - in their different ways.
She could be THE biggest sports star in the world (excepting football, of course)
Can she handle the pressure, tho? She looks like she can, but wow. Wimbledon next year will be insane, for her
No argument on how big she could be. She's big now and could be huge huge HUGE. There's almost no limit on how enormous this girl could become. But not as big a global icon as Tiger. That's not possible. It just isn't.
No, it's not possible. Golf is massive (in the US in particular) and I suspect is the most participated-in sport on the planet. Tennis is rather niche in comparison.
And with Woods, a very charismatic young black man exploding into a sport associated with being staid and old and white and elitist, the only blacks being on the bag or cleaning the clubhouse, a sport that cannot really be dominated by a single player and yet doing exactly that for 15 years; and then we have the sordid sex scandal and the serial injuries, the failed comebacks and finally the glorious redemptive one, life back on track, a humbler 'nicer' persona, another Masters at age 43, and then, for good measure, let's crash a car at 100 mph, nearly die and (probably) play no more. As regards individuals in sports and in global terms there has never been a bigger story than Tiger Woods.
But, globally, golf just isn’t that big and never was (except maybe in the USA, a market now in steep relative decline)
Golf itself is dwindling away very quickly. A dying sport. Golf courses are being turned into housing worldwide
Tennis is bigger - it has way more players and viewers worldwide.
That said, what Tiger Woods achieved WITHIN golf is unique, I agree. Raducanu has a looooooong way to go to be anything like that. But the potential is there
The pandemic has been great for golf. Participation has shot up. Not sure how much of that is young people, though, which is what you want. Although a big part of its charm is you can play into dotage. I can still boom one over 300 when I catch it.
"After a week of wondering why every serve sounds like it’s hitting the net cord, I’ve found out tonight that the second noise is the feet of the serving player landing on the floor… and my mind has been somewhat blown! #USOpen"
German Twitter is unbearable at the moment. Supposedly intelligent and analytical commentators abandoning any pretense of impartiality. Everything their candidate does is marvellous, everything the others do is scandalous. Bonus: once the election is done, coalition talks. Sigh.
Incredibly, he seems to be claiming he played a part in her victory by driving her on.
Its just more of the same old shit...this mid life crisis that we see a number of high profile individuals are clearly having and results in spending too much time on twitter crowbarring themselves into everything.
Gary Lineker will be making it about diversity / Brexit, Moron about himself, Fox something about wokeness, Gary Neville something about how terrible the government are.
Just realised who Emma Raducanu reminds me of. Tiger Woods. Both of mixed European/Asian descent. Both have this completely calm self-confidence. And supreme skill. She could dominate female tennis the way Woods dominated golf
Obviously there are differences. She has is more charming (tho that could just be her youth). Hopefully she won’t echo Woods’ later career…
And the manner of her breakthrough. Seed 150, a qualifier, only 2nd major, no sets dropped, goes on to win. That is unprecedented in top world sport. The only comparison that occurs to me is one of those amateur Spanish matadors that used to jump out of the crowd and fight the bull with such style they went on to be huge pro stars.
Good spot. That was my first thought as a cf. She won't end up quite that mega - TW was Michael Jackson with clubs - but yes, definite similarities. Tiger WAS pretty charming with the media, btw, when he first hit the big time. One slight difference is he was a noted child prodigy in golf, and all fans of the sport knew about him as a junior.
She could easily out-Tiger the Tiger. Tennis is potentially bigger than golf (if it isn’t already). She’s also young, female and extremely telegenic and she has that backstory that everyone can get behind - in their different ways.
She could be THE biggest sports star in the world (excepting football, of course)
Can she handle the pressure, tho? She looks like she can, but wow. Wimbledon next year will be insane, for her
No argument on how big she could be. She's big now and could be huge huge HUGE. There's almost no limit on how enormous this girl could become. But not as big a global icon as Tiger. That's not possible. It just isn't.
No, it's not possible. Golf is massive (in the US in particular) and I suspect is the most participated-in sport on the planet. Tennis is rather niche in comparison.
And with Woods, a very charismatic young black man exploding into a sport associated with being staid and old and white and elitist, the only blacks being on the bag or cleaning the clubhouse, a sport that cannot really be dominated by a single player and yet doing exactly that for 15 years; and then we have the sordid sex scandal and the serial injuries, the failed comebacks and finally the glorious redemptive one, life back on track, a humbler 'nicer' persona, another Masters at age 43, and then, for good measure, let's crash a car at 100 mph, nearly die and (probably) play no more. As regards individuals in sports and in global terms there has never been a bigger story than Tiger Woods.
But, globally, golf just isn’t that big and never was (except maybe in the USA, a market now in steep relative decline)
Golf itself is dwindling away very quickly. A dying sport. Golf courses are being turned into housing worldwide
Tennis is bigger - it has way more players and viewers worldwide.
That said, what Tiger Woods achieved WITHIN golf is unique, I agree. Raducanu has a looooooong way to go to be anything like that. But the potential is there
The pandemic has been great for golf. Participation has shot up. Not sure how much of that is young people, though, which is what you want. Although a big part of its charm is you can play into dotage. I can still boom one over 300 when I catch it.
I rather like golf. Not passionate, and I've never played, but I find it soothing to watch, timeless and quiet, like a kind of outdoor snooker
But the long term prognosis is not good (despite a Covid blip). Golf is so non-21st-century. It uses up much land and water for a start, which isn't popular or sellable. It is also slow and old and takes days. It is like Test cricket (which is also in trouble). But at least cricket has found new formats to give itself a bright future
Unless golf can find a new way to sell itself - fast, exciting, dramatic - it will dwindle to a few diehards. It probably won't die but it will become something very niche, like showjumping
You’re free to move, why don’t you if you have such disdain for where you live ?
It's where my job is - it's be over an hour's commute to live somewhere more diverse. Disdain overstates it - it's perfectly OK, but I do miss the variety.
That’s fair enough. Do you ever go back and visit Nottingham or where you used to live in London ? I wonder if this sentiment is more nostalgia. Like people who think TV used o be great in the seventies who remember shows like Play for Today but forget endless reruns of The Virginian.
Yes, I've been back - it does feel like home (but it's only been a few years anyway). When I rtetire in ?5? years I'll hope to go back.
Not making a big deal out of it, there's nothing actually wrong with where I live - I was just mildly agreeing with Kinabalu that when you do get a good cultural mix it adds something special.
For me I’ve lived in multicultural and mono cultural areas and what makes it is the people and the sense of community. I’ve been fortunate to have good experiences of both.
We must run out of people to infect at some point.
Okay, a perhaps silly question: if I get a PCR test, and am positive, then take another test a day or too later (or a LFT), do I count as two infections, or is the second test discounted?
If it isn't discounted, do we know how many people are getting tested like that?
"After a week of wondering why every serve sounds like it’s hitting the net cord, I’ve found out tonight that the second noise is the feet of the serving player landing on the floor… and my mind has been somewhat blown! #USOpen"
Ah ok. Well that did seem the best of the theories. They should have filtered it out then, like I presume it normally is, given I haven't come across it before on other channels when they show tennis.
God, we're prattling on, aren't we. Maybe time for a break? Yes, I think so.
Anyway, today I celebrate 29 years of marriage. On and off, despite some dark times, Husband and I have been together - since we met in Russia (a coup de foudre 4 days after first meeting) - 33 years and 2 months.
Given what a pain in the arse I can be that is quite some achievement.
Husband has just mended (unprompted - he's finally learning 😉) one of the garden chairs so as it is sunny here we can sit outside and have a celebratory drink. It's never too early for one of those.
Congratulations, hope you have a wonderful day and I hope your daughter is celebrating the death of the vaccine passport as well!
Thank you.
Thank God that abomination has been buried. For now, at least. I don't trust them not to try and reintroduce it when we're not looking.
It seems to be working fine in Germany. Within the last 24 hours I’ve had to show my NHS pass four times; to check in to the latest hotel, to get dinner, to get lunch, and to ride in the cable car. If you haven’t got a certificate, you need a test, and there is a seven day walk in ‘quick testing station’ in the village.
Places are busy so it doesn’t appear to be hitting trade, at least.
Yes.
People in other countries seem a little baffled by the attitude here, though less than they were bewildered by the extent of the sentimentality about Afghan street-dogs - from the little I have read.
Incredibly, he seems to be claiming he played a part in her victory by driving her on.
Its just more of the same old shit...this mid life crisis that we see a number of high profile individuals are clearly having and results in spending too much time on twitter crowbarring themselves into everything.
Gary Lineker will be making it about diversity / Brexit, Moron about himself, Fox something about wokeness, Gary Neville something about how terrible the government are.
It's not "mid life crises" - it happens to young people as well - it is a function of social media itself. Especially Twitter.
Getting likes and retweets is a dopamine hit. Getting 100,000 retweets is a massive dopamine hit. The world agrees with you, instantly!
This is addictive. You want, no, crave, more of the same. So you tweet about anything, and everything, you end up in absurd arguments, but you still get that hit of approval from your 300,000 followers.
It is tragic to watch highly intelligent people frittering away their actual lives on pointless meaningless opining which will be forgotten 2 minutes later (unless they get it wrong and get cancelled)
Twitter is almost pure toxin. Unfortunately, you sometimes have to engage with it, but do so with extreme caution
You’re free to move, why don’t you if you have such disdain for where you live ?
It's where my job is - it's be over an hour's commute to live somewhere more diverse. Disdain overstates it - it's perfectly OK, but I do miss the variety.
That’s fair enough. Do you ever go back and visit Nottingham or where you used to live in London ? I wonder if this sentiment is more nostalgia. Like people who think TV used o be great in the seventies who remember shows like Play for Today but forget endless reruns of The Virginian.
Yes, I've been back - it does feel like home (but it's only been a few years anyway). When I rtetire in ?5? years I'll hope to go back.
Not making a big deal out of it, there's nothing actually wrong with where I live - I was just mildly agreeing with Kinabalu that when you do get a good cultural mix it adds something special.
You may be impressed by how well they have done with cycle-facilities.
Just realised who Emma Raducanu reminds me of. Tiger Woods. Both of mixed European/Asian descent. Both have this completely calm self-confidence. And supreme skill. She could dominate female tennis the way Woods dominated golf
Obviously there are differences. She has is more charming (tho that could just be her youth). Hopefully she won’t echo Woods’ later career…
And the manner of her breakthrough. Seed 150, a qualifier, only 2nd major, no sets dropped, goes on to win. That is unprecedented in top world sport. The only comparison that occurs to me is one of those amateur Spanish matadors that used to jump out of the crowd and fight the bull with such style they went on to be huge pro stars.
Good spot. That was my first thought as a cf. She won't end up quite that mega - TW was Michael Jackson with clubs - but yes, definite similarities. Tiger WAS pretty charming with the media, btw, when he first hit the big time. One slight difference is he was a noted child prodigy in golf, and all fans of the sport knew about him as a junior.
She could easily out-Tiger the Tiger. Tennis is potentially bigger than golf (if it isn’t already). She’s also young, female and extremely telegenic and she has that backstory that everyone can get behind - in their different ways.
She could be THE biggest sports star in the world (excepting football, of course)
Can she handle the pressure, tho? She looks like she can, but wow. Wimbledon next year will be insane, for her
No argument on how big she could be. She's big now and could be huge huge HUGE. There's almost no limit on how enormous this girl could become. But not as big a global icon as Tiger. That's not possible. It just isn't.
No, it's not possible. Golf is massive (in the US in particular) and I suspect is the most participated-in sport on the planet. Tennis is rather niche in comparison.
And with Woods, a very charismatic young black man exploding into a sport associated with being staid and old and white and elitist, the only blacks being on the bag or cleaning the clubhouse, a sport that cannot really be dominated by a single player and yet doing exactly that for 15 years; and then we have the sordid sex scandal and the serial injuries, the failed comebacks and finally the glorious redemptive one, life back on track, a humbler 'nicer' persona, another Masters at age 43, and then, for good measure, let's crash a car at 100 mph, nearly die and (probably) play no more. As regards individuals in sports and in global terms there has never been a bigger story than Tiger Woods.
But, globally, golf just isn’t that big and never was (except maybe in the USA, a market now in steep relative decline)
Golf itself is dwindling away very quickly. A dying sport. Golf courses are being turned into housing worldwide
Tennis is bigger - it has way more players and viewers worldwide.
That said, what Tiger Woods achieved WITHIN golf is unique, I agree. Raducanu has a looooooong way to go to be anything like that. But the potential is there
The pandemic has been great for golf. Participation has shot up. Not sure how much of that is young people, though, which is what you want. Although a big part of its charm is you can play into dotage. I can still boom one over 300 when I catch it.
I rather like golf. Not passionate, and I've never played, but I find it soothing to watch, timeless and quiet, like a kind of outdoor snooker
But the long term prognosis is not good (despite a Covid blip). Golf is so non-21st-century. It uses up much land and water for a start, which isn't popular or sellable. It is also slow and old and takes days. It is like Test cricket (which is also in trouble). But at least cricket has found new formats to give itself a bright future
Unless golf can find a new way to sell itself - fast, exciting, dramatic - it will dwindle to a few diehards. It probably won't die but it will become something very niche, like showjumping
On the contrary. Golf courses have a very important role in providing somewhere to take the Scottish dug for a walk, and let it defecate in shelter from the wind in the bunker while one admires the scenery. They will survive for many decades yet.
KF: “And I challenge the UK government, here and now, to match our commitment - match our £500 million pledge in Moray and the North East over the next 10 years.”
So, will Scotland not be independent over the next ten years, or do you think the U.K. government will be still sending money to an independent Scotland?
KF: “And I challenge the UK government, here and now, to match our commitment - match our £500 million pledge in Moray and the North East over the next 10 years.”
So, will Scotland not be independent over the next ten years, or do you think the U.K. government will be still sending money to an independent Scotland?
If it's a devolved area why would the UK government be stumping up any money?
Just realised who Emma Raducanu reminds me of. Tiger Woods. Both of mixed European/Asian descent. Both have this completely calm self-confidence. And supreme skill. She could dominate female tennis the way Woods dominated golf
Obviously there are differences. She has is more charming (tho that could just be her youth). Hopefully she won’t echo Woods’ later career…
And the manner of her breakthrough. Seed 150, a qualifier, only 2nd major, no sets dropped, goes on to win. That is unprecedented in top world sport. The only comparison that occurs to me is one of those amateur Spanish matadors that used to jump out of the crowd and fight the bull with such style they went on to be huge pro stars.
Good spot. That was my first thought as a cf. She won't end up quite that mega - TW was Michael Jackson with clubs - but yes, definite similarities. Tiger WAS pretty charming with the media, btw, when he first hit the big time. One slight difference is he was a noted child prodigy in golf, and all fans of the sport knew about him as a junior.
She could easily out-Tiger the Tiger. Tennis is potentially bigger than golf (if it isn’t already). She’s also young, female and extremely telegenic and she has that backstory that everyone can get behind - in their different ways.
She could be THE biggest sports star in the world (excepting football, of course)
Can she handle the pressure, tho? She looks like she can, but wow. Wimbledon next year will be insane, for her
No argument on how big she could be. She's big now and could be huge huge HUGE. There's almost no limit on how enormous this girl could become. But not as big a global icon as Tiger. That's not possible. It just isn't.
No, it's not possible. Golf is massive (in the US in particular) and I suspect is the most participated-in sport on the planet. Tennis is rather niche in comparison.
And with Woods, a very charismatic young black man exploding into a sport associated with being staid and old and white and elitist, the only blacks being on the bag or cleaning the clubhouse, a sport that cannot really be dominated by a single player and yet doing exactly that for 15 years; and then we have the sordid sex scandal and the serial injuries, the failed comebacks and finally the glorious redemptive one, life back on track, a humbler 'nicer' persona, another Masters at age 43, and then, for good measure, let's crash a car at 100 mph, nearly die and (probably) play no more. As regards individuals in sports and in global terms there has never been a bigger story than Tiger Woods.
But, globally, golf just isn’t that big and never was (except maybe in the USA, a market now in steep relative decline)
Golf itself is dwindling away very quickly. A dying sport. Golf courses are being turned into housing worldwide
Tennis is bigger - it has way more players and viewers worldwide.
That said, what Tiger Woods achieved WITHIN golf is unique, I agree. Raducanu has a looooooong way to go to be anything like that. But the potential is there
The pandemic has been great for golf. Participation has shot up. Not sure how much of that is young people, though, which is what you want. Although a big part of its charm is you can play into dotage. I can still boom one over 300 when I catch it.
I rather like golf. Not passionate, and I've never played, but I find it soothing to watch, timeless and quiet, like a kind of outdoor snooker
But the long term prognosis is not good (despite a Covid blip). Golf is so non-21st-century. It uses up much land and water for a start, which isn't popular or sellable. It is also slow and old and takes days. It is like Test cricket (which is also in trouble). But at least cricket has found new formats to give itself a bright future
Unless golf can find a new way to sell itself - fast, exciting, dramatic - it will dwindle to a few diehards. It probably won't die but it will become something very niche, like showjumping
In England, there is no shortage of land for golf courses. Golf courses are one of the few things that you can build in the Green Belt. Its a long term development strategy if you have deep enough pockets: build a golf course together with appropriate facilities, and then you are on a long and winding path to eventually building a housing estate in about 3 decades time.
As long as the Green Belt exists, golf courses will.
Comments
Suddenly she has 450,000 followers and she’ll probably have a million by next week.
Any constituent college founded from the fifteenth century onwards isn't worth attending.
But aren't people missing something? Tennis is not played between countries (with two exceptions) so Emma was not representing any country in the US Open, or at Wimbledon.
We know Emma is British because that is how she describes herself and thinks of herself. But in tennis terms, it does not really matter until the Paris Olympics.
Golf itself is dwindling away very quickly. A dying sport. Golf courses are being turned into housing worldwide
https://www.sportscasting.com/the-decline-of-golf-5-ways-to-turn-around-the-sport/
Tennis is bigger - it has way more players and viewers worldwide.
That said, what Tiger Woods achieved WITHIN golf is unique, I agree. Raducanu has a looooooong way to go to be anything like that. But the potential is there
Tried to murder Hamilton, such shocking driving, he ended up on top of Hamilton's car, the halo saved Hamilton's life.
The twat didn't even check on Hamilton.
Wonder if she can read and write too? That would be another level.
Given the Democrats won the House by 3.1% in the popular vote but just 9 seats in 2020 that should be enough for the GOP to regain the House in the mid terms next year
This is why we have the halo.
"When I have time I love to watch Formula One and I've started to follow it week-by-week. I watched the British Grand Prix and Daniel Ricciardo is my favourite driver!"
https://www.eurosport.co.uk/formula-1/raducanu-taking-f1-inspiration-to-hit-full-throttle-at-uk-pro-classic_sto7838708/story.shtml
I have friends, who through their nationalities, family backgrounds and where they were located when their kids were born, now have kids that have spoken 4 different languages from birth. It is quite something to see their youngest just flit between all of them.
Hamilton doesn't.
https://twitter.com/jasebyjason/status/1436827809763282945?s=21
I can speak seven languages.
I can believe it was Verstappen's fault, as you say he has history, but the BBC description has one commentator saying Hamilton left enough space, the other saying just a racing incident.
Love Emma of course. Totally. But PLEASE let's stop it now with the TW comps. Fruity Leon and myself have both noted and commented on some similarities, but that's it. There's no more road with this one.
[Cut to middle of fair in the Middle East, TSE wearing bright suit and red trainers, sticking out like sore thumb]
TSE: "Uhhh, does anyone here speak English?"
But for potential, for estimating how much a candidate will benefit from a university education, then if public schools are better than state schools, then the state pupil with a B might have more potential than a public school A-student. So it is hard. Fwiw, I'd run admissions post-A levels and without interviews, personal statements or any other malarkey that wastes everyone's time and adds little if any value. A decent computer could place everyone in a day.
Sense has prevailed.
Outstanding news.
I am not sure I would have got in had I not interviewed well. My grades were good, but I wasn't top of my class. But I went through the problems they set pretty well, at least I think I did, with the logical progression and some hints.
I agree on the personal statements nonsense, it really shouldn't matter at all that you sold girl scouts cookies or whatever. Nor any sort of interview assessing how charming they might be.
As I stated afterwards, I think its fine to note particular if a candidate had particular poor schooling or something really out of the ordinary in their childhood.
@EssexPR
·
3h
And remember, just one mainstream party came out officially against Vaccine Passports..
The @LibDems
My ultimate test for being fluent in a language is being able swear fluently in that language.
(Though I did think Verstappen was at fault for that)
I don’t doubt the white saviours will give him the same treatment. Sad really.
https://twitter.com/SkySportsF1/status/1437049606165180421
Well done Andy!
https://www.tennis365.com/atp-tour/rising-british-stars-receive-backing-and-mentoring-from-andy-murray/
And I suspect Johnson has been told that he has seriously pissed off his backbenchers enough with NI tax so that they wouldn't take vaxports this autumn on top.
When asked if Piers Morgan's views had encouraged her, Emma replied
"Sorry, I don't know who she is."
https://twitter.com/clooky/status/1437029209428398081?s=20
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/pfizer-intially-rejected-covid-vaccine-didnt-think-virus-would/
It seems a racing incident, but I'd put most of it on Max given the car's positions going into the first corner.
The other thing: Max didn't even appear to give aa glance to see if Hamilton's okay. I wonder if he's inherited his dad's (ahem) spirit....
(Jos Verstappen has a long and nasty history of beating people up. Including giving someone a fractured skull, and various issues with his ex-wife and girlfriend.)
"According to the witness, the driver punched a 45-year-old man, fracturing his skull and leaving him hospitalised for several months. Trouble flared when Verstappen wanted to use the karting circuit alone with five other drivers. But some youngsters joined in with Verstappen reportedly losing his cool after one had overtaken him."
Business travellers return . . . as ill-dressed hooligans" (£)
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/business-travellers-return-as-ill-dressed-hooligans-bl72vbpl9
Not making a big deal out of it, there's nothing actually wrong with where I live - I was just mildly agreeing with Kinabalu that when you do get a good cultural mix it adds something special.
"After a week of wondering why every serve sounds like it’s hitting the net cord, I’ve found out tonight that the second noise is the feet of the serving player landing on the floor… and my mind has been somewhat blown! #USOpen"
https://twitter.com/itsrichwilliams/status/1436799509569417218?s=20
German Twitter is unbearable at the moment. Supposedly intelligent and analytical commentators abandoning any pretense of impartiality. Everything their candidate does is marvellous, everything the others do is scandalous. Bonus: once the election is done, coalition talks.
Sigh.
https://twitter.com/HeleneBismarck/status/1436973693645856774?s=20
https://twitter.com/UKCovid19Stats/status/1437059432937050113?s=20
Gary Lineker will be making it about diversity / Brexit, Moron about himself, Fox something about wokeness, Gary Neville something about how terrible the government are.
But the long term prognosis is not good (despite a Covid blip). Golf is so non-21st-century. It uses up much land and water for a start, which isn't popular or sellable. It is also slow and old and takes days. It is like Test cricket (which is also in trouble). But at least cricket has found new formats to give itself a bright future
Unless golf can find a new way to sell itself - fast, exciting, dramatic - it will dwindle to a few diehards. It probably won't die but it will become something very niche, like showjumping
If it isn't discounted, do we know how many people are getting tested like that?
God, we're prattling on, aren't we. Maybe time for a break? Yes, I think so.
People in other countries seem a little baffled by the attitude here, though less than they were bewildered by the extent of the sentimentality about Afghan street-dogs - from the little I have read.
Getting likes and retweets is a dopamine hit. Getting 100,000 retweets is a massive dopamine hit. The world agrees with you, instantly!
This is addictive. You want, no, crave, more of the same. So you tweet about anything, and everything, you end up in absurd arguments, but you still get that hit of approval from your 300,000 followers.
It is tragic to watch highly intelligent people frittering away their actual lives on pointless meaningless opining which will be forgotten 2 minutes later (unless they get it wrong and get cancelled)
Twitter is almost pure toxin. Unfortunately, you sometimes have to engage with it, but do so with extreme caution
KF: “And I challenge the UK government, here and now, to match our commitment - match our £500 million pledge in Moray and the North East over the next 10 years.”
https://twitter.com/theSNP/status/1436991063219220480
So, will Scotland not be independent over the next ten years, or do you think the U.K. government will be still sending money to an independent Scotland?
As long as the Green Belt exists, golf courses will.