Commonwealths

[flighty]

My daughter was a national level gymnast at the grand old age of nine. Competed at the British Championships and everyfing. She is now 17 and watching her training partners competing at world / Olympic / Commonwealth level.

I am gutted that she gave up the sport 'cos she could have been in Oz right now.

Beth Tweddle, who is the most successful female British gymnast ever and was partnered with Hannah for training once uopn a time has had to pull out with an ankle injury.

Poor Beth. She is a lovely kid. Has devoted her life to the sport. Had a crap Olympics and now has to wait another two years for a shot at an Olympic medal.

Watch out for her at the next Olympics!! At the grand old of age of 22 (which she will be then) she is in line to be the first British woman gymnast to win a medal.

Good on ya, Beth. Thinking about her and Gerry and Anne (parents) who are no doubt in Oz and gutted.

Jayne x

[harry hackedoff]

Go the Poms, indeed. Played three won three in the sevens today and spanked the OZ 14 12
Splice the mainbrace

[harry hackedoff]

Hardware probs(no Doc, not that sort of hardware ) stopped me posting this yesterday, but what an absolute cracker the 7s were
Some of the best ruggers I`ve ever ever seen
England deserve a good seeing to for their efforts. It`s only a bunch of eight foot maoris ffs, get stuck into them, wimps
Nice to see my adopted country got plums Fiji bronze, England silver and the moderately-good Kiwis took the gold. Well done all who took part and in sevens, size really does matter
What I would say was the hardest shoulder charge I has ever seen as Scot Fava was over run by a 175kgs Fijian which lifted him about three feet in the air and he came down with a right kertwat on the deck. I said to `er indoors, "that`s gonna smart" Dunno what coverage you had, but we had the full close ups from three or four cameras as the lad went into spasm. All those geezers stood round the golf buggy were holding him down Those big lads have a total warrior ethos from when they can first walk. It`s what they do. Lots go into the Army and I think the Corps should start targetting them.
On another point, me old mate Phil Ligget is doing the commentary on the velodrome for OZ tv. Not a mate at all, really but we both used to race in skoolboy events on Satdee mornings round Liverpool`s Wavertree playground. Phill and his crew were getting shite-ers in a bar on one Tour De France, 99 or 2000? and the two Discos with all their gear in got nicked, poetic justice, I s`pose for a Scouser to have his wheels nicked Thing is, untill new gear was sent out by Ch 4, all the other tv teams from round Europe and US lent him enough kit so he was able to carry on commenting. That`s what kind of guy he is. Great to see him wearing an OZ shirt, too like fork:roll:

Triathlon today was awesome, last five k battle for silver was impresive

The level of Aussie commentary varies from really good to bloody awesome. A great change from the recent winter olympics commentators version of "stars in their eyes"
The exception is the two blokes they have doing the weightlifting They make Rog and HG sound like pros Should`ve heard `em when Mustapha Thingy won the clean and jerk Come on Aussie come on

[harry hackedoff]

What are those girls on ffs Anything in the pool has their names on, it seems.
Did you clock the Women`s Marathon today? Ver close it was, neck and neck till half way round the stadium when the OZ girl kicked and she was gone, off like a bucket of prawns in the sun mate .
Awesome performance from the OZ girl who finished in seventh, she had nowt left as she got to the line it was as if there was a glass screen there She just stopped. Finally managed to stagger over before collapsing.
Matey who got twatted in the bronze play-off in the Sevens was released this morning, nowt serious wrong with the lad, thank fark. He remembers the start of the game and how hard the Fiji lads were and then he woke up in hospital thinking"what the fork am I doing here?" I hate it when that happens, don`t you
Two blokes doing the weight lifting commentary were on form today, one of them is deffo Sir Les Patterson`s offspring. As the girls squat to do the clean, certain camera angles are, er, more revealing than perhaps they should be ref the flaps and undercarriage positions.
Every time this happens, matey go`s "you bewdy" or even worse, "look at that jeez " I`m loving it The Welsh girl did her second lift and the first guy says, "Breeze? Bloody strong wind at least mate" Second bloke thought he was off mike as he piped up, "More like a fakin cyclone mate"

What Mrs `Aitch and meself cannot get our heads round, is how parochial the commentators are. Some events have no winner or runner up, according to local telly. Just an Aussie who "put in the best performance ever, by anyone, anywhere, to win Bronze" They never do interviews with any other country`s athletes who win events, they just go straigh to the Aussie.
For all they spout about fair gos and equality, they still have a lot to learn
Speaking of which, youse blokes will be getting familiar with the Aussie Anthem, "Advance Australia Fair" and so youse can sing along as you watch the Poms getting dicked again, sitting in the rain, I thought I`d help youse all with the words

Australians all, let us rejoice - for we are young and free
We've golden soil - and wealth for toil - our home is girt by sea
Our land abounds - in nature's gifts - of beauty, rich and rare
In history's page - let every stage - Advance, Australia Fair
In joyful strains - then let us sing - Advance Australia Fair.


http://www.dunway.com/html/aussie_anthem.html

[La Langosta]

I was watching a wee bit of the games today.
I was fair chuffed for the bloke from the Isle of Man who won the 80 lap scratch at cycling. I didn;t even know that the IoM had a national Anthem

The Frisps are doing pretty well in the swimming. Nice one-two in the individual medley thingy.
And Rebecca Cooke for England had a good swim in the 800m freestyle retaining her Commonwealth title.

The one who has captured my attention thus far is that Natalie du Toit from South Africa. 2 gold medals swimming in the Elite Athletes with a Disabilty category, plus she was swimming in the able bodied too.
I know she has done it before in Manchester, but she is amazing.

[harry hackedoff]

Yer You have a point with the Manx team, like no but yer but no but yer

Where`s the team from the Isle of White though. hey? Hey
Exactly
Don`t ee mention Lundy, Orkney, Benbecula, Skye or St Clemens
Or the Isle of Dogs

[Ruth]

Well, my friend finished fourth in the men's time trial - not bad for someone at the end of their professional career, and he beat a number of people a lot more fancied. It looks like we'll have to depend on our NI staples for medals - shooting and boxing!

[letsrole]

Theres a girl at my school only 15 years old (Jazz Carlin) who competed in the Women's 800m Freestyle and came 8th, good on her.

[Wully]

Hi Bert, ref you dig at the Aussie commentators?????? There was an article in yesterdays Daily Mail by one of the sports reporters. He was saying just how bad and one sided the Aussie TV coverage was. One case he highlighted was when the Aussie contestant managed a bronze medal the TV coverage showed only Aussie receiving his medal and totally ignored the gold and silver presentation. They never were good sports anyway.

[harry hackedoff]

What Mrs `Aitch and meself cannot get our heads round, is how parochial the commentators are. Some events have no winner or runner up, according to local telly. Just an Aussie who "put in the best performance ever, by anyone, anywhere, to win Bronze" They never do interviews with any other country`s athletes who win events, they just go straigh to the Aussie.

That reporter probably nicked it from me, Bob

Weren`t the girls fantastic today, mind you? Libby and Liselle can come in my pool anyday

[Ruth]

I think if the news gets out that they're in your pool, there will be a stampede! The performances in the women's swimming were really great.

Did you see the end of the Oz v. Jamaica netball Harry? Superb, and likely to be repeated as the final. Some great hockey, too.

How am I supposed to study with this lot going on??

[Madmick]

Wully!!!! Good sports or not, we are beating the Shit out of all the others

[Madmick]

I read a lot on this forum from people living as Migrants ( their choice ) in the land of Oz, and at every opportunity knock the Australian people and in particular the Australian sportsmen and women.They even have the gall to rubbish the Australian politicians, considering the Politicians' list in their own (previous) homeland reads like and acts like but unfortunately not as good as " YES MINISTER." Come on guys !!! as you say to those migrants in Your (Previous) homeland and in some cases your current homeland, "If you dont like it Go Back to where you come from!"

Madmick (Australian and very Proud of it)

[harry hackedoff]

Jimmy, that`s the wrong bait matey
You`ll never get me to bite on that

Did you see the dive girls, ffs Awesome they was. Specially the thirteen year old Mellisa, what spirit she has. Sure we`ll be seeing her in Beijing.
And the two hooligans commentating on the heavy lifters tonight were right on blokey form. Larfed my bottom off I did.

Seamus is quite correct, the Australian athletes are indeed"beating the shit out of all others" and that is truly impressive for a country of twenty mills, compared with fifty mils in England`s case. I applaud them.
It is a pity that sportsmanship and good grace are lacking in so many of them and in most of the commentators. The most noticable exception were the girl swimmers, and it has been an absolute pleasure to watch their efforts each night.

yours, aye,

Harry Hackedoff
Proudly Australian Scouse Bloke

[tafmad]

The BBC showed a very short clip, of the full bore shooting....Bloody Hell... shooting at 1000 yards!!!!!!!! FFS not even a telescopic sight ... I was bloody lucky if I could hit anything other than the ground at bloody 600!!!