Sports Personality Of The Year (what a farce), and Casino Royale
This piece of news is related to sports, but moving away from diving. Last night was the BBC Sports Personality Of The Year awards in the UK. Now this is traditionally a celebration of all the sporting achievements of the last year, and a chance to look forward to next year. However, in recent years it has come under increased criticism over the trophy winners, and this year has been a bit of a farce to be perfectly honest. I have no qualms with St Helens winning the Best Team award - although I’m an ardent Wigan supporter, you’d be hard-pressed to find a team that deserves it more this year. They have basically won every individual and team trophy available to them and the rest of the rugby league community should tip their hats to them. Exposure in winning this trophy will also do the sport a lot of good. But let’s look at the other awards, and what better place to start than the Young Sports Personality Of The Year. Theo Walcott was the winner, and has done very well for Arsenal and England when he has had the chance, but let’s have a look at who came 2nd and 3rd this year: Paul Drinkhall (table tennis) and Elizabeth Clegg (blind athlete). Now I am sure these 2 athletes are excellent in their fields, and are much more sporty than myself, but did they really have any chance against someone who’s in the back and front pages of every tabloid newspaper in the UK every week? I somehow think not. Next, what is going on with this “Special Award” going to some comedian called David Walliams, who swam the English Channel in August. Now he’s neither the first nor the last person to do this for charity, and I can’t see how anyone could justify him getting this reward. I’m sure next year we’ll see these special awards being handed out to everyone who swims the Channel for charity. Then we can really be rid of any credit the show still has left. Ahhh… my mistake. He’s on the BBC payroll so of course he’ll get an award. I forgot that you need to be either an employee of the BBC or have a sport which is featured by them to stand a chance of getting an award. Which brings me on beautifully to the main award…
Without further adue I’ll get stuck in - how on earth did Zara Phillips win? Despite the fact that her horse (does anyone know its name) did half of the work and probably has more personality judging from interviews she has given (Zara, not the horse), but I just can’t believe the so many people voted for her. It’s either a case of me being silly in underestimating the general stupidity of the population; or the BBC having quite awful/selective vote counting procedures. Well done to the lass, but I really can’t see how she got more votes than everyone else. Darren Clarke coming second I can understand - he had a great Ryder Cup and performed especially well after what had happened just beforehand. As for the 3rd place winner, now I have been out of the country for 2 and a half years now and can’t keep up with everything going on. But I do like to track what is happening in most sports and keep up to date with names and winners, but I can’t recall having ever heard of Beth Tweddle. I’m sure she’s very good at what she does (although after reading all the reports I’m still not 100% sure at what she does), there are more worthy people to be up there. In my opinion, and probably that of the general British population and people who voted, the person who deserved it most was Joe Calzaghe. He has been an excellent fighter in recent times, is a good looking guy who comes across very coherently and honestly in interviews. He is a supreme winner in his sport (probably the toughest sport in the world), and has an excellent personality to boot. But, and this is a very big but, he doesn’t compete in a sport which is really featured by the BBC any more. Now I’m sure it’s just comspiracy theories that the top 3 people in the SPOTY award are competitors in almost the only 3 sports that the BBC still posesses the rights to. My top 3 would have probably been Joe Calzaghe, Darren Clarke and Nicole Cooke. And I might be very wrong (it is known to happen!) but I believe that the British sport-viewing public would support me here. I was speaking to my father on the phone last night about it and we were both in agreement about who should win it. Couldn’t believe we were actually agreeing about something related to sport - I must be getting old!!! It was very strange…
But after that little rant, I’ll go onto something better - the new James Bond film. Last Thursday I went to the cinema to watch Casino Royale, and I have to say I was highly impressed. A few people were complaining initially because they had never heard of this Bond, and that he had blonde hair, and basically about everything they could. But Daniel Craig (the actor playing Bond) has answered his critics in the best way possible - with an excellent debut as 007. Casino Royale makes a refreshing change and movement away from the gadget-driven Bond films of recent times to a more dialogue-driven film. Bond is cool, but not infallible, and even his physique makes him more believable as a spy (as compared to the middle-aged, slight pot-bellied Bonds in the past). The storyline has twists and turns galore, and the stunts and special effects are, unsurprisingly, superb. One thing many people are happy with is the return of the Aston Martin as Bond’s choice of car. The German BMW is a thing of the past and the British-ness is coming back into the films. Plus, the Aston Martin DBS is a thing of beauty, and to think they destroyed 3 fully working models of those during one stunt breaks my heart!
I think I’ll be going to see it again this week with one of my Japanese teachers. I’m confident I’ll enjoy it as much the 2nd time as I did the 1st. This is one of the few films I’ve seen over the past couple of years that I can’t wait for the DVD release of. Right - enough chat from me for now - will be in touch more later!
or Discuss this Article
Hi Dib,
Completely agree. On both counts.
Know I’m not the sportiest in the arena but come on! And just how many times can Zara say “amazing” in one long drawn out sentence, sorry, speech?? Think Granny should give her a few lessons for Christmas. Not taking anything away from her achievements, but it was a bit of a shock.
Would like to argue the point on St Helens, but I know I wouldn’t win… And only because I still think they sent Millward to sabotage Wigan…
Casino Royale. Superb. Now I’ve enjoyed Bond films over the years, even the Bonds who didn’t last very long, but no one REALLY matched up to Sean did they? But, well, I think we have a contender.
After the couple of interviews I’d seen with Daniel Craig I was going to avoid the film, but a colleague recommended it - she did mention there was the male version of the Ursula Andress moment - so I thought I’d give it a go. Excellent. Story, action, script, new Bond (acting, charm and yes, it must be said, bod). My only thought, and one I’m surprised you don’t mention - the Bond girls. Didn’t think any had the “wow” factor. At all. And I’m usually the first to say “Damn, I hate her, she’s stunning!” Oh well, they obviously thought they wouldn’t try to upstage him in his first movie.
Okay, rant over. Good night,
Bim x
Yeah - Zara isn’t the most gifted of public speakers, is she? Although to be fair, if I realised that I had absolutely zero chance of winning without some outside assistance then I doubt I’d prepare a winning speech either!
Well, now that you come to mention the Bond girl (in this film, Eva Green), I should probably pass comment. I thought she was one of the first Bond girls to actually be smart and not immediately won over by Bond’s charms. She was very good looking but had the character and attitude to back it up. Again, I think that was a turn away from the previous Bond films and definately a step in the right direction for the future.
And nice comparison to the Ursula Andress moment!