So what do you think of Chris Balderstone who played cricket and football in the 60s and 70s, and on one occasion played for Doncaster Rovers and Leicestershire on the same day?
1 Like
Anyone who stood up to face Michael Holding at his peak is far, far braver than I.
1 Like
Which is why Robin Smith was my favourite cricket for years. Props to Brian Close too. 
Have you seen Fire in Babylon?
2 Likes
Thatās a blast from the past. Used to watch him at the County Ground. Great days. 
1 Like
Yeah - loved it. I was at high school for most of the period so watched most of it on telly, but I did see some of the great West Indian players at the tail end of the age. Years later watching Curtly Ambrose almost take Dean Jonesās head off after Jones got the umpire to ask Ambrose to remove his wristbands - priceless.
Not just that, they need to remind their players that he Has to be tackled or forced to ground the ball, otherwise heās going to always try for better position, meaning a much easier conversion.
Doesnāt play stop, or at least isnāt there a risk of play being stopped? doesnāt watch much soccer
Time is added on to the end. Itās how you end up with things like Fergie time and goalkeepers scoring goals in the 95th minute of the last game of the season to keep their team in the league.
2 Likes
Really except for Billy Ray Cyrus I donāt find any of them too objectionable.
Play doesnāt stop unless thereās a foul that requires a free kick or a goal kick. These are pretty rare.
The clock never stops. Instead the ref keeps track of the time with the ball not being played (throw ins, setting up for corner kicks and free kicks), then adds the accumulated stoppage to the end of the half/game. This typically comes out to 90-240 seconds stoppage per half, sometimes more.
And regarding floppers/injuries: someone falling down on the field is nearly always a flop. Usually theyāre back on their feet within seconds of flopping because the ref ignored it, and every second lying around on the field is an extra second his team has to play down a man.
There are cases of excessive flopping, though. During the Seattle Sounderās 2014 season opener, a member of the opposing team fell down, writhed around and pretty much stopped gameplay. He hammed it up so hard that the whole stadium chanted ālet him die.ā He was taken off the field on a strecher. 10 minutes later he was back on the field. Amazingly he didnāt get a yellow or redcard for that. Usually those kinds of histrionics are penalized with a yellowcard (when the ref has any sense), because itās a tactic to run down the clock, and thatās not approved of in soccer the way it is in American Football.
For all the folks who donāt like the shutout, I think of it as representing the distillation of the game down to the main elements of offense and defense. The two teams have had 120 minutes to jockey and move the ball around with their full complement of players in all their varied positions and duties, and since that didnāt decide the game, itās then time to remove all the chaff and put the best strikers against the best goalies.
Of course, as much fun as it was to watch a sprinter get put on a rugby field, it didnāt actually help the US team at all, who still only won one game in the 2014 HK 7āsā¦
Rotund players of the 70ās? Shane Warne was giving them a pretty good run for their pies before he gave up international level cricket, and that was only 7 or so years ago.
2 Likes
Watching sports we invented, but are shit at could take up a canny bit of your time, mind.
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
