Sports Round-up

I’m just coming down to earth after a brilliant 2 weeks sporting extravaganza in our house.

Firstly there was the French tennis grand-slam.  Two weeks of stamina, strength, fierce determination and then heartbreak for those who lost in each round.

Of course it wouldn’t be a competition without the ladies grunting their way to a finals spot.  So, unfortunately, I was forced to forego the ladies final due to Maria Sharapova having secured a place for herself.  Much as I love the sport I can’t face sitting through even 5 minutes of her screeching.

The men are another matter.  Being a diehard Raphael Nadal fan I was thrilled to watch his match, over 2 days because of a rain delay, and see him triumph over Novak Djokovic.  Wimbledon is fast approaching, so watch out Rapha because Novak won’t take that defeat easily and he’ll be out to beat you.

International level rugby union is finally underway and what a start.  The Wallabies (Australia) beaten by Scotland 9-6 points.  We are number two in the world and we were beaten by the twelfth team.  What a disgrace.  I laughed when the commentators made the excuse that it was because of the driving rain and the Scots are more used to that than we are.  However, we redeemed ourselves later by slaughtering the Welsh.

Luckily my heart belongs to the All Blacks and those New Zealand boys are true warriors (and pretty good looking) and rarely let me down.  A win over the Irish last week has got them off to a terrific start.  Can’t wait for this weekends matches.

State level Rugby League – called Footy over here – is also happening.  The tournament is called The State Of Origin and is between New South Wales and Queensland.  Three games, over three Wednesday evenings with each one three weeks apart.  Again I’m a bit of a traitor to my region and don’t support my local state (NSW).  How can I when Queensland have the best ranked players in the world?  Two games have been played, one win apiece, with the last game coming in three weeks time.  It’s tough, a battleground in fact, and injuries abound.

All this action reminded me of the sports I used to participate in.

In my early teens I took up fencing.  In those days ladies were only allowed to fence with Foils, no Épée or Sabre. 

At 15 years old I was the county ladies champion and was extremely accomplished.  I consistently trained against men to increase my strength and stamina and I had an excellent eye for the tactics of the game.

Unfortunately I had all my equipment stolen.  Being a left-handed youngster I had been forced to have my protective clothing personally made for me and I had several very loved swords.  All gone.  Still devastating to this day, over 35 years later.

My family was simply not in a position to repurchase everything I needed and my Saturday job money wasn’t sufficient.  I drifted away from fencing.  However, I believe the training I did and the level I got to has had lasting positive effects, especially in regard to my visual judgement.

If you would like to see some brilliant sport-fencing art from American visual artist, Princess Simpson Rashid, click here.

So I took up badminton.  Much cheaper, courts at every sports centre (back in England) and plenty of others participating.  I was never great at it but I enjoyed playing once or twice a week and continued even after I started working.

It has been a sport I’ve continued with sporadically.  I played every week when I lived in Thailand for a few years.  It isn’t easy to find courts near where I live now so my husband and I play in the garden and let the dogs chase the shuttlecock when it drops.

Table tennis is another interest and I guess I should attempt to draw something connected to that as well.

I’ve been a bit stalled with my sketchbook and have come to realise that although our OCA manual says to draw anything of interest around us this really hasn’t been working for me.  I find it aimless, unstimulating and I keep putting it off.  So I’m trying a new method.  I’m choosing a bit of a theme, or story, and am going to try to illustrate it.  Todays theme is, obviously, sports.

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