WEMBLEY WAY

THE WEMBLEY WAY,A YEAR ON.

“And the answer to Question 22 is ENGLAND won the UEFA Women’s Football Championship of 2022.

The team had won NINE points in the qualifying stages and scored 14 goals while conceding none.

Let’s gets a dangerous cliché out of the way. ‘Football is coming home’,words from a 1996 popular song which has become an anthem to be sung largely by the males of a tribe desperate for a national success.
The tournament that England has won should be important not because it has provided an England national team with an opportunity to win a major trophy for the first time in over 50 years but because in so many ways it demonstrated the diametric opposite of professional football played by men. It consistently offered
examples of sportsmanship, acceptance of refereeing decisions, few cases of dissent or cheating as well as pace, passion, supreme athleticism and outstanding levels of skill.

The matches were played to record crowds in provincial venues such as Leigh, Rotherham, Milton Keynes, Brighton and Southampton as well as the vast famous stadia of Old Trafford and Wembley. Indeed the crowds were a feature of the tournament. Record numbers. Appreciating the talents on display with exuberant good humour. In stark contrast to the violent mob behaviour and disorder at the 2020 Men’s Euros Final played at Wembley last year.

So not only were these finals an affirmation that England does appreciate ‘the beautiful game’ played for sheer enjoyment but also that how women play football has reminded us of the joy to be found in playing

and watching the game.”

Thanks Nigel.

Quiz HQ closed down for their annual staff jolly to T20 Finals Day; the CEO, Cub Reporter Neil and Trainee Tea Boy Tom. Far too stick in the mud for fancy dress, the trio were smothered in sun cream, competed for the title of widest brim sun hat and debated whose turn to fill the water bottles.

Hard to tell after ten hours in the oven who’d won in the mayhem of the final over. HAMPSHIRE for the second time in the day had stumbled to what seemed a below par total. For the second time, their spinners clawed them back into the game when all seemed lost. Richard Gleeson(71 career T20s,41 career runs)was unlikely casting for a last over Lancashire hero and so it proved, eventually. Richard scrambled a two; then he swung and missed; then he swung and was bowled. Game over?

The fireworks went off, the stadium with smoke, the pitch with security staff; thousands set off for the exit. Umpires waved. That “last” ball had been a No Ball. Richard reprieved had to score two for a Lancashire win off what was now a free hit. He swung and missed. I peered through the fog. Batters ran up and down without conviction, Hampshire removed both sets of stumps to assure their victory. I was only an eye witness. Perhaps you knew more as a TV watcher.

Remember Quiz 2021?No, thought not. Unlike Quiz HQ, you all have proper lives. The Quiz asked about sporting prospects for four women, Dinah, KJT, Simone and Holly. None got to their finish line; two did not make it to the start line. I thought I’d jinxed Emma Raducanu too as she toiled through the months after her fairytale win in the US Open. Emma suffered strings of injuries as her teenage body struggled to cope with full time tennis. Her last injury cut short her grass court preparation after only seven games. It seemed unlikely she could start at Wimbledon. She did and beat a veteran Belgian with recent winning form. Her SECOND round opponent was a former World Top Ten player but Emma had beaten her comfortably in the spring. Not this time. Emma, looking very flat, lost in straight sets. Fortunately you quizzers had been very understanding and realistic, knowing that as US Champion, she would be a target for everyone.

So who was to be Ladies Champion where rankings could kindly be described as fluid? Serena came and went on the first day, former champions came and went tamely throughout the first week. Never mind, we thought,2022 has the name SWIATEK written through it like a stick of rock.The awesome Pole who’d won forty matches in a row, often 6-0 sets. Not to be.

The final was between a delightful artistic Tunisian, Ons Jabeur, and a powerful Kazakh called Elena Rybakina. Least it said Kazakh on the scoreboard; the reality was Russian, still living in Moscow, sponsored by Kazakhstan, yet another example of sport washing by an autocratic regime.

(Guess who I was shouting for.)First set to Jabeur according to my script. Then the raw power of the Russian blew away the artist to win in THREE sets. Ironic given the mayhem caused by banning all Russians, even those who had bravely condemned Putin’s war crimes.

Sport washing was also a hot topic before the Open though at St Andrews we were all too polite to mention the elephant in the room, that the Saudis are involved in a billions plus scheme to take over international golf by funding random golf tournaments with nonsensical prize money.

Apologies! Even more nonsensical prize money than currently available. Elder statesmen, though forfeiting that title, multi millionaires like Mickelson and Poulter, have taken the Saudi bait. So disappointingly have some younger Americans, still perhaps in their prime. Rory McIlroy is a leading voice in resisting Saudi blood money(Khashoggi, Yemen,9/11, take your pick)So as leading Brit, leading European, there was even more reason to cheer on Rory, leading into final round. Sadly, Rory’s putter went cold and his two under par 70 was not enough to resist the birdie rampage of Australian Cameron Smith. So OTHER won the Open but at least it was not an accomplice of the Saudi plot. Yet. As is the way of the world, oil money will probably get its way.

The Quiz HQ Biker Edward Gilder writes

“So where do we start with this year’s tour – well the end of last year’s tour with Slovenian Pogacar victorious seems like a good place. He started in Denmark as the firm favourite. With some big names missing, no Mark Cavendish to cheer for, the French housewives’ favourite, Julian Allaphillipe, absent through injury and with Geraint Thomas apparently moved down the Ineos pecking order, we were going to have to get used to some new names cropping up in the results.

Right from the start in Denmark Pogacar, Vingegaard and Wout van Aert stamped their authority on the race, with Geraint Thomas forgetting to take off his gilet before the time trial and losing time to them. Moving to the cobbles of Belgium after the smooth Danish tarmac and in spite of a fall, Vingegaard managed to win stage 5.Pogacar fought back in the mountains winning back to back stages. On stage 10 the Jumbo Visma team of Vingegaard worked hard and finally managed to break Pogacar’s grip on the race. From there on, with Pogacar losing key members of his team through accidents and Covid, Vingegaard built a lead of over 2 minutes which he carried all the way to Paris;a rare combination of yellow and polka dot There would be NO Slovenian triple.

Pogacar never gave up, attacking him all the way to the finish and giving us an exciting race, with Wout van Aert constantly appearing in the mix, as he managed to win the green jersey with a record total. Riding a tidy race behind this action, Geraint Thomas built a good lead on his nearest rivals to secure a podium position in third place. That’s three podiums for Thomas in as many years – quite an achievement in his 36th year.

Our quiz-master tested our judgement with a question about the time gap between the first and second places on Alp d’Huez. Your correspondent envisaged Pogacar and his nearest rival duking it out neck and neck to the top of the climb, with a few seconds between them. But this of course is the Tour de France and sometimes things don’t go to plan. Tom Pidcock, Olympic Mountain Bike champion and World Cyclo Cross champion, had other ideas. He stormed off the front of the peloton finishing 46 seconds, far MORE than the suggested 10 second margin. Chris Froome finished in third place, rolling back the years.. A great ride by a rising star. I have no doubt that we are going to see a lot more of Tom in years to come.”