Two Down, Umpteen To Go

Let me refer you dear reader back to 19 January (http://theovergraduate.blogspot.com/2011/01/back-on-chain-gang.html#comments) when The Overgraduate made his predictions for 2011. Well I thought you might like to share my triumph in two of the predictions coming true. I said I would pull my hamstring again and, as you already know, this duly struck on 5 March. It is indeed a wise child that knows his own hamstrings. You should see the bruise that has come out as evidence of my pain and suffering. Mind you I have taken it like a man, ie complainingly. As it happens the hamstring presaged some full-blown self-pity, one of my core strengths.

The Cheltenham Festival has come and gone for another year. This is the last great sporting event on earth. Not overtaken by corporate entertainment, not beholden to television and watched by people who want nothing more than to be 'right here right now.' Better even than the sport (well perhaps not but a close call) is the mood of ridiculous optimism and childish excitement in the bars of the town before racing is even under way. We went on Tuesday and Wednesday this year and on the Wednesday found a very satisfactory new haunt for morning and evening drinking - the Cheltenham Liberal Club believe it or not. £2 in and cheap beer which soon justifies the cost of admission plus a bloody good full English for £4 to line the stomach. Please don't tell anybody because I want to go back next year.

Festival winners? Rather like Sinatra's regrets, I've had a few, but then again too few to mention. Tuesday was mildly profitable but Wednesday was a wipe-out. Mind you this was my fault. I did pick a 22/1 winner but got embroiled at the bar and left it too late to get my bet on. Rookie mistake Dave, rookie mistake, and the difference between wipe-out and champagne. Oh well we live and learn. In fact I do more living and very little learning, part of my roguish charm hopefully.

If you doubt my contention that The Festival is magnificent just watch the video of the Gold Cup (  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdHllGQHOOg) because this was a quite thrilling, even emotional piece of sport. A new young champion ridden by an amateur jockey beats off two great old champions. Simply wonderful. A particular mention for the second, Denman, a colossus of a beast and a friend to backers throughout his career, as this gambler will testify.

Back to predictions. I said England would win the Six Nations and this they have duly done but in an ultimately unsatisfactory manner, getting a good old-fashioned shellacking from the Irish last night - Match Highlights. A few observations on the championship generally:

• Three terrific number 8s have been on display: Harinordoquy; Heaslip; Parisse. Nick Easter is an honest yeoman but falls short of this gold standard and this a problem for England. Hard school, international rugby. Ask Steve Borthwick.
• England have unearthed a diamond in Wood on the blind-side.
• last summer I identified Nick Youngs as a diamond, but he has had a poor championship and looks like he needs a rest. Fat chance in the modern professional maelstrom.
• Ireland have issues. They were brilliant yesterday but have to get to the bottom of why they reserved this for England. The old guff about 800 years of oppression simply won't wash, not if they wish to be taken seriously on the wider stage. Much the same can be said of Wales but I'm afraid they will never learn.
• Sort the bloody scrum out or our game will be killed.
• International rugby is supposed to be bloody and brutal, referees and administrators please note and let the boys play. James Hook was yellow-carded last night for no reason other than legislative prissiness.

Drunk way too much last week and slumped into post-festivities blues but this morning I stumbled out for a pitifully short run but one that has had the necessary recuperative effect. Onwards and upwards.