Summer of Sport
The English football season will soon be over but for fans of other sports that always signals the start of a glorious sporting summer. Every year we have Wimbledon, the Open Golf Championship and Test Match Cricket to look forward to. This year the test Cricket includes an Ashes series against the old enemy, Wimbledon features the prospect of a genuine chance for the first British singles winner since 1977 and with four English and two Northern Irish golfers ranked in the top thirteen in the world the chances of the winner of the Open being from the UK are as high as they’ve been for a long time.
After having my first sport book published early this year (Spirit of '55) I am looking for a subject for books this year, inspired by my love of summer sport I’ve decided to write a book following the action this year as a fan in England, sadly I won’t be able to be at every event, but there are so many ways to follow sport nowadays, the book will include how I keep track of all the stories and scores. Hopefully that will include a few visits to some events, as well as television watching, radio listening, internet checking and tweeting. Sometimes life gets in the way of your sports watching, but with mobile phones being what they are now almost no matter what you’re doing, or supposed to be doing, sports scores and updates are never too far away. The backbone of the book will be the reports I write as the sporting summer unfolds, each of these reports will be published as a hub here on my page.
Whilst many other sports will be going on, the focus of the book will be those three classically British sporting events, Wimbledon, Open Championship and an Ashes Cricket test series. For each one there will be build up events that I will write reports on, in tennis there will be the French Open, then the grass court tournaments over here that act as warm up events for Wimbledon. In golf I will report on the US Open and the Scottish Open before the Championship itself is played. In Cricket there will be the two match test series against New Zealand as well as some limited overs international games.
I will follow avid tweeters in each sport to get little insights into their world, I will research internet and newspaper press to add to the build-up to the big occasions. Throughout the summer I will have a few bets to add to the excitement and mention them all in my reports.
Here’s hoping for some great weather throughout the summer, but that doesn’t necessarily mean glorious sunshine throughout. Sometimes rain delays and interruptions add to the drama at Wimbledon. English bowlers would probably like to see some heavy cloud cover to increase their chances of being able to swing the ball and leave the Aussie batsmen floundering and bamboozled. Whilst it’s always great to see the world’s best golfers tested by strong wind on a links course.
Every sporting event produces stories, some are better than others and some are blindingly obvious whilst others are tough to spot. Will Andy Murray finally be able to end the British drought at Wimbledon? The top four in men’s tennis of Federer, Nadal, Djockovic and Murray are as strong a four as the game has ever seen playing at the same time and that makes any major championship a thrilling occasion, especially once it gets to the semi final stage. Maybe this year someone will be able to come from outside that four to cause an upset. The women’s game is more wide open, yet Serena Williams will still start Wimbledon as undisputed favourite. Will Laura Robson or Heather Watson be able to continue their rise up the rankings with a long run in the Championships to get the home crowd excited?
Of all the major sporting events it is difficult to think of one that has more genuine contenders for the title than an Open Golf Championships, with so many fantastic players from all over the world who are all capable of playing well enough for four days to win the biggest prize in golf. Will Tiger Woods’ rise back to the top of the game be confirmed by his fourth Open Championship win? Will young superstar Rory McIlroy get back to world number one by winning his first? Will a British player win for the first time since Paul Lawrie in 1999?
I’m sure you would have to go back a long way to find an Ashes series where England started as odds on favourites to win the series. Australia have lost many great players over the last decade and not been able to replace them with players of a similar class, their last test series was an embarrassingly one sided 4-0whitewash defeat in India, England comfortably won the last Ashes series and that was in Australia and whilst not quite reaching those heights since, England’s standards have remained high. Despite all of that it is difficult for England fans to convince ourselves that any Ashes series will result in a comfortable victory. The last time England did start as odds-on favourites may well have been 1989 and Australia won that series in England 3-0. On paper England have a better batting line-up, bowling attack and wicket keeper, but none of the matches will be played on paper.
So many stories to be told, heroes and villains to be discovered and dreams and nightmares to be played out.
My book that Is already published is called 'Spirit of '55' by Rob Watson, it's about Rugby League and follows the Warrington Wolves quest to end their wait since 1955 to be crowned champions. It's available to buy in as well as the club shop and online.
To read a synopsis and sample chapters follow this link to my hub: http://lupine-rob.hubpages.com/hub/Spirit-of-55
