Reuters North American News Service, October 21st, 2007
LONDON, Oct 21 (Reuters) - English sports fans were reaching
for the anti-depressants on Sunday after another gut-wrenching
day in front of the television.
Less than 24 hours after the rugby team's World Cup dream
was slowly strangled by South Africa, they watched in disbelief
as a Finnish spanner was thrown into the cogs of Lewis
Hamilton's Formula One world title aspirations.
All that with a large cloud perched above the national
soccer team after a mystifying 2-1 defeat in Russia that means
they are unlikely to be present at next year's European
Championships in Austria and Switzerland.
A nation that prides itself on sporting glory does not seem
to be getting much of it these days.
Thursday's newspapers slammed coach Steve McClaren's
football team while the endless phone-in shows that now breed
unstoppably on the airwaves were full of disgruntled followers
of the national sport.
Players paid millions who never produce when it matters was
a harsh, but common thread of Mr and Mrs Angry.
The rugby team, by contrast, got praised to the heavens.
After all, they were written off as a shambles earlier in
the six-week marathon in France, having been obliterated 36-0 by
the Springboks in the pool stages.
The fact they then got their faces out of the dust to beat
Australia and France and reach their second successive final was
labelled a minor sporting miracle.
Sunday's newspapers were full of sympathy.
"Heartbreak" said most headlines, England's brave warriors
finally meeting their match. There was even a highly contentious
disallowed try to lean on in defeat as rugby fans wiped away the
tears.
Beer sales went through the roof at the weekend as armchair
fans loaded up the fridge for a weekend of high drama and
celebration.
All that was left on Sunday evening was a mild hangover and
the background hiss of a nation's hopes deflating once again.
Even the fresh-faced Hamilton could not save us.
After ditching his car in Chinese gravel two weeks ago he
still held all the aces going into the final race in Sao Paulo.
After all, he just needed to win or come second to guarantee
the title, although anything in the top five would probably have
been enough.
Instead, he was overtaken by two rivals at the start, then
suffered some kind of computer glitch only F1 enthusiasts can
explain and ended up seventh, handing the title to race winner
Kimi Raikkonen.
They say there is nothing like sporting success to put the
spring in the step of the real grafters in the offices and
factories around the towns and cities.
By that reckoning miserable faces should be pretty easy to
spot on Monday and it will have nothing to do with rush hour
traffic and train cancellations.
Still, at least the autumn is dazzlingly sunny, and there's
always next year...
