Late Call – Editors Blog 2

Oot

Oot

 

And so it came to pass.  And serve.  And volley.  And generally make forced errors.  Alex can put away his Saltire.  Andy Murray was eliminated from Wimbledon today

in a lack lustre display against Grigor Dimitrov.  It’s a shame, for like most Scots, I was hoping for a second magnificent success for Murray.  It would have been another raucous celebration here in Scotland – everyone loves a summer party – but it wasn’t to be.

It might leave Sue Barker feeling a bit deflated but if YES wins in September then Wimbledon will have to find a new rUK champion to get behind next year. Good luck to them. There must be another Tim or Virginia out there.

I’m wondering too if Murray will come off the fence in the Referendum debate now that he’s got Wimbledon out the way.  It doesn’t matter that much whether he does or not, but it sticks in the craw that someone who seems inclined towards Indy has had to button his lip to appease brand sponsors, the jingoistic tennis media, plus the twee Union Jackers who make up the Centre Court crowd at Wimbledon.

Then again, perhaps Murray is a NO voter.  It’s possible.  I’d be surprised though since he recently opened the plush Cromlix hotel near his hometown of Dunblane, which has some intriguingly named rooms in it.  There’s the Wallace Suite, the Bruce Suite, the Stewart Suite, the Burns Suite, and the Connery Suite for starters!  Murray is also a canny businessman and has thrown in the Bowes-Lyons Suite for travelling royalists. That aside the rooms don’t sound like they’ve been named by an ardent Unionist.

Now the tennis is over its back to the World Cup.  Brasil 2014 has been as sensational as its been unpredictable.  Last night the beautiful game was at its most exciting best between Belgium and USA.  Those 30 cliff-hanging pulsating minutes of extra time will have done more to help  establish football in the States than anything that went before. Now they know what its like to have their nerves shredded, their hearts pumping, and their hopes cruelly dashed.  Proper football fans now.

Roll on the quarters finals. Vamos Colombia!

 

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  1. Hortense says:

    You only had to listen to some of Judy Murray’s Desert Island Discs selection last week to tell….and her refusal to criticise FM for his flag waving incident last year!

  2. David McCann says:

    Perhaps these views expressed by Cyberbrits minutes after Andy crashed, will make his mind up.
    tinyurl.com/ny8acmm

    1. Robert Graham says:

      david cant get the link well what is being said ?

  3. Robert Graham says:

    a short thought on wimbles this year it seems to have been a tartan free zone its maybe my TV but i could have sworn the previous years i have watched andy murray you could kinda guess where he was from the saltire wrist bands and the odd we flag here and there, this year its maybe my twisted nationalist logic but i am sure the guy with the union jack jacket that was featured in all murray’s matches seemed to be getting more than his fair share of coverage indeed murray’s last match every time there was a short break there yah go change camera angles and this guy pops up as if on cue i thought at first i was my usual confused self but no 3 or maybe 4 times camera changes angle there he goes up ha ha the wife says i am banned from commenting on the referendum until september ha ha aye right wait till she sees the bloody great big flag thats going out the back ha ha wish me well eh any spare rooms for rent till september ? ha ha

  4. David McCann says:

    Here is the link again. Hope this works.
    https://twitter.com/BritNatAbuseBot

  5. I have spent over 40-years writing about sport. In that time I mainly covered football, and to a lesser degree rugby – which is now my main sport – but, in total I have written about nearly 60 different sports, from archery to yachting.

    Since Andy Murray first entered the public consciousness, I have always maintained – we cannot, as they say in Fleet Street: “put a kilt on the story”.

    Yes, undeniably, Murray is Scottish. Perhaps, when he loses, he (from the perception of some London-based hacks) switches from “British” to “Scottish”. However, to my mind, Andy Murray has always been “British” rather than “Scottish”.

    This is because, at the top level, he represents “Britain” (whether that be ‘Great Britain’ or ‘The United Kingdom’ or, in the Olympic Games ‘Team GB’.

    Scotland doesn’t as yet – but will have, post-independence – a Davis Cup team in tennis, or an Olympic Games team. The way tennis is organised in the UK, everything is done through the overall national governing body, the Lawn Tennis Association, it truly is a pan-UK sport.

    Therefore, to me, Murray has always been British.

    I hope he supports independence, but, that’s his business. In any case, since his base, the home he shares with his girl friend and where his two dogs live, is in Lo ndon, I doubt that he has a vote on 1809.

    1. Shirley says:

      Strictly speaking he only represents Britain whrn playing in the Davis Cup or as an Olympian. As a professional sportsman he is an individual who happens to be British.

  6. goldenayr says:

    Just thinking,maybe “Late Call” will give the unionits the wrong idea there are two “Revs” doing indy blogs.
    🙂

  7. Or is Ephesia in charge of the column at the moment. Or might it be the lovely watter by ther way!!!

  8. Steve Bowers says:

    I must say that I was horrified watching Nadal go out the other day, some Australians had the temerity to wave a huge Australian flag and jump up and down as if they were happy about their countryman winning. I’m just glad that our beloved leader ( he who shall not debate) wasn’t there to see it and I’m sure the Daily Mail and other newspapers will point out the error of these shameful miscreants !

  9. Doug Daniel says:

    I thought it was telling in one interview when he was on the subject of flags etc and said something that suggested he wasn’t happy with the way the media had interpreted his comments about Salmond and the Saltire-waving. I’d love it if Andy was a Yes voter, but it’s far more important that 50%+1 of Scotland are Yes voters.

    Still, gutted that my dream won’t come true now – that being Andy winning Wimbledon and then ripping open his t-shirt to reveal a huge “VOTE YES” tattoo on his chest. Probably was never going to happen anyway…

  10. Andy Nimmo says:

    In my first ever blog, http://justinfayresweeklyrant.wordpress.com/2014/02/22/mrs-scotland-a-victim-of-domestic-abuse/ when I was a rank amateur before making rapid progress to raw novice, I touched upon ‘Learned Helplessness in the National Psyche’.
    I was desperately looking for how a tiny, socially just and progressive, left leaning country that values and empowers all her citizens could prove my point.
    Thank you Costa Rica

  11. Barontorc says:

    Thanks to the BBC / UK logo that squatted over Andy’s right shoulder, it seemed it was also apparently growing in thickness, that is the St George Cross which sits atop the Union Jack, so much so it was proportionately harder to discern the blue background that comes as part of our St Andrews Cross, or is this just my ‘fascistisitis’ acting up again?

    It’s certainly noticeable in any BBC camera shot of ‘Call me Dave – but not for a debate’ Cameron, that his Union Jack background has been ever so carefully folded to expunge as much blue as possible, or, maybe not and should I really, really talk to somebody about these psychological incidents?

    Ho, hum!

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