I am not sporty. I have come last in every race I have ever run/swum. However, I live with a sports mad man, so it only seems polite that I take a passing interest. For instance, I will not get up at 3am to see just how much the All Blacks will trash Georgia by in the Rugby World Cup, but I will make the effort to ask about the game and keep track of who is making their way to the top of the table. I say, Go Japan. I do like an underdog in sports.
I am somewhat more interested in the politics of sport than the actual games. It excites me that Queensland has, for the first time ever, two teams in the NRL Grand Final. I feel like I win either way. It says up your bum to Sydney who last I heard had been signed up to host the final for the next 20 years.
In celebration of the all the football talk I have been engaging in, I have sought out a sporty story. A lovely little thing it is by John Updike who incidentally lived in Ipswich, Massachusetts and the Ipswich Jets of Ipswich Queensland have just one the state championship against a NSW team.
I love the conversational tone of The Slump and the sad desperation of a sportsman struggling to find himself. I love the line “They say I’m not hungry, but I still feel hungry, only its a kind of panic hungry and that’s not the right kind.” I have felt that kind of panic hungry. Read more….
And right now, this very minute, the NRL comes down to this final kick for goal. See I am watching.