A Question of Sport - The Real Thing

One of my first blog entries way back on 23rd February concerned an evening called A Question of Sarries, which of course saw Scrum Half Kyran Bracken doing his marvellous impression of Sue Barker, getting trolled up in drag and acting as Question Mistress (see photo).

Last night I was fortunate enough to witness a recording of the real thing - as audience for the BBC's A Question of Sport. In 15 years of working for the BBC, I'd never been to a show recording (it doesn't really count when you're working on a live broadcast, you don't have time to watch very much!). The warm up comic was pretty terrible; some bloke from Canvey Island called Jeff. Wish we could have done without him, but once the show got going, it was very entertaining to watch.

Team captains were the usual Ally McCoist and Matt Dawson. Thought I'd throw in a gratuitous picture of Daws at this point. You can see him squaring up with three of his England pack, Andrew Sheridan, Phil Vickery and Danny Grewcock (not mentioned him in a while so thought I'd name drop again). Dawson seems to be saying "I'm as big as them!"

Anyway, I digress. Dawson's guests were Phil Tufnell and Martin "Chariots" Ofiah. They were both pretty funny; Tuffers was terribly silly at times. Ally's team offered us reigning World Snooker Champion - a painfully thin Scot with a weedy voice whose name I completely failed to remember. Plus Jason White, Scotland's Rugby Union captain and Flanker for Sale Sharks. My, he's a big lad, close-to! Hey presto, I've got a picture of him as well, seen here battling it out in the lineout with Ben Skirving during the Sarries vs Sharks match on 25th September 2005.

So it ended up a good-natured England vs Scotland competition. I won't tell you who won, that would spoil the surprise. But watch out soon for transmission, I have a feeling it might be Friday 2nd June. You might even spot me in the audience if you know who you're looking for!

Catt's Got The Cream

I mentioned Mike Catt was having a good season the other day. Well he's just scooped the Premiership Player of the Season award. Not bad for an "old boy" of 34! And coming on top of his recall to the England squad for their tour to Australia in June, he really seems to be enjoying somewhat of a renaissance.

The picture shows him with team mate Riki Flutey, when London Irish visited Saracens for their Powergen Cup match in October 2005.

Other Side Of The Scrum

Sarries have shored up their front row contingent by recruiting Italian international Fabio Ongaro, another Hooker, for next season. Ongaro was last seen at Vicarage Road on the other side of the scrum, when his current club Treviso paid a visit in the Heineken Cup pool stages. This photo shows Ongaro getting a ticking off from the ref before packing down for another scrum. Let's hope he behaves himself when he's on our side!

They've also signed up Samoan prop Census Johnson, but as yet, I don't know anything about him, so I can't comment. We seem to have plenty of grunt in the front row now, what with Cobus Visagie, Yatesy and Ben Broster being regular first teamers. Cobus and Broster are both Tightheads, so perhaps Mr Johnson is extra cover for Yates in the Loosehead position?

A Muddy Affair

Hilly's Benefit game at Vicarage Road was pretty wet at times yesterday, and the World XV rather unwisely had a white kit, which very soon ended up sludge brown. You could spot the subs a mile off when they came on the pitch, we were nearly blinded by the Ariel Whites!

Bit of a pity Saracens XV trailed so far behind, but it was an entertaining game to watch, all the same. And lots of tries! Well done to Academy sub number 22 Richard Gill, who scored a try for Saracens a few minutes after coming on the pitch. He aslo made a very decent tackle on old stager Carlos Spencer, obviously a youth not afraid to get stuck into icons of the game. And just like seeing Captain Hugh Vyvyan dropping a goal a few months back, I also witnessed something I was never expecting - Saracens prop Ben Broster converting a try with a very decent hoof from the touchline - move over "Glenda" Jackson!

There were some great rugby names on both sides, notably David Flatman and Tony Diprose - former Sarries who returned to pull on the black jersey for the afternoon - and as well as King Carlos, the World XV boasted the likes of internationals Justin Marshall, Matt Burke, Joe Roff, Xavier Rush and Raphael Ibanez. They were captained by the inimitable Lawrence Dallaglio. You can see a bunch of the boys getting stuck into each other in the attached photo.

Personalised Plates

I have seen several personalised number plates recently which have caught my eye.

The first is on a shabby looking pickup, and reads E9UUS - without a gap. The font of the "9" has been tweaked to look more like a "q". One can only assume the driver is into horses in a big way.

Another one I see regularly parked at my station is a smart Mercedes sports jobbie, with the plate which used to read C1SC X - I always wondered if it belonged to some fat cat manager type who worked for CISCO (makers of internet hardware routers and switches - an "x" being shorthand for a switch in networking circles). The driver seemed pretty dull so I haven't approached to ask him! And I notice recently that The Boys In Blue must have had a word with him about the non-standard spacing of his plate - it reappeared recently reading C1 SCX as it should!

But one has to wonder about the psyche of someone who is happy to drive around in a car with the plate which reads B19 POO - in this case the "9" looked distinctly like a "g"!

Off to see Hilly's benefit game on Sunday, which should be fun. Loads of big names in the World XV team. But the weather looks a bit iffy, so it might end up being a bit of a muddy affair.