It's the most wonderful time of the year
....if you'll excuse the level of positivity
Happy Friday. The sun is shining here in the UK, the birds are singing, and tomorrow in the UK we say good riddance to a troublesome winter. Hello spring.
With all due respect to legendary crooner Andy Williams, I challenge his earnest, toothy claim that Christmas is “the most wonderful time of the year”.
Sport plays a big part in this for me.
Watching football in these months is often a joy; light afternoons leading to light evenings. If your club is in contention for trophies and promotion, or heaven forfend you are fighting relegation, the games become huge.
Fans of my beloved Horsham FC are wondering if Saturday’s game is the biggest league game in our 144-year history. A visit to Dartford in the seventh tier of English football might not sound bigtime. But we’re higher than we’ve ever been in the pyramid and chasing promotion in the Isthmian Premier League in South-east England.
Horsham are third, Dartford are second. Just three points separate the top three clubs, with only the champions going up automatically. We’ll take plenty by coach, trains and automobiles as always, make a lot of noise and have a huge thirst on. We’d love those three points to bring back to West Sussex, but these days are a pleasure, we’ve been excited about it all week. This is what proper sport can do.
Meanwhile Liverpool are illuminating the Premier League with football that even their rivals are conceding is a level or two above the rest. I’m surprised and pleased how much I’m appreciating this, because there’s so much wrong with the business that is elite football, I’ve been indifferent to it for years.
But I don’t actually want to be a critic, and I’ve been pleased and surprised to see the quality Liverpool are producing. I may be disconnected (I supported them for decades as mum’s side of family are from there), but I like seeing them do well. Hungarian Dominik Szoboszlai has become one of my favourite players of the past couple of decades, a simple reminder that football can be graceful and space can be found in the over-coached modern chess game.
And though the title race looks over, it’s been a good season for the Premier League, with a lot of clubs punching well above their weight, not least Nottingham Forest and Bournemouth. About time it was this unpredictable.
Meanwhile the delights of the English cricket season are on its way. Not until April? There is actually cricket to be found in March, and one of my favourite traditions is when The Wisden Cricketer’s ‘summer of cricket’ wallchart appears. My reaction to it is so enthusiastically ‘geeky’ I make rail enthusiast Francis Bourgeois look like one of the Mitchell brothers in comparison.
My favourite thing about sport in early spring is something I’ve only cared about in the past decade - March Madness. In my book The Dilly Dong Bell I devoted a chapter to the charms of this traditional American basketball tournament. It started with documentaries about college hoops while on a deployment to Houston in 2016, then I started watching games with an interest and understanding of the teams.
This led me to March Madness, which I describe to British sports fans as like an entire FA Cup tournament played over three weekends. The deal was sealed by the incredible story of Sister Jean, who at the age of 98, inspired underdogs Loyola Ramblers in the Chicago University’s dramatic and unlikely run to the national semi-finals. She is now 105, and this won’t be the last thing I’ll be writing about her extraordinary life.
I was delighted, enthralled and transfixed by that 2018 tournament, and it’s been my favourite event in sport ever since, leading me to also appreciate the NBA. The reason is very simple. I saw players expressing themselves and playing naturally while part of team tactics, as opposed to the robotic sideways passing I was seeing in Premier League football.
So mood-improving is the light, sound and smell of the springtime incoming, that I’m even softening on football’s governing bodies, well one of them, because holding them to account is all well and good, but it’s also right to give credit where it’s due.
Next week is the last 16 stage of the three European competitions, so on Monday I’ll be publishing an article here on why UEFA deserve credit for their revamp.
It’s a busy week because on Friday (March 7) I release Gangsta Ref, hopefully my funniest fable so far. Think of a Ray Winstone-like character who terrorises his local football leagues having offered to ‘do his bit’ for the game, turning the tables on those who abuse match officials from the pitch or from the crowd.
Both of next week’s pieces are for paying subscribers only, but please do subscribe or upgrade. If you take out an annual subscription it works out at round two pounds per month, but if ever you want to read a specific article you can take out a monthly subscription that’s less of a commitment.
It’s a year since I launched fables on Substack, but in January I revamped the title and added more factual content to call it The Sports Specialist, having called for a return to experience, knowledge, professionalism and contacts in the age of gobs-on-sticks.
Astronomically spring starts on March 20 this year, but meteorologically it’s always March 1, and that’ll do nicely for me. On this last day of February apparently the planets will align this evening. Seven will form a planetary parade for the last time until 2040!
To repeat the phrase of my late, great first boss Reg Hayter: “Two looked up from prison bars, one saw mud the other stars.”
I’ll be looking skyward tonight and thereafter.
Let there be light.
The Sports Specialist is Lee Wellings, a writer, broadcaster and advisor specialising in sports for 35 years. Lee has worked in key roles at the BBC, ITN, Sky and Al Jazeera English. His latest book ‘Football Fables, The First Eleven’ is available to buy here:
FOOTBALL FABLES: The Book
