Why cheat at school level sport?
I was watching my brothers rugby team today (Bradford Grammar School 1st XV) against Harrogate Grammar School 1st XV and something startled me whilst watching the game - the referee wasn’t actually calling it down the middle. I mean, you would expect a few mistakes for a referee as we are all human after all and nobody is perfect but some of his decisions where pretty questionable which leads me to - how perfect must you be to cheat so that your kids team wins over another?
I do have to say that I am going to see in favour of my brothers side but it was a few small things which really made a difference in the game and could of resulted in a different end score (21-17 to Harrogate).
- Injured Bradford player when the there is no advantage - play continues until a Harrogate player is injure then the referee decides that play should stop (not a big deal really).
- Another Bradford player gets injured but Bradford have the ball (no penalty has occurred) and are making a break down the left hand wing with a 2 on 1 advantage with a very good chance to score - play is stopped to deal with the injured player when really should of continued.
- Bradford player penalised for just standing there and being run into by a Harrogate player (something else might have happened but I didn’t see it).
- A try awarded to Harrogate when the ball was actually held up - this was the crucial one as this meant the Bradford lost and was the first time a Bradford 1st XV had been beaten by Harrogate in 20 years (did I mention that the referee was from Harrogate rugby club?).
The parents of Harrogate seemed to have a bit of an attitude problem towards the Bradford side as well. Harrogate is a pretty smart/posh/rich and generally snobby so seemed to make lurid and general remarks towards the Bradford side which you would just expect better of from adults.
Oh well guess you can’t win them all and I just hope that when I eventually become a parent I don’t turn into someone who can’t see my son’s (no one wants a daughter as their first child really) team lose at something.
Wrestling is well fucked
Yes I watch professional wrestling, and who doesn’t? I think it’s pretty funny anyway, grown men taking steroids and pretending to hurt themselves (well the video games are fun anyway).
Back to the point, may be wondering why I am saying wrestling this fucked. It’s fucked because in the past 10 years 109 wrestlers have died before the age of 50 with the majority dying of heart related issues or suicide. That’s pretty fucked don’t you think? I personally do anyway, I mean it’s not even a real sport and these guys are screwing their bodies over for entertainment. I guess this is why the WWE now does drug testing and has suspended 10 of it’s wrestlers (1 for 60 days, the others for 30 days) last week due to evidence which proved to the taking of non-prescription steroids. If you wanted to know, the word on the gape vine is the following have been naughty.
- Mr Kennedy
- Chavo Gurrero
- Gregory Helms
- Chris Masters (most likely to be 60 days)
- John Morrison (Johnny Nitro)
- Funaki
- Charlie Haas (Worlds Greatest Tag Team)
- Umaga
- William Regal
- Edge
- King Booker
Some of these names have been confirmed with John Morrison and Umaga losing both their titles this week (Umaga also got assaulted with a sledge hammer to explain his absence), Worlds Greatest Tag Team (Charlie Haas) not becoming number 1 contenders for tag team championships, William Regal being “injured” by John Cena, Funaki just being a jobber so won’t be missed anyway, Edge is officially injured (as is Gregory Helms) so just going to miss out on money and Mr Kennedy not being Mr McMahon’s illegitimate child (yes the storylines at the WWE really are that shit). King Booker did not appear on Raw so not sure if he is suspended or not and Chav Gurrero was “injured” on Smackdown in 20 minute I Quit match involving Rey Misterio.
On top of this, Nick Dinsmore (Eugene) has been sacked for failing 3 drugs tests and Cryme Tyme were released from their contracts following a dispute at a house show where the end of their match didn’t end correctly (opponents made an agreement with referee) so they performed their finisher on the referee without prior practice or warning.
So if you haven’t watched the amazing world of professional wrestling for a while this is what happens. Despite this entry I don’t actually watch the “sport” that much with most of this information being picked up from random news websites.
Rowing update
Almost forgot. I have kind of quit rowing as of about an hour ago as they were wanting me to train everyday which is something I don’t really want to do especially during my freshers year at university and that the training takes up a few hours and means I have to travel between 30mins - to an hour on foot or by public transport. Normally wouldn’t be a problem except it is a 20 min walk to the Metro station where I then have to catch a Metro to the bus stop which takes me to the rowing centre so not really worth.
Probably just going to do running on the running machines or something boring like that from now on I guess but we shall see.
University
I have been so busy writing the biggest blog about Leeds Fest 2006 that I have forgotten to mention what is happening in my life. Result wise at A-Level I got B (Business Studies), B (Maths) and C (ICT) where I needed ABC to get into Newcastle University to study computer science.
Luckily they still let me in even though I still dropped a grade and I officially move into my accommodation on 24th September. However I have been invited to go do some pre-season rowing training with the University squads from the 15th onwards and I have accepted. I am not entirely sure what is going on but I know I am going to be living with a random for 9 days or so which should be fun!!
Free Running to Extreme
Now some of you may know that I take part in an extreme sport known as Extreme Ironing, or EI. Well this weekend I got to watch my friend do something called “free running”. This basically involves jumping off stuff and doing flips- things like that. To say the least he was not very good. He had a bit to drink and had decided he was going to have a go at it. I therefore decided to film him because I knew it would come in handy later.
Anyway I filmed it and got bored one night and put several of the videos together and coupled them with the backing song Guerilla Radio by Rage Against the Machine. I would like to point out the videos where made on a camera phone so the quality is not good and i put this thing together in about 10 minutes so don’t complain.
On another note we are trying to put a bit of a free running team together to try and have a bit more fun with this sport. Now find locations to do this hobby will be expensive so any money that could be spaired would be great 
Also if you want to give me a digital video camera (to keep) then feel free to contact me about that.
3rd team rugby
At my school we have 1st and 2nd rugby teams for the sixth form. We are also have a 3rd team for a one off game against Bradford Grammar School. Now me being me put my name down as I figured “if I’m good enought to be asked to play 2nd after not playing for 2 years I must be good enough for 3rd team” which is more than true when you look at who has put their names down.
Now I don’t agree in taking part in a sport competitively if you do not take it seriously. More or less everyone who has put there name down to play as it will be a “right laugh” and a “bit of a joke”. This I don’t understand- why humiliate yourself in that way? I have therefore removed my name from the 3rd team sign up list as I do not agree with this.
I would only play if people would take it seriously and since half the team couldn’t even make it into the B-teams when we were younger and where always rubbish I don’t see that happening. There is also the slight fact that certain people pass a ball around in a back garden and they suddenly seem to think they are pretty good- face it, you’re not.
I might try and play 2nd team for that game just for the hell of it.
My back and the rowing team
I thought this would be an update of some sort, better than nothing anyway in my opinion. I am have been having back spasms most of today and Chris seems to think that it was my fault. The official line on it from the Aussie is:
“Your ham strings are tight because you didn’t stretch after your run last night did you? Because your ham strings are tight has resulted in your back spasms”
Yay I now get random pain in the small of my back and I cant tell you now it isn’t nice.
Also there is the small fact of the rowing team. To me our coxed 4 seems to be falling down around me. Brown has a potentially blinding disease in one of his eyes and spent all day yesterday in hospital having tests. Hayden is on anti-biotics just so that he cant just eat solids. And then there is Ben, now Ben is an experienced rower but there is just the small problem that he never comes training even though he knows that he is good- but he is good at skulling.
Rowing training
Not many people know this but us rowers actually have to work quite hard, even if we aren’t very good. Well I say that but apparently I never achieve my potential because I never win my psycological battle saying to myself that I can do it even though deep down I feel that I can’t. Well this is what Chris more or less said to me.
Anyway the point is this- at the start and end of every half term we have a 5000 metre test and frankly I’ve been under performing in them so far this term. So I have decided to make more of an effort with out of school training and go running every night. I now feel determined that I will beat my pb (personal best) on tuesday.
Oh and for those who think that us rowers don’t do a lot this is what our training schedule is this term:
Monday-Weights
- Bench: 35kg, 40 reps- 3 sets of these
- Seat row: 25kg, 25 reps- 3 sets
- Leg press: 80kg, 40 reps- 3 sets
- Lat pull: 30kg, 20 reps- 3 sets
- Situps: o/w, 30 reps- 3 sets
- Pushup: o/w, 20 reps- 3 sets
- Supermans: o/w, 20 reps- 3 sets
- Squat Jumps: o/w, 40 reps- 3 sets
Tuesday- Fitness
This changes from week to week but usually consists of a minimum of a 20 minute ergo starting off easy with something like 10 seconds above personal best (personal best for this is what you pulled on average for 500 metres when doing your 5000 metre ergo test) and then working your way down to 5 seconds below personal best and then like a 2 minute sprint. After this there is usually some core strength which will involve: push ups, sit ups, squat jumps and super mans. We also work on our basic technique in these sessions.
Wednesday- River Session
This where the crews get to go out together and practice rowing as a team. This is obvisouly assisted with the training as we train together so learn eachothers rowing style. For example Hayden likes to have quite a high rating (quite a high number of stroker per minute) whilst other crew members prefer to have a lower rating and rely more on powering through with the legs.
Thursday- Fitness
This is similar to what we do on tuesday.
Saturday- River Session
Usually have river sessions on a saturday which are more or less the same as the wednesday sessions. However these have not been happening recently because everyone has had other school (and University) commitments.
For the weight sessions on monday, that is my personal training guide. Me and Brown are also the only rowers who have actually turned up to this session even though he often forgets to bring his kit on a monday. Hayden (yes Hayden the captain of rowing- I am deputy) does a play rehearsal over his beloved rowing. Oh well, can’t win them all.
You get the idea that we work quite hard? Now remember that on Sundays we are supposed to go jogging (which I know I do). We are also supposed to do core strength at home in the evenings but everyone is usually too tired from the training during the day to be able to do this. If you think this is bad just remember that this is off-season training. Last summer we had to train a lot harder because there were races; coupled with the fact that everyone had exams.
Well I hope you enjoyed the little insight in the life of a rower.
