As Spectator readers will surely be aware, many of the stories we read in the papers nowadays are there not because they’re important, entertaining, moving or amusing, but because they’re the kind – about weight loss, true crime, celebrity and so on – that get the most ‘clicks’ from online readers. And clicks mean advertising.
It’s the same in sport reporting: football is endlessly popular even when it’s quite dreary (and I mean you, ‘international break’); athletics much less so. Just doesn’t get the clicks, you see, even when it’s the most thrilling spectacle around – like the World Ultimate Championship in Budapest at the weekend.
There’s a swagger about women’s athletics these days, not to mention unbelievable levels of talent
Ironically, the organisers, World Athletics, dropped several traditional Olympic events, such as the discus, women’s hammer, shot, 3,000m steeplechase, and 10,000m, because they didn’t get the ‘clicks’ – or in this case, data showing viewers’ pulse rates and sweat responses. If nobody watching was sweating, out went the event.
Brutal but effective. As it stood, Budapest was a sensational spectacle neatly condensed into three brisk nightly packages. There’s a style, a swagger and a glamour about women’s athletics these days, not to mention unbelievable levels of skill and talent. Melissa Jefferson-Wooden completed a sprint double by running the 200m in 21.47, the fourth fastest in history. Britain’s Amy Hunt, who’s had a glittering year, was fourth in 22.10. Not quite quick enough, but what a star she’s been, and an outspoken evangelist for women in sport, currently engaged in a rather odd spat with Sydney Sweeney over images in an advert for a sports betting site. Meanwhile Josh Kerr, not content with his record-breaking mile in July, won the 1500m – and the $150,000 prize – with relative ease. Both Hunt and Kerr must be shortlisted for the Sports Personality of the Year if that award is to mean anything.
One man who won’t be shortlisted, I fear, is Coventry boss Frank Lampard. Just a thought, but is it possible Lampard isn’t a very good Premier League manager? A lovely bloke obviously, a superb footballer definitely, but as a manager he almost took Everton down in 2023, and in his second (caretaker) stint at Chelsea won one of 11 matches. He minced the Championship with Coventry last season, and well done for that, but it was arguably an extremely poor division.
Tricky early fixtures this season against Arsenal and Manchester City would be on nobody’s wish list of course – but a 0-5 thumping at home by Brighton? The other promoted teams, Hull and Ipswich, are clearly better organised than Lampard’s lot. They know how to score and win; Coventry merely look confused. No goals and no points after four games: it could be a long season.
A friend always says that when the Springboks win against the All Blacks, a part of him dies. I think he might be missing something. Certainly Kurt-Lee Arendse’s scorching fifth try for the Boks in the final match of the enthralling series against New Zealand was a work of art. Picking up a loose ball deep in his own half he weaved up the field, dancing past flailing tacklers before sprinting over the line. If it had been scored by Antoine Dupont or Romain Ntamack or (perish the thought) Henry Slade, we would be celebrating it for years to come. But with the Boks, we just talk of raw power. Time to think again.
Well, that’s the Pakistan cricket series over at last, and thank heaven for that. But now, finally, maybe we can see what an underrated player Dan Lawrence is. He had a solid batting series against Pakistan with an average of nearly 50 despite being needlessly run out in one innings. His County Championship average with Surrey is well over 60 with five centuries. Before joining Surrey he scored a big hundred against them when he was 17. He also topped England’s bowling averages against Pakistan, if only because he bowled so few overs. Let’s hope England get the best out of him in the Tests to come.
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