And there we have it, a fine weekend of sport finished and just like the 1998 weekend I wrote about last night, this one was a classic as well. Sporting events coming from every angle throughout the day. I was up at 8 a.m. and only finished watching all the sport coming at me by dinner time. The cycling was epic and historic, the World Cup Final was tight and dramatic and the Formula One, while not a classic seen the World Championship remain wide open. It was a great weekend for Spain of course as they won the World Cup, but it was also a big weekend for Australia as Mark Webber won the British Grand Prix and Cadel Evans moved into the yellow jersey in Le Tour. I’ll remember this weekend for a long time.

This article is a story … a long story. Over 4,300 words worth so you might want to print this one out and read it at your leisure. It’s the story of this very weekend in 1998, one which was very similar in many ways to the current one I find myself in.

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July is often a great month of sport, especially on those forth years that the World Cup falls. You have great football, cycling, Formula One, golf and tennis. There is often therefore a weekend or two full of sporting magic that you just can’t keep up with and while I sit here on a Saturday evening on the 10th July 2010 I am in the thick of one of those weekends. We had the Tour de France, the British Grand Prix qualifying and the World Cup 3rd/4th place game today and tomorrow we top that off with the Tour de France hitting the very high mountains, the British Grand Prix race and the World Cup final itself, all on one day. 11 July – one of those great days of sport. It takes me back to the very same weekend in 1998 when the exact same three events took place with the only difference being the Tour de France was actually in its opening weekend but given that it was taking place in Dublin and given that I was in attendance, it more than made up for the fact it is in the big mountains this year. So, climbing into the proverbial PrbSports delorian, firing up the flux capacitor and setting the date to 11 July 1998, let’s go back and look at how those three magical sports unfolded on that weekend.

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One look at the sporting calendar this weekend and for the next month and you will see that I will be virtually untouchable and unreachable. I usually reserve such drastic matters for World Cup summers when I send a memo out to family, friends and work colleagues that my blinds will be drawn for the duration of the tournament, my fridge stacked with beer, my phone turned off during games and my attention focused on the only thing that matters every forth summer through the months of June and July. If you want my company you had better come over to watch the matches with me or join me in the pub for the match or invite me to your home for … you guessed it … the match.

But I’ve just spent the last portion of the evening looking over various sports websites and all I have been seeing are previews for the month to come. What is even more remarkable is that these events are all annual events and so I must surely have had this feeling of excitement before. I can only assume I blacked out due to being overwhelmed by it all and actually forgot what it was like to head into the month with it all in front of me. Actually, come next year, when it will indeed be a World Cup summer, I might find myself breaking down with sporting overload and waking up a few months later in some clinic, heavily sedated and under serious medical watch.

Indeed. Take a look at this … Read More»

I’ve a super busy weekend and upcoming week planned that will keep me away from the computer for the most part and while a lot of it will involve taking in sporting events such as Super-Cross tomorrow night in Toronto and a Leafs/Flyers game next Wednesday I probably won’t get writing about it much. The biggest event this weekend in my book is the start of the Formula One season and I am seriously pumped. I would quite like to do a live blog on it and I’ll do my best to make it happen, but if not, know that I will be enjoying the show live in the middle of the night.

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So this weekend, of all weekends, is one I could spend entirely in front of the TV watching my various sporting teams. The schedule is perfect for someone with nothing to do all weekend. A half day today could have resulted in watching the Giants game online followed by a few casual Friday night drinks. An early start to Saturday would have resulted in watching the United/Liverpool game followed by the Flyers v New York game from any local pub and then home in time to watch the Giants on their webcast again. A lie-in on Sunday but up in time to watch Celtic and Rangers going at it in a cup final followed by New York and Philadelphia round two. If caught in between games wondering what to do there is always the World Baseball Classic, Golf, NBA and even Curling to muse over.

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I always remember 12th July 1998 fondly. Not just because of the Orange mans parade in my home country and not just because the dam Spice Girls were still floating around the British music scene, but because it was the first time I can remember such a weekend of combined sports and to this day still consider it the finest weekend of sport I was ever a part of. I say a part of because I was at one of the major events that weekend.

On Sunday 12th July 1998 I was in Dublin watching the Tour de France while in England the British Grand Prix was taking place and in Paris the Football World Cup Final played. There have been many ‘Great days of Sport’ since, but flash forward 3857 days to 1st February 2009 and we’re set for another one.

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