Sport keeps spirits up in trying times
Edited by Dave Devereux. email: devereuxdave@yahoo.ie
YOURS TRULY woke up on Sunday morning with a worse headache than battered boxer Tony Bellew, and for once there was no drink involved.
I’ve been hit head on by the juggernaut of a near fatal strain of the deadly man flu, which has seen me consigned to the comfort of the bed for much of the weekend.
I say man flu, but unfortunately I wasn’t the only one to suffer the affliction in my abode, as it ripped through the house in ruthless fashion like the heinous villain from a horror movie, first knocking the kids for six before getting its greasy paws on me.
The good wife seems to have gotten off lightly so far, but maybe that’s because women are made of sterner stuff than us meek men folk.
Looking and feeling as peaky as a meringue mixture does have a least one advantage though, namely entirely guilt-free sports viewing while lying in bed wheezing like an asthmatic marathon runner.
The equally sick young fella was my partner in crime, as the rest of the clan watched Saturday delights such as Strictly Come Dancing, The X Factor and the like well out of earshot downstairs.
There was certainly plenty of sport on the box to keep myself and junior entertained between the uncontrollable bouts of spluttering like an old jalopy struggling to start on a frosty winter’s morning.
Similarly, the Irish rugby team struggled to grind through the gears against Argentina before eventually getting the throttle firmly down late on to leave the Pumas gasping in their dust.
However, Joe Schmidt’s men will need to up their game considerably for the weekend visit of the All Blacks, who will certainly be fired-up and will be hoping to lay down a World Cup marker after having to dig deep to struggle past England.
There was no such concerns for snooker’s leading light, Ronnie O’Sullivan, as he powered through the opening session of his Champion of Champions final against Kyren Wilson like a pristine red Ferrari and roared off into the distance with real authority, as I still struggled to raise my head above the parapet of a warm duvet on Sunday.
However, he was more like a cumbersome threshing machine in the evening as he just about finished off the job despite the stubborn resistance of Wilson, who must have felt sick as a parrot having fallen agonisingly short.
After fighting back from 8-5 down to lead 9-8 and 61 points to the good in the penultimate frame, he must have thought it was in the bag. But a bad run of the balls, coupled with the genius of O’Sul- livan, meant he was left cursing his luck after a mammoth effort.
Picking and choosing which tournaments he enters has unquestionably helped The Rocket to maintain his drive in the twilight years of his glittering career, and he shows absolutely no signs that his incredible level of snooker and will to win is going to drop off any time soon.
Speaking of sparkling skill, Manchester City well and truly put local rivals United in their place on Sunday as they ruthlessly demonstrated the gulf in class between the sides with a 3-1 triumph.
Jose Mourinho’s men may have been buoyed by their rather fortuitous smash and grab Champions League win over Italian giants Juventus, but they were quickly brought back to earth with a thud by Pep’s City slickers, whose third goal was a joy to behold as they weaved 44 passes together before finding the back of the net.
City are now a massive twelve points clear of Jose Mourinho’s men after just a dozen games and the difference in quality was clear for all to see on Sunday.
The champions look pretty much unstoppable in their quest to become the first team to win back-to-back titles since United achieved the feat in 2009.
Like my good self at the moment, Liverpool are hanging on in there despite not being in the rudest of health.
They’re far from their free-flowing best, most strikingly when it comes to European games, but are somehow still managing to cling on to Manchester City’s dapper coat-tails in the league.
Chelsea huffed and puffed against Everton and the suspicion remains that they lack the firepower for any sort of sustained challenge for top honours.
After a stuttering start, Mauricio Pochettino has Spurs motoring of late and they look a better bet for the top four than their fierce rivals Arsenal who, despite flattering to deceive, continue to blow a little bit hot and cold.
That’s enough about the Premier League - as I lay in my sickbed, feeling sorry for myself and mulling over the weekend’s sporting matters, one of the most striking images embedded in my brain is that of Oleksandr Uzyk delivering a deadly knockout blow to Tony Bellew.
A bit like this bloody man flu.