Hartley spills beans on Six Nations ads
A NEW, two-minute delay for an ITV advertising break before Six Nations kick-offs only came to light this week through England rugby captain Dylan Hartley’s media commitments.
The Six Nations — having agreed their joint contract with ITV and BBC — brought in the ‘preparation break’ on the blindside this season with no announcements about the strict timetable change in the countdown to kick-off.
It has meant teams having to tweak last-minute preparations with an extra huddle to avoid going off the boil following the national anthems.
Hartley revealed: ‘I’ve noticed this tournament that between anthem and kick-off is quite a long time. It’s a good couple of minutes. We addressed that as a team, as it used to be jackets off and a game of rugby. But now we come together so we aren’t scattered everywhere and we get ready.’
AUGUSTA KATE not winning the Albert Bartlett Novices Hurdle at Cheltenham yesterday at least saved Coral ambassador and part-owner of the horse Alan Shearer from having to explain how it got its name to Coral hospitality guests. The horse’s name came after Ant McPartlin — also part of the owning syndicate — visited the pro shop in the Augusta clubhouse during golf’s Masters, only for a shop assistant called Kate to tell the startled TV star that he looked like her lesbian partner.
THE great John McCririck (right) no longer has a terrestrial TV platform or even a seat in the main Cheltenham press room. This meant a whipping incident this week didn’t receive the media impetus it would have done if Big Mac, who has long campaigned for whips to be banned, had been shouting from the roof tops. Amateur rider Gina Andrews, who won the last race at Cheltenham on Thursday, was banned for 13 days and fined £400 for excessive use of the whip. Regulations allow horses to be hit eight times, six after the final fence. Gina whipped her 40-1 mount Domesday Book 15 times in the run-in. That extent of misuse should lead to a win being taken away as well as the ban and fine.
PROFESSIONAL gambler Tony Bloom — high-stakes poker player and owner of Premier League promotion hopefuls Brighton — is forbidden from betting on football but he had a ‘few thousand each way’ on his Cheltenham winner Penhill yesterday.
Lord’s next for David?
ICC chief executive David Richardson is understood to be a strong candidate for the CEO role at MCC being vacated by Derek Brewer. South African Richardson, whose son Michael plays for Durham, is keen to settle in the UK. Whoever the MCC choose, the big challenge will be working with busy, hands-on chairman Gerald Corbett.
RANDOX HEALTH, who sponsored a race at Cheltenham yesterday, are having a fraught build-up to their first title backing of the Grand National at Aintree in three weeks. The arrest in Manchester of two employees of Randox Testing Services — which analyses blood, saliva and hair samples on behalf of police forces — is leading to nearly 500 cases being re-examined in case of miscarriages of justice. And there is considerable sensitivity from Randox Health during the build-up to the National about any media mention of the huge probe into further manipulation of evidence. A Randox spokesman said yesterday: ‘We have the confidence of all our stakeholders. We’ve had a great day here and the National will be another great day.’
THE 29-year reign of Issa Hayatou as president of African football has ended following his CAF election defeat by little-known Madagascan football boss Ahmad Ahmad. But this is the same Ahmad Darw — as he was called then — who was named as having accepted bribes from disgraced FIFA presidential candidate Mohammad Bin Hammam, who is banned from football for life.