“If the reality makes you unhappy, make yourself happy with the surreal”
We live in unprecedented times – concerning which I feel that I have more to say (though I am not yet ready so to do). For now – therefore – the ever so slightly surreal!
It is a given that the Brits are sports mad. So too are the Canadians of course, though for very different sports. So too – one suspects – are just about all other races that do dwell upon this usually pleasant planet.
Now – in the light of the current COVID-19 crisis and with all good folk very sensibly following the official advice and socially isolating themselves (and if you are not then you should be!) our lives have changed dramatically overnight. Maybe we are working from home. Maybe we are just staying at home. Either way, finding ourselves restricted in what we can and can’t do can be a fretful and stressful experience, particularly as we can currently see no resolution to the situation anytime soon.
With time on our hands and in search of stimulation it is no surprise that at some point – having exhausted other avenues – thoughts turn to sport. Since we must stay home so as not to spread the virus what could be better than hunkering down in front of the TV to watch our own favourite sport.
Except – of course – that in such times of national or international crisis sport is inevitably one of the first things that has to go by the wayside. In just about all sports current programs, leagues and competitions have been postponed or even abandoned. Who knows if the 2020 Six Nations will ever be completed? Certainly the English Premiership has been abandoned – as has the footie! As – of course – have other sports here in Canada and indeed all over the world.
At this point the TV channels – with a view to keeping the customer satisfied – naturally raid their archives to bring us re-runs of favourite matches and contests from days gone by. Nothing very surprising about that, one might think, but I saw something yesterday on The Guardian website that took the whole thing to a new and somewhat bizarre level.
What The Guardian was doing was replaying the classic 1970 FA Cup Final (footie!) between Chelsea and Leeds United. Being a newspaper, however, they were not screening the match itself, they were doing a real-time minute by minute commentary – starting at the same time as did the original match – and including reports of post match interviews and analysis and so forth.
Now – to do this they must have been watching a recording of the match and then typing in updates as though it was actually happening. What boggles my mind is that there are undoubtedly videos of the game available on the InterWebNet – so why would anyone sit watching The Guardian website for written updates on something that not only happened a long time ago, but that they themselves could also just as easily watch online. What is more, this was apparently just the first of a proposed series of such ‘replays’.
Well – I am, sure that there were those who really enjoyed (or re-enjoyed) the experience – but I can’t help thinking that “There’s nowt so queer as folk!”.
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