Patrick Collins

Lord Brett · **Posted:** Tue Jun 19, 2012 12:16 pm

D.C. Harrison wrote:

Big Rob wrote:

Roy Keane is a sniveling piss weed....

Technical talent as a footballer does not hide this fact, although if a player is doing well for your team then major shortcomings are minimized, rationalized or flat out denied.

To be honest, there's not many footballers at my team or any others I'd regard as being the kind of people I'd have round for tea.

Paul Scholes, perhaps. He seems nice.

I know what you mean - Lee Bowyer was often brilliant for Leeds, but it was generally agreed that he was a twat of the first water.

D.C. Harrison · **Posted:** Tue Jun 19, 2012 12:19 pm

Lord Brett wrote:

Sorry, what I was trying to say was that he's never get away with it today, no matter who he played for, and would find himself (a la Barton) at the wrong end of the table on the books of relegation fodder like QPR. Worse yet, he might wind up as one of Leeds United's emergency loan signings.

I can't imagine Ferguson giving a new signing today the leeway he did (for a while) Keane.

I see what you mean, though Barton is hampered by the fact he's only a decent Premiership footballer while Keane was (at one point) touching world class.

As for Fergie - I feel he lives on reputation a little when it comes to be hard on discipline. He certainly doesn't clamp down on bad behaviour off the pitch anywhere near as much as he used to. Leaving Rooney out for the Blackburn game last New Year's Eve is one of the few recent examples I can think off - and that came back to bite him on the arse big time.

It's also worth pointing out he'll tolerate players acting out of line if they're vital to the team at that moment, such as Bryan Robson and Eric Cantona.

Big Rob · **Posted:** Sun Aug 05, 2012 4:44 pm

Not the first time Patrick Collins has apparently broken ranks with the rest of the DM. Kudos to him....

London's joyful Games prove there is life on Planet Olympics

Tubby Isaacs · **Posted:** Tue Jan 01, 2013 10:02 pm

This time of year means darts on Sky. And Patrick is as unimpressed as ever.

Quote:

From time to time, usually by people who ought to know better, Phil 'The Power' Taylor is described as 'Britain's greatest-ever sportsman'. This apparently derives from the fact that he has won a version of the darts world title on 15 occasions, thus elevating himself high above the likes of Bannister, Coe, Matthews, Finney, Moore, Botham, Redgrave, Wiggins and others.
I recalled the absurdly recurring claim when I heard about Taylor's struggle to stay awake for the evening sessions of the latest world event. At 52, he complained, starting matches at 10 o'clock at night was far too tiring.
'The late nights are difficult,' confessed 'The Power'. 'I would love to be on at 8pm. That would be perfect for me. I can go back, put on my slippers on and go to bed early.'
He then posed the question: 'Has Roger Federer ever played at 11.30pm at night in a last-32 match?' Well, I imagine he has because Federer is a superb athlete who excels in a cruelly demanding and utterly authentic sport.
Had he hankered after early nights and slippers, then he would have taken up a pot-bellied pub game. Britain's 'greatest-ever sportsman' could suggest one.

Big Rob · **Posted:** Tue Jan 01, 2013 10:48 pm

He has done this before. Lets himself down badly.

Darts is a true working class sport followed by working class people. Yes people get drunk at these events a bit like when people get drunk at a Headingley test match.

Of course it is not a physically demanding sport however Mr Collins does like to wax lyrically about golf.

Is archery not a sport? Is shooting not a sport.

Sheer hypocritical snobbery if you ask me.

Tubby Isaacs · **Posted:** Tue Jan 01, 2013 11:00 pm

He let himself down before with saying sport should "strain every sinew", as you say. Golf with its range of skills and the challenge of the course does have more a claim to sport than darts, I'd say. But archery and darts, can't see a difference.

Think he's got a point here though because Taylor said something really daft,unless it was a joke. If it started in the middle of the night, Federer would be ready to play then. Boxing sometimes used to start incredibly late so it could be sold to American TV. I don't recall the questions about timing being even asked- people would just assume boxers would prepare so that it made no difference.

To be fair to Patrick on another point, he hates drunks at test matches. I think when he went to the darts, it was as much the crowd acting like they were part of the spectacle rather than the boozing that got on his nerves. People booze at Crayford dogs but he really enjoyed that.

Andy McDandy · **Posted:** Tue Jan 01, 2013 11:03 pm

There was an interview with the gold medallist shooter from the London Olympics, sorry, name escapes me, where he wa asked in all seriousness if shooting was a 'proper' sport. He replied that considering his event consisted of keeping your aim - with a shotgun - dead on while firing and feeling the recoil of 100 rounds in fast succession, if anything it was an endurance sport.

Not sure who sad it, but someone did say that what might keep darts and snooker in the 'games' box is that they lack the reactive element that's a feature of all activities securely labelled as sports. Edit - good point about archery.

lord_kobel · **Posted:** Tue Jan 01, 2013 11:20 pm

Tubby Isaacs wrote:

But archery and darts, can't see a difference.

It takes a lot more muscle to pull back a bowstring than it does to throw a dart.

Big Rob · **Posted:** Tue Jan 01, 2013 11:25 pm

Tubby Isaacs wrote:

To be fair to Patrick on another point, he hates drunks at test matches.

The people who drink at test matches probably help to keep cricket going in this country. Especially if you get north of the Watford Gap.

Golf is hardly "straining every sinew" although it is certainly a bit more athletic than darts.

I agree that Phil Taylor said something a bit daft however that is only applicable to Taylor and not the whole sport of darts.

The new young Dutch players, Michael van Gerwen in particular, especially after his perfect 17 darts, are adding something new to darts.

I am pissed off that I cannot get the final on US TV.

Big Rob · **Posted:** Tue Jan 01, 2013 11:27 pm

lord_kobel wrote:

Tubby Isaacs wrote:

But archery and darts, can't see a difference.

It takes a lot more muscle to pull back a bowstring than it does to throw a dart.

For sure however it takes a lot more effort to do gymnastics than it does to be an archer.

The point is who gets to make the decision as to what is a sport and what isn't?

A condescending and pompous snob like Collins?

Tubby Isaacs · **Posted:** Tue Jan 01, 2013 11:32 pm

I can't get it on British TV, seeing I refuse to pay a fortune, if that's any consolation.

I agree his "strain every sinew" (which I think he used to slag off snooker) was silly.

The test matches and the Sky deal keep cricket going. Probably more cricket fans in the south, as you say. But we've got our share of obnoxious drunks at big games.

Tubby Isaacs · **Posted:** Tue Jan 01, 2013 11:37 pm

Rob, I think most of us probably distinguish between sports and games. Even if we can't define it, we feel we know each when we see it. Like Kenneth Clark and civilisation.

Does it serve any purpose to do that? Not sure.

Carlos The Badger · **Posted:** Tue Jan 01, 2013 11:43 pm

¿Que? Batball is MASSIVE in Yorkshire and Lancashire (and from what I remember Durham, too). I think it's followed in a slightly different way than it darn sarf, though. More akin to how the Ozzies view it.

Big Rob · **Posted:** Wed Jan 02, 2013 12:12 am

I agree that the Sky contract brings a lot of cash in however, from my, albeit, limited time a test matches a big piss up, together with the cricket, does attract a lot of punters.

I sincerely think if they made cricket dry up North it would have a severe effect on the ability of cricket to draw crowds.

As for being able to make the distinction between sports and games well I would still consider darts a sport as it fits dictionary definitions of sport. Can other people consider it a game? For sure, however, at the professional level, it still takes a lot of skill to cut the mustard.

Collins condescension was still hypocritical, whichever way you look at it.

Abernathy · **Posted:** Wed Jan 02, 2013 12:23 am

Big Rob wrote:

I agree that the Sky contract brings a lot of cash in however, from my, albeit, limited time a test matches a big piss up, together with the cricket, does attract a lot of punters.

.

I realised this when I attended my first Ashes series Test Match at Edgbaston (remember, I am a Scot) some years ago.

It seemed immediately obvious to me that the primary purpose of the entire proceedings was to have a massive picnic/piss up, and that incidentally, there happened to be a game of cricket, albeit of a very high standard, going on in the middle of it all. Sorted.

Patrick Collins

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