I don’t do
American sports. I don’t like their stop
start nature; the way their games are broken up by time outs and other
stoppages for advertisement breaks. I
don’t like the idea that the match takes at least twice as long to play as the
actual match duration; no thanks to the bucket of coke and the chilli dogs in
the interminable breaks. I don’t like
the way all their sports seem to require match day squads 2 or 3 times the size
of the actual outfield team; why simplify a game to such an extent that you
have a player whose sole job is to punt a ball downfield. I don’t like the way the call their finals
the World Championship even though only they play them and why do they play
quarters when the rest of the world play halves?
Well that is
not strictly true. In the 1980’s I did
flirt with NFL (American Football) for a few years when it was on Channel
4. Channel 4 was new with fresh ideas on
sports coverage before Sky came on the scene and their coverage was fronted by
the excellent Gary Imlach. Yes there
were a few blurry eyed Mondays following through the night Super Bowl
coverage. It also seemed to be a golden
period for the sport with Joe Montana, Joe Theismann and Marcus Allen sticking
in my memory. Gradually my interest
waned for the reasons in the first paragraph.
I have never had any real interest in baseball (rounders for grown men),
basketball (a less violent form of netball played by very tall men) or
icehockey (padded up field hockey for those too lazy to run).
As part of my
continuing mission to find new experiences I decided it was time to try going
to a basketball but not the NBA but Hull Wasps in the National League Shield. Tonight they are playing Middlesbrough
Lions. Lions? I’ve seen wasps in Hull but Lions in
Middlesbrough, they are having a laugh there!
The Wasps
play at the Bonus Arena which is part of the KC Stadium development. For those that don’t know the history, Hull
Corporation was granted a licence to operate a telephone service 1902 and this
operated in isolation from the Post Office and then later British Telecom. In 1999 the telephone business was floated
and Hull City Council invested a portion of the proceeds in developing the KC
Stadium as a home for Hull City and Hull FC.
Admission is
cheap - £4 for adults and £3 for children and £1 for the ‘programme’ - pay on
the door. For some reason I am given a
children’s ticket, I know I am immature but…
Time to find a seat on the mobile stand among with all the children and
a few yummy mummies.
The squads
for the evening were…
Hull
Wasps
|
Middlesbrough
Lions
|
Miles Anderson
|
Brenden Brown
|
Robert Birchmore
|
James Thompson
|
Adrian Blatherwick
|
Ben Thompson
|
Liam Lacy
|
Patrick O’Connor
|
Chris Cummings
|
Dan Armory
|
Matthew Fawcett
|
Jon Shaw
|
Andy Marr
|
Richy Summerbell
|
Jason Munro
|
Tom Robinson
|
Miles Baldwin
|
Craig Mathema
|
Sean Johnstone
|
Thomson Chumara
|
James Rayner
|
Papis Samb
|
Mike Likupe
|
Mike Konanec
|
James Brough
|
|
Matthew Brutnell
|
|
John Bignell
|
|
Simon Coker
|
When they
came to warm up I got a surprise. The
NBA seems to be packed with unfeasibly tall, lithe black men. These men were not that much taller than me;
almost as fat as me and about as athletic as me. We were in for a rare treat tonight!
The quarter
by quarter scores were:
Quarter
|
Hull
|
Middlesbrough
|
1
|
15
|
17
|
2
|
27
|
36
|
3
|
52
|
51
|
4
|
75
|
66
|
To be honest I
enjoyed the experience much more than I expected. What they missed out for with talent they
made up for with effort. It was
literally end to end stuff, but I guess most basketball games are like
that! They missed much more than the
professionals and it was hardly a high scoring match but it was close and
competitive and for me that is part of why we watch sport. Yes we can marvel at Barcelona passing the
ball around with ease and scoring almost at will but we wouldn’t want every
game to be like an exhibition would we?
Hull even played to the final buzzer rather than run the clock down
which was either very sporting of a bit daft.
Just don’t
ask me what was happening because I didn’t have a Scooby. The officials whatever they are called
(Umpires? Referees?) made flamboyant hand signals some of which are noted in
the programme but none of it made much sense to me. I did figure out that you cannot barge an opponent
to floor but was about it. I can
remember watch a former girlfriend play netball and that in comparison is much
more violent.
Refreshment time! It is time for me to head back into the old town for a beverage or two. First stop is at the Admiral of the Humber a Wetherspoons pub. Wetherspoons pubs can get a bit of a knocking from people and are the butt of chav jokes. Yes they can be a bit of a zoo at busy times, but on a quiet Sunday night they are a good place to get a decent pint at a reasonable price. I get chatting to some blokes, one of whom is referred to as ‘The Russian’. He points out that he is from Georgia not Russia – so we end up chatting about Georgi Kinkladze playing for Manchester City and Temuri Ketsbaia playing for Newcastle United and kicking the shit out of an advertising hoarding once after he scored. From there it was to Walters for some more albeit more expensive real ale. Good job there is no work tomorrow!
The beer!
Admiral of
the Humber Butcombe Rare Breed,
Wells Naked Gold
Walters Camerons
Strong Arm, Saltaire Cascadian Black, Rudgate
Well Blathere
Links
Hull Wasps http://hullwasps.webnode.com/
Bonus Arena http://www.kcstadium.co.uk/arena/facilities
The Admiral of the Humber http://www.jdwetherspoon.co.uk/home/pubs/the-admiral-of-the-humber
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