If Baseball's the "dutiful son" of Cricket, should not American football be construe d as the "recalcitrant borstal Boy" of Rugby?
ARTE MAYOR*: Neither Cricket nor Football
Click and Enjoy: https://youtu.be/S9wnR7q-7fI
Is this the way to prop A-first
Sock not oval ball overhead
Slam not round ball with drumstick dead
Cut not corporate tax: the worst
Hundred millions sweat till tv burst
Swamp Super Bowl cheer-leaders' tights
The day England scorned Wales' rights*
Would arméd football rugby durst
Catch not ball in leather-gloved hand
Watch how slip-fields pluck balls from air
Out-fields brave boundaries debonair
That's what cricket is in any land
Trumped-up charges make no A-men grand
Nor soft base balls stop eyes grow sore
A-1 Nation must make World soar
Hail Rugby! King Twickenham brand!
Throw missile back You Quarter-Back
Take no step beyond the Red line
Referee draws to keep the front-line
Push no further than ball in pack
The Golden Rule's not to kick back
Unless you're in scrum cheek to jowl
And lick the foe if he must growl
Block those horns in grid-lock Am-track!
Curve ball's By Gad no in-swinger
Reach first base sans one lone strike
Home run’s no match: sixes through dike
Stop runs coming through huge bouncer
Best way to take the World over
Scrap apéd games from lean memory
Learn to play ball gentlemanly
You'll need no Vinson carrier!
*Arte Mayor (Sp. Major Art) stanzaic form, the art of Archiprest de Hita (12th-13th c.): eight syllabic lines in eight-line stanzas, rhyming abba acca.
*England beat Wales in epic match at Cardiff to win Six-Nations' Rugby 2017 Trophy; the same day the Super Bowl was watched by 125 millions on TV. If the same audience could have seen the match at Cardiff, I'd wager that would have been the very last Super Bowl event in history.
Bonjour, Ron. Nice to know you're a keen follower of sports across the Atlantic. Of course, Europeans & the immigrant "crowd" also watch anything that's a novelty to them in sports, and let me say American football, in particular, the Super Bowl is always a Super spectacle, even if one has to stay up all night to watch the event. Let's admit it, one likes what one is used to watching from an early age, so I have added a link of the Cardiff Six Nations Rugby Finals to the poem. Why don't you take the trouble to see for yourself what it takes to play a "virile man's almost non-stop game" without even the slightest form of protection, players who leave behind "quarts" of their blood on the field before they are ordered to get medical attention by the referee. (I'm not saying that sort of a thing doesn't happen with American football performances, too, but just to assure yourself take a peek by clicking on the link provided.) As for cricket, you've seen how cricketers catch balls (barring the wicket-keeper) with their bare hands, and the split-second reactions of cricketers remains with them right up to a ripe old age. I can attest to this, myself. As for your remarks about Americans not being "that" good with (European) football, WHY, just watch your own winsome-lithesome ladies carrying away cup after cup in world encounters ! Once you have had time to view the Cardiff tour de force, let me know, if you so desire, whether it wouldn't be better to take up rugby State side - seriously ! No offence meant, of course and no aspersions cast even inadvertently. Every good wish. Wignesan
I recall that England was very happy to have a NFL football game played in London recently. The same is not true of Americans when it comes to rugby. Rugby is still the spot Ivy League institutions in the United States, but they also play football… Rather badly. I don't think your last statement is true.
This book tells the story of the 1999 Providence College Friars baseball team, the last season that the sport was played at the institution. Baseball was set to be eliminated after that season in order for the school to comply with Title IX regulatio
"HOMEGROWN: The Making of the 1972-73 Providence College Friars" is a retrospective of that remarkable season as well as a history of the school's basketball program, which was responsible for drawing the local talent that propelled that team to succ
This book tells the story of the 1999 Providence College Friars baseball team, the last season that the sport was played at the institution. Baseball was set to be eliminated after that season in order for the school to comply with Title IX regulatio
Ron