Monday, 6 August 2012

Olympic Bag Boggling

Olympic Bag Boggling, August 5th, Swindon.

Neither the weather nor six of the world's finest bag-bogglers could come between world number 1 (me) and a date with destiny as the Olympics reached a crescendo of excitement in the Swindon Bogglarena.
The pitch had remained covered during a morning of changeable weather and the event looked in doubt until a gap in the showers allowed a start to the action.
For those who have only so far caught up with archery, fencing, judo and sailing, Bag Boggling consists of two players aiming a tennis ball at a brick and scoring one point if they hit it and two points if they knock it over. First to 10 is the winner and the tournament is always a straight knock-out.
This year's summer competition naturally became an Olympic event and the result was Gold for me, Silver for my neice, Laura, and Bronze for my mother, Mary.
And, so, after all, it has proved that the Olympics can be a success. In no particular order, my favourites have been Victoria Pendleton's keirin, Mo Farah, Jessica, Bradley's time trial, etc but it's been better than one could have thought. Radio 5 will need a lie down at the end, though. There must be a limit to the hysteria one insists on generating, and for how long, and if nothing else comes out of these games, an immediate ban on interviewing sportspeople straight after events needs instigating.
Otherwise, who would have thought it. Well played.
(Thanks to Laura Chadwick for photographs)