Category: Sport

You Have Been Assigned

In October 2017 I couldn’t think of anything original so, rather than being vapid – are vapers, vapid? – I set you the FT Weekend Magazine quiz.  I’m similarly devoid of unique content today so, with apologies to WeekendFT readers in the UK here’s this week’s quiz.

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Categorised as Sport

A Racehorse for Christmas

I like Peter Starstedt’s 1969 hit Where Do You Go To (My Lovely)? Here is one verse. Your name is heard in high places You know the Aga Khan He sent you a racehorse for Christmas And you keep it just for fun, for a laugh, ha-ha-ha.

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Categorised as Music, Sport

Saint Leodegar

The St Leger has been run on Town Moor outside Doncaster since 1776, or thereabouts. It’s the oldest of the Classics run over a mile, six furlongs and 132 yards in September.

Quintin

Nearly twenty years ago I went to Quintin Hogg’s memorial service in Westminster Abbey. At the time I was working in the City but Ian arrived in good time to get front row seats, that is as front row as permitted for nobodies. We were placed behind the section reserved for the House of Lords.

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Categorised as Local, Sport

Slam Dunk

Mr Justice Holman, a High Court judge well-versed in Family law … sorry, quick digression. Family law almost always is divorce or incredibly unpleasant cases involving child abuse; anything in fact to make for unhappy families.

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Categorised as Sport

The Shooting Directory

The best things in life are sometimes free. Growing up in Ireland shooting was almost free.

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Categorised as Sport

Going Solo

I saw Robert Vaughn (sic) in Twelve Angry Men in the West End in 2013. Also in the cast was Martin Shaw, of The Professionals fame,  who dined with me at the Ivy Club afterwards. We were guests of LAMDA, where he trained.

Ebony

A lot of sports are so expensive that outsiders are effectively excluded. I’m thinking ocean racing, Formula 1, high-end horse racing and polo.

Death in the Afternoon

I really don’t recommend DitA, a cocktail invented by Hemingway. If you have a death wish here’s how to make it, in his own words: “Pour one jigger absinthe into a Champagne glass. Add iced Champagne until it attains the proper opalescent milkiness. Drink three to five of these slowly.”