h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Thomas

As I said Rugby Football started at Rugby School near the town of Rugby.. According to "legend" it all started when a schoolboy called William Webb Ellis picked up the ball and started running with it, as opposed to the age-old practice since Medieval times of having a kick-about.

In terms of battle in rugby as in life at the time "posssession is nine tenths of the law"- and certain moments were structured into the game when the struggle is for the ball. This involves huge men. But in ages past when the relative size of the pitches was greater, once a side had the ball the emphasis was on quick-witted, clever, and fast players.. Last Saturday it was very apparent that England's fastest players have become accustomed to outsprinting the opposition, and England failed to score at least three tries because the Scots team included several players who were capable of catching them, and they failed to bother to look for supporting colleagues.

In my own very lowly rugby playing days, when I was young and felt I could run forever, there were so many times when I shadowed a team mate to the line- just in case.. But when you do things "professionally" full-tim you tend to subject what you do to cost-benefit analysis.

At the end of my previous post I wrote- and then deleted- an exhortation encouraging you to keep away from televised sport.. Perhaps that was a bitter reflection on the idealism of an earlier age: and someone who takes sport too much to heart, as I suppose I take history too much to heart, and life itself.

Regards

Cass

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Thomas

I know you are likely to be off until next week-- But I may have forgotten by then.. In the light of today's exchanges- this afternoon the big horse race at the Cheltenham Festival Meet (the excuse for an annual Irish invasion of horses, jockies and spectators) was won by an amateur jockey.. Apparently this young man is a dentist with a number of dental surgeries. But he is also an aristocrat with a passion for horses and a dream that he might one day achieve what he has today..

Dreams can come true.

Have a good week-end.

Cass