Wednesday 1 July 2009

Well done Murray

Charlton Athletic fans know that there is only one 'Murray'.

Today, the vast majority of the country had their own number one Murray cruise through into the semi finals at Wimbledon.

He is still very young and shouldn't have to pay for stupid things said off the cuff but his comment about supporting anyone who was playing against England really did set his popularity back for a while.

I have no problem with him being Scottish. He is proud of his country and culture. Having spent 4 years myself living in Wales, I'm aware of how whole pubs will support, (loudly), whoever England's opposition is.
During the World Cup in 1990, the pub I visited changed from 'pro Irish' to 'pro Dutch', purely due to those nations playing against the 3 lions.
Andy Murray would have grown up in such an environment in rural Scotland so we should not have been surprised at his 'humour'.

As is the usual way when someone is winning, Andy Murray has become more and more 'British' in our media, to the extent that his Scottishness is now only mentioned in passing.

Murray won against the Spaniard Juan Carlos Ferrero in straight sets to progress to a match against Andy Roddick on Friday. Roddick had pushed aside Leyton Hewitt who was cheered on by a large contingent of yellow clad supporters.

Fridays match will be the first semi final a senior Brit has managed to contest since Tim Henman 7 years ago.

I wish him every success.

In other news, I was sad to hear that Molly Sugden has died at the age of 86.
Though never a massive fan of hers, I thoroughly enjoyed her character in 'Are You Being Served?'.
I looked forward to her descriptions of her pussy and the way she would put down Ms Brahms for being too junior to have a valid opinion.


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well! You've fired me up early today!

Quote:

As is the usual way when someone is winning, Andy Murray has become more and more 'British' in our media, to the extent that his Scottishness is now only mentioned in passing.

What a load of ballcocks!!!!


When ever is an English sportsman representing Britain, called English? ......Never!
Murray is a Scot. Like many Scots he only wants to be British when it suits him.
Remember when the British athletes came home from the Olympics? A parde in Edinburgh for the 'Scottish olympians' A parade in Cardiff for the 'Welsh olympians' and after much haggling a parade in London for the 'British Olympians' Where politicians and officials ran round the streets with free miniature Union Flags, in case someone tried to wave the Cross of St George.

ANYONE BUT MURRAY for me, thanks

Marco. said...

I agree in general with what you are saying but I would turn it the other way round.
Murray has never hidden his Scottishness, he has relished in it and fair play to him for being proud of his roots.
Unfortunately, part of being a proud Scot would seem to be spouting anti English cobblers but any small nation with a chip on it's shoulder, near to a larger more powerful one is the same. Ex- Belgium and anti French feelings.

My point was that he is a fiery Scot but once he became successful, the English media started calling him British. He hasn't tried to claim Britishness, he's had it given to him. He has gained from the army of English tennis fans who are
desperate to cheer a 'home grown' but he is still Scottish.

While we have our nations capital on England, our celebrations will often have to be for Britain rather than purely English which I also think is wrong.
I can live with it though. Just don't get me started on Scottish and Welsh MP's who can vote on things that effect only English people yet our MP's have no say in what goes on in Scotland or Wales. Grrrr!

Anonymous said...

You saw in my post my unspoken reference to the political situation. I'm pleased to forecast it must and will soon end.
The Scots will move for independance. If the Tories are elected next year, that will hurry them up. Then by default Westminster will become the English parliament with some responsibility for Wales and N.Ireland. But that won't last long, they will soon be off too.
If politicians wake up to the truth of what is happening, they may be able to create a Federal U.K. If they wait too long, the chance will go and independance for all will follow. Bring it on!