Traditions

With it being two years since we were able to watch Wimbledon, how good it was to turn on the TV and see the covers on the courts as the June rain battered down in SW19!!!

The weather has indeed become ‘typical British Summer’ rather than ‘longed-for Mediterranean heatwave’. Every year we go through this – getting excited in March about ‘the long six months of joy’ ahead, only to have our dreams drowned by a downpour in April and our enthusiasm dimmed by dull skies heading into July.

I suppose today will all be about England against Germany at the football Euros. A chance for tabloid newspapers to break out decades-old prejudicial headlines and for fans to sing chants about a rivalry that is so one-way it could be a street in Yarmouth.
I have met many Germans in the past few years, and not one of them has ever given me the impression that they consider England to be a major sporting rival. My compatriots thinking we are a serious challenger to a successful Germany is delusional. It’s like me thinking I’m a challenger to Albert Einstein for the title ‘Greatest Physicist Ever’.

RC 29-6-21