The last few weeks of the Canadian summer I have been getting up at 5:50 more or less every day. Not to spot some migrating birds, nor to catch sight of a beaver preparing for winter, but to fire up the radio and listen to the Ashes, the biennial cricket contest between England and Australia. … Continue reading Is cricket a lot like boxing?
Tag: sport
For the sake of it
Most games and sports are inherently simple. Get the ball through the hoop. Score the most points. Be the first to this line. This simplicity is probably a good reason for the wide popularity of sport across the globe, and indeed a simpler a sport is the wider its reach tends to be. But of … Continue reading For the sake of it
Rugby: A Feel Good Story
There's been a lot of feel good stories around rugby recently that have been giving me the warm and fuzzies. So I thought I would collate some here and share them with you, so you can feel warm and fuzzy as well. First up, my team Wasps signed Nathan Charles, who is probably the only … Continue reading Rugby: A Feel Good Story
An odd shaped mirror
It seems obvious that a country’s culture is reflected in its art. The two are essentially inseparable. Art depicts what matters most to the culture, and changes with the flow of this collective stream of ideas. You assume that if a culture is particularly obsessed with heroism, the natural world, or family, then the art … Continue reading An odd shaped mirror
Fight night
They promised to train like beasts and fight like monsters. We came to see if they were true to their word. In a simple square ring, in an old garage, at the back of an unheralded industrial unit, down a small road in the city of Guelph. The smell of deep heat and old … Continue reading Fight night
One went to the cricket
Crash. Bang. Wallop. Hashim Amla smacks the ball over the boundary for a 6. The crowd roar. We jump and dance, throw confetti and wave signs. Cheerleaders gyrate around the ground. I’ve made some new friends and together we celebrate these batting heroics, this “rampage” as the bright video screens inform us. We settle … Continue reading One went to the cricket
The Charismatic Megafauna
The journey continues in Hungary, and I'm doing my best to get to know the people and what makes them tick. That involves talking to as many as possible, seeimg what they like to do and looking into their history. Seems that Hungary has something of a heroes culture. Go to Budapest and you find … Continue reading The Charismatic Megafauna
Diversity
Colourful synthetics, dark bloody skin; rowdy exuberance, polite applause; going solo, doing it with brothers in arms; avoiding death or leaning closer to it. I’m aproachimg halfway on my expedition/holiday across the continents, looking for and at sports in all their guises. I’ve just left the sunny climes of Spain behind, and am enjoying the … Continue reading Diversity
But is it a sport?
My head buzzing with thoughts of flight and death, I headed for earthier territory. For this I chose the arid desert-scapes, natural parks and underdeveloped coastlines of Almeria. There were no specific sporting activities I was looking for here, more the general kind of activity people do away from the Hurley burely of … Continue reading But is it a sport?
So, I went to a bullfight
Yes, as the title indicates, I have decided not to beat around the bush, and come out with it. I am travelling around seeing lots of different sports, and while in Spain I felt I had a duty to see “Los Toros”. Because it is controversial, because it straddles sport, art and something else, and … Continue reading So, I went to a bullfight
Evolutionary Ethology Lab 