I showed my age recently when referring to the popular Saturday night television show Blind Date. The young people I was speaking with had never heard of the late Cilla Black and the nearest thing to the infamous dating show they have known is the current Take Me Out. I am not old enough to remember Cilla Black for her singing but I do have very fond memories watching the elimination round of Blind Date as three hopeful candidates were whittled down to one. Growing up I watched a very limited amount of television; a Saturday night when I wasn't attending a swimming gala was a rare treat.
I am not sure if it is purely due to my increased awareness and interest but there seems to have been a significant rise in the variety of sport available on our screens. I like to think that even in my teens I would have chosen to watch the swimming world championships, for example, over a less educational entertainment show.
I do still find myself torn between watching the wonderful performances of our athletes and participating in sport myself, especially at this time of year. We are spoilt for choice at the moment with iPlayer, the red button and regular terrestrial all showing ever increasing amounts of top level sport. It always seems to peak towards the beginning of autumn as we see winter sports hold warm up games and the summer sports stage their big competitions.
So far August has seen the British swimmers come home with a record medal haul, the England netballers pick up bronze in the world cup and our men's cricket team secure a historic Ashes victory. Still to come we have the athletics world championships, the rugby world cup and one I cannot omit - the pentathlon European championships on our doorstep hosted by the city of Bath.
