I sit down to write with a feeling of huge
relief that is unsurprisingly completely related to sport. No matter whether
you prefer the round or oval ball it has been a tense week for any England fan.
Thursday saw the return of the Anglo-Welsh
rivalry this time on the football pitch. With several Welsh friends still
living off their victory over England in the rugby world cup I was not sure I
could stomach another significant loss to our close neighbours. It does feel
like fate that England and Wales were in the same group less than a year ago
for the rugby and now meet again in the pools for the European Football
Championships. Thankfully this time, despite a nail-biting one nil deficit at
half time, England came out on top - lets just hope this is a good omen and we
can at least progress further than this first round.
As for our rugby team they are almost
unrecognisable since the coaching appointment of Australian Eddie Jones. England
succeeded in clinching an historic series win against Australia in the autumn
rugby internationals and appeared unstoppable; the result marked a complete
turnaround by the team who failed to make it out of their pool in the world cup
just a few months ago.
Slightly
closer to home, I took on an altogether different challenge as I joined a
collection of (mostly retired) athletes to try my hand at polo to raise money
for a worthy cause. I managed just a handful of lessons and less than two weeks
after I first picked up a polo stick I was playing in front a crowd of
thousands sandwiched by two professional matches. I made up a quarter of the
Olympians’ team (also comprising Zara Tindall, Victoria Pendleton and Laura
Tomlinson) against the Jockeys’ (made up
of none other than Sir AP McCoy, Richard Dunwoody, John Francome and Marcus
Armytage). Despite everyone involved being a competent rider, we were all
pushed well outside our comfort zones as we galloped after the small white ball
waving our long uncontrolled sticks in its direction. I am pleased to report
that the Olympians came out on top and I thoroughly enjoyed my first ever game
of polo even if my enthusiasm far outstripped my ability.
