Just interested to know what comes back here from others, just for a bit of fun. My list could just be that I don't understand them. or for other reasons. 1. Golf (more exciting watching the paint dry) 2. Formula 1 (lousy for the environment amongst other reasons) 3. Wrestling (of the Big Daddy variety - all fixed) 4. Synchronised swimming (I mean is anyone interested other than in the sexy suits) 5. Baseball/rounders (more or less the same), darts (all doing the same thing), American football (all dressed as spacemen and kidding themselves that they're as hard as rugby players ) and lastly fishing (I enjoy it myself but watching it.......). In order to balance this short list my favourites to watch are: 1. Football 2. Rugby Union 3. Track and Field athletics (particularly sexy female high jumpers) 4. Hockey (meaning real hockey not ice hockey but that's also ok.) 5. Gaelic football (great one this) 6. Canal leaping (Fierljeppen) - national sport of Friesland. Check this one out it's not for the faint hearted. Interested to know what comes up here from others who will I'm sure have different lists.
Out of the sports you commonly see on TV, I definitely find horse racing the most boring. Almost no one is watching for the actual sport, they're just in it for the betting. Greyhound racing similarly. Most exciting is really tough, because it all depends on context. I would obviously put football up there, but even something like curling can be compelling when there's an Olympic gold medal on the line.
I can remember my Dad taking me to watch greyhound racing at the Vic (1967 or thereabouts) and me thinking it was sacrilege to have such a thing in the holy shrine.
Worst: 1. American Football - tried watching two super bowls, but **** that, too long and too many breaks. Don't know the rules and don't care. 2. Cricket - massive YAWN for me here. Just don't get it despite understanding the rules. 3. Cycling - See above. 4. Some olympic things - Don't know the name, but the dancing and flippy, springs on the giant mat. Nah. Best: 1. Football. 2. Boxing. Can't get enough of it. 3. Snooker - One of my passions. Can only get pool here mind but am very decent at both. 4. Bullfighting - OK some may not see it as a sport, but I love going to the Corridas here, great live. Honorable mention: Fishing - I used to go A LOT when in England, (Must be boring to watch) I mean actually out there. Used to go all over, Fens, Trent, Thames for Carp, Barbel & Pike mainly. Great fun. Here, I do a spot of deep-sea fishing three times a year, Sailfish, Tuna, Dorado and Marlin are available. Each to their own with this really.
Love golf... Playing and watching. A first cousin of mine was on the European Tour. Mrs Fez had a 9.6 handicap at her peak and represented England in a tournament 25 years ago at her then 18 handicap level. (She also played hockey to what is now Conference Level, rowed competitively, and sailed competitively - quite the spokeswoman back in the day!) F1... Back in the day, perhaps, now... meh at best. One of the funniest afternoons ever watching wrestling, brilliant. But, yeah, I get you. Synchronised swimming? Well I admire their abilities... wake me when it's over. I love Baseball. And American Football. And ice hockey. And darts, I play for the local pub even though I'm a bit rubbish. Football, well, Watford. It's an addiction. I prefer not to have a vested interest! Enjoyed playing. Enjoyed refereeing even more! Rugby Union so long as I'm neutral. The Ireland vs Boks game last weekend was sensational. Athletics, yeah, but I'm more of a Denise Lewis, Kelly Holmes (I know), Tessa Sanderson, kinda guy... curves required! Test cricket. Love the five day game. Boxing, the craft of fighting. None of this UFC MMA stuff, though. Not women's boxing either, just something inherently wrong with the idea to my mind. Frankly I'm a bit of a sucker for anything sporty, at least for a short while!!
Best Football Cricket ( one day best) F1 Golf Curling --- especially the Scots! Tennis Worst Horse racing... I feel for the horses Boxing.. Ditto American Football Baseball TV Darts
The two sports I really can't stand i are basketball and netball. They seem so negative because players score more often than they fail to score so you are waiting for failure rather than success. Any sort of racing I can enjoy, if I don't think of the ethics (or otherwise) of the type of racing. Sports that I don't understand but that fascinate me are kabaddi and Aussie rules. I don't much enjoy watching sports that have points for style, probably because i don't have any. I also find weightlifting boring.
Worst: Horse racing. Synchronized swimming. Darts. Pastime, not really a sport. Archery. Skateboarding. Best: Football, but not every minute of every day. Rugby, union and league. Tennis Athletics Track cycling.
Best (both ladies & gents) Cricket (Test, then ODI then 20/20 then 100) Football Skiing and anything on snow (addicted to doing it) Athletics, track and field Track cycling Gymnastics Curling Honourable mentions: Aussie rules (why is it not on tv?), Rugby League, English wrestling (Mick McManus et al, sadly now Americanised) Worst (sticking to mainstream stuff) Squash Tennis - it's a negative sport American football (why is it called football? Designed for Americans for Americans) Road cycling Darts American wrestling (not a sport but a pantomime) Honourable mentions: Basketball, surfing I am sure I have omitted some minor stuff.
Up to now the biggest consensus is against horse riding (by extension greyhound racing), televised darts and synchronized swimming, and, sorry Fez, American football. As expected football fans tend to also like other ball games such as Rugby Union (and League) - though enjoyment of rugby is heavily reliant on understanding the rules. Watching the Rugby World Cup in Germany is not easy because very few Germans understand the game and think it's a kind of warfare - the sport has a very low profile here, unfortunately, and is never on TV. Athletics comes out well (probably because there are so many events). The jury is still out on golf, boxing, formula 1, and also cricket and cycling. For Gaelic football and Australian football we have 2 positives and are still waiting for BB I must admit I'd never actually thought of weightlifting with my original post - possibly only vaguely exciting to other weightlifters. Interesting that Fez likes boxing but not when women do it - I confess that women's rugby has a similar effect on me. I can remember seeing the Sankt Pauli women's rugby team in action - all heavily tattoed and very Amazonian ! Some of these sports are great fun to do eg. fishing and archery but impossible to watch. One sport I would readily watch but never play is hurling (possibly one of the most dangerous sports around). Cricket is ok on a summer's day with a flagon of cider and good company if you don't expect more excitement than having to clap politely once per hour.
Living in France, every game in the Rugby World Cup has been shown on a free to air channel. Some of the games between the "lesser sides" have been really very good.
Favourites: 1= Football and Rugby League - as long as they involve a team/country that I support. 3 - ODI Cricket - at International level 4 - Women's Basketball - I coached a team for three years and watching it now still brings back some rather fond memories... 5 - Squash - a bit out of left field, but I enjoyed playing the game for years at a reasonably high level - even won a medal (sadly just bronze) at a City Games one year. 6 - Aussie Rules (it is on TV @Scullion - on TNT, formerly BT Sport). Was tempted to add Test Cricket - but I only ever watched two full matches - the Lords Ashes Test during the 'Botham' series, the only match that ended in a draw, and Queensland's first ever Sheffield Shield Final, against NSW in Sydney - which ended in disastrous defeat for Qld (my brother's company had a private box at the SCG - I watched the full match from there, availing myself of the generous hospitality, but that didn't help my misery). Can also be tempted by Curling, Shinty, Hurling and Gaelic Football. Easily bored by: 1 - Any 'sport' requiring machines or animals (although I did enjoy watching Scotland winning the World Elephant Polo title a few years ago) - which I don't really consider to be sport. 2 - Swimming & Diving 3 - Wrestling 4 - Martial Arts 5 - 90% of Olympic and/or Commonwealth Games events. 6 - Gridiron and American Rounders.
What is interesting is that she can run faster than the other ladies - or perhaps the survival instinct had kicked in.
At the moment Watford FC. Unfortunnately I have no hope for the near future only with optimism that in time things will get better.
