Summer of sport

[flatandy]

I’ve just seen a BBC headline “Britain goes for gold in boccia”.

I know Paralympic sport is often at a different level to real sport. But come on. Bocce is a comedy sport and a special wheelchair version is something else. Are they trying to not be taken seriously?

[perrykneeham]

Is it some sort of baking competition?

[perrykneeham]

Bloody women, eh?

www.thesun.co.uk/sport/30220246/womens-football-refuse-play-controversial-trans-goalie/

[mids]

He's a big lad. Why does he want to play football with chicks? Nancy-boy?

[perrykneeham]

Actually, I think he's only about 6'. Probably a bit lacking for the mens' game.

[flatandy]

Bizarrely there's a Brit in the semi-finals of the US Open tennis men's singles tonight. And it's not Andy Murray.

Jack Draper is, instead, a posh kid from Surrey who went to the same posh school as Tim Henman and who also does modelling. He looks like a bit of a wanker, to be honest. It could just be that the ridiculous wankers who want "tennis model" have absolutely f**k**g terrible taste and want to dress their fantasy boys like the wet dream of Sebastian Flyte.

www.tatler.com/article/jack-draper-the-golden-boy-of-british-tennis-with-razor-sharp-good-looks-and-a-138mph-serve

www.vogue.co.uk/article/jack-draper-interview

[perrykneeham]

Haha. Reeds isn't posh.

[perrykneeham]

Haha. Reeds isn't posh, and Henman didn't go there. That being said, their backgrounds are similar and that is a problem for British tennis: waaaaay too small a catchment.

[voice]

San Marino just beat Liechtenstein 1-0 to win their first ever competitive match.

[flatandy]

Sept 6, 2024 13:53:22 GMT perrykneeham said:

Haha. Reeds isn't posh.

Oooh! Hark at posh boy here who knows which posh boys schools are poshest.

[perrykneeham]

Oh, I know quite Reeds because it was very local to my old gaff, so I was often at kid's rugby there (as a father, natch). It's a pretty bog-standard blazer and cap private school. Not posh, or academic really.

[flatandy]

Blazer and cap private school is posh. Frankly, rugby in Surrey is posh. Maybe not posh enough for your tastes but definitely in the top 5% of poshness in the UK.

[perrykneeham]

Pfft. Nothing like posh posh schools.

[perrykneeham]

The point of schools like Reeds is a) it's better than the local comp and b) to affluence signalling (hence the ludicrous cap and blazer).

[flatandy]

I am absolutely sure it's affluence signalling (great phrase, that). And I'll trust your judgement that it's not as posh as the really posh schools and the Duke and Dutchess of Weybridge aren't sending their kids to it. It's still posher than 95% of the UK even if it's all dreadfully gauche aspirationally arriviste posh.

[flatandy]

Anyway, he looks exactly like the kind of person who'd have gone to the kind of school you describe. He might be perfectly decent but he'll have to work to convince me.

Incidentally, each of yesterday's womens semi-finals had a US competitor. Each of whom has a billionaire dad. There's definitely something in tennis at the moment.

[voice]

Normal people often forget the divisions amongst the posh, there is a whole other hierarchy in that 5% of people who occupy what normal types call posh. I can't remember which one exactly, think it was Osbourne, who the other mega posh and rich Tories called 'peasant' cos he didn't go to Harrow, despite him being as filthy rich and gauche as the rest of them.

[perrykneeham]

Oh dear. "Gauche". If there's anything worse than a snob ....

It's also worth bearing in mind how some people have very comfortable backgrounds that, while that may not include private schools, are somewhat exclusive and would be regarded by many as very posh j deed.

<cough> memorial services in Oxford cathedral <cough>

[flatandy]

I was about to make the same point. I used to think I was pretty posh until I realised there are people who know which fee paying schools are which and what the hierarchy between them is and cares.

That said, the academic class is a sort of weird parallel one that has some of the trappings of poshness, but which definitely lacks others including a lot of the actual status in posh society.

* a pedant notes: not a service

[voice]

Tbf, with the exception of Van, if I ever met any of you lot (well the 5 or 6 left) I'd probably think "posh gits", and be considered a right pleb/oik by most of you