The Times and other media

philwrig · Hall of fame

RE: The Times

Shhh · Challenger level

Yes he does, he posts as OldEchoMan

indiana · Tennis legend

Yes, at least Neil writes in more length and more sensibly about Briish tennis than in any other paper.

And, OK, he may occasionally in parts seem very close to some wonderful source material, like re Joss Rae...

Me :

"In the 11 counting events Joss has had since June she has accumulated 59 ranking points and with 5 months missing has risen 146 ranking places this year from 643 to 497, during that time achieving a CH of 481,"

Neil :

"In the 11 events she played since her return in June that counted towards her ranking, she earned 59 points and has risen 146 spots, from No 643 to No 497, during which she achieved a career high of No 481."

but it's just an honour, rightly or wrongly, to feel we are sometimes being picked up like this. I'm sure the cheque is in the post

Neil also always adds in his own perceptions and further thoughts ( or nicked from some other forum

) whether or not some of article has come from such as us originally. Being serious I'd call that research, and his articles compare very well with the less than fully correct and occasional rubbish in many other media outlets.

Interesting that he highlighted Mel's fall and continued full funding here ( without necessarily saying it was wrong ). I was slightly surprised noone had mentioned Mel in our AEGON funding thread ( anyway, don't think they did ). Actually, in this case, I think that to continue funding Mel like this after just one year's fall after rising into the top 100 the previous year is entirely sensible. She has proven ability and shouldn't suffer just for one year, but I would hope has been given some notice that the LTA are looking for marked improvement again towards her previous levels.

-- Edited by indiana on Thursday 31st of December 2009 12:09:03 PM

Count Zero · Tennis legend

Barry Flatman bringing to light the ladies recent form in the times:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/tennis/article6993322.ece

johnnylad · Tennis legend

The girls are flavour of the month.

Goodall being forced to choose between tennis and his friends. Always a tricky one

Count Zero · Tennis legend

more from flatman in the times

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/tennis/article6995122.ece

this time about picking Flemski, something i think most would agree with, although his suggestion that we have been paying our star singles player in most dubs matches it a little wide of the mark, in the last 4 ties Andy only played dubs once, the rest was Hutchins and either Jamie or Fleming. Its also only recently that an established British doubles paring have come to light so i think in some respects JL's hands have been tied.

indiana · Tennis legend

Yes, it is rather unfair on JL ( can't believe I am typing these words

) and misleading for Flatman to say that he has a policy of avoiding specific doubles partnerships when we haven't really had all GB partnerships of note in recent times.

I don't see it as him changing policy if he now picks Flemski but just now going with a true established partnership that is getting results on the world stage.

philwrig · Hall of fame

Latest 'The Net Post' article.
Didn't know that Ollie Golding was such a bright lad.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/tennis/article7035391.ece?token=null&offset=12&page=2

Also information on Anne.

indiana · Tennis legend

philwrig wrote:

Latest 'The Net Post' article.
Didn't know that Ollie Golding was such a bright lad.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/tennis/article7035391.ece?token=null&offset=12&page=2

Also information on Anne.

Those bits are quite good, but the highlight for me is the YouTube link in "For the love of Fed" paragraph : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nTsaoYGlqY.

It links to an Arab commentary with subtitles of Roger's win over Andy at the O2. Watch and read and weep ( and I just don't want to know if some bright spark suggests that the subtitles aren't entirely accurate smile )

Count Zero · Tennis legend

on the DC defeat

LTA must take responsibility for humiliating Davis Cup defeat

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/tennis/article7053075.ece

whilst i agree with this, many of us feel with Boggo in the team we could have won this tie, yet one of the main reasons he was not selected was the media's reaction in the past to his loses.

I also remember that after the Austrian tie none of the media, save Drew, reported on boggo's injury during the Peya match, allowing what felt like a witch hunt to take place, and therby alienating the countries 2nd best player.

Even before the team for this tie was announced it was made clear by all the media that Alex would not be in the team, maybe this was a communication from JL, but it was never written as a quote. Under those circumstances it would have taken a brave captain to pick Alex, and i dont think JL is that brave.

indiana · Tennis legend

I do agree to a fair extent, Count, that the media are often too quick to scapegoat or not to look deeper into things, and Boggo has suffered there.

However, ultimately that should not effect selection of the team. If a Davis Cup captain is not brave enough to pick what he thinks is the right team whatever the media say then in some ways ( one more reason if it applies to JL ) he should not be Davis Cup captain.

Actually I suspect JL was never picking Boggo ( and the media may indeed have been briefed that was going to be the case ).

Whatever, Boggo's non-appearance ( which some may think is right ) is down to John Lloyd and ultimately only John Lloyd.

-- Edited by indiana on Sunday 7th of March 2010 08:16:51 PM

philwrig · Hall of fame

indiana wrote:

philwrig wrote:

Latest 'The Net Post' article.
Didn't know that Ollie Golding was such a bright lad.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/tennis/article7035391.ece?token=null&offset=12&page=2

Also information on Anne.

Those bits are quite good, but the highlight for me is the YouTube link in "For the love of Fed" paragraph : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nTsaoYGlqY.
It links to an Arab commentary with subtitles of Roger's win over Andy at the O2. Watch and read and weep ( and I just don't want to know if some bright spark suggests that the subtitles aren't entirely accurate )

Yep great video I love it when commentators are so understated. I must admit the subtitles do appear a bit over the top and my arabic isn't good enough to do a full translation or any to be precise.

Josh · Challenger level

Saying where are our talented 18-year olds, we currently have Smethurst, Cox, Rice, Willis, Milton and Ward all roughly around the same ranking as Grigelis. Who is to say that one of these guys wouldn't produce a match like Grig did today, although I didn't see it so not sure how much of it was down to Evo.

We do have young, improving players like countries such as Lithuania. the only difference is our's don't get a chance to play because we have a number of higher ranked and supposdely better players who just don't seem able to stand the pressure.

steven · Tennis legend

Oh good, I was wondering what OEM would have to say - the other Times journos who have been covering the tie don't quite cut it.

indiana wrote:

I do agree to a fair extent, Count, that the media are often too quick to scapegoat or not to look deeper into things, and Boggo has suffered there.

However, ultimately that should not effect selection of the team. If a Davis Cup captain is not brave enough to pick what he thinks is the right team whatever the media say then in some ways ( one more reason if it applies to JL ) he should not be Davis Cup captain.

Actually I suspect JL was never picking Boggo ( and the media may indeed have been briefed that was going to be the case ).

Whatever, Boggo's non-appearance ( which some may think is right ) is down to John Lloyd and ultimately only John Lloyd.

I think that's really much the same as the Count was saying, i.e. the media had an agenda re. Boggo but a strong captain would have ignored them had he seen fit to do so.

Of course there are plenty of people who think Boggo shouldn't have been picked, and we'll never know whether we'd have won with him, but the fact remains that none of the other lower-ranked Brits have won a live rubber against players of the standard that he has lost to (and probably wouldn't have even got close enough to appear to choke, if you see what I mean), and Alex had at least won a DC dead rubber, a feat which only only Baker and Eaton have emulated, and has a massively better record against Challenger players than any other Brit, Challenger players being the kind of opponents you face at EAZ G1/2 level.

This was a fantastic chance to give Boggo the opportunity to break his duck, and getting that monkey off his back might have done a bit to unleash the potential of (sadly) easily our second best player, which would be a real breakthrough for our DC chances in future ties.

What OEM says about Murray in this situation is spot on, but is there really anyone saying he should be playing at this level? I don't think him playing DC this year would have done us any good long-term at all, except perhaps if we'd got through to a promotion play-off away to Slovenia on clay, with the others having won two ties without him.

steven · Tennis legend

Greg has this annoying habit of retweeting trite quotes from some Twitter 'guru', but the one he has retweeted today is incredibly appropriate given our suspicions about JL's selection policy being dictated by the press and/or Muzza:

GregRusedski1 RT @RevRunWisdom: if u have 2 make a important decision,, make ur OWN! U'll NEVER regret ur decision as much as some1 makin em 4 u!

Oh so true ...