Weekend feeding frenzy for the couch potatoes
PHEW! What an eyeful that weekend was. Wall-to-wall live sport wherever you turned.
The diary of a couch potato included the Ryder Cup golf, Winfield Cup rugby league, Chinese National Football League and Formula One Grand Prix on PRIME, the Davis Cup tennis on ESPN and Hong Kong league soccer on TVB Jade. That's not to mention non-live shows such as European Football, Italian soccer and Sunday Sport on TVB Pearl plus Futbol Mundial on ATV World. As usual the plethora of action ran the gamut form the sublime to the ridiculous. The former included the barnstorming rugby league final, an historic match in that it was the last such clash before the Super League split takes effect. And historic, too in marking the end of Terry Lamb's playing career. But the same time it embraced the comical in Jim Dymock's best player acceptance speech in which he thanked his mum 'for carrying his kit to every game'. THE highlight of the Ryder Cup coverage on Prime was Costantino Rocca's amazing hole-in-one in the second day's morning foursomes.
The whole weekend's golf with its tos and fros provided great entertainment, but even better than Rocca's miracle shot was the sight of Ian Woosnam puffing on a cigarette during the second day's play. At first it looked like icy breath on a chilly day but no, there was the tell-tale ciggie in the fingers and the little Welshman taking a drag.
Not exactly a great advert for sport's health-giving properties. EARLIER in the week PRIME set the standard for comedy in their NFL game, missing the 49ers first TD against the Patriots. With a minute to go the 49ers were on the verge of suffering their first half-time shutout of season. Cue an ad break and house ads for Beverly Hills 90120 and V at the Hard Rock. Then back to the game and pictures of Rice high-fiving to celebrate the score. OK, we saw it on replay but the point of watching a game live is to sample the excitement as it happens.
The glitch was more than made up for, though, by a funny moment involving NBC commentator and former Giants quarterback Phil Simms. His commentary-booth colleagues caught him off guard by showing an old film of Simms being harangued on the touchline by former Giants coach Bill Parcells, now in charge of the Patriots. You could hear Parcells' every word, littered with bleeped-out expletives, as he hammered home his angry message. At the end of the tirade Simms' sole response was: 'What's the play?' at which the three commentators burst into laughter. 'I must have just been hit,' Simms joked. AFTER the fiasco of Mike Tyson versus Peter McNeeley's non-fight live on Wharf Cineplex, many punters might shy away from more live boxing. But PRIME hope the public aren't too jaded and they are offering Roy Jones v Tony Thornton for Jones' IBF super middleweight clash live at 7.30am on Sunday. It will be most Hong Kong viewers' first chance to see the formidable Jones in action.
Many pundits rate Jones as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world.
TOMORROW morning's live English Premier League soccer match on ESPN is QPR v Spurs.
