THE months of May into June are a hot spot on the live TV sport scene with enough action to keep the most die-hard fans satisfied.
In the past week we've been served up lashings of soccer and basketball as they happened, plus the Grand Prix (Prime) and Major League Baseball (Wharf/ESPN) action.
Prime, in their role as carrier for Rupert Murdoch's Sport Corporation promotion company, aired all three of Arsenal's Euro-Asia tour games It turned out the fates smiled kindly on Prime. The Arsenal mini-tour, dull as dishwater in theory, turned into a nice three act play of disaster and redemption.
It started sourly with defeat in Beijing and David Seaman's mis-kick which not only led to the Gunners conceding their second long-range lob in a week but, more importantly, sent the England 'keeper home with his ankle in plaster. Victory in Tianjin suggested the Gunners had got their heads straight but the cabbage patch of a pitch didn't allow for a completely satisfying performance.
Only in the third instalment on Saturday in Hong Kong on a much better pitch did Arsenal turn on the style. Admittedly Hong Kong's Rangers were not tough opponents but the 4-0 margin reflected Arsenal's uncharacteristically cavalier approach to the game.
But why, after showing all three Arsenal games, could Prime not give us last night's Spurs v Eastern-Kitchee clash live as well? It had more obvious appeal, especially being Jurgen Klinsmann's third-last performance for the London side. But the German motorcycle Grand Prix got the live slot last night with Spurs' game shown in the wee hours this morning. It's hard to comprehend Prime's priorities here nor, in retrospect, to understand their Euro-Asian Cup promos over the past few weeks which never indicated that Spurs would not be on live. IF the Euro-Asia Challenge was an unexpected success, Prime have much greater expectations of the Rugby World Cup which starts with hosts South Africa v holders Australia at 9 pm on Thursday. The feast continues throughout the rest of the month but for this week the menu is Scotland v the Ivory Coast, France v Tonga, Wales v Japan, England v Italy, New Zealand v Ireland.