It’s never wise, of course, to seek sanctuary in sport because it has the power to deflate you almost as much as newsie world events; just ask any Liverpool fan after the week that was in it. But occasionally it provides you with spectacles that are a little bit life-affirming, leaving you feeling blessed to be sitting in front of your telly on a Sunday morning on January 29th in the year of 2017.
And after watching Roger and Rafa you’re feeling exuberantly exhilarated as you head to RTÉ for Leopardstown and there’s Ted Walsh telling you “we all have to go at some stage . . . that’s the way it is in racing and life, everybody’s going to die, it’s just a matter of when”.
And once more all you can think of is Tommy Tiernan boarding the bus in Father Ted with his zest for life renewed after a difficult spell, and then Radiohead come on the radio and he falls in to the deepest of despair all over again.
Thanks Ted.
But as Ronan Keating once advised us, “life is a rollercoaster, just gotta ride it”. So, while Ted’s take on Many Clouds dying mere minutes after winning at Cheltenham on Saturday was a bit of a downer (and no comfort at all to the deceased’s family), Ted’s sole ambition for the day that he “see it out”, Roger and Rafa had delivered us sufficient blissfulness to help us overlook this unfortunate negativity, our spirits still high.
Get on with it
If Eurosport had put Ted in their Melbourne commentary box for the final, alongside a confused Chris Bradnam, Frew McMillan and Mats Wilander, he’d possibly have pointed out that Roger or Rafa could be struck by lightning any day soon, so if they wanted to add to their Grand Slam totals they’d need to get on with it.
They did too. And they didn’t even take to the court on zimmer frames, despite much of the pre-match focus being on their elderly-ness, a combined aged of 65 making this the mother of all “Oldies But Goldies” contests.
Mind you, Serena and Venus Williams had weighed in at a combined 71, so the tournament was an instructional lesson for youngsters that just because a person was born in the 1980s doesn't mean they don't have their own teeth or that they spend their days watching Countdown in their slippers. They can still win Grand Slams.
Those pre-final clips of the peerless Serena training so hard her lungs nigh on burst called to mind that scene in TG4's highly excellent Club na mBan. Granted, on the face of it there may not appear to be a seamless link between Serena and a handball alley in the Cork village of Cloughduv where Rena Buckley heads once a week during her lunch break from her physiotherapy practice in Macroom.
Nothing to fine-tune
She’ll spend two hours in the alley, whacking a sliotar against the wall, over and over and over again, all designed to fine-tune her reflexes and control. With 17 senior All-Ireland medals in football and camogie to her name you might have thought there was nothing to fine-tune, but that might be why she has amassed the collection. Rena and Serena, one of a kind, really. The more they achieve the deeper they dig.
And Roger and Rafa dug so deep the Melbourne court was almost excavated, the years rolled back. In to the fourth hour, each of them winning 122 points, breathlessly tremendous. Roger prevailed, the only disappointment all morning was that the battle ended.
Over to Leopardstown and there was another goldie oldie, Ian Rush of all people, looking a fit 55. The bulk of the goal-lusting Liverpool faithful would have been happy to have him up front against Wolves, even now, you’d imagine.
At the immediate conclusion of the interview we heard Robert Hall declare “he’s an absolute smasher”, and Ruby Walsh reveal that he’s “a pleasure to ride”, which must have left Rushie asking “excuse me?” They were talking about the four-legged Hurricane Fly, though, the link just a touch too seamless. These things happen.
