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Thursday, April 16, 2020 47

NEWBURY NEWS

Newbury Weekly News

Sport down the years SPORT has always been covered in the NWN down the years. We look at the unforgettable moments from 50, 25 and 10 years ago Mansel’ls men well beaten READING manager Jack Mansell enjoys matches resulting in a high score, probably not quite so much when his team loses though. On Thursday, he had to stomach perhaps the worst reverse of the season when The Spotted Dog, Cold Ash beat the Elm Park footballers 8-2, at darts. The evening was an attractive social event in more ways than one for Reading’s personality girls, including Miss Reading FC, were there too and made up for the men ’s shortcomings by beating the Cold Ash ladies. The matches were one of the final events leading up to the big match against West Ham for the Dick Spiers’ testimonial fund. A raffle during the evening raised a further £9 for the fund. National success for skaters LOCAL roller skating clubs picked up two medals in the National Novice Figure Free Skating competitions run by the British Federation of Roller Skating at the Greenham Common Fitness Centre. W est Berks Roller Skating Club’s Andrew and Claire Cunningham picked up the silver medal in their competition, while Downlands’ Neil Terry was third in the Thompson Trophy for boys behind Philip Pike of the Thames Valley Club at Abingdon and Manchester’ s James Renshaw. Gillian Terry was a creditable ninth in the Beadle Trophy for girls from an entry of 47, while taking part in national competition for the first time were Ryan Ilott (19th), Mary Veloz (23rd), Rachel Hawker (28th), Zoe Awbery (30th) and Sarah Inglis (37th). McCoy’s national success TONY McCoy finally exorcised his Grand National hoodoo on Saturday when driving the heavily-supported joint-favourite Don’t Push It to a famous victory. Having already re-shaped racing’s record books, the Grand National was a significant omission from McCoy’s extraordinary CV and watching his post-race celebrations, it was obvious what it meant to him. Neither Don’t Push It nor Can’t Buy Time “held much chance ’’, according to the jockey, and it was only under instruction from trainer Jonjo O’Neil that he plumped for the former. “I told Jonjo to toss a coin. That’s how much I know,” he smiled. Considering the magnitude of the task, 30 over-sized fences, four-and-a- half miles and not to mention 39 “I am not trying to be clever, but I knew he’d win after a mile,” said McCoy. “I gave him a squeeze at one or two fences and he put down, it was obvious he knew what he was doing.” Tears rolling down his cheeks, AP saluted the crowd in scenes not seen since Red Rum ’ s historic success in 1977. 10 years ago April 15 2010 opponents, the race went comparatively smoothly. His jubilation was infectious, whipping the crowd – who were admittedly aided and abetted by the sponsor’s product – into a frenzy. 50 years ago April 17 1970 25 years ago April 13 1995

Footballing bubble is on the brink of bursting

the face, but understandably nobody beyond those most involved seems terribly bothered. When I spoke to Mark Bowen at length a couple of da ys ago he was advocating playing games behind closed doors. Like all other spor ts, there needs to be live games on the tell y asap. Forget fans buying tickets to the game, the really big bucks come from the media companies , especially satellite TV. When they have something to show on the box, the spor ting economy starts moving again. Fans will be buoyed and distracted in equal measure and we will be a ste p closer to some sor t of normality. We are living in extraordinary times . Let’s not beat around the bush – we are living in hor rendous times . Sport and economics come a distant second to health and life. Nobody ever wanted this race to happen.

Leave it too long and lik e so many other businesses, clubs will be gone . Bring it back too soon and li ves will be lost. Clearly that is no contest. Players and their unions and a gents are the key to a secure footballing future. Two million people ar e likely to be without work in a few months time and the economy is set to shrink b y up to 13 per cent. Players won’t like it, but if they don’t allow their disproportionately-inflated contracts to be shrunk at the same rate as the economy, they will destroy the game. Clubs will fold, fans will be driven away and the numbers just won’t add up. For many years I have wondered when and what will burst the footballing bubble. Even as recently as two months ago nobody would have ever guessed. Now the answer is staring us all in

WHILE the world’s eyes are firmly trained on far more significant issues, Championship teams ha ve never been in more peril. With massive wages to pay and no income at the moment, alr eady ugly balance sheets ar e in danger of toppling right out of contr ol. The recent accounts r eleased by Reading a couple of w eeks ago suggest they are more vulnerable than any other club. The Luton chief exec Gary Sweet, Reading’s manager Mark Bowen and several others on dec k have flagged up the looming iceberg, b ut most of the passengers are looking the other way. This is all ter ribly difficult. Make no mistake, the dreadful events up and down the country put f ootball and sport into the shade . The NHS staf f deserve the applause, we are all praying for the evil virus to disappear as quickly as it arrived, and we long for better news at the daily Downing Street press briefing. Pace bowler Logan handed national role FORMER Berkshire pace bowler Richard Logan has been appointed part-time general manager of the newly-formed National Counties Cricket Association. The NCCA – which is a limited company – formally succeeded the Minor Counties Cricket Association on November 1 last year when it assumed responsibilityfor the admin- istration and organisation of county cricket immediately below first-class level. And Logan, who enjoyed a first- class career with Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Hampshire and Surrey before joining Berkshire will head a board of directors. Logan last played for Berkshire in 2013, when he picked up more than 40 wickets. He scored 67 and took 7-101 in the Minor Counties victory over Shrop- shire at Whitchurch. The first two directors appointed were NCCA chairman and former Staffordshire captain Nick Archer and Lincolnshire’s Chris Farmer, the former Minor Counties treasurer, as finance director. The aim is that Archer and Farmer will be joined by six more directors – a director of cricket, an operations director (Logan) and four more – by the annual meeting on February 1 next year. In the meantime an interim board of directors comprised of Archer, Farmer, former Suffolk captain Phil Caley – who has been appointed interimdirector of cricket, Logan and Toby Pound (Suffolk), Kevin Beau- mont (Buckinghamshire), Anita George (Cornwall) and Neil Gamble (Devon) has been formed with respon- sibility for the day-to-day running of the organisation. The 20 national counties will form a new members’ forum which will meet at least three time a year. Caley will chair the NCCA cricket committee which also includes Archer, Logan and ex-Somerset bats- man Iain Fletcher (Hertfordshire). n All of Berkshire’s pre-season friendlies and NCCA T20 matches have been cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic. Berkshire were due to start their campaign last Sunday with a Marlbor- ough Cup tie against Wiltshire. CRICKET

Royals Watching

with TIM DELLOR

It is not ethicall y or morally wrong to crave all that and still want your football club to stay in business. Football has onl y ever been a frivolous distraction fr om the real world and that has never been more the case than now. Football fans social distancing, lik e the rest of the country, are pondering when sport will restart. It may be better to think a bout the cost, rather than the da te.

Grace and EloisaedWe go through their training routine – indoor and outdoor Club’s virtual workouts Online sessions help swimmers to stay fit and healthy during lockdown

Report by SARAH BOSLEY email sarah.bosley@newburynews.co.uk

SPORTS teams are finding novel ways to stay in touch with their members during the lockdown and Newbury’s swimming club is no exception. Newbury District Swimming Club, which has more than 275 members, is now holding online land training sessions to keep its members fit and healthy. Training usually takes place across the area, including at Northcroft, Kennet, Hungerford, The Willink and Brockhurst School pools, as well as at the Garrison Training Centre at Aldershot. But now around 45 youngsters are training from their own living rooms and gardens with coach Emma Harris three times a week. She has put together a number of sessions that focus on core strength, upper body strength and conditioning. Head coach Tony Woodward said: “We thought it was really important to try to keep the swimmers doing some exercise while they aren’t able to get to the pool. “They all seem to be really enjoying it, with more and more children joining in every session and even some siblings and parents taking part too. “We plan to have a huge pool party once this is all over to thank everyone for help- ing us get through this difficult time.”

Newbuyrswimmers at the Southern Counties event before the lockdown

The committee has also been over - whelmed by the generosity of families who have offered to continue paying all or part of the club fees for April. With a number of bills still to pay in April and May, the committee said the money will ensure that the club is able to continue running once everything returns to normal. Club vice-chair Stephanie Holland added: “It’s been great that we have been able to utilise the technology available to

ensure that all the swimmers, whatever squad they are in, are able to continue with some trainingduring this lockdown and still feel connected to our club. “We would also like to say a huge thank you to all the families who have contin- ued to support us during this tough time.” n If you would like to find out more about joining the club when training restarts, you can visit their website – www.ndsc.co.uk