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A golden day for Kazakhstan and Qld. Britain, not so much

Anthony Sharwood

by Anthony Sharwood

29 Jul 10:00am

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Filed under: Cycling, London Olympics, Olympics, Sport, Swimming, Whingers

55 comments

Well, that didn’t take long. There are 19 nations on the medal table after the first full day of Olympic competition, and none of them are Great Britain. To compensate for this, the Poms have started whingeing.

WARNING: THIS VIDEO IS PRETTY NAUGHTY, ESPECIALLY NEAR THE END

Off field, these games have started brilliantly for Britain. The joy and sheer Britishness expressed in that wonderful, quirky opening ceremony has apparently now been embraced by Londoners, who have suddenly twigged that a few overcrowded trains are a small price for having the world’s biggest party on your doorstep.

Then along comes Mark Cavendish and friends from Team GB cycling, accusing Australia and the rest of the field for conspiring against his team. Oh, the poor sweetheart. Was the porridge too hot in the Olympic village this morning, Cav? Were the contents of your drink bottle not isotonic enough?

Seriously, this is a guy who has won a record 23 stages of the Tour de France. The cat and mouse tactics in last night’s road race conspired not just against the five Great Britain riders, but against the Aussies and most of the field.

Remember, they don’t have radio communication in the Olympic road race like they do in the Tour de France. So when breakaways occur, riders don’t always know how to react. The one who reacted best was Kazakhstan veteran Alexandr Vinokurov. The 38 year old made a brilliant move inside the final 500 metres, just as his young Colombian challenger looked over his shoulder.

What’s that your coach always told you, no matter what sport you played as a kid, about playing your own game and not worrying about the opposition? Cav and the Colombian would both have done well to heed that advice.

You sure didn’t hear the Netherlands complaining about Australia’s surprise win in the 4x100m women’s freestyle relay. The Dutch have dominated this event in recent years. They were decisive winners in the 2011 swimming world championships in Shanghai, with Australia fifth.

A year on, Australia fielded just one member of that team, in lead-off swimmer Alicia Coutts. She was joined by Cate Campbell, Brittany Elmslie and Melanie Schlanger, who bravely held on as the Dutch closed late.

Interestingly, all four young women are Queenslanders. So too were the three swimmers who swam the 4x100m heats but not the final. One of those was Libby Trickett, whose experience and bubbly presence is said to be having a hugely positive influence on her team-mates.

Setting a positive tone is important at the Olympics, not just for your immediate team-mates in your chosen sport but for the hundreds of athletes across your entire Olympic team.

A great day for the Sunshine State and Kazakhstan. If they ever stop moaning, there’ll undoubtedly be better days ahead for the United Kingdom of Whingestan.

Twitter: @antsharwood

Most commented

55 comments

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    • Babylon in Canberra says:

      10:25am | 29/07/12

      Well the whinging was inevitable. But not only is it not good for team GB, it’s poor form when you’re the hosts as well. It’s like inviting people over for Dinner then throwing a wobbly because you perceive your guests got more Lamb.

      It memory serves, the trains are always cramed full, that is when they turn up.

      Reply

    • Helen says:

      12:13am | 31/07/12

      That Opening Ceremony was really just bad - Im surprised they arent whinging about that!

    • ZSRenn says:

      10:53am | 29/07/12

      China is going to dominate this Olympic Games and I can already hear the cheating cries, coming from all over the world when they do. Ooh look at the size of those girls, they must be men etc etc blah blah blah!

      However, the Chinese youth and people have still got something that we in the west lost long ago. A sense of self and pride! At school you don’t just have to do PE, you have to pass it. The grading of the quality of the school is greatly influenced by the results of the PE exams as with every other subject.

      They have their media icons but they are not bombarded on a daily basis by the shortcomings of these media icons. These people are false heroes that we have raised to god ship, with the daily reporting of all of their flaws and weaknesses. If it’s ok for the ‘great’ Lindsay Lohan to turn to drugs and destroy herself, then it must be ok for me mentality exists.

      Chinese students are not bombarded on a daily basis with the sex exploits of their heroes and heroines, convincing them that sex and being promiscuous in public is ok and even more important than individual success. They therefore maintain a sense of morality. They also still have a sense of family and that their deeds reflect on the family as a whole and not just on them. They swim shoot ride lift and run for their family as well as their country.

      When you walk the streets of the cities you see a youth, proud, fit and with their head held high. They are the new Kings and Queens of this new world, which is being created around them. As they look around they see the remnants of the poverty that used to be so rife in China. They know that only through personal success can they be assured of a good future. They are not restricted from achieving these goals by a Nanny State that rewards failure or mediocrity.

      Watch China in this Olympic Games as they will again be champions for two reasons. Our Rome is failing around us because we have adopted weakness as a way of life and they are adopting excellence as theirs. The same reason their economy is roaring ahead while so many other economies around the world are failing.

      Reply

    • TChong says:

      11:28am | 29/07/12

      I agree ZSR, this fear of all things china, currently on another wave of public focus is bizarre, antiquated, futile and embarrasing.
      Oz politics is bilateral in its efforts be seen to join a new cold war against china, for the benefits of US economic self interest.

    • Dr B S Goh, Australian in Asia says:

      12:45pm | 29/07/12

      If you want to compare countries the right index is medals per capita. In absolute terms China with 1.34 billion people should get more than 60 times Australia to be comparable to Australia.. If not Australia is ahead of China. There is no doubt Australia is one of the top sports nation in the World.

      This is simple maths. Wish you and all fun in watching Olympics on TV

    • Shane From Melbourne says:

      01:23pm | 29/07/12

      The performance enhancing drugs don’t hurt either…..

    • Babylon in Canberra says:

      02:44pm | 29/07/12

      Olympics Day 1, the Womans Volleyball. The first Set was all Serbia with no response from China. But after that Serbia never won a game and they were always 8 points behind.

      So impressive how, the Chinese girls had the mindset to regroup and focus.

    • Dr B S Goh, Australian in Asia says:

      03:00pm | 29/07/12

      @ Milers Crossing Many thanks for your comments and information on NZ in the medals tally. I am very happy to hear the good news on NZ ‘s achievements in the Olympics. I have great attachments to NZ.

    • Gregg says:

      03:19pm | 29/07/12

      @ZSR
      ” When you walk the streets of the cities you see a youth, proud, fit and with their head held high. “
      So are you emigrating permanently!
      What a load of tripe and if you went up to Aussie competitors and started telling them how little pride they have, you ought to be prepared to get your nose bloodied at a minimum.

      And then you might find that not all Chinese are superbly fit and in fact you could well find that along with India they are developing their own globesity epidemic.

      As for which country gets the most medals or even on a per capita basis, why do you lot just grow up and rejoice in the performances for what they are irrespective of what country competitors come from.
      Are you all so parochial you are proud of your blindness?

    • Mike says:

      08:41pm | 29/07/12

      China’s new Kings and Queens…living as students off mummy and daddy’s money in Australia, thanks to their position and power within the party or as a rich business owner (thanks to Guanxi). 

      China maintaining a sense of morality…like Tiananmen Square or persecution of Falun Gong practitioners (plus the officially denied Gulags - Laogai - that DO exist) ?

      Most mainland Chinese kids are probably playing console games and eating Maccas, rather than doing sports !

      China’s GDP will be what China says it is, so the whole thing about China being the world’s best athletes because their economy is booming, well, that’s taken a beating recently, but just like the three monkeys, put your hands over your eyes and pretend it didn’t happen.

      Works for everything else that China does, including net censorship, fake everything (including toxic milk and fertiliser made from questionable sources) and labelling of an elderly, holy man as a ‘terrorist’ because she can’t get her own way in Tibet.

      Let’s see what the drug tests reveal, shall we ?

    • ZSRenn says:

      08:17am | 30/07/12

      @ Greg I am not talking about the competitors, I am taking about the average teenager in the street.

      @ Mike Falun Gong is a religion that causes it’s members to go out and create violence against themselves to attract de from others. In other words they entice violence against themselves to gain power . Read more here.

      http://www.nla.gov.au/benjamin-perry/the-past-present-and-future-of-falun-gong

      This is the problem that the Chinese government has with them especially when a riot can be started between any of the 53 ethnic groups in China simply because a Sichuan boy was picking a mango off a Guangdong tree

      Tiananmen was a riot that happened in 1989 here is a link to the pictures

      https://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&newwindow=1&biw=1024&bih=627&noj=1&q=tiananmen square massacre pictures&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=urMVUJqMDsjUige43oDIBA

      Look closely at them and if you can find one picture of a soldier holding a gun please provide me the link. The guy stood in front of the tank and the tank stopped. It did not shoot him or run over him. It stopped!

      I wonder what the Australian Police of the time would have done if 50,000 people were rioting in Martin Place destroying everything in sight.

      I know what the Americans did at Berkeley when only 3000 protested but no one ever mentions that every time a discussion about the USA comes up.

      http://www.inthesetimes.com/uprising/entry/12262/shades_of_1969_berkeley_in_occupy_protests/

    • Dr B S Goh, Australian in Asia says:

      09:56am | 30/07/12

      @ ZSRenn. I was working in Berkeley in 1970 during the time of the student riots. My host was George Leitmann the first Ombudsman of UC Berkerley. Contrary to what you say about American police even in those heady days of very massive protests against the US Govt military actions in Vietnam the police were very restrained. I used to walk around the Berkeley campus with G Leitmann to observe the police actions and got a lot of the gas from it. On the other side of the coin the most dangerous things were, luckily then, primitive bombs in buildings which could have been left by some excited students.

      US military action in Vietnam was one of its greatest mistakes in modern history. I joined in student demonstrations against it in NZ, USA and Australia. My own professor was refused a visa to do his sabbatical in USA because of his public opposition to the Vietnam way.

      China has not confronted fully the history and significance of the Tian An Men square in 1989. It is for China to understand the historical significance of those events and have a national consensus on those events. I have an open mind on it. In China having thousands or millions of people killed in some events is nothing in its course of history. What we can stay is that stability at that point in time had allowed it the incredible progress of China.

      The Tian An Men incident in Beijing in 1989 actually had a major influence on Australia and many people do not seem to appreciate it. It led to a huge increase of migrants from China when PM Bob Hawke broke down and cried over the students killed.

      As a footnote it is still a mystery what happened to that student who stood in front of the tank in Beijing. I am not read that even his name is known.

    • CorBlimey says:

      04:10pm | 30/07/12

      @Dr B S Goh

      China brought 14 less athletes to the games than Australia - so while the point about them having a substantially larger population is correct, it would appear that Australia has more athletes in the upper echelon per capita than China.. however the Chinese athletes are right at the top of that upper echelon. I think this reflects what ZSRenn was saying, and that is that the Chinese athletes have much greater discipline, focus and application than many other athletes do - so when they’re great, they’re astoundingly great. And that has nothing to do with the size of the population.

    • Mike says:

      07:50pm | 30/07/12

      I like the way you failed to answer the questions about the Dalai Lama.  China persecutes a frail old man and calls him a terrorist.  China then goes and locks up people who do not follow the party line in “re education camps” and denies their existence, then tries to get Hong Kong to teach the kids how “great” China is….

    • Suzanne says:

      10:57am | 29/07/12

      The whinging POMS winge about Australia bike ride.  Everyone is in to win, just because we made a break and messed their tactics so what

      Bunch of wingers, as per usual

      Reply

    • Mike says:

      01:22pm | 29/07/12

      And Aussies don’t ?!  And French people don’t because they don’t like the food ?  And Germans don’t because things are not run as well or on time as in Germany ?  And Dutch don’t because there’s too many cars in the city ?

      Every country moans, and if it was Australia or anyone else (e.g. USA) who were in the same position, can you honestly say to yourself that they would not have reacted the same way ?

      Wait, you might just have an event where this happens to you or another big name, that isn’t versus Team GB.  Let’s see.

    • Chris says:

      04:13pm | 30/07/12

      I thought we established the whinging pom stereotype applied more to Aussies? Or doesn’t anyone remember last week? I guess we’ll just switch the stereotype as it suits eh.

    • Debbie says:

      11:01am | 29/07/12

      About time someone remind him of good sportsmanship. We all teach our kids to do their best and if they don’t win to congratulate the other teams and show good grace in defeat. What a poor example he sets to our youngsters, and aside from everything else, everyone competes to win. He and his team were out foxed and out ridden, build a bridge and get over it and congratulate the winners.

      Reply

    • Porter says:

      11:05am | 29/07/12

      Germany are to blame as well. I would have love to see a sprint finish with Greipel, Cavendish, Sagan, and maybe even Goss.

      Reply

    • Jing Zhou Jong says:

      11:42am | 29/07/12

      Ha, biggest whingers of all are now the gold medalists of whine, Austraya. Ya all just jealous cause you live at the bottom of nowhere, ya have a shite Government with a Welsh witch running you into the ground, ya have the world’s biggest carbon tax, a massive pipeline of investment, low inflation low unemployment and you still can’t look after your disabled or native citizens. Grow up, your the little kid of the world trying to play with the big fella’s, no one outside of the pacific rim knows who you are.

      Reply

    • Sinbad says:

      02:10pm | 29/07/12

      You sound like a fraud pretending to be a racist Chinese and steering up trouble.

      Two out of your three names are not Chinese!

    • paul says:

      02:16pm | 29/07/12

      What a strange strange Rant Jing Zhou Jong.
      Actually at nearly every Olympics Australia win the medal tally per capita, which we are incredibly proud of.
      I live in Asia mate and everyone knows where Australia is, lol.  But anyway dont want to hurt a rant like that to much.
      Good luck for your nation China in the rest of these Olympics.

    • Babylon in Canberra says:

      03:02pm | 29/07/12

      You lost me after ‘biggest carbon tax’ .... for buying votes and repairing the tears made in the economy.

      An out of country currency, an inept Treasurer, a crushed Exports market. A dying manufacturing Industry. A country that only makes 5 percent of what it consumes and is the third most expensive country in the world paying up to 300 percent more for some of its services compared with other countries.

      Your right , Australia should not whinge, it should vote ..... Gillard out

    • Ohcomeon says:

      09:03am | 30/07/12

      6/10. Not bad, but you need to show less of your hand for successful trolling.

    • Garry says:

      12:22pm | 29/07/12

      OH that’s bad Anthony, what about the Australians accusing their own team of racism? So England accusing others of bad form is whinging, then what is it when Australian’s charge their own team with Racism?

      Reply

    • Billy B says:

      12:31pm | 30/07/12

      Garry - So England accusing others of bad form….
      Get it right; you mean Great Britain.  England aren’t competing in the Olympics but Great Britain are.

    • Green medal says:

      01:24pm | 29/07/12

      New dish in my local Chinese:

      No.69 - Special Overcooked Rice.

      Reply

    • Mickey T says:

      01:30pm | 29/07/12

      Mark Cavendish is a pom, so it is par for the course, he was obviously struggling without the Australian duo of Michael Rogers and Richie Porte to get him to the line, so in a twisted way, it was the fault of Aussies for him losing this race,they weren’t there to support him!

      Reply

    • Augustus Caesar says:

      01:59pm | 29/07/12

      ZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
      Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
      Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
      16 Glorious days without Moggies, Stilnox to send us to sleep
      Boredom will do it!!

      Reply

    • Vinny says:

      02:16pm | 29/07/12

      Borat was right “kazakstan greatest country in the world”.

      Reply

    • Pickler says:

      02:37pm | 29/07/12

      I really like English whinging it’s driven their nation and when the life-changing chips are really down they always seem to rise to the occasion. Hence, there’s very little whingeing about the war, terrorism and the financial crisis that have been part of their history.

      London - Can build a brilliant successful underwater train to France in seven years.

      Sydney - Can’t even organise a competent public transport system that links the whole city.

      There’s an amazing 200 year history of British innovation that started with a bloody whinge.

      The Aussie mentality of “Look, look a whinger!!” *stick out macho chest* when somebody makes a constructive point is exactly why nothing apart from digging the ground and selling to the Chinese happens on Australian soil.

      On ya Mark, go enjoy a warm ale.

      Reply

    • Wilma J Craig says:

      03:30pm | 29/07/12

      Yes, boys & girls but we certainly learnt our lesson “How to Whinge, louder & better than anyone else” from the English didn’t we?
      Australians must be the Biggest mob of Whingers ever!
      If they had, as another pretend-sport like Synchronised Swimming, called Whingeing Australia would not just win Gold we would also win Silver, Bronze & the Perpetual Trophy every time!!!
      The best parts of any Olympics or any other supposed Sporting Event
      a) The Opening Ceremonies - they are 100% kitsch butonly we can put on such embarrassing ‘Openings” as we did at the Sydney Olympics & the Melbourne Commonwealth Games!
      and
      b) The Closing Ceremonies.
      All with lots of laughs & people being themselves & simply having a bit of fun - something they have all been denied for 16 days.
      We don’t even bother to watch the boring bits in between!

      Reply

    • Gregg says:

      03:38pm | 29/07/12

      We should not be too surprised with Alexandr Vinokurov winning as in Le Tour across the Channel, I’ve noted that he does on occasion get into break aways and then will get out alone even if he has faded on alpine climbs and in going out after the young Colombian and then working with him for a short bit, no surprises he had the experience to outfox him for the last burst.

      If the English, Germans, Aussies and whomever had the teams, they certainly did not have the smarts, especially after letting the second break away get going and then the two joining was what did the sitters in and has left them smarting.
      It shows a road race is as it ought to be and that’s a preparedness to race rather than have radios etc. to use a peleton clobbering.

      Turned out to be a great race for those racing and likewise the 4x100 swimmer gals, two great performances, the heats and final.

      Hey Pickler
      ” London - Can build a brilliant successful underwater train to France in seven years. “
      Hear lots of Poms do not still have even showers and I’m not talking about once a week and don’t that train built with the French go in a tunnel rather than being an amphibian train!
      And that train tunnel starts a long long way from London itself which also has turn up there taxing too.
      And drinking warm beer!, no wonder you all whinge.

      Reply

    • wolf says:

      10:22am | 30/07/12

      Agree with your point about radios but I’m disgusted that an unrepentant cheat like Vinokourov is even allowed in the Olympics.  He got caught in 2007, then sat out his token 2 year ban before being allowed to return to competition. Now he’s an Olympic ‘hero’.
      This is the real story which everyone seems to be ignoring.

    • Augustus Caesar says:

      03:44pm | 29/07/12

      Hey! Pickler!
      Don’t you know it is a “Criminal Offence” to use the word “Chips” without adding “Fish” to it during the Olympics?
      McDonald’s, who would not know a real chip if it jumped up & bit them on the arse, got the silly English Government to pass laws preventing decent, hard-working Brits from selling “Chips” on their own from that greatest of all British Institutions The Fish & Chip Shop!!
      Why?
      Because McDonalds want to sell their ghastly fat-infused skinny potato straws they call French Fries
      I am surprised the French Government does not take out an injunction in every court in the world to prevent McDonalds insulting France! Then France could sue the pants off McDonalds & pay off all France’s debts!
      If McDonalds want to call them anything let them call them American Fries - but they are so dreadful even the US Government, no matter who was president, would have McDonalds charged with Treason!
      In the old days when I ruled the world that is exactly what I would have done.

      Reply

    • lostinperth says:

      05:33pm | 29/07/12

      Mark Cavendish - the POMS have not so much lost a medallist as gained another princess!!

      Reply

    • Mike says:

      08:29pm | 29/07/12

      Seriously Aussies,  give the hating a rest.  It’s boring.  The olympics will be over before you know it, and then people will be moaning that there’s nothing on TV.

      The whole anti-British sentiment is not funny anymore, it’s purile and it is actually getting sinister, thanks to the media beating it up and appealing to the lowest common denominator.

      If you hate the Brits so much, don’t watch.  If you hate Brits so much, don’t visit the UK and find out just how friendly people really can be outside of the Capital…stay in Australia then !  Or be a hypocrite, visit and then still complain (yet you say that English people are the ones to whinge) about some other aspect of your trip.

      Reply

    • Dancing Bear says:

      11:02pm | 29/07/12

      We can’t help it. We made John Howard PM for 11 years. Now we think we’re all joyless, grumpy and mean-spirited conservatives who whine and whine, all the while thinking we’re ‘laid back’. But really we’re major assholes! I don’t know if they actually hate the UK or just hate everything. A measure of how appalling we’ve become is Ray Hadley calling the swimming. He can’t pronounce the names of half the countries properly and he’s a belliegerent, working class-conservative yob. Kind of dumb and uncouth but Liebral loving. This is the sort of thing we used to hate the yanks for being ignorant but thinking we’re the shit. Once again, thanks Howard. I liked it much better when we were humble and things like winning a rigged yacht race or 4 Olympic gold medals was something to get excited about. Nobody likes and up themselves smart arse!  If you’re any of the above I’ve described, give yourself an upper cut.

    • Andrew says:

      12:55am | 30/07/12

      Gee Mike are you sensitive much or what, exactly were in the article is all this hate your talking about, basically its just stating the facts you didnt ahve a good start and to come out and blame the aussies for there tactics was a bit much, since when is it any countries job to stick to the tactics that suit the favourites in fact I would say its the exact opposite, its every countries job to change the tactics so the favourites are out of there comfort zone. As for you Dancing Bear, what a tosser you are in fact what is wrong with australia at the moment, tossers like you who believe they know better then everyone else and everyone that doesnt think like them is a racist, stupid and lacks compassion.

    • Mishka says:

      05:49am | 30/07/12

      Have to agree with you Dancing Bear. I liked Australia a whole hell of a lot more before Howard and those ratbag conservatives seized control, sold the country to the investment bankers and turned us into a bunch of whingers the POMs and their queen are proud to call their own.

    • Your Opiniion says:

      08:40am | 30/07/12

      Why Mike?

      It hasn’t stopped the Poms visiting Australia (or ANYWHERE) and whinging about everything.

    • Mike says:

      10:35am | 30/07/12

      Sensitive ?  Not really, it’s just every day you hear the sniping and it gets boring.  Now that the missile misfired, maybe you will learn some humility and lose with grace ?

    • M&M's says:

      01:21pm | 30/07/12

      We don’t hate just the UK, or even the GB team for that matter, but any and everyone with an inkling of success. Yep, as soon as someone is on the up put us down for a good bagging, even more so if they are one of our own.

      The fact is we love the underdog as long as he stays under and a dog, sadly the moment the dog rises with a trace of success were the first to bring them down - We even have a name for it, the tall poppy syndrome!

    • John Taylor says:

      07:02am | 30/07/12

      Given that Bodyline is the longest whinge in sporting history, Mr Sharwood:  ‘hello Pot, this is Kettle, over….”

      Reply

    • London Calling says:

      08:02am | 30/07/12

      LOL

      Middle podium for you.

    • LostinPerth says:

      02:38pm | 30/07/12

      And the reason bodyline was finally banned - the POMS copped it back from a visiting team of West Indians and once they were on the receiving end they sooked and got the rules changed.

      Perhaps Cavendish will try to get the rules changed so all foreigners have to help the POMS win medals instead of actually out performing them.

    • John Taylor says:

      12:28pm | 02/08/12

      So why still bitch about it then.  You Aussies need to htfu and Anzac on…..

    • John Taylor says:

      12:36pm | 02/08/12

      Oh, and by the way, it was not the WI tour that lead to the change.  Rules against deliberately bowling to injure we’re introduced (although Jardine had no trouble facing body line tactics) but body line was not eliminated until 25 years later when the number of fielders behind leg were restricted.  Sorry LostinPerth, but check your history.  And stop whining.

    • Jolly Jolly says:

      07:46am | 30/07/12

      It might be worth noting Australia are having the worst start to an Olympics is 24 years.

      Reply

    • Jolly Jolly says:

      07:47am | 30/07/12

      It might be worth noting that the real story is that Australia are having the worst start to an Olympics in 24 years.

      The first week is traditionally Australia’s best time and it’s looking bloody awful so far.

      Reply

    • Kika says:

      12:12pm | 30/07/12

      Mainly because of swimming. We weren’t great at the World Championships so why would we be great now?

    • InSilence says:

      12:49pm | 31/07/12

      The London Olympics is the Australian media’s dream come true. 14 days for them to write anti-British articles with gay abandon - relentlessly parroting the steretypes - it rains, they whinge, they queue! yadda yadda yadda. This would all be fine if any of it were remotely funny but it’s not - it’s just boring and speaks volumes about the chip on shoulder mentality that exists in this country. Just have the good grace for once to try and find the positive in something the Brits are doing - hard I know for the world’s worst sportsmen. Losing or winning with grace is not something this country excels in.

      Reply

    • Aussie Pom says:

      07:51am | 03/08/12

      Time to rethink your sniping about the medal tally. Now, where are the Aussies? And where are the Brits? Aah yes ...

      Reply

    • Aussie Pom says:

      07:52am | 03/08/12

      Time to rethink your sniping about the medal tally. Now, where are the Aussies? And where are the Brits? Aah yes ...

      Reply
 
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The Punch is moving house

by The Punch Team

385

The Punch is moving house

Good morning Punchers. After four years of excellent fun and great conversation, this is the final post…

Will Pope Francis have the vision to tackle this?

by Hannah Harborow

122

Will Pope Francis have the vision to tackle this?

I have had some close calls, one that involved what looked to me like an AK47 pointed my way, followed…

Advocating risk management is not “victim blaming”

by Sarrah Le Marquand

251

Advocating risk management is not “victim blaming”

In a world in which there are still people who subscribe to the vile notion that certain victims of sexual…

Nosebleed Section

choice ringside rantings

From: Hasbro, go straight to gaol, do not pass go

Tim says:

They should update other things in the game too. Instead of a get out of jail free card, they should have a Dodgy Lawyer card that not only gets you out of jail straight away but also gives you a fat payout in compensation for daring to arrest you in the first place. Instead of getting a hotel when you… [read more]

From: A guide to summer festivals especially if you wouldn’t go

Kel says:

If you want a festival for older people or for families alike, get amongst the respectable punters at Bluesfest. A truly amazing festival experience to be had of ALL AGES. And all the young "festivalgoers" usually write themselves off on the first night, only to never hear from them again the rest of… [read more]

Light weight

Gentle jabs to the ribs

Superman needs saving

Superman needs saving

Can somebody please save Superman? He seems to be going through a bit of a crisis. Eighteen months ago,… Read more

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