Pete and I went to see Quantum of Solace at the local cinema on Friday night and it was packed (For the record, Pete is a little obsessed with Daniel Craig). I enjoyed the film as an action piece, but missed some of the Bond humour that we have come to expect. I also missed the famous line "the name's Bond... James Bond". To omit this is just wrong! The opening car chase is stunning and the action was pretty much non-stop. And now the sports news:
The Stanford 20:20 cricket game in Antigua was played between England and an All Star team in which England were thrashed. I found the event to be an over-hyped, unnecessary game. Isn't cricket above this type of distasteful commercialism? We have managed to sell our national team for a few dollars (OK, quite a few dollars) - we wouldn't do this with football and that is certainly just a business these days. My Dad didn't enjoy the experience, shouting at the TV throughout. I like the idea of 20:20 - a quicker exciting form of the game which may attract more fans, but I don't think that selling out is the answer.
Some great news for Britain was that Lewis Hamilton (who comes from a few miles from where I live) is the well deserved Formula One world champion. I would ask Lewis not to leave it until the last mile of the last race to clinch the title next time - my nerves couldn't stand it and I was only listening on the radio! What I did notice, and I found it a bit sad, was that during the post-race press conference, Massa, Alonso or Raikkonen failed to congratulate Lewis. Are they bad losers, dislike him or just highly competitive? There is some criticism against Glock for allowing Lewis to get past, but I think that little piece of good luck balances out some of the bad luck that Lewis has had this season - what the doubters have to remember is that McClaren made a potentially risky decision to change on to wet tyres whereas Glock remained on dry tyres which meant that he had very little grip in the wet. And finally... Pete and me bought some curtains (yep, we're getting old) and got a bargain.
