British and Irish Lions V ex-Australian Qantas Wallabies

Hi, it’s Martin ‘Werewolfie’ Adams, comedy satire sports correspondent at the Greenygrey. Today we preview the Australian  Qantas Wallabies v British and Irish Lions rugby union first test. It is predominantly written for a human audience in Britain and Ireland about a rugby match being played in Australia, and for readers in the present with reference to the animal spirit past and global branding future.

Qantas Business (Photo credit: jonom1)

After writing this blog focusing on animal names I checked the British and Irish Lions tour website and found out for the first time that Australia is now known as Qantas.

That should hopefully dent the patriotic Aussies’ confidence; their journey towards a republic being overtaken by global branding!

The Greenygrey global brand can unequivocally declare that it has no plans to take over the British and Irish part of the British and Irish Lions name.

Train of Thought Reversed

Before continuing on the British and Irish Lions train of thought, the  Greenygrey apologises to Lynyrd Skynyrd and you readers for calling the Railroad Song the Railway Song in yesterday’s blog notes, after adding it because Marc Latham hadn’t; and not putting it in italics.

The Greenygrey still considers yesterday’s blog a classic, but not a completely perfect one. I think it sees now that this book writing and editing lark isn’t as easy as it looks.

British and Irish Lions v Australian Qantas Wallabies

Mother wallaby with joey in the Tasmanian summer rain (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Tomorrow sees the first of three rugby union matches in the human land of Oz; Australia; with the Australian Qantan(?) Wallabies hosting the British and Irish Lions.

On paper (or African plains) Lions should beat Wallabies, but the Wallabies have home advantage on the edge of the Aussie (Qantie?) outback, so they may be able to out-hop the Lions, and it is therefore hard to predict the result.

The Lions have been touring all over Oz, like our very own werewolf Grey, and even farther than Marc Latham did in 1989, when he saw the Lions win the deciding test in Sydney.

The Lions were doing well until meeting the Brumbies this week. I thought the Brumbies were bees descended from Birmingham, England (people from Birmingham are colloquially known as Brummies) at first, but apparently they are Aussie humans.

British Lions in the Wolf and Greenygrey Worlds 

Wolf (Photo credit: A.Davey)

For those reading this in the British wolf spirit world, the British and Irish Lions are what you know as the British and Irish Wolves.

For those in the Greenygrey world, the British and Irish Lions are what you know as the British and Irish Wollions.

Further reading for lovers of Oz rambling:

 

 

Universe and Hurricane Creating God interested in Sport?

Please read our Greenygrey declaration in Churchill voice for Remembrance Weekend: We try to keep Britain and Europe free, safe and secular not because we think it is a perfect society or finished product, but because we think it is a developed civilisation, and hope it is heading in the right direction.

Extremist Liberalism and Placebo Effect 

Cover of The Bridge on the River Kwai

Combating extremism risks your becoming extreme, in what we call the ‘Bridge on the River Kwai syndrome’, after the classic film about a British officer who gets so involved with building a bridge while a P.O.W (prisoner of war) that he begins to work for the enemy.

To avoid becoming anti-extremist extremists, the Greenygrey tries to mix up its blogs between lots of different topics and categories.

With religious extremists claiming Godly credit for Hurricane Sandy, we think we’re justified in responding. So, here’s our sporting response:

The God Placebo 

Messiah (Derren Brown special) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

While a belief in God or something else can be a sporting motivational mind tool, we think it is a placebo effect, rather than God actually helping sportspeople who are often competing against people of the same religion.

Examples of a placebo effect at work aired last night on British television, with several people overcoming lifetime mental barriers with the aid of a placebo in the latest Derren Brown Channel 4 special.

God’s not Sporting

As Martin ‘Werewolfie’ Adams inferred on this very site, August 9th How to Win Gold Medals, to our knowledge God has never helped a totally untrained sportsperson win an Olympics or world title. Whereas world class sportspeople like Jonathan Edwards and Bruce Lee have achieved their goals without a belief in God.

Bruce Lee Statue, Hong Kong (Photo credit: Ian Muttoo)

Sometimes, it seems like sportspeople from monotheistic religions think God is going to help them against sportspeople who follow the same God, as there is only one God per monotheistic religion.

If there is only one God per billion people, or however many followers the bandwagon propagandists claim it has, is it really going to have the time to choose sides and provide intervention on a personal basis?

And what would we think of a God who regularly lets good people die too young, and then helps its favourite sportspeople?

Godly Games and Careers

Other times, sportspeople thank their God when their team score a goal, point or run; but then the other team scores several. Does God desert them in the intervening period?

A similar story of ‘God-given’ success followed by ‘God-deserting’ failure happens over careers. Sportspeople thank God when their careers are on the rise, but when they age or tire of success, they usually lose to younger and hungrier competitors. Again, has God deserted them… or is it just human ability and the career cycle?

God is busy (Photo credit: Steve Bowbrick)

When there’s a 100-year-old world champion in a speed or strength sport who doesn’t train, and credits God, we might begin to believe in Godly intervention.

Interventionist God or Not

While these sporting examples seem trivial compared to the damage of Hurricane Sandy and other natural disasters, they are from the same philosophical question when it comes to blame and achievement: whether there is an interventionist God or not?

We will probably never know for sure whether there is a God, and how it works if there is one; so we have to learn, question and debate from the evidence we have. For us in sporting terms, it’s so that religious extremists don’t have a guilt-trip walkover.

Good Luck to Olympics 2012 Paralympians

Hi, it’s Martin ‘Werewolfie’ Adams, sports correspondent at the Greenygrey. I’ve just about recovered from my marathon coverage of Olympics 2012, after my colleagues have found lots of great greenygrey stories to entertain you with since the closing ceremony.

London Paralympics 2012

Tonight will see the Olympic stadium filled again, as the London Paralympics 2012 gets under way. The Greenygrey will be there again.

london 2012 paralympics / olympics countdown clock (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Superminds as well as Superbodies

If the Olympics showcases the fastest, strongest and most skilled athletes competing in most of the sports, the Paralympics features those with the superminds to overcome physical problems and compete at a high level in the same sports.

Paralympics (Photo credit: AudreyH)

Some of the paralympians’ achievements are truly amazing, and we wish them all an enjoyable and successful games.

Their endurance and determination is a great example of what humanity can do when it sets its mind to it, and all in a positive way.

English Football League takes over from Olympics 2012

Hi, it’s Greenygrey. There’s a sporting transition going on this week that we find quite greenygreyesque, with the Y of course linking us.

Jessica Ennis Olympics Homecoming 

Olympics 2012 athletes have been enjoying homecomings this week, and we think this culminates today with heptathlete Jessica Ennis’s celebration in Sheffield. So we thought we’d ask Andy Wolfhol to commemorate the day with a little poem, what with him being a creator extraordinaire. And we’re glad we did, as he produced this masterpiece:

If Jessica Ennis
played tennis
she’d probably win
playing with a rolling pin.

English Football Leagues Kick-Off

This is quickly followed by the beginning of the four major English football leagues this weekend. The big weekend is not as welcome as it is in a summer when there’s been no European Championships football and an Olympics, but we’re sure it’ll become enthralling again once underway.

Good luck for the season, and especially to Leeds United.

Croatia Keeper’s Kit Calamity Costs: Fails to Fade to Grey

Jesus scores, as Croatia fail to save.

Hi, it’s Martin ‘Werewolfie’ Adams once again; I’m sure you know by now that I’m the sports correspondent at Greenygrey News. There were no greenygrey shocks at Euro 2012 last night, like with Greece earlier in the week, but this could have been because the Croatian goalie’s kit seemed to have got the greenygrey wrong, and Jesus (Navas) pounced to score.

Spain Spot Croatian Goalie’s White to Score

Croatia’s goalie, Pletikosa, thought he’d got his camouflage right for 87 minutes, keeping a clean-sheet against the strong Spanish favourites. Another shock on the scale of Greece’s victory over Russia earlier in the week seemed on the cards.

But then Spain spotted Pletikosa; possibly because he’d matched green with white instead of green with grey; lobbed the ball over him, and Jesus (Navas) put the chance away. Here’s an image of the moment from the BBC website:

Croatian Goalie has Previously Worn Grey

It seems to be a moment of madness by the Croatian goalie kit designers rather than Pletikosa being greyphobic, as he has previously been seen in grey:

Stipe Pletikosa (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

If either the lighter or darker half of grey were replaced by green in the above kit, it would make a great greenygrey kit.

BBC Statistics get Greenygrey Right

The Croatian goalie kit designers seemed to have got the greenygrey wrong, and could learn a thing or two from the BBC‘s defensive statistics chart:

Greenygrey at the London Olympics 2012

Hi, it’s Martin ‘Werewolfie’ Adams, sports correspondent at the Greenygrey. I’m proud to announce that the Greenygrey will be represented at the London Olympics 2012, after a greenygrey Stonehenge bouncy castle has been commissioned. It was fittingly unveiled on a green field under grey skies.

Olympics Stonehenge

Image from BBC news.

Surfing Poem Imagining Hollow Tube Refreshing Mind

Image via Wikipedia

Marc Latham’s latest Folding Mirror poem has a surfing focus, which is quite topical … but mostly for people living in the southern hemisphere, which is on the other side of the world to Marc!  But this is the home of Folding Mirror poetry, which thrives on turning things upside down!!

Marc has only surfed for a few hours, so this poem is mostly based on watching surfing documentaries and imagination.  Surfing terms, including green room being inside a hollow wave, were researched on the wiktionary surfing terms glossary.  Here’s the poem:

Surfing Sea Psyche

standing upright
crest of wave
paddling done
been waiting
biding time
for perfect swell
ride blue surf down

tubing a hollow, conversing with nature

inside the green room
worries wiped out
sea odyssey
water world
mind freed
of daily clutter
land refreshed

Marc Latham’s central site is the Greenygrey (http://www.greenygrey.co.uk).

Dastardly and Muttley win Inspiration Contest for Olympic Uniforms

Hi, it’s Green.  On behalf of all at the Greenygrey we would like to congratulate Dastardly and Muttley for winning the contest to inspire the colour of the volunteer uniforms in the London Olympics 2012.

London Olympics 2012 Volunteer Uniforms

The news was broken by the Londonist, and they also provided the photo with the inspiration and models together that is copied below.

Although we congratulate both inspirations, we only like Muttley.

Olympic Mascots: Wenlock and Mandeville

And while we’re on the subject, I think Grey and I could have done a better job as Olympic mascot than bloody Wenlock and Mandeville.

Image via Wikipedia

C’est la vie…

Although we are both featured on Mandeville.  I’m begginning to warm to ol’ Mandy now…