Fazzinchi

Broad Shoulders

Way back in the dark ages, over two years ago if you’re counting, the very first post on Fazzinchi.co.uk was not about Doctor Who, sci-fi, or the latest American import show. It was, in fact, about cricket. My sports-related blogging has been somewhat lacking of late but what better time to resurrect the past-time? The big sporting question of the weekend is choosing what to watch at 5pm on Saturday afternoon. On ITV, the English rugby team are begining the defence of their (more…)

Old Trafford In The Sun

It’s been a while since I blogged about the cricket, or in fact, any sport at all.  However, the weather is getting positively summery and the football is over, so there’s nothing better than to sit back and while away the hours with a bit of test match cricket.  Unfortunately, the quality on offer leaves something to be desired as the West Indian tourists have arrived in Blighty with one of the poorest looking outfits I can recall.  Brian Lara’s controversial decision to quit the international (more…)

What’s Going On?

It’s a been a while since a cricket post has turned up here at Fazzinchi.com but in acknowledgement that something a bit special (but only a bit!) happened this morning here’s another one.  England have beaten Australia by 92 runs, it’s not quite on the scale of the successes of the summer before last but a win is a win.  Of course, as the always entertaining Bumble is happy to tell us on SkySports, “You’ve won one game. Well done. Now move along”.  The perspective that we (more…)

Short And Bittersweet

For just 14 months England held the bragging rights but the Ashes have been relinquished. Despite how disappointed I feel right now, I believe that this was Australia winning it rather than England losing it. Despite the inevitable post mortems and finger pointing that will follow, this needs to be said… Well done Australia!! They took a long hard look at themselves after the 2005 defeat and planned, worked hard and and were completely single minded for 14 months. And from the first (more…)

It’s Just Not Cricket

I was flicking between channels at the weekend and caught a little of the UK Snooker Championships on BBC2, well, about ten minutes if I’m honest.  I fell out of love with snooker many years ago (much the same as many people it would seem) and I now barely keep an eye on any of the tournaments or results.  It’s odd to think that this was such a popular television sport here in the UK so (relatively) recently but I guess, as the pace of televsision in general has quickened then (more…)

Where did all the television go?

As September begins, I eagerly begin to cast my beady eyes over the listings magazines in search of that most rare of summer sightings, something worth watching on the telly. Currently, my Sky+ planner has a single and rather lonely looking “series link” set up to make sure that I do not miss the final three epsiodes of Lost. Admittedly, in my most humble of opinions, one Lost is worth three of most other things on the box but that does not make up for the fact that there is a paucity of new, quality material available during August. There are drought conditions both inside and out.

Now I know that the execs and the powers-that-be realise that almost nothing will get them substantial ratings at this time of year, a distinctly off-putting factor for the commercial outfits. The viewers are off on their holidays, enjoying the sunshine, or having a BBQ and they last thing they want to do is be tied to the TV, but is that any reason to give up? To illustrate, BBC1 tonight (4th Sept) at 7:30…. Open All Hours (!), while SkyOne is force feeding us four back-to-back episodes of The Simpsons. ITV (as if anyone is watching) have a line-up from 6pm to 9pm that goes: News, News, Soap, Soap, News, Soap. Admittedly at 9pm, things start to look up with Dalziel and Pascoe going up against Caroline Quentin’s Life Begins, but it’s September now… three weeks ago things were even more bleak.

I probably shouldn’t complain, it gives me a fighting chance to watch some of those DVD’s that have been gathering dust for a few months, and I can always find some sport somewhere thanks to the omni-present SkySports network and their 5 channels of 24-hour action. May be sport is the answer, we saw back in June and July that it can work: bung the World Cup on and you get millions tuning in to watch Paraguay v Sweden. However, for an industry that is, we are led to believe, crammed with “creative types” I’m sure someone should be able to come up with an idea or two for the summer.