Superstar Tradesman

Roskilde was good, blistering heat all week. Yeah Yeah Yeahs were good, so was Whitest Boy Alive and Madness. Couldn't really get into Royksopp at 2am, they'd have been better when the sun was shining with a cold beer. White Lies are dog shite, whoever thought they were worth signing should be shot - indie-band-paint-by-numbers. Pete Doherty seems to have got his act together although his Jacko tribute failed even after 3 restarts. Spent most of the time in the dub tent. Saw a cracking live band there but I'll be fucked if I can remember their name.

From a purely comparitive point of view, it would be quite interesting to see how well McGhee would fair with the same players as last season.

Slow week lads? Greetings from the middle of the Baltic Sea btw. It's not quite living up to it's name. It's practically balmy compared to the Dick Donald on a Tuesday night.

Resignation handed in - Check! Notice worked - Check! Bags packed - Check! I've finally stuck it to the man and as of this afternoon, I've officially turned on, tuned in and dropped out for the next 3 months. I dare say I'll be back in from time to time but that'll depend on wireless connections and internet cafes. So until then, I bid you all a fond farewell, auf wiedersehen, arrivederci, au revoir, ha det bra, adios, farvel, tot ziens, hejdå. Might see you in some sunny square someplace in July. Stand free loons and quines!

I'd like to be first to say: BOOOOOOOO!!!

Anyone else just been sick in their mouth?

OK, we've all went off subject a little. No need for hard feelings, let's all kiss and make up. Right, who's all up for a game of F1?

Aye, and who are competing in F1? Football is football. You're likening motorsport to ball games.

Bullshit. Running round a playground going "BRRRRRRRRR" doesn't make you a race car driver, nor does owning a car and 'going fast' a la Ricky Bobby. If you buy a car, enter it into some sort of competition, then guess what, you're now part of the motorsport world. You're still not an F1 driver though. There's only 20 of those in the world who are good enough or privileged enough to have made it that far. Football as you say only needs two people (unless you're happy to play keepie-ups for hours on end), a ball and a couple jumpers. It's all about accessability. That's why F1 will always be a minority sport no matter how many millions tune in to watch those 20 guys tearing round a track.

Well I'd suggest if you're racing Formula 3 or GP 2 that you're not an F1 driver. It's a different branch of the sport. Rugby has two off shoots, swimming has many, football is football. Unless you're talking about say, beach football. Which I'd class as a minority sport.

Of course it is or they'd just stick you in there with a few bob in your hipper rather than paying millions to folk who have worked their way up through motorsports, to the pinnacle of the sport as you put it. Nice attempt but - bollocks! Only 20 people compete in the sport called F1. Man United pay probably hundreds of players per season to play football. Different age groups, different leagues but they're all playing the same sport. Football. Then you've got 20 teams in the top league alone which no doubt pay hundreds of their own players to be professional football players. Then you've got different leagues, all of which playing football. Hundreds of thousands of people play football or have done at the highest levels all across the globe. Only a drop in the ocean have ever driven an F1 car. Minority sport.

Well that is debatable

They're still not sportsmen though are they? I used to work with a guy who helped design the tail spoiler on the Ferrari car about 7 years ago. Landed lucky as he had no previous knowledge of that type of thing, he just knew his computer software. Funnily enough he had a broken leg or ankle after taking a tumble whilst rock climbing. So I know for a fact he wouldn't claim to have been taking part in any sort of sport at the time. Surely only sportsmen can claim to be competing once the clock starts ticking? The others are there to aid him. That doesn't make it unpopular with the masses though, it just means there's only a minority of people competing. Ergo, minority sport.

So where do you draw the line? Personally I'd say the racing car driver is competing in the sport. The team behind him are no more involved in the sport than the guy who tensions Andy Murray's racket.

By the power of Greyskull, nor did I.

And by your thinking; football is a minority sport in Africa because although everybody likes a kick around, nobody has televisions to watch it on.

So Man Utd is a sport now is it?

Not as brilliant as this though: http://uk.news.launch.yahoo.com/dyna/article.html?a=/090609/340/imamq.html&e=l_news_dm

Fucking magic! They should do more of this, especially considering the amount of utter bollocks that is written about them. The debt would be halved in no time.

The day that sport is decided by bums on seats is the day that I take a telescopic sighted rifle up a bell tower and start picking people off at random. Of course this could tip the balance of whether shooting is a minority sport if CNN shows up and broadcasts it all over the world One more time - Minority (the smaller part or number) Sport (an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess) In otherwords - A small number of people competing. 20 drivers in F1 out of a world population of how many?

No. He's not taking part in any sport so my point is that unless he's on the track, field, swimming pool....... whatever, then he's not actively competing in a sport. Whether you like it or not, the guy who takes care of the engines in the pitlanes, no matter how you try to dress it up, is not a sportsman. He's a mechanic employed to look after a sportsman. Motorsport is mechanical and decided by the fastest time. Things go wrong, people need to fix them quickly, so they have to be there and do that on the spot. Still doesn't make the boy who holds the Stop/Go sign in front of the driver any more of a sportsman than someone employed by Adidas to find out whether triangular pimples on the outside of a Preditor boot gains more control over a football that square pimples just because he happens to be there during the time the sportman in competing. Millions of people watch Sumo wrestling. You saying that's not a minority sport? (Asian minority jokes aside thanks)

It was an E190 so I guess I'm a valuable member of their touring car team. Which, by the way, means fuck all about whether I take part in the sport or not. Well let's turn that around should we? Are you somehow suggesting if Lewis Hamilton wasn't driving the best car.......... oh wait. That's right, this privileged sports athlete, who only competes against a couple dozen other drivers in the whole wide world of how many billion, who can only win races if millions of pounds are spent on a car which only a few people will ever sit inside in their entire lives....... see where I'm going with this? It's a minority sport because only a minority of people ever take part in it. The boy blowing up the tyres isn't taking part, no matter what you think. Neither is the boy who pours the rubber into the moulds, nor the boy harvesting rubber plants. Here, let me help: And: Racing is in there but I'm pretty sure they don't mean 'around the garage for a M16 washer'. Nobody is arguing with you. Just don't tell me it's anything but a minority sport just because you're sitting in your flat, hungover on a Sunday, watching it for hours on end with your hand down your pants. Aye and if I go read 'Horse & Hound' it's going to be inundated with ads for pheasant beaters in and around England. What's your point?

I don't see how it's any different to the route Dave_min was going down. Meanwhile Jager should take a bow for drilling holes in the ground so that those cars can go round the track. Sports Personality of the Year in my book.

I've changed a Mercedes car tyre before. I guess that makes me part of the pit crew? Listen to yourselves, "a few hundred people design, build & test the cars". I thought we were talking about sport. It's quite difficult to tell which sport this particular athlete is playing from the screen: Perhaps if he zoomed out a bit we'd have a better idea and could decide whether it's a minority sport or not. Lest we forget the Nike team behind world class greats like Pete Sampras, Magic Johnston and Tiger Woods: They must be knackered 'competing' 18 hours each and every day.

Ah, I see, so watching sport is now classed as taking part? No wonder the British youth of today all look like minijc. Show jumping draws huge crowds, you saying that's not a minority sport because people watch it? Surely a minority sport is something that only a minority take part in? Track and field - millions watching, yet I'll wager there's hardly anyone that owns a javelin.