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Rob Houwing’s TV sport column
Ah, the age of booming, invasive technology. I tend to be a bit of a duffer in that department, but a three-week holiday in the United States reminded me of how you can bring the “world” to one place at the click of a few buttons these days.
Right, I said stoically to myself as I packed my bags for the trip, I’m going to have to grit my teeth and forfeit a few rounds of Vodacom Super 14 viewing (among other things, although I didn’t pine too massively over the IPL cricket, it must be said).
After all, read the major US newspapers or watch their TV sports channels and you are positively engulfed by their domestic favourites like baseball and basketball – you are lucky if even the basic English Premiership soccer score-lines make it onto results pages, never mind any mention of the heinous cricket.
I did make it to a Boston Bruins v Tampa Bay Lightning ice-hockey game at Boston’s TD Garden and it helped confirm my belief that if I ever lived in the US that would possibly become my main sport of supporter choice.
The game has the skill yet agreeable simplicity of soccer, plus the collision and how’s-your-father elements to at least partially appease a hardcore rugby fan missing his 15-man fix.
What also struck me was the strongly interactive element in terms of the spectators: cameramen were constantly scanning the noisy, vibrant crowd for footage to slap onto the big screen during the various time-outs and the like.
You could get an instant seating upgrade, for instance, if you were shown to be particularly animated in your support of the Bruins (albeit that they lost on the night), while such elements as a secretly snoozing fan caught in the act or most convincing smooch between partners would also induce great collective merriment.
Cheesy, I know, but now increasingly staple accompaniments to much modern sport and gimmicks that have translated successfully into the IPL and other Twenty20 cricket, of course.
But my biggest and most agreeable revelation was the ease of access to some Super 14 fare, via laptop transmission.
I was staying with my South African friend Steve Pike, surfing guru and head of www.wavescape.co.za who is based in Boston for a few months.
He likes his rugby too, and he told me that “a couple of stops up on the T” (that city’s reliable underground railway) he had a shrewd Irish acquaintance who followed the game passionately in both hemispheres from his computer -- probably the size of an old portable television anyway.
So we duly made the trek a few times to monitor, live and thus sometimes at weird hours, the respective surges toward the semis of the Bulls and Stormers.
The resourceful individual in question subscribes to a website which magically hooks him up to all but one (SS4, if I remember correctly) of the main SuperSport channels … and for the princely sum of US$5 per month. Yes, that’s less than R40 while our currency is so resilient.
Fuzzy? Pixelated? Erratic? I expected all of these bugbears, but if we had one 15-second loss of either picture or audio over the course of four or five games, it was a lot.
All we had to do was get a little cosier around the peanut bowl than we might have liked.
I admit I was well less than convinced over the legitimacy of this cheap-and-easy access to SuperSport and various other sports channels across the planet.
But I dropped my journalistic instincts (I was on vacation, after all), asking no questions and seeking no answers. Who wants to antagonise an Irish rugger-bugger who is a few beers down?
Rob’s awesome foursome:
1. Reds v Bulls, Vodacom Super 14 rugby
Brisbane, Saturday 11:40, M-Net & SS1
With its warmth and outdoorsy, beach culture, you would expect Brisbane to be a bit of a home away from home for South African rugby players. Strangely, it seldom translates into a happy hunting ground for either the Springboks (especially) or our Super 14 sides. But at least some of the current, log-leading Bulls players can boast memories of triumph there: 23-17 in 2004. That is the only time the Pretoria team have ever prevailed in this particular enemy’s habitat, but I do fancy them to take this one: I suspect the Reds are punching above their weight and won’t crack the last four.
2. Manchester City v Manchester United, English Premiership soccer
Manchester, Saturday 13:45, SS3 & SS HD
The Red Devils did the “double” in this passionate derby last season, en route to the title, winning 2-0 at home and 1-0 away. And who will forget the 4-3 humdinger in this season’s Old Trafford encounter much earlier in the campaign? In-form City will be pumped here in their quest both for revenge and a Champions League slot, although United similarly need the win to keep alive their slender title retention hopes. Hmm, I guess smartest money is on a draw?
3. Lions v Sharks, Vodacom Super 14 rugby
Johannesburg, Saturday 17:05, M-Net, M-Net HD & SS1
All sorts of needle in this one, even if the resurgent Sharks really ought to win with a bit to spare against the basement combo. Willem Alberts returns to Ellis Park to try to do a battering-ram job against his ex-teammates, while the clash of minds between former allies John Plumtree and Dick Muir is a good ‘un, too. The Lions are trying to toughen their burst water-main defence, so could just deny the Sharks that precious bonus point in their ambitious late charge for a (fairytale) semis berth.
4. Chinese F1 Grand Prix, motorsport
Shanghai, Sunday 09:00, SS2 & SS Maximo
They call Shanghai the “Paris of the East” and I’m prepared to concur: on an otherwise gruelling trek through China with my wife some 12 years ago, it certainly came across as one of the more picturesque and pulsating cities there. So I’ll be tuning in as much for sentimental as my minor motorsport interest. It’s tight at the top, with five drivers within four points of each other at the top of the 2010 standings after three rounds. If the track’s going to be slippery again, as anticipated, how about Sebastian Vettel for a 2009 repeat win?
Ah, the age of booming, invasive technology. I tend to be a bit of a duffer in that department, but a three-week holiday in the United States reminded me of how you can bring the “world” to one place at the click of a few buttons these days.
Right, I said stoically to myself as I packed my bags for the trip, I’m going to have to grit my teeth and forfeit a few rounds of Vodacom Super 14 viewing (among other things, although I didn’t pine too massively over the IPL cricket, it must be said).
After all, read the major US newspapers or watch their TV sports channels and you are positively engulfed by their domestic favourites like baseball and basketball – you are lucky if even the basic English Premiership soccer score-lines make it onto results pages, never mind any mention of the heinous cricket.
I did make it to a Boston Bruins v Tampa Bay Lightning ice-hockey game at Boston’s TD Garden and it helped confirm my belief that if I ever lived in the US that would possibly become my main sport of supporter choice.
The game has the skill yet agreeable simplicity of soccer, plus the collision and how’s-your-father elements to at least partially appease a hardcore rugby fan missing his 15-man fix.
What also struck me was the strongly interactive element in terms of the spectators: cameramen were constantly scanning the noisy, vibrant crowd for footage to slap onto the big screen during the various time-outs and the like.
You could get an instant seating upgrade, for instance, if you were shown to be particularly animated in your support of the Bruins (albeit that they lost on the night), while such elements as a secretly snoozing fan caught in the act or most convincing smooch between partners would also induce great collective merriment.
Cheesy, I know, but now increasingly staple accompaniments to much modern sport and gimmicks that have translated successfully into the IPL and other Twenty20 cricket, of course.
But my biggest and most agreeable revelation was the ease of access to some Super 14 fare, via laptop transmission.
I was staying with my South African friend Steve Pike, surfing guru and head of www.wavescape.co.za who is based in Boston for a few months.
He likes his rugby too, and he told me that “a couple of stops up on the T” (that city’s reliable underground railway) he had a shrewd Irish acquaintance who followed the game passionately in both hemispheres from his computer -- probably the size of an old portable television anyway.
So we duly made the trek a few times to monitor, live and thus sometimes at weird hours, the respective surges toward the semis of the Bulls and Stormers.
The resourceful individual in question subscribes to a website which magically hooks him up to all but one (SS4, if I remember correctly) of the main SuperSport channels … and for the princely sum of US$5 per month. Yes, that’s less than R40 while our currency is so resilient.
Fuzzy? Pixelated? Erratic? I expected all of these bugbears, but if we had one 15-second loss of either picture or audio over the course of four or five games, it was a lot.
All we had to do was get a little cosier around the peanut bowl than we might have liked.
I admit I was well less than convinced over the legitimacy of this cheap-and-easy access to SuperSport and various other sports channels across the planet.
But I dropped my journalistic instincts (I was on vacation, after all), asking no questions and seeking no answers. Who wants to antagonise an Irish rugger-bugger who is a few beers down?
Rob’s awesome foursome:
1. Reds v Bulls, Vodacom Super 14 rugby
Brisbane, Saturday 11:40, M-Net & SS1
With its warmth and outdoorsy, beach culture, you would expect Brisbane to be a bit of a home away from home for South African rugby players. Strangely, it seldom translates into a happy hunting ground for either the Springboks (especially) or our Super 14 sides. But at least some of the current, log-leading Bulls players can boast memories of triumph there: 23-17 in 2004. That is the only time the Pretoria team have ever prevailed in this particular enemy’s habitat, but I do fancy them to take this one: I suspect the Reds are punching above their weight and won’t crack the last four.
2. Manchester City v Manchester United, English Premiership soccer
Manchester, Saturday 13:45, SS3 & SS HD
The Red Devils did the “double” in this passionate derby last season, en route to the title, winning 2-0 at home and 1-0 away. And who will forget the 4-3 humdinger in this season’s Old Trafford encounter much earlier in the campaign? In-form City will be pumped here in their quest both for revenge and a Champions League slot, although United similarly need the win to keep alive their slender title retention hopes. Hmm, I guess smartest money is on a draw?
3. Lions v Sharks, Vodacom Super 14 rugby
Johannesburg, Saturday 17:05, M-Net, M-Net HD & SS1
All sorts of needle in this one, even if the resurgent Sharks really ought to win with a bit to spare against the basement combo. Willem Alberts returns to Ellis Park to try to do a battering-ram job against his ex-teammates, while the clash of minds between former allies John Plumtree and Dick Muir is a good ‘un, too. The Lions are trying to toughen their burst water-main defence, so could just deny the Sharks that precious bonus point in their ambitious late charge for a (fairytale) semis berth.
4. Chinese F1 Grand Prix, motorsport
Shanghai, Sunday 09:00, SS2 & SS Maximo
They call Shanghai the “Paris of the East” and I’m prepared to concur: on an otherwise gruelling trek through China with my wife some 12 years ago, it certainly came across as one of the more picturesque and pulsating cities there. So I’ll be tuning in as much for sentimental as my minor motorsport interest. It’s tight at the top, with five drivers within four points of each other at the top of the 2010 standings after three rounds. If the track’s going to be slippery again, as anticipated, how about Sebastian Vettel for a 2009 repeat win?
