jno Joined: 03/01/2005 Posts: 19267 Favourite Category: AB Suggestions

don't forget the slight difference: England and Scotland are separate countries at football, but at tennis both are part of Great Britain.

lesblue Joined: 24/05/2007 Posts: 247 Favourite Category: Football

I think Murray has grown up a little bit since then, and he certainly impressed me the other night with his battling qualities. I don't think he has a hope against Nadal, but I hope he wins.

Besides, could you really cheer on a greasy, sweaty, bull-murderer over one of our closest allies?

funnygirl Joined: 06/02/2007 Posts: 7332 Favourite Category: ChatterBank

I will be supporting Murray!!

I am sure his remarks were taken out of context and anyway it doesn't matter where he is from, I appreciate a good player.

Nadal is good too and this should be a good match this afternoon.

dundurn Joined: 14/03/2007 Posts: 1468 Favourite Category: Quizzes & Puzzles

In the days of the Five Nations Championship, every week saw one country sitting out as the other four played rugby, The definition of a Scots Rugby enthusiast was a man (or woman) who would travel overnight from Edinburgh to Paris to cheer France on against England! As a Scot I tend to share those sympathies - England is always the enemy we like to beat, but please see this in context. As a kid, who do you compare yourself to, the boy next door or in the next street, or to your bigger brother? There are times and places for the rivalry, and times not. I'm told there are Scots who can't bear to see repeats of 'Gazza's goal'. I think it was one of the supreme moments in football and I don't care how many times it's shown.

Back to Murray - he has made numerous rebuttals of the original article, but a good story just won't go away. An English journalist made a joke by asking whether he'd be supporting Scotland in the World Cup (with Scotland already having failed to qualify). (Laughs all round) Murray replied 'I'll support whoever's playing England'. (More laughs) Interview continues..... Story is published and brown stuff hits fan.

Personally I think we need to retain our sense of humour. Remember the old Dave Allen joke about learning to laugh at ourselves (told to an English audience)?

Allen: (in soft irish brogue) We need to learn to laugh at ourselves a bit. When the plane taking the Irish Mastermind team to compete on the BBC left the tarmac at Dublin Airport , the average IQ of Ireland dropped by 50%.(English audience roars with appreciative laughter)

Allen continues: And when they landed in Manchester the average IQ of England went up by 50% (Deathly silence)

Allen (with impish smile): Yes, we need to learn to laugh at ourselves, don't we?

lesblue Joined: 24/05/2007 Posts: 247 Favourite Category: Football

Spot on, dundurn. Brilliant post.

Bert Bassett Joined: 23/10/2005 Posts: 31 Favourite Category: Football

The three things that really make me detest tennis are 1) Andy Murray 2) Andy Murray 3) Andy Murray in that order. bring on the soccer and rugby season and lets get this pillock off the sports pages.

cumbrianlad Joined: 30/06/2008 Posts: 28 Favourite Category: Law

well done Compostella. I could not agree more. The comments made 2 years ago by Murray were the typical Anti-English ramblings we have come to expect from our Northern cousins. The bottom line is of course-- if we're that bad, they are free to return home. No-one is stopping them. Give them the independence that they tell us everyone in Scotland wants, then REPAIR THE WALL !!!

Question Author: Compostella Joined: 23/03/2005 Posts: 363 Favourite Category: Road rules

Currently 2 sets down

Trot off Murray, back home yee goooo laddeee

dundurn Joined: 14/03/2007 Posts: 1468 Favourite Category: Quizzes & Puzzles

Outclassed and outplayed - his own assessment. However, before you send him packing too soon, just remember that with over 1500 ATP points to his name he has more than all other male GB players put together. If you don't like him you don't have any other Brit to cheer for. Oh and the top doubles player in the country, by a country mile, is his brother!

Question Author: Compostella Joined: 23/03/2005 Posts: 363 Favourite Category: Road rules

I'm counting myself English, so I don't have anyone to cheer for. Which is preferable in this instance.

exxy eddie Joined: 10/04/2007 Posts: 172 Favourite Category: Football

no one to cheer for, miserable summer then with the football. why can't idiots like you and bert appreciate good sport instead of slagging permanently. by the way Hamilton won but you will probably dismiss him as a fluke

Question Author: Compostella Joined: 23/03/2005 Posts: 363 Favourite Category: Road rules

No son.....................he's not said anything anti-english so he has my full support.

Question Author: Compostella Joined: 23/03/2005 Posts: 363 Favourite Category: Road rules

Thought this was quote apt from last weeks Sunday Times:

"I wouldn’t mind but they were cheering for a man who has, in the past, made it plain that he is not English at all, or British. But Scottish. And that, for me, is becoming a problem.

When we kindly gave the Scots their Stone of Destiny back, I thought that that would be that and Sean Connery would go back to playing golf. But no. Every day there’s another rabid attack on the English from up there in the heather, another demand that we simply sever all ties and let them forge their own path in the world.

This I don’t understand. I can see why the English might want independence from them. Scotland is a drain on our economy to the tune of about £10 billion a year. But them wanting to leave us? Isn’t that a bit like the oxpecker spitting in the rhino’s eye?

They’d have to have their own embassies around the world. They’d have to get their own currency. And think of how much it would cost to set up a whole new state, especially in a country that managed to spend £414m on a parliament building. That works out at £1m for every man, woman and child still living there. Scotland would even have to get its own army.

There’s more, too. Only last week there were calls from north of the border for a separate Scottish entry for next year’s Eurovision song contest. What? The Proclaimers? Or just a random collection of men in dresses blowing into their tartan bags? Either way, I can’t see them getting too many votes from Estonia."