By Robbie Broughton
Since Tuesday we’ve been completely wrapped up with decorating the basement apartment. It’s been great in some ways because it’s allowed us to immerse ourselves in a project and distract us from the increasingly worrying news coming, not just from Spain, but the UK where most of our family live, Italy of course, and the rest of Europe.
Without wanting to sound crass: rather than obsessing over the latest infection and death statistics from around the world, we’ve been more concerned about the crap white paint I bought form Carrefour and how the varnish from the wooden beams keeps coming through, making them cream, not white, as initially intended.
It’s incredible how much longer a decorating project always takes than you initially thought! There are 16 wooden beams to paint and (partly because of the useless supermarket paint) each one needs about five coats. AAAArgh.
Milano San Remo - one of the many Spring sporting events to be cancelled in 2020
Luckily we have next to no distractions other than making sure that our dog Espe gets exercised and our friends up the road have been taking care of that quite a lot in their need to escape their confined space.
Sport is more often than not a major distraction for me: I can waste entire days watching cycling, rugby and cricket. It was no coincidence that my most unproductive time last year happened to coincide with the rugby world cup. We were reminiscing the other day how, the last time we were decorating, we did it to the accompaniment of the Ashes Test matches on the radio. It made the drudgery of painting skirting boards much more bearable.
Of course at this time of year, other than the Six Nations rugby I’d be glued to the TV for the Spring Classics. Milan San Remo would have been this weekend, but all those beautiful races that signal the start of the European cycling season are gone. Like most cycling fans the massive gap between the World Champs and the start of the Classics is a tough one to endure but once Eurosport starts broadcasting E3 Harelbeke, you know that winter is over, cycling is back on the telly and we can start looking forward to the Giro and then the Big One. The Tour. Even Ellie said today that she’s missing the reassuring calendar of sporting events when she’s normally groaning at the prospect of another entire day devoted to televised cycling races and rugby matches.
We had a truncated Paris - Nice but no Tirreno Adriatico, one of my favourites, and all the big ones - Roubaix, Liege, Tour of Flanders...all gone. I’m bereft. And that Big One. Let’s face it. It’s not going to happen.
I really feel sorry for the sportsmen and women whose entire raison d’etre has disappeared with all those matches and races cancelled. Most of them can’t even go to the gym or do the proper training to keep themselves in shape. I feel just as sorry, perhaps even more so, for the hundreds of journalists and commentators whose livelihoods depend on all these events taking place. My friend and co-author Carlton Kirby who works freelance for Eurosport has had his entire year’s work put into jeopardy, including the Olympics which he’d been scheduled for.
So, partly with Carlton in mind, I was delighted that my brother Tim sent me some alternative sports commentating to distract me, and I put them here for all similarly sports obsessed fans like myself in this terrible time. I think they’re by rugby commentator, Nick Heath. Nice one, Nick. Brought up a smile and stopped me from decorating for a few blissful moments.
