A Question of Equality

06 Jan 2013 Leave a comment

by Carole Gardiner in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , ,

I was watching the new series of A Question of Sport the other night, partly because there wasn’t much else on and partly because I quite like the show that is almost as old as I am. It was first aired regionally in 1968 and became a regular fixture on the BBC from 1970. It’s Britain’s longest continuously running game show.

Through my childhood and formative years I watched team captains come and go, my favourites were the pairing of Emlyn Hughes/Bill Beaumont and John Parrott/ Ally Mc Coist. But over the years the common thread through the team captains is that they are all men, not only that but more often than not the contestants are all men too, with only a handful of women.

Now I’m no raving, hairy arm-pitted feminist but I think the producers of the show should make more of an effort to include more of our many fantastic sportswomen. They have more than enough to choose from, especially from our plethora of Olympians.

Of course the the regular female on the show is Sue Barker who has been fabulous in the host’s chair since 1997 and does a fantastic job keeping all those men in line and under control.

question of sport

Proud to be British

14 Aug 2012 Leave a comment

by Carole Gardiner in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

One of the benefits of having to wait for my CRB to be done was having the time to watch the Olympics. For the last 2 weeks the TV has been on constantly and my blog has been temporarily neglected except for the weekly update of my adventures in fat club land.

It’s impossible for me to name my most favourite moment or even moments from the games. I think it’s all been fabulous; all of Team GB’s medals, the opening and closing ceremonies, the support of the spectators and the feelings of pride and elation that seem to be nationwide.

I have watched a variety of sports, some that I don’t normally have an interest in such as handball and judo. But I was glued to gymnastics, I was so impressed with the success of Great Britain’s teams.

It’s so fantastic to see British gymnasts in medal positions now as it’s only been that way for the last few years. Every Olympics since Munich 1972 I have watched the gymnastics competition and I couldn’t name one British gymnast from those early years through to the new millennium, but I could  rattle of a list of Romanian and Russian gymnasts as they dominated the medal podiums for many years.

Ours teams did us proud, the men’s team got a bronze in the team event, only the second time in a 100 years. In the pommel horse final Louis Smith got the silver and the bronze went to Max Whitlock.

But in my opinion the best of all was Beth Tweddle who is our most successful gymnast to date, she has been world champion 3 times and she added to this by getting the bronze medal in the uneven bars with a breathtaking routine.

This medal was the icing on the cake of Beth’s very successful career, bringing recognition to British gymnastics and catapulting it onto the international stage. She deserves every congratulations she receives.