The good guys are having a good time right now. And it makes a change from the usual headline-makers. Look at Chelsea. Hiddink and the formidable Michael Essien apart, John Terry’s men are all steely-eyed, humourless ambition — it’s difficult to warm to them. And the McLaren racing team — ferocious, implacable in their resolve, so ruthless they think nothing of spying and lying. Just as hard to like, despite the obvious charm of Lewis Hamilton. So let’s celebrate nice things happening to some unlikely people.
When Argentina’s Angel Cabrera, all scars, bulk and what looks like a daily intake of about 30 tons of nicorette chewing gum, putted in to take the Masters in Sunday’s small-hours play-off, anyone whose waistline is not quite what it was will have let their own belt out a notch in sheer relief. Cabrera’s scars, by the way, are from fist fights defending his turf in Cordoba, where he grew up after being abandoned by his parents. He likes food and fags (well, he used to). After winning the US Open in 2007, he said, ‘Some players deal with nerves by hiring sports psychologists. I just smoke.’ Good on you, Angel, and who better to wear the Green Jacket, generously cut on this occasion I hope.
And talking of golf, how thrilling to discover that Tim Henman plays off scratch, regularly tears up the Sunningdale course and, according to his regular practice partner Sam Torrance, could walk into the seniors tour when the time comes. So after all those years getting shellacked by the British public and media for only being the World No 4, having an agreeable middle-class life and wife, and not being nasty enough, the likeable Henman seems to be living the life of Riley. Good for him.
The flipside of McLaren (boo-hiss) is of course Ross Brawn and Jenson Button. And we mustn’t get too worked up about diffusers and KERS because this F1 season is already fantastic. At one point in the Malaysian Grand Prix, Webber and Alonso overtook each other four times in two laps. And it’s not just that the top four places aren’t taken by McLaren or Ferrari drivers — there’s only one in the top 10 (Hamilton, at 10). How good is it to see Toro Rosso, Red Bull and Toyota drivers among the points. A bit like the days when Ipswich could win the First Division, or Derby, or Nottingham Forest. But Button himself has been a lesson. He wasn’t just overshadowed by Hamilton for the last two seasons, he was kicked into touch. But he battled on, despite a lousy Honda car and some dodgy management from Simon Fuller, and now there’s nobody in F1 with a bad word to say for Frome’s finest. Roll on Shanghai this weekend.
And a sneaky word of praise for Dinara Safina (Marat Safin’s sister), who will shortly take over as the World No. 1 in women’s tennis. Like Cabrera, she’s a flag-bearer for those who like a hearty lunch, and looks unlikely to spend too much of her time eating blueberries, but she’s plugged away too, and will soon be part of the only brother and sister to have been ranked No. 1.
Fulham’s thoroughly decent Roy Hodgson has been having a thoroughly decent run too. Life has a habit of smiling on few of football’s few nice guys. A playing career didn’t really work out for the Croydon lad, but management took him around the world, from Udinese to the UAE — nice work if you can get it. There we were, expecting him to be fighting relegation by now, but instead he’s skinning Manchester’s finest (and not-so-finest) for six points. You’ve got to love Fulham — any side that has Diddy Hamilton reading its team sheet on the PA system deserves a few breaks.
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