Post by Dave on Mar 20, 2009 20:02:28 GMT
This week we have seem a brand new face to the forum and one that has only really proved why so many call this the quality forum. Over nine months since it was started and the forum has only ever received good praise, that has been earned by you the members who continue week after week to make such fantastic posts.
One other thing that has often been said is the real feel that we are a real community on here and that has been proved this week beyond doubt, with your wonderful response to the mascot kit appeal.
This week we have seem timbo coming close to his first win of the title and jmgull was not far behind, as always otobe and tufc01 received points, but we once again ended up with a very clear winner.
A man who brings so much to the forum and writes such interesting posts and ones filled with such factual information, I do wonder if he tries hard to win so he can lose the PINK colour he normally has in his profile ;D
This weeks winner is
Chris Hayes a top poster and fully deserved.
One of the posts made by Chris this week
Stories like this are a crying shame. I can see why people don't want to go to football matches. I hardly ever wear colours away from home which as I've mentioned before is just as much down to a minority of our fans who frequently do their level best to wind up opposition fans before jumping on the nearest "safe" coach as it's down to opposition fans looking to cause trouble. Every club in the league has elements of both and if a club or its supporters tell you differently then its a lie.
I've been watching Torquay play at home and away for a few years and I have to say that I haven't seen or heard too much violence. I vividly remember a home match against Fulham a few years back, after a ill tempered 2-1 win against 11 Ian Branfoot thugs, as we left the ground 10-20 of their finest louts went on the rampage and hit anything that moved. I had a right go at 4 normal looking Fulham fans getting into their car around the corner after this melee. No fisticuffs, just a lot of angry words.
I also think its the nature of the game that makes 99% of the normal football supporters turn into different people. Rugby Union doesn't throw up as many flash-points or seemingly have as many unfair and unjust decisions. The players show the referee respect and in turn the crowd know who's in charge. Television replays are used to clarify potential flash-points and in 99.9% of cases the correct decision is made (apart from the unwritten rule that only France and Wales can get away with forward passes ). What is there in a game of Rugby Union that would turn normally nice Mr Jones into a nasty ranting and raving idiot?
It may be that there is a class difference between those who watch rugby and those who watch football. But once you get out of the home counties Rugby Union is a game followed as much by the working class as it is with the middle and upper classes. Real Rugby towns like Gloucester, Leicester and Northampton have working class fan bases. But is it just the way that media tries to differentiate between the classes when it comes portraying Rugby and football fans. Why is it that Rugby fans can dress in White and Red and be portrayed as "Noble Knights, Crusaders, all good stout hearted fellows fighting the cause of King Harry" (think of the Zurich Insurance adverts with Peter O'Toole) and yet the football fans wearing exactly the same colours are usually depicted as tooled up chavs with the intellect of a boiled potato?
When it comes to Rugby League it's a bit different. The clubs are mostly from traditional working class Northern towns where the clubs either are the biggest sporting club in the town or are close to it. Hull boasts two massive clubs, Wigan RLFC pack the JJB more than their footballing counterparts, St Helens have no competition with a football club in the same town as do the likes of Warrington, Widnes and Wakefield. The likes of Leeds, Bradford and Huddersfield are towns where there isn't much difference between the level of support for sports. Leeds might be an exception I guess but they are the champions and the football club is still in the old division 3! Due the nature of the game (its quicker and more unpredictable than Rugby Union) and where its played you would imagine that there would be more scope for mass fighting. But apart from the booze fueled Wakefield V Castleford relegation grudge match (The Battle of Belle Vue) a few years back I can't remember a time when I heard about any trouble at a Rugby league match.
When you look at other tools the media use there are more films about football violence than the glory of the world's best sport. All are completely cringe-worthy I find whether its the attempt to explain and justify mindless violence by saying that "men need to feel like brave savage men by assaulting other men to feel alive" like in "The Football Factory". Then you have the awful "Cass" and "Green Streets" which is all about outsiders finding "a sense of belonging" and "glory, respect and identity through fighting". It's all about glamourising complete twatishness. But the attempts to focus on the non violent side of football are always equally wide of the mark. Can anyone think actually think of a better one than "Escape to Victory"? "Goal"? Anna Friel in a nurse's uniform and cheeky smile made that memorable. "When Saturday Comes" with Sean "100% Blades" Bean? God help us.
As for Rugby films.......ummmm.....urrrrrrr. There was a Rugby scene in The Departed where Matt Damon brought the game of gentlemen in complete disrepute when he told the opposing team consisting of the hated Fire Brigade that they were "homos" and that they should have sex with themselves! I mean its Martin Scorcese's take on a game he's never seen or played. What next? Joe Pesci at Scrum Half, Ray Liotta on the wing and Robert De Niro as the head coach?
Can you imagine that over here? I'm 100% sure that the old farts at the RFU choked on their Vol-au-vents with roasted aubergine tapenade when Martin Johnson shouted "clucking bell" in Dublin a few weeks ago when that thick 72 cap Cornishman (although he was born in Bude!) Phil Vickery decided to ignore the referee twice and committed the same crime right in front of him and rightly got sin binned for his stupidity.
But is that the the clubs do their level best to welcome supporters to the ground with open arms? I remember going to the Wycombe away game in the Ian Atkins survival spell. We turned up stupidly early. The beer tents were erected but for London Wasps the following day and despite not wearing any yellow and blue we were turned away by a couple of stewards from having a beer in the main bar. The problem is that you can't actually say with absolute certainty that if the same facilities were offered to us football fans that there wouldn't be a minority who would spoil a warm welcome and make twats of themselves.
I have to say that in the last two seasons I've found the welcome and the facilities at most BSP clubs to be far more relaxed and friendly than during our time in the League. In the most part its been reciprocated and has been respected by our fans. I just hope it continues.
As for other sports attracting violence? Andy C would be able to confirm or not that fighting goes on at NFL games between fans. But I don't believe it goes on. I heard a rumour that the Cleveland Browns fans could be a bit on the lively side though! With Ice Hockey the violence is on the field, indeed I read earlier in the week that the Toronto Maple Leafs president vowed to fight proposed new legislation to outlaw fighting from the game as "fighting was a huge part of the game". Apparently though fights have become more numerous than before and some appear to be "staged" in order to give the crowd what they want to see. The latest initiative comes after a Canadian state league player died after his head hit the head just after his helmet fell off.
I have heard that there's been fighting between fans at handball and water polo between Slovenia and Croatia in the not too distant past as well!
Does anybody know if some of the Gaelic Games provide as match violence off the pitch as there is on it?
One other thing that has often been said is the real feel that we are a real community on here and that has been proved this week beyond doubt, with your wonderful response to the mascot kit appeal.
This week we have seem timbo coming close to his first win of the title and jmgull was not far behind, as always otobe and tufc01 received points, but we once again ended up with a very clear winner.
A man who brings so much to the forum and writes such interesting posts and ones filled with such factual information, I do wonder if he tries hard to win so he can lose the PINK colour he normally has in his profile ;D
This weeks winner is
Chris Hayes a top poster and fully deserved.
One of the posts made by Chris this week
Stories like this are a crying shame. I can see why people don't want to go to football matches. I hardly ever wear colours away from home which as I've mentioned before is just as much down to a minority of our fans who frequently do their level best to wind up opposition fans before jumping on the nearest "safe" coach as it's down to opposition fans looking to cause trouble. Every club in the league has elements of both and if a club or its supporters tell you differently then its a lie.
I've been watching Torquay play at home and away for a few years and I have to say that I haven't seen or heard too much violence. I vividly remember a home match against Fulham a few years back, after a ill tempered 2-1 win against 11 Ian Branfoot thugs, as we left the ground 10-20 of their finest louts went on the rampage and hit anything that moved. I had a right go at 4 normal looking Fulham fans getting into their car around the corner after this melee. No fisticuffs, just a lot of angry words.
I also think its the nature of the game that makes 99% of the normal football supporters turn into different people. Rugby Union doesn't throw up as many flash-points or seemingly have as many unfair and unjust decisions. The players show the referee respect and in turn the crowd know who's in charge. Television replays are used to clarify potential flash-points and in 99.9% of cases the correct decision is made (apart from the unwritten rule that only France and Wales can get away with forward passes ). What is there in a game of Rugby Union that would turn normally nice Mr Jones into a nasty ranting and raving idiot?
It may be that there is a class difference between those who watch rugby and those who watch football. But once you get out of the home counties Rugby Union is a game followed as much by the working class as it is with the middle and upper classes. Real Rugby towns like Gloucester, Leicester and Northampton have working class fan bases. But is it just the way that media tries to differentiate between the classes when it comes portraying Rugby and football fans. Why is it that Rugby fans can dress in White and Red and be portrayed as "Noble Knights, Crusaders, all good stout hearted fellows fighting the cause of King Harry" (think of the Zurich Insurance adverts with Peter O'Toole) and yet the football fans wearing exactly the same colours are usually depicted as tooled up chavs with the intellect of a boiled potato?
When it comes to Rugby League it's a bit different. The clubs are mostly from traditional working class Northern towns where the clubs either are the biggest sporting club in the town or are close to it. Hull boasts two massive clubs, Wigan RLFC pack the JJB more than their footballing counterparts, St Helens have no competition with a football club in the same town as do the likes of Warrington, Widnes and Wakefield. The likes of Leeds, Bradford and Huddersfield are towns where there isn't much difference between the level of support for sports. Leeds might be an exception I guess but they are the champions and the football club is still in the old division 3! Due the nature of the game (its quicker and more unpredictable than Rugby Union) and where its played you would imagine that there would be more scope for mass fighting. But apart from the booze fueled Wakefield V Castleford relegation grudge match (The Battle of Belle Vue) a few years back I can't remember a time when I heard about any trouble at a Rugby league match.
When you look at other tools the media use there are more films about football violence than the glory of the world's best sport. All are completely cringe-worthy I find whether its the attempt to explain and justify mindless violence by saying that "men need to feel like brave savage men by assaulting other men to feel alive" like in "The Football Factory". Then you have the awful "Cass" and "Green Streets" which is all about outsiders finding "a sense of belonging" and "glory, respect and identity through fighting". It's all about glamourising complete twatishness. But the attempts to focus on the non violent side of football are always equally wide of the mark. Can anyone think actually think of a better one than "Escape to Victory"? "Goal"? Anna Friel in a nurse's uniform and cheeky smile made that memorable. "When Saturday Comes" with Sean "100% Blades" Bean? God help us.
As for Rugby films.......ummmm.....urrrrrrr. There was a Rugby scene in The Departed where Matt Damon brought the game of gentlemen in complete disrepute when he told the opposing team consisting of the hated Fire Brigade that they were "homos" and that they should have sex with themselves! I mean its Martin Scorcese's take on a game he's never seen or played. What next? Joe Pesci at Scrum Half, Ray Liotta on the wing and Robert De Niro as the head coach?
Can you imagine that over here? I'm 100% sure that the old farts at the RFU choked on their Vol-au-vents with roasted aubergine tapenade when Martin Johnson shouted "clucking bell" in Dublin a few weeks ago when that thick 72 cap Cornishman (although he was born in Bude!) Phil Vickery decided to ignore the referee twice and committed the same crime right in front of him and rightly got sin binned for his stupidity.
But is that the the clubs do their level best to welcome supporters to the ground with open arms? I remember going to the Wycombe away game in the Ian Atkins survival spell. We turned up stupidly early. The beer tents were erected but for London Wasps the following day and despite not wearing any yellow and blue we were turned away by a couple of stewards from having a beer in the main bar. The problem is that you can't actually say with absolute certainty that if the same facilities were offered to us football fans that there wouldn't be a minority who would spoil a warm welcome and make twats of themselves.
I have to say that in the last two seasons I've found the welcome and the facilities at most BSP clubs to be far more relaxed and friendly than during our time in the League. In the most part its been reciprocated and has been respected by our fans. I just hope it continues.
As for other sports attracting violence? Andy C would be able to confirm or not that fighting goes on at NFL games between fans. But I don't believe it goes on. I heard a rumour that the Cleveland Browns fans could be a bit on the lively side though! With Ice Hockey the violence is on the field, indeed I read earlier in the week that the Toronto Maple Leafs president vowed to fight proposed new legislation to outlaw fighting from the game as "fighting was a huge part of the game". Apparently though fights have become more numerous than before and some appear to be "staged" in order to give the crowd what they want to see. The latest initiative comes after a Canadian state league player died after his head hit the head just after his helmet fell off.
I have heard that there's been fighting between fans at handball and water polo between Slovenia and Croatia in the not too distant past as well!
Does anybody know if some of the Gaelic Games provide as match violence off the pitch as there is on it?
