Simple Pleasures

So far, 2020 has been, well, a little messy. 

Hard to think of anything that hasn't been affected. 

Sport, and especially professional sport, is usually immune to external influences and an escape for many. Yet this year it stalled entirely, and while it is now back offering that escape, the commercial aspect of professional sport is more of a bloodbath than anything presented on the field. Rightsholders, sponsors and broadcasters are duking it out in various melee across the country and around the world, their dramas exacerbated by the aforementioned escapism being primarily limited to screen viewing. Sports and business models alike are under threat. Too much angst, too few zeros.

So it's refreshing to have a reminder about some of the beauties of sport.

Picture this: standing on the sideline, back to the well-lubricated and good-spirited crowd, and singing breaks out. Initially, I pay no attention (match official trained industrial deafness). Yet the singing varies, as do the words. One of the early songs is about excessive pie consumption, a perennial crowd favourite directed at those in the engine room. And then the songs morph, and unfamiliar ditties are created, and it becomes a bit of a competition. Why? The singers have decided to create songs based on the Four'N'Twenty logo on my back. That certainly cut through my match official deafness!

The takeaway? The business of sport is increasingly complex, and increasingly measured and scrutinised - no surprise given the money involved. But moments like these represent the purest essence of sport and occur every weekend around the country. Largely immeasurable, but both heartwarming and reassuring. Simple pleasures.