Grassmarket

This week the European Cricket Series rolls onto the beautiful mountains & valleys of the land of William Tell & Toblerone. As with Finland & Sweden, player demographics are more sub-Himalayan than Alpine.

Bah! Now they have become famous, we get long, tedious, ego-driven, celebrity-filled pointless opening ceremonies before the real action!

Watching the Swiss meet now. Lots going on, they are running multiple heats of all events to give as many people a race as possible. Athletes are mainly Swiss, but quite a few Germans & even Chinese who presumably are based somewhere in Mittel Europa. Feel a bit sorry for the athletes who false start! YouTube link for the Polish meet coming up at 13:00 Uk & , 14:00

The other ones I have for tomorrow are Meilen, Switzerland https://swiss-sport.tv/uebersicht-leichtathletik/ And a team competition between Atlanta & Oregon in which each team will compete in their own stadium. https://www.youtube.com/user/AtlantaTrackClub/videos

There was a meet in Dresden, Germany last night. A bit low-key, sprints only, but it’s all on YouTube and non-geoblocked. You’ll probably want a remote control with FF. There’s another couple of things this weekend, will post the links later.

That’s how you can tell whether you are watching Pro or Amateur wrestling. Amateur wresting: Hit the ref with a chair - lifetime ban. Pro wrestling: Hit the ref with a chair - lifetime contract.

Multi-national - but mostly European - Rugby Union Pro-14 League to restart in August. Different countries, so different rulings on fans. Will finish current season with play-offs. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/52979084

Six month ban, 01 February - 01 August. ian rules.

US Open goes ahead: no fans. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/53070667

I’m guessing they don’t need spectators because gambling money keeps the whole show on the road and without it.....

It was shown on NRK (Norwegian TV), but you’ll likely be geo-blocked if you try to access from .

That would happen on poorly-prepared tracks. On better ones you get more action.

For some reason he is always ill when the Tour visits Bosnia.

And even if they changed the quota to allow 3 teams from the Americas then one of the bigger countries would immediately put a team together.

Lucky he didn’t go in for the 60m sprint, then.

Blimey, the Adria Tour in Beograd had an actual audience!

At long last, someone comes up with a completely original new excuse for doping. A US Olympic boxer has avoided a suspension for a failed drugs test after the banned substances were deemed to have been transmitted during sex with her boyfriend. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/sportsnews/article-8413931/US-Olympic-boxer-Virginia-Fuchs-cleared-doping-violation-caused-sex.html#comments Her name is also appropriate.

Used to be, but it has spread gradually. 30 years ago people in Belgium & Holland could pick up British TV, so they started playing & have even produced World Champions. Now it is international, although not as much as snooker. Anywhere there are bored drinkers, basically.

Hah! This very minute I put a post about that in another thread! Only on pay TV here.

Dunno if there any Speedway fans on here - apart from tram racing it’s the only motorsport I like - but the Polish League starts again tonight. It’s a strange sport in that the best riders can belong to different teams in different countries at the same time.

Like Darts it’s a sport which used to be played only by people with a cigarette glued to the corner of their mouths and a dink on the table beside them.

Another great nostalgic discovery! Petanque! Pour nous autres rosbifs, it’s a sport you play on the beach when you were on holiday with your parents, but in France it’s second only to Le Tour itself.

But the highest score ever made by any French-speaking side.

Live cricket returns to our screens next week with a T10 tournament played in the well-known cricket hotbed of Stockholm. On Freesports in the UK, streaming in all less fortunate countries. https://gifincric.com/dream11-european-cricket-series-schedule-ecs-schedule-2020-ecs-live-streaming-and-live-scores/ A glimpse at the names of the players reveals that.....errrm, shall we say...ethnic Swedes are still as indifferent to cricket as they have been at any time over the last two centuries.

News of British tennis season, starting on 23 June & being shown on Amazon Prime, so make sure your subs are up to date.! Will feature Andy Murray and lots of people who will not notice any difference between an event played behind closed doors & the kinds of events they have played in all their lives. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/53022278