The list of sports events I would like to cover once before I die … is no longer a long one. I have been very lucky. Not to say I haven’t missed some big events. But most of them I am not all that interested in seeing, as a journalist. The British Open. The U.S. […]

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Someone came up with that years ago, perhaps George Bernard Shaw, the Irish playwright. “England and America are two countries separated by the same language,” he is reputed to have said. And working in “British-English” newsroom, at The National in Abu Dhabi, I can vouch for this. We are all speaking the same language, except […]

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A reader sent along this paragraph from a blogger who goes by Left Coast Sports Babe. “Big sports news across the pond in England. BBC calling it maybe the biggest FA Cup shocker ever – Bradford City comes back from 2-0 down to beat Chelsea 4-2. And in the U.S. people are going, “who’s Bradford, […]

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I enjoy doing newspaper crossword puzzles. Particularly the big Sunday crosswords from the New York Times. Particularly when they have fun clues, as does one I completed the other day. The overarching clue — which applies to all the long answers — is paper chase. And I will tell you right now the answers have […]

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I refuse to pay for advanced TV packages, here in Abu Dhabi. I could say it’s a matter of principle — I will not pay outrageous rates just to see all the Arabian Gulf League soccer — but it’s mostly about two concepts: –Not being able to get ESPN, at any price; –Not being interested […]

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Various themes of progression have come forward in our five years in the Gulf. More people, more towers, more traffic, more sophistication … And more elite soccer players. The Arabian Gulf League, or Pro League, as it was known for four seasons, has seen a steady climb in the number of good players choosing to […]

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This is not a pair I would have chosen for purposes of “compare and contrast”. It was our colleague, Osman Samiuddin who did it for me. Novak Djokovic and Ned Flanders. In a comment piece that will appear in the Tuesday editions of The National, Osman suggests the two personalities — one real, one a […]

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I saw the final three quarters of the Super Bowl, missing none of the scoring, after coming out of an AC-induced coma at about 4 a.m. UAE time. I never once thought Seattle would win, not until they got to the 1-yard line with 26 seconds left to play in a 28-24 game, and even […]

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