Hey, it's B&S content time. I note that some jester, replying to my last Chris Evert, I mean, effort, said that Stuart Murdoch wasn't very good at footy. He said it in different terms from those - he used almost industrial language, Melvyn - but I'm not a believer in swearing in print. I think his whole post was 'ironic', anyway, but I'm not good at detecting that. I do go to an evening class on it, though, run by former Osasuna forward Michael Robinson. But he only speaks in Spanish nowadays, so progress is slow. Well, what I want to establish here is that on ATP evidence, Murdoch is a *surprisingly good footballer*. There are two categories of people to whom SM's skill won't be a surprise: 1) folk who think he's the spuming fountainhead of galactic talent and is equally brilliant at *everything*; 2) folk like Ally1996, who've probably been playing with him on 'scratch pitches', 'ashpits' and 'tenement cellar floors', with 'wee bairns' for opposition, for the last 16 years. But to the rest of us - well, to me - it really was a surprise how good this fellow was on the 'pitch', I mean, pitch. As others have already remarked, he doesn't have an ounce of flab on him. Butter, maybe, I didn't check his pockets; flab, no. He was surprisingly muscular in places. Still, you can be a tough guy and still lack talent. Ask David Ginola. But this lad had pace - he covered ground very quickly - stamina - he stayed on, once he'd entered the fray, and never looked tired - and sufficient resilience to carry on playing once he'd gashed himself. His passing was sound, he was comfortable with the ball at his feet, and he packed a real cannonball of a shot, although, like real cannonballs, they weren't always accurate. But who is, in the pressure of a 5-a-side game? Well, the rest of the Jockey strike force, admittedly. Apologies to those who think this is just football talk for boys. But for one thing, you can wheel it out next time anyone says B&S are shrinking violets. They're growing chrysanthemums, mate, and not just in their window-box. For another, it struck me that SM must be - and I hope to cause no offence here - better at footy than, say, 80 per cent of the members of this list. That's notwithstanding the fact that there are some great players on this list, and that many of the rest couldn't give a Socceroo about the game, about which I promise to fall silent after I finish using language. Add to that the fact that Murdoch is, let's say, and again no offence to any pop stars or anyone else out there, A better guitarist than 90% of sinister A better singer than 95% of sinister A better songwriter than 100% of sinister, unless there was anything in that rumour about the lad MacManus joining in February - and these are pretty conservative estimates - and, well, it just needs Steady Mike to put them into his master-computer and prove how gifted this fellow is. In short, I am just beginning to agree with the folk in category 1) above. We really do have a bit of a spuming fountainhead on our hands, and splashing all over us. Silence, as promised. ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the undead Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail sinister@missprint.org. To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to majordomo@missprint.org. WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "tech-heads and students" +-+ +-+ "the cardie wearing biscuit nibbling belle & sebastian list" +-+ +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+