We remember Erica thingyo at a Rugby match a few decades back, but from then on the names became unknown and it's a ' hobby' that may now be defunct - though of that we can't be sure as if nothing is uttered by the commentator and the camera operators are alert enough to pan away before the offender enters the view of the lens, we'll know no different.
These two areas are as extreme as you can get - one lighthearted, slapstick and childishy funny, the other extremely tragic and disturbing. However, in between lies a large terrain of subjects which fit neither category but are at the mercy of the power of the present media who, intentional or not, participate in blanketing affairs which warrant discussion,
This came to mind when I was surprised at being reminded that the last Waterloo Cup was staged as recently as 2005. What was once the biggest sporting event in the nation and one which outpointed the popularity of the Grand National to such an extent, it resulted in the Aintree spectacle being moved forward from February to its present slot.
I found an article on the racing page of an Irish newspaper dated in June of 2003 which celebrated the fact that the winners of both the Aintree and Altcar events that year, Monty's Pass and Henrietta, were trained in County Cork and would be paraded at Clonmel racecourse the following day. The article was eleven paragraphs long and the threat to the continuation of the Waterloo Cup was not alluded to.
Fast forward to the present and since the 2004 Hunting Act spelt the end for hare coursing on the Great Britain mainland, with Northern Ireland following in 2011, Eire is alone on the two islands in permitting it to continue.
The reason for this being brought up is not to discuss the rights or wrongs, benefits or hindrances of hare coursing, but to demonstrate how the media can collectively starve a subject of publicity or to use the in vogue term, 'cancel' it, and this is a tactic that racing could be on the wrong end of - don't be fooled by the red tops having weekend racing pull outs, for these are paid for by bookmakers advertising and if truth be told editors are giving less and less space to the sport and snipping the numbers on their racing desks.
I've always considered my memory to be in good working order but from the top of my head I would have guessed that the Altcar event was discontinued in the late eighties as opposed to a decade and a half later, which shows how scarily effective cancel culture can be.
And anyone believing that the sport does not need promotion from the media should consider how Show Jumping feels like it has sunk into oblivion though in reality it's still there if you look hard enough. Put it this way, those of us who are old enough to have been following all of the sports through the seventies will recall that the likes of Harvey Smith, Caroline Bradley, Eddie Macken and Paul Shockemohle were household names,in a different league on the popularity scale to the Snooker and Darts players of that time, and were names on the tip of the tongue as much as Tennis and Golf Players - can anyway name any current show jumping professionals, even a medal winner at the recently staged Olympics?
What is even more chilling is that while show jumping continues and will be found on some of those obscure channels which you need to scan the lists for, horse racing could not survive without its link with betting and would incur indelible damage if newspaper editors considered it was not worthy of coverage and terrestrial television followed down the same route.
Change happens so fast. You don't see it coming. And no doubt that after the cancel mobs have pulled down all the statues they scornfully object to, they'll want to erase what they see as objectionable 1970's sitcoms from the archives, then, they'll be after those who they view as glorifying dangerously unhealthy lifestyles.
The name of Olly Reed would immediately be worked upon by the Ministry of Truth, and at the same Richard Burton, pound for pound an equal in neglecting his inside workings. Both 5ft 10in. Reed lasted three years longer amid tales of excessive alcohol intake, the volumes of which coming out of hazy recounts, but Burton's intake of five bottles of vodka a day along with up to a a hundred cigarettes makes him at least Reeds equal.
This is from an Album released in 2008 but to get into the spirit of rewriting history, it's too classy to befit that period so the release date is the week in August 1978 during which Hawaiian Sound beat Gunner B in the Benson & Hedges Gold Cup
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