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Horsing Around

by | 23rd, June 2006

FOOTBALL’S nodding heads have long told us that the hooligan element that has long followed the England team over land and sea could have latched onto any sport. That they chose football was just bad luck.

But now what sounded like wishful thinking rings a little truer as the Sun’s front page screams “BRAWL ASCOT”. Incredible as it sounds, the paper says: “More drunk punters arrested than England World Cup fans.”

Having been told by every media outlet that there are 100,000 England supporters in Germany for the World Cup, this sounds incredible. If we include the number of England fans watching on the telly, the news becomes mind boggling.

Horseracing rarely if ever publishes the crowd numbers in the press or announces them over the Tannoy, as at football matches, and we cannot be sure how many race goers have been to Royal Ascot.

But no matter, the Sun has quickly moved on from its sensational front-page teaser and wants to focus on the numbers of sports fans pinched. It says that since Tuesday there have been 25 arrests at Ascot against 13 arrests in Germany. That’s the “latest score.”

There is still a long time for the boys in Germany to take the game into overtime, and an England defeat should give them the impetus they need to take this battle of the hooligans into penalties.

But while we wait for that, the Sun explains. In “FIST PAST THE POST”, the paper details how the “Topper Yobs” have taken the lead. “Champagne flutes used as weapons”; “Top hats fly and chairs are hurled”; “Racegoers brawl by stretch limos.”

That the only people who use stretch limos are women on Hen nights and workmates on pub crawls should not be overlooked.

Neither should we ignore the possibility that there is something about horseracing that brings out the very worst in people.

And wonder how long before the fans are wearing the colours of their favourite horse’s and organising fights by the winning post?



Posted: 23rd, June 2006 | In: Reviews Comment | TrackBack | Permalink