Booze bores are spoiling the party

A WAR of the Roses derby on a pleasant evening in Headingley was always going to attract a few idiots.

So we didn’t set off to the Twenty20 cricket clash on Friday evening expecting anything less than a barrage of witless “banter” in the stands and the modern scourge of ‘beer snakes’ (empty plastic pint glasses, stacked metres high) soaking anybody and everybody with dregs of lukewarm lager.

Up to a point you can put such things down to high spirits, mixed with tropical weather conditions with the weekend having just started. Once intoxicated fans decided to disrupt play on what appeared to be nearly a dozen occasions, though, it becomes time to rethink things. Most pertinently, the alcohol arrangements.

For the sake of those who prefer to watch cricket, over some fat bloke from the pub messing around on the outfield, a football-style booze ban in the stands while the game is in play should be considered for Twenty20 matches in the evening.

Save the stupidity for the bars after the game, lads.


PLENTY of radically different viewpoints were knocking around after Manchester United’s defeat to Barcelona last week.

The Calatans were either brilliant, or needed to be no more than average, to beat a United side who were either below par on the night or suffering from poor team selection and tactics in the Champions’ League final in Rome.

Nemanja Vidic — for many, the unofficial player of the season — had a nightmare for the Red Devils, while Anderson, who many predict great things of, again acted like the little boy lost.

Some even say the central midfield of the current Premier League champions, Club World Cup and Carling Cup holders has been an accident waiting to happen.

As for the two crowd-pleasing geniuses on show, Cristiano Ronaldo narrowly failed to score on a number of occasions in the opening 10 minutes while Leo Messi was generally quiet save for a superb header to rubber-stamp his side’s dominance on the night. Therefore, the Argentine’s first-ever goal against English opposition saw his stock rise at the expense of his Portuguese rival.

Truth is, you can analyse and pick it apart as you like, but very little about the game is indisputable.

If United had scored first, would it have been a very different game? Possibly not. On only two occasions have sides come back from behind to win Champions’ League finals without the need for penalties. One of those, famously, was United themselves in ‘99, while the other was Barca against Arsenal three years ago.

This time, unlike in the Nou Camp a decade ago or in Moscow in 2008, luck deserted Salford’s finest. But there really is very little to choose between the two teams and United will certainly be back.

Were they to play Barcelona again, they would probably win. And a man as long in the tooth as Sir Alex Ferguson will know that there is absolutely no need for the panic measures being called for by some who can’t see the bigger picture.