Category Archives: Sports

Shad does the London Indoor Games

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The very definition of lean mean fighting machine, these young men and women are as you can see at the pinnacle of their fitness.  Meanwhile, John and I continue desperately trying to achieve our recommended 10,000 steps a day on the pedometer!  These guys make The Green Goddess and Mr Motivator look like couch-potatoes, so you can imagine how John and I felt!  For those of you under 40 (you lucky things), Diana Moran (nicknamed The Green Goddess) and Derrick Evans (better known as Mr Motivator) are TV fitness icons from the 1980’s.  Although I was impressed by the stamina and physiques of these young people, I was a little troubled by the grunting noises and musky odours!

 

Anyway, I digress.  These pictures were taken when John took me with him for an athletics photography course a few days ago at the Lee Valley stadium in London.  The athletes were of different ages and had clearly been preparing a very long time, judging by the heights they achieved in the pole vault and the speeds they reached in the 200 metre dash.   I wonder how many years of their lives they have spent practising their sports while their peers were out gallivanting.  Watching those long legs leaping over the hurdles made me wince each time because they came so close to knocking the obstacles over, I feared for their safety.  Then again, I’m sure these dedicated contestants have all experienced more than their fair share of twisted ankles and grazed knees.  The long jump and triple jump were particularly impressive, given that they could leap even further than me and I’m a cat.

Shad does the Pagham Pram Race

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When John said we were going to the races I pictured a Maserati Granturismo (in my favourite British Racing Green) streaking past me like a blur, or that amazing car built with an aircraft turbine engine that I watched charging up the track at Goodwood Race Course last summer.  What I got instead was a horde of madly dressed and slightly eccentric people pushing perambulators and varieties thereof through the streets of Pagham to raise money for charity and generally entertain the 3,000 people and 4 cats that were there to experience the fun.  Who needs the thrill of Italian sports cars when you can watch the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and 2 grown men in Harry Enfield scouser wigs and leopard print onesies strolling up the road in 2°c.  The other cats were Jess (Postman’s Pat’s black and white cat) and 2 cheeky white cats from the Cat. Rabbit and Guinea Pig Rescue!

 

Apparently, on Boxing Day every year whatever the weather, as many as 60 entrants complete the 3 mile course in fantastically designed floats accompanied by weird and wonderful fancy dress costumes.  The tradition goes back 60 years and participants come from across the world to take part in the wacky event which involves no running and the consumption of 3 pints of beer along the way.  That’s my kind of race!  Well it would be if you changed the pram for a bed and the beer for cat-milk and the cold air for a warm fire!  One person who needed a warm fire far more than I did was the rather brave young gentleman in a bobble-hat and elephant style underpants being pushed by his mate with a bare bottom!  This race is not for the faint-hearted, for a multitude of reasons!

 

Despite my joking earlier about the difference between Pagham Pram Race and the Goodwood Festival of Speed, there is a connection with one of the world’s prestigious automobile races, Le Mans (an endurance racing event held at a circuit in France).  This connection comes in the form of Pagham Pram Race President Derek Bell, a sports car driver who won Le Mans five times in the 80’s and who attended the Festival of Speed in 2014 to be awarded a plaque in recognition of his 50 years in motorsport.  He probably wouldn’t have received this accolade if he had been driving the pram version of the General Lee (the car driven by Bo and Luke Duke from the Dukes of Hazzard)!

Shad does a basket-ball shoot

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John and I have been looking for a way to build our portfolio and enhance our capabilities so we decided to enroll in Sports Photography School.  I dug out my old satchel from the bottom of the wardrobe and insisted that John find my pencil case as I was very keen to make a good impression.  But it turns out that photography school isn’t based in a classroom, but is actually an event shooting experience that takes you to all sorts of interesting settings.  Like the Copper Box Arena (a multi-sport venue in the Olympic Park in London used for the 2012 Summer Olympics) which was the location for a championship British Basketball League game between the London Lions and the Bristol Flyers last Friday.

 

Apparently the Flyers are a force to be reckoned with and unbeaten in their last few games.  However the Lions triumphed that night due to their mastery of offensive and defensive techniques.  Oh yes, I learned more than just how to improve my photography.  I discovered that basketball players pass and shoot, but more worrying they also foul, block and dribble.  Most of these guys were over 6 feet tall with huge strides and an extraordinary ability to navigate through the crowded areas of the court.  As you can see from the pictures, they were also adept at leaping vertically into the air, an essential skill required to perform a classic slam-dunk.

 

It was a great opportunity for John and I to develop our camera skills and I learnt loads about the importance of backgrounds and the challenges of timing key moments.  Some of the fun moments of the evening involved these pretty ladies collectively known as the Lioness’s as they danced their support for the team, always smiling and so cheery.  But there is also a role for the more sporty ladies out there and the game is played professionally by women in England.  The Women’s English Basketball League is a professional competition that has thirty national league sides and includes teams such as the Rhondda Rebels and the Sheffield Hatters.  I just love the names of basketball teams, like the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Denver Nuggets.  I discovered that there appears to be great reverence directed towards the feline species demonstrated through the names of teams such as the Charlotte Bobcats, the Detroit Tigers, the San Jose Sabercats, the Florida Panthers and closer to home, the Nottingham Wildcats.  I approve!

Shad does the Silverstone Circuit

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On Friday night, John and I sat together in front of the computer to work on some photographs, exchanging ideas about lighting and composition and clicking furiously away on the mouse.  Then the familiar ping of an email coming in on John’s phone brought an invitation to Silverstone race track, home to some of the greatest events in British motor racing such as the 2014 British Touring Cars Championship and next year’s British Grand Prix.

 

Silverstone started life as a wartime airfield until the end of the Second World War when an ex-farmer was employed by the RAC to transform the airfield and farmland into a race track.  On 2nd October 1948, 100,000 people flocked to see Luigi Villoresi in his Maserati beat 22 other drivers and mark the beginning of Silverstone’s racing history.  The circuit puts two and four wheels through their paces as drivers battle it out for the thrill of the chase and the entertainment of the crowd.

 

The drive up to the Buckinghamshire / Northamptonshire border took about 2 hours and I stayed in my basket in the car for safety reasons.  It’s so comfy in there with my blanket that I dozed off and it was a good job too because John’s friend (who had the tickets) got caught in traffic on the M1 following a dreadful pile-up.  Unfortunately he was delayed by 2 hours but when he arrived, I woke up to the roar of the engines and the purring of the crowd.  I felt a buzz in the atmosphere as the vibrations from the sounds all around me spread through my muttonchops.  We were lucky enough to have a seat in the British Racing Drivers’ Club stand, surrounded by people who have achieved success in the sport or made a significant contribution to it.  John spotted several celebrated individuals and got a close-up of Stirling Moss (not that I’m one to name-drop).


Unfortunately there was bad news on the day we were there (Sunday 27th July).  A driver named Denis Welch from Staffordshire crashed in a 1960 Lotus 18 and sadly lost his life aged 69.  Our condolences to family and friends, it’s a tragedy when an accident happens, especially when it ends in a fatality.

On a brighter note though, the blazing sunshine, the slick racing tyres and good-looking smiley people parading around near the track kept the crowds happy and the tarmac hot. There were a great many Grand Prix cars on display as you can see from the pictures, including several pre-WW2 machines, a collection of Maseratis, some rarely seen motorcycles from the 1950s, examples of American automobiles such as the Ford Mustang, as well as Lotuses and Williams from the modern era.

Shad does his first premiership rugby match

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We strolled on to the sidelines with our rucksacks full of equipment and cameras dangling around our necks, a pack of photographers on the prowl, each of us using our eagle-eyed vision to judge where the action would be and plan the best shots.  The venue was the impressive Allianz Park stadium in London, home to the Saracens Rugby Club since 2013.  The site was developed according to best practice in sustainable building design to ensure a low environmental impact and is used primarily for rugby and athletics.  The main stand runs the length of the pitch and features 3,000 permanent seats, although there are also demountable stands that allow for a capacity of around 10,000 at rugby matches.  The new £500,000 artificial pitch is designed to provide the ideal playing conditions regardless of the weather and is high-tech stuff, comprised of 3 layers – a shock pad, a fibrous layer and a rubber and sand mix which gives the feel of natural glass.

 

The smell of hotdogs, coffee and lager drifted across from the tents as I lifted my head up to the sky, following the lines of the huge H-shaped goalposts at each end of the field.  The air was filled with anticipation and excitement and the growing crowd chattered eagerly as the LED banners on the stands and entrances flashed their messages to the spectators.  Everyone was in high spirits and the photographers were milling around, making adjustments to their shutter speeds and comparing the size of their lenses.  Suddenly there was silence, then the crowds erupted with cheers as the Saracens and the Worcerster Warriers ran on to the pitch, all beefy and testosterone-fuelled.

 

The game started and boy was it rough.  I had no idea what was going on because the referee communicated using hand signals and terminology I was unfamiliar with and the players spent half their time huddled together in scrums.  However I did witnessed a considerable amount of grabbing, pushing, stamping and grunting as the players leapt and barged their way around the field to score points.  Despite the highly competitive atmosphere, the crowd was friendly and looked colourful, with many fans dressed in creative and amusing costumes, faces painted to show their support.  After 80 minutes of roaring and body-slamming (and that was just the photographers!), the Saracens were declared winners 44 to 20.  Both teams played well and I could feel the exhaustion of the sweaty but smiling winning side as they firmly shook hands with the opposition and waved their macho arms enthusiastically at the people in the stands.  By the way, the whole match was televised and if you watch it back, you can catch a glimpse of me and John sitting on our stools with our cameras poised capturing the action as it happens.  John asked me to remind you that the camera adds 10 lbs!

Shad meets the Race Horses

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The early morning spring light was veiled by the heavy mist that lingered across the green gallops forming the backdrop for a location photography shoot John and I attended a few days ago.  Regular readers will know how much I love being in the countryside spending time with nature, so you can imagine how excited I was to get up close and personal with some of the fastest and highest prized horses in the world.  We were attending a course that took place in Newmarket (apparently the ‘headquarters’ of horse racing) with dinner and an overnight hotel stay included.

 

The food was delicious and the other photographers were friendly, although there’s always one who thinks he knows it all and kept flashing his equipment at the table.  I managed to exchange a couple of surreptitious eyebrow raises with the silver-haired guy opposite me and remembered an old Chinese proverb which, in my words, goes something like this – “he who brags loudest, shoots daftest”!  I noticed a man with thinning light brown hair and a quiff look sternly at me.  Apparently he didn’t think a cat should be at the dinner table.  But I soon impressed him with my impeccable manners, being sure not to slouch, put my paws on the table or lick anything below the waist!

 

Now I do like my peace and quiet at night and that’s exactly what I got when I went to sleep on a soft pillow at the bottom of the bed John slept in.  I woke to the joyful sound of birdsong while it was still dark.  I do like the birds and being a domesticated and sophisticated feline photographer, my instincts to chase them are well controlled thanks to my keen cognitive abilities, pursuit of photography and John’s exemplary care (he makes sure I have plenty of games to keep my mind occupied).  When we went down to breakfast, the staff remembered me from the night before and gave me some extra salmon and scrambled eggs to keep my fur silky and prepare me for the busy day ahead.

 

Nothing had prepared me for strolling across the gallops just after dawn with hundreds of racehorses gathering around to do their morning workouts.  They were so tall and muscular, their short shining coats glistening with sweat and hot air blasting out of their nostrils as they snorted and whinnied their way past me.  I must admit I was slightly nervous when one of them stopped directly in front of me and lowered his head, but he gently pushed his big soft nose against my cheek as though he knew I needed some encouragement and from that moment on, I was well away!

 

He introduced me to the stable cat – a striped tabby boy who sat proudly on the ground watching the riders and trainers head out with the horses while the staff and grooms stayed behind to work in the yard.  And did they work!  Heavy wheelbarrows and water buckets were used to clear up the copious amounts of dust, dirt and manure that get caught in the most unattractive of places.  The bedding is changed in the barns every day, the tack must be cleaned down and the horses feet must be picked to remove all the muck I presume.  Apparently I’m not the only animal that needs to clean the toe jam from between my tootsies.  But unlike some animals, I don’t do it in public!  After a day at the stables I didn’t exactly smell delicious, so I packed up early to begin my washing routine and let John mingle with the rest of the photographers, smiling at the ladies and admiring the gee-gees

Shad checks out the kite-surfers

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Jumpin’ jiminy was it windy out there this weekend!  John and I were driving along the seafront and spotted some large kites swaying and souring through the air.  Intrigued, we pulled up and saw a photo opportunity – wet-suited kite-surfers riding the waves.  It was exhilarating to say the least, setting up my camera on the promenade whilst the wind whipped through my fur and the salty sea-mist sprayed my whiskers.

It looked like a tough and risky business but I imagine the surfers must have been getting a real adrenaline kick as they harnessed the power of the wind with their kites and propelled themselves across the choppy water.  They spotted us taking photos and started showing off, maneuvering their bodies with strength and balance.  They performed tricks, gliding across the surface of the sea and jumping and flying through the air, grabbing their boards and landing skilfully.  I was amazed that they didn’t get their kites caught up in each others’ and I was impressed with their persistence, no matter how many times they came off their boards, they just climbed right back on and kept going.  That’s the spirit!

Much as I enjoyed shooting the surfers, we packed up after an hour because my paws were getting damp and I had a heck of a hankering for fish.  We gave the surfers a wave goodbye and jumped into the car to dry off.  Luckily, John keeps my favourite travelling blanket on the back seat, so I curled up and had one of my cat-naps, dreaming of crowds of people applauding as I back-flipped my way across the water, the first hot-footing free-styling feline to ride a surfboard!