I Want My Sundays Back!

By Harley Quin
June 30 2006

Politics and sport go hand in hand, regardless of what certain sports folk would have you believe in times gone by. The next big issue on both agendas is Sunday. Read on...

There is a lot of debate at present over Sunday trading with various local politicians jumping on the bandwagon to support the "No" vote. On the one hand you have the trade unions fighting to save their members from working every day of the week and on the other hand large retailers are trying to squeeze every last drop of money from their customers and every last drop of energy from their staff.

When I was a boy it was a struggle to find any shop open on a Sunday, excepting tobacconists of course where I could buy my Beatles and Monkees’ bubble gum cards, and I hated it. Sunday was the day on which you got bored and the likelihood of shops being open was as far fetched as responding to a knock on the door and opening it to find a scantily clad Raquel Welch asking if you fancy coming out to play!

However with age, general middle aged grumpiness, a hatred of shopping and an acceptance that Miss Welch won’t be coming round for a game of touch rugby in the park, I find my feet are now firmly entrenched in the “No” camp. However I'd also like to take this “No” campaign a bit further and say "No" to sport on Sundays.

I'm not a religious man so keeping Sunday free for a God is not an issue. However I do think we should have one day a week that is different from the rest. A day when we can enjoy a bit of peace and quiet and meet up with friends and family without trying to fit this in with the ever-growing sporting calendar.

When it comes to sport I'm something of a traditionalist. I like cricketers in white, footballers with brylcream and centre partings and rugby players with boots too big and heavy to allow anything but a slow trudge from one ruck to another. But most of all I want my sport on a Saturday. I want a home match every other week and I want it to start at 3pm. In short I want my life back!

Years ago you knew where you were and could easily plan a sporting season safe in the knowledge that you usually wouldn't upset family and friends by saying, "Sorry I can't come to your party because we have a match". Parties could be arranged to co-incide with away fixtures or, more reasonably, on a Sunday.

Unfortunately it won’t happen, in the same way as a reduction in Sunday trading won’t happen. Sunday is a leisure day and leisure equals money. The men in suits who control everything in our lives want the money so, if anything, Sunday will see an increase in shopping and also sport. How long will it take them to catch on to the fact that we aren’t making a great deal of use of Sunday evenings for sport?

Right I’m off to watch my copy of One Million Years BC!