Welcome to the beta version of the new Women & Golf website. Our web monkeys are still hard at work and welcome your feedback.  

Advertisement

Lone Wolf and the Sheene effect

Motorcycle racers  had a lot of exposure on mainstream TV over Christmas. Well, three  of of them. Racing Legends was a BBC 2 documentary on Barry Sheene, now sadly departed; I'm a Celebrity on ITV saw Foggy, now sadly retired, crowned King of the Jungle; only the irritatingly irrepressible Guy Martin is actually doing it now and his Channel 4 programme Passion for Life was a bit about racing and a lot about his other activities.

It is perhaps a sad reflection on the state of racing in the UK that only one current British rider who can claim to be a household name. The Crutchlows, Smiths, Sykes and Byrnes are eclipsed in the public mind by a road racer whose interests are fixing lorries and flirting with death but has acquired TV notoriety with a series of record-breaking two-wheel stunts.

Sheene was, and still is, head and shoulders above anybodyeither before or after in public awareness. London taxi drivers will still shout at errant dispatch riders : Oi, who do  you think you are, Barry Sheene?" On the BBC programme Suzi Perry described Barry  and his model wife Stephanie as the Posh and Becks  of the 1970s. They were.

Advertisement

Together with Henry Cooper, he was the face/body of Brut, splashing it on all over. Appearances on the Parkinson Show and
This Is Your Life made him the best known sportsman in Britain.

It was not by accident. Sheene worked desperately hard to be a world champion and he also cultivated his "Jack the Lad" playboy image, was articulate and presentable. Which is more than can be said for most of today's sportsmen who too often seem to regard the people who ultimately pay their wages as a necessary evil.

Foggy was, of course, an entirely different character. The taciturn Lancastrian was a sort of anti-hero but after 20 years of virtual anonymity, it now seems we can't switch on a television without him turning up somewhere. There he was at the BBC Sportsview Personality of the Year presenting the Coach of the Year award to Paul McGinley, supremo of golf 's Yank-bashing Ryder Cup team; and then the newly crowned King of the Jungle teamed up with his old mates Ant and Dec in something called Text Santa on ITV, with one part a sort of corner shop version of "I'm a Celebrity ..." and only marginally less silly.

Foggy still probably can't believe his luck. And it has made all the doubters,  killjoys and naysayers who wondered if he had lost his marbles eat their words though it left the cynics saying that not only had he lost his marbles but probably his money as well. Neither was true.

Meanwhile Guy Martin, was giving an interview to The Guardian, yes that media pillar of the left wing establishment. They were obviously intrigued as to why a motorbike racing hero, by virtue of his Channel 4 speed stunts,  and a hardback book "Speed", prominently displayed in Waterstones alongside the great authors of our time, plus the odd TT incident, spends most of his time mending Volvo trucks. It is a mystery to most of us who know he has a Porsche, or something like it, in a barn.

Unlike Sheene, they have, almost despite themselves, become household names. "How do they do it?" I hear all our great champions mutter as they watch the tenth rerun of BSBs on Christmas Day. Well, gentlemen it's sometimes the way the cookie crumbles but being something other than boring is a good start.

We're in the entertainment business. Martin's rare interviews are usually entertaining, often provocative. This was from The Guardian:

"I still love motorbike racing. I love it because it can kill you. Well, everything in the world has been sanitised with bloody health and safety. There isn't really anything in the world where you can go out and kill yourself. I like being master of my own destiny. You can go out on your bike, make one little mistake and that's it. You're dead. I love all that. Being so near, yet so far."

The Channel 4 documentary was entitled "A Passion for Life”…

Advertisement

TEARS OVER TAX

What could possibly make a world champion cry? Getting beaten? A painful crash? Getting dropped by a sponsor?

For  Marc Marquez it was none of the above. The boy genius announced that he was decamping from his native country, Spain, to base himself in Andorra, a well known tax haven. It was not received well. The Spanish, having endured a huge recession putting quarter of people out of work, do not like the idea of people avoiding paying their taxes. The Spanish media didn't like it either and turned Marquez from hero to zero in the blink of an eye.

Writing in BikeSportNews, David Emmett of the influential website Motomatters.com, described a press conference leading up to the Superprestigio indoor dirt track event at which the MotoGP  champion was the star attraction:"Marquez could control his emotions no longer. The tears came leaving him unable to speak for a few moments.

Advertisement

"What caused the tears to flow? In the run up to the event Marquez had come under sustained attack in the Spanish media, and from fans, over his decision to move to notorious tax haven Andorra. In hard economic times for Spain and with government ministers accused of tax evasion by moving money into Andorra, the timing of Marquez' move was terrible."

Emmett pointed out that the outrage was understandable as taxes paid by the fans had paid for the schools which educated him,the hospitals which mended him and some of the Spanish race tracks where he celebrated victories. But, he added:"He is not unique.The current MotoGP paddock houses riders living in Andorra, Monaco, Switzerland and the Isle of Man(who can he be talking about Ed?). All places hailed as great training environments and, incidentally, very low rates of taxation for athletes."

He raises a very interesting point. Tax evasion/avoidance is a big issue right now, with the very big or very rich in the dock. But as Emmett points out:"These athletes are proud to stand on a podium and listen to their national anthem, yet seem reluctant to contribute to the finances of the countries whose flag they have stitched to their leathers."

It can be argued, as Marquez did, that a racers career can be short and end at any time. Drying his tears, he then went on to insist, very wisely, that he would continue to pay his taxes in Spain.

Articles you may like

Advertisement

More Big Read

Advertisement
linkedin facebook pinterest youtube rss twitter instagram facebook-blank rss-blank linkedin-blank pinterest youtube twitter instagram