Red Clean Sweep of Gold at Wembley

With the 2011 Badminton World Championships acting as a trail event for the 2012 Olympics we had a good indication of where most of the medals for Badminton in 2012 will be going – to Asia and in particular most of the Golds will be heading for the hosts of the last Olympics, China. The ray of hope for the rest of the world where the GB pairing of Chris Adcock and Imogen Bankier – the only Europeans to make it to the finals, the Dane Peter Hoeg Gade was the only other non-Asian to make it to the semi-finals… Being 20th seeds in the mixed doubles the team GB members did remarkably well – powering through their semi-final, but then themselves being over powered in the finals by the number one seeds – who completed a deserved clean sweep by the Chinese, for only the third time in the history of the championships.

I’m not sure of the events value to the Olympics as a trial run – semi-finals day didn’t appear to be sold out, and even on finals day the dominance of players from outside Europe meant not all the seats where filled…

<Rant Warning>

There was also the usual farce of inconsistent policy on cameras – the posted notices at the entrance where that as long as your lens was less that 6 inches you would be OK – and the notice displayed on the main screen clearly only asked for their to be no flash photography during play – but the venue had printed “absolutely no photography” on the tickets and hadn’t taken down venues standing notice for music events that photography in the main arena, even with camera phones, was prohibited. Many of the staff had also clearly not been told the correct policy for the event… With the large number of tourists from all over the world going to be present in 2012, the stated sensible policy that the Olympic team have communicated of any camera, as long as the lens is less than 6 inches, being allowed, needs to be consistently communicated – and the stewards properly informed of it…

From Badminton World Championship Semi-finals 2011

I’m really hoping that the policies adopted by Wimbledon, Twickenham and Wembley Stadium (at least for football) will be more widely taken up – allowing SLRs with sensible small to medium sized lenses will improve the quality of pictures of events – there are going to be pictures no matter what – these days every phone has a camera – some actually quite capable and it simply isn’t practical to ban them or prevent their use as cameras! So lets make the pictures that portray the events as well as possible… </Rant Warning>

Anyone lucky enough to have been allocated tickets for the Badminton during the Olympics is in for a treat – it was one of the most entertaining racket sporting events I’ve spectated at. Even travelling at 290+ KPH the shuttle was always clearly visible and the skills and reflexes display incredible – continually returning a barrage of smashes at those sorts of speed was impressive. During one particularly fast rally one play managed to change out a racket with a broken string while his double partner continued defending the volley of smashes… There was also no decent at line calls, which given the speed of the shuttle, must have been difficult to get right all the time  – players even asking for permission for refreshments of the umpire – and occasionally they where declined without issue – even after a long rally…

Lets hope the performance of Adcock and Bankier boweds well for team GB and home advantage can at least see some GB medals.

A 360° View

From U2 - Wembley 2009

A barmy summer Friday evening found me back at Wembley for another evening of music. This time U2 provided the great sound track, friends good company to share the experience with, and Wembley a rocking venue. The stage in the centre, plus fan club tickets gave a great view – lets hope more bands take this approach rather than a stage at one end. This was my first time on the side of the stadium opposite the arch – a slightly longer walk from and to the tube – but added distinctive location details to the view that meant it couldn’t be anywhere but Wembley. The evening finished of with a Chinese in the west end and a walk home along the Thames – things don’t get much better…

No need to stand on the shoulder

From Oasis - Wembley 2009

Rock is what Wembley does best – both the old run down version and the wonderful new plush version. Oasis aren’t too bad at making a large stadium rock – the combination was a great Sunday evening. Added benefit was that I’d splashed out on a “VIP package” – really a fancy name for short cutting the queues for food, drink and loos, and guaranteed good view and conformable seats. I applaud Oasis’ attempts to defeat the touts by not allocating seats until the week before the event – but that does mean knowing if you’ll be able to see the stage or not when you buy the ticket is not an option – unless you splash out on the already expensive seats…  Some people that had opted for unreserved standing, who ended up at the back of the pitch resorted to standing on shoulders – the penalty for flat pitches…  My next visit to Wembley will be for U2 – another guaranteed great evening of live music…

Power sliding round Wembley - Race of Champions style

From Race of Champions 2008

On a crisp winter day I made my way to Wembley Stadium, transformed for the weekend into a motor sport Mecca - with the prospect of race between the two heroes of the Summer - Chris Hoy, the Olympic Cycling hero and Lewis Hamilton the newly crowned F1 champion. As it turned out the combination of damp weather in the days running up to the weekend and the bitter cold on the day meant the track was too dangerous for cycling - so Lewis drove Chris round the track, burning rubber all the way.

The car control from the car drivers was impressive - but the most impressive where the x-cross riders - meters above the ground almost, but not quite loosing contact with their rides. A great days entertainment - even if it was cold enought to force me to buy a pair of Wembley branded gloves to hold off the frost bite!

NFL @ Wembley

Having extravagantly paid for "expensive" seat a Wembley to continue my goal of watching live most of the sports I've seen on TV - I've added to the list I've "watched live", one I'd previously only seen late at night on Channel 4 or 5 - American Football...

From NFL @ Wembley

The New Orleans Saints played host to the San Diego Chargers. It was very obvious who the "home team" was - the Chargers got little looking in terms of branding or valuable merchandising! It was the Saints' cheerleaders that had to freeze on what was a brisk autumn evening - at least the rain stopped. I've still not been at Wembley when the roof has been required. Having supported the Saints that play football with a round ball all my life - through good and bad time, to a lesser or greater extend, I had no problem supporting the home side. I even supported the systems that hosted the Saints first web sites - before the internet was such a big thing!

Before the real show the number of players involved in an American Football match became clear - each team warmed up separately - there wasn't room on the pitch for them at the same time. The final pre-match entertainment was a few songs from the Sterophonics - promoting there upcoming tour, then the National Anthems. A good rendition of the Star Spangled Banner, which is often murdered! Then a bare foot Joss Stone managed to murder God Save the Queen - and there was nothing the crowd could do to rescue her! Then it was game time - and it became clear that this was a sport aimed at TV viewing. Without the replays and close ups it was challenging to follow - not helped by the fact that the PA system didn't work half the time to let us hear why flags had flown. It turned out to be a high scoring match - and despite the lack of a audible PA was very entertaining. The advert breaks didn't impact things noticeably - there where plenty natural breaks in the play. It was surprising to see how little of the Wembley pitch was used - they played on a very narrow 100 yard strip. That left plenty of space for the cheerleaders - great additional entertainment!
Next sport on my list is Baseball...

Madonna Rocks Wembley

She made everyone wait - but when she finally choose to join us an hour later than scheduled she put on a great show! Although I have to say I think Kyle retains the crown of the princess of pop - maybe Madonna is the queen of rock - as some of the best elements had her plucking an electric guitar. The policy of allowing "small" cameras generated a star field like effect round the stadium as thousands of LCD faced out from the centre. I also think I've cracked my TZ5 - switching to spot metering and focusing worked a treat! Wembley being so much larger than the O2 meant I was much further from the stage than at the O2 despite being in the first section of seats - but still managed to get some identifiable pictures...

From Madonna - Wembley 2008

The new Wembley is a great improvement on the one they started knocking down as I left it 8 years ago... Good facilities and the small miracle that I left the concert without at any point having to stop to queue - a brisk walk straight on to a waiting Jubilee Line train. Now if they can get their pricing to match the O2 it would be great - but to be fair Kylie did multiple nights at the 02 - so Madonna tickets to a one off concert are bound to attract a premium - but not sure about £160 for the best seats rather than £40 was justified...