Simon Hobday has left the bar for the last time - ICL International Champion, US Senior Open winner, etc

First topic message reminder :

Dismayed to see yet another sporting death this week, with Closing Time announced for the legendary Simon Hobday.

Anyone unfamiliar with the great South African should know that, whatever John Daly might have done or said he's done in his career, he was positively minor league compared to Hall Of Fame calibre Hell Raiser Hobday.

In his spare time he enjoyed a fine career, 6 x Sunshine Tour wins, including the 1971 South African Open, a Madrid Open and a German Open, before reinventing himself on the US Senior Town, presumably enticed by Brian Henning, where he won five times including the 1994 Senior Open.

I'm sure many of the greyer beards amongst us have their own Hobday hilarities to pass on, but to give others a flavour of the man, I link here a Golf Digest interview w/Nick Price - who, not incidentally, rates Trevino and Hobday as the finest ball- strikers he'd ever seen:

 http://www.golfdigest.com/story/stachura_price0311


(Terrible couple of weeks in sport as we've lost Peter Richardson & Jackie Hampshire, Derek Ibbotson, Alex Young & Tommy Gemmell, and now this.)

Does anyone really, honestly believe that England are a world class team? Why is anyone arguing this point. England a a good international team, nothing more nothing less.

And RIP Simon Hobday, personally never heard of you though.

It was Monty who claimed they were world class Ben, and he pulled a figure out of the air that if you are top 16 then that automatically makes you world class, so let's all salute the world class team of Poland. I wonder if England dropped to 20 if Monty would change the goalposts to 20 teams being world class.

How can a team which has 1 QF in its last 4 tournaments be world class? Costa Rica and Iceland have one QF in the last 4 tournaments, so they must be world class too eh?

Surely to be world class, you have to be a team which CONTENDS for the tournament and isn't a team which hasn't  been beyond a QF in 20 years.

England haven't contended in more than a footballing generation.

How can they not be a world class team? They are in the top 16 in the ranking. So what's a world class team? Italy? Holland?

A world class team surely is in contention for the tournament.

It's not in a name, so if Holland are currently crap, they aren't world class either.

England have ONE QF in the last 4 tournaments, what's world class about that?

England were 17th in 2000, does that mean they were not world class?

When did anyone ever take FIFA rankings seriously? What matters is tournaments, and England are gash in those.

So if you played golf in a world qf you wouldn't be world class either?

I guess we'll see just how "world class" England are in the next tournament, just as "world class" as they were in the last one.

For your information, England's only QF in the last 10 years was in 2012, so when are you saying England were world class?

If you reached a QF in golf would you be World Class? Of course not, are you contending for the tournament at QF level? Of course not. Are Lincoln City/Milwall top class for reaching the QF of the FA Cup?

Heres hoping! We'll see you sweatys there! Or not

I love how you have to bring Scotland into it, as if I can't possibly have legitimate criticism of England without you insinuating that it's national jealousy.

I've long said I don't care about Scotland, being Scottish or Scottish sport, and unlike you have done for England, I freely admit Scotland are not good.

You are in a minority of 1 in thinking England are a world class team.

It so blatantly is national jealousy! And hilarious

How is it jealousy and not just stating the facts?

I actually like England and the English. I'm just not so deluded as you to think they are a quality team capable of being labelled "world class".

Cos you keep banging on about it? Overrated England football team is probably your most talked about subject after TW.

It was on topic. So what's your problem?

Not my problem, but England being described as world class clearly gets up your nose for some reason. I can only surmise some sort of inadequacy disorder must be plaguing you.

It's just a nonsense, wrong and baseless statement to make.

Your entire argument is based on tinpot rankings and completely ignores Englands lamentable record in tournaments.

I can't think of anyone who would use the FIFA rankings to justify anything. If you brought that up anywhere else, you'd be laughed out of town.

England were world class a very long time ago, they aren't any longer. No pundit or manager would agree with you, very few supporters do, and no opposition team would agree.

The only thing England are world class at is not performing.

super_realist wrote:It was on topic. So what's your problem?

It might be sour grapes were England to actually be any good, if they were contending in tournaments and were actually coming close to winning something, but they aren't. They are tournament makeweight like a load of other dross and limp out in embarrassing ways virtually every tournament they make it to.

Why would it? I would imagine the fact your national team is soooo much worse than a team you consider second rate would be far more likely to cause you concern. Otherwise I cannot see why you would take the slightest bit of interest.

MontysMerkin wrote:Why would it? I would imagine the fact your national team is soooo much worse than a team you consider second rate would be far more likely to cause you concern. Otherwise I cannot see why you would take the slightest bit of interest.

and there is the very epitomy of England being ordinary. You have to go back to 1996 to find a time when they were good. Mac was probably not even old enough for a bus pass.

That was an example of your countrymen at the peak of their powers and the best player of his generation.






























Colin Hendry of course...

MontysMerkin wrote:That was an example of your countrymen at the peak of their powers and the best player of his generation.






























Colin Hendry of course...

Scotland haven't been good since about 1982, but the difference is I'm not going to pretend they still are like you are with "home before the postcards" England.