It's not such a hard life for Hamilton
9:08am Thursday 28th June 2007 in Sport By Neil Bonnar
Neil Bonnar shoots from the lip.
LEWIS Hamilton is a phenomenon, but there's no getting away from the fact that his sport requires its participants to sit down and move as little as possible.
Fanatics of Formula One will beat you down with a barrage of eye-glazing-over statistics and argument at the merest hint of criticism over the physical exertion of their heroes.
But how hard can it be? I've certainly never seen a driver gasping for air or stumbling around the track in a state of exhaustion after a race.
Formula One is about technique, concentration and the ability to spray champagne long distances and not be driven mad by the constant high-pitched racket of car engines.
I know it's not fashionable to say anything detrimental about Formula One while a Brit is the sport's new hero.
You're supposed to wait a respectable time in the same way that you shouldn't say curling is a load of over-hyped rubbish until at least a few weeks after four Scottish housewives have taken the Winter Olympics gold.
But I'll jump the gun this time because of the comparison between Hamilton and boxer Ricky Hatton which will doubtlessly be made when the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award draw closes.
As a fully-fledged member of the old school which teaches that real sports require serious physical exertion - or at least enough to get a decent sweat on - I regard boxing as one of the ultimate tests of fitness.
Add the necessity for bravery and Hatton's achievement in beating Jose Luis Castillo after getting to the top of the world of boxing with an unbeaten career record should make him the country's current number one sporting hero.
MY wife never used to look forward to Sundays in the 10 years I played football.
Out at 9am for a 10.30am kick off, a few beers after the match and home for 2.30pm.
It was hardly conducive to family life and I packed it in shortly after the kids came along.
But that's the thing with sport, it splits up families, sometimes for good.
Football's bad enough but golf's even worse, taking up five to six hours depending on the amount of time needed for a debrief at the 19th.
And then there's cricket.
In Bolton there are two local leagues, the Bolton League and the Association, and the amount of time its players spend out of the house at weekend makes my few hours at football look like I was just nipping round to the shops.
This weekend Golborne, Spring View, Little Hulton and Standish will be taking part in league games on Saturday and in the Cross Cup semi-final on Sunday.
That means players being out of the house at lunchtime and back around eight o'clock on both days.
And even if it rains they've still got to stick around for a few hours until the umpires decide to call the game off.
Earlier in the season, a Cross Cup game between Astley and Tyldesley (for non-cricket readers, that's one team) and Daisy Hill, required the teams to turn up and wait around in the hope the rain would stop on the Sunday afternoon and then every night between Monday to Thursday and finally the following Monday night when the game was concluded.
That was on top of playing other matches at the weekends.
Local cricketers deserve full respect for committing so much to their sport.
I envy their participation in Bolton's two quality and hugely competitive leagues, but there are two reasons why I could never be one of them - I can't play cricket, and my wife wouldn't let me.
WATCHING Wimbledon has been dramatically improved by the introduction of Hawk-Eye to sort out disputed line calls.
The excited anticipation and raucous reaction to the decision as it is shown live to the crowd and television audience is superbly entertaining.
It also ensures the correct decision is reached which is always a good idea in sport.
Football would benefit from the same technology to decide whether a ball has crossed the line for a goal.
But don't expect the football authorities to rush into such an obviously positive move.
PEOPLE who say football managers do nothing in summer should think again.
A browse through any newspaper reveals that they are constantly swooping and involved in races to sign players.
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