The Fox catches up

The Old Fox is only too aware that this latest blog is much overdue but asks for the indulgence of his readers having been involved in extensive earth moving operations since the day after the last post. What's more there's still plenty to sort in the old quarters so writing time has been seriously reduced. Anyway, with Mrs Vixen doing most of the sorting and clearing today and the grand-cubs enjoying the delights of Cornwall, here's an opportunity to get at least half up to date.

The Grey One has a cousin who lives just up the road from where the worst of the recent riots occurred. Reports are that many small businesses, built up through their owners working, 16/18 hours a day, were trashed. Senseless stuff. Apparently the Olympic site itself was one of the targets and those of us looking forward to next year's games should be thankful that the plot was foiled by the interception of Twitter messages by the police.  Now the Fox has only just started to tweet rather than bark and, as he follows Reuters, many Irish language sites and a plentiful number of jockeys, is generally overloaded by the amount of information on offer. Perhaps the guardians of our peace must have someone full time monitoring the tweets of dodgy individuals. Is there a story here?

This month has seen several of the venues for 2012 being put to the test. The cycle road race, including two circuits of Box Hill,  followed up the mountain-bike trials and was won, significantly enough, by the great Mark Cavendish. This could easily become a fan blog for the green jerseyed one but there is no doubt that this guy will not be satisfied with silver next year. One of Britain's greatest current sportsmen without a doubt.

With the BMX trials just completed, the Fox notes that Shanaze Reade took her rightful place on  the top of the podium but expressed some criticisms of the track, in particular in adverse weather conditions. Certainly, on the recent visit of Storytellers to the Olympic site, many cameras clicked on the lunar landscape that was the BMX track designed, they were told, by a guy who, eschewing pencil and paper, gets on a bulldozer and pushes the earth around until he's satisfied with it. Apparently strong winds could see some of the lighter competitors blown off the track altogether. After all, BMX sometimes seems much more like flying than cycling.  As competitors like Shanaze and the current world-champ Mariana Pajon know what they're talking about, the Organisers may well take note. Shanaze, readers will know, is another for whom coming second equals last, as witnessed by her death or glory crash in Beijing in 2008. Where most ordinary mortals would dine out for the rest of their lives on tales of winning Olympic silver or bronze, Ms Reade and Mr Cavendish would deem it beneath a mention. If the Old One's life depended on two people riding to save it, the choice is obvious.

The Fox would have much enjoyed a prowl around Weymouth and Portland recently where the sailing trials brought many nationalities together to try the local waters. Once again Ben Ainslie proved his gold standard in  the Finn class while Nick Dempsey in the RSX, Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark, 470 (only together since last February) and Ian Percy and Andrew Simpson, Star weighed in with silver and Paul Goodison Laser and Bryony Shaw RSX took bronze. It is a matter of history that the redoubtable Ms Shaw, whilst treading water after winning bronze in 2008, gave the quote of the Olympic Regatta, "I'm so clucking happy!" - or something like that.

Off the Olympic track a little, but great sport nevertheless, the Grey Fox was once more to be seen on the York Knavesmire last Wednesday for the running of the Juddmonte International. This brought a sensational result for  Sir Henry Cecil who trained the first and second -Twice Over and Midday. Don't forget that these magnificent beasts are athletes themselves, trained to perfection to go out and deliver. Like their human counterparts, they provide a great sight straining for victory over their equally well prepared opponents. That's sport! Long may it continue.