SPORTS: New Zealand

From New Zealand, Christian Lentz reports: "Unfortunately, the US is not the only country where people insist on calling football soccer. I have made many a valiant effort to convince my students that the sport using the round, not the oval, ball is the one that should be called football. (I even resorted to giving the odd lecture on football in Germany (and in particular the Third Reich) to "reeducate" New Zealanders.) But, alas, the media here is immensely biased towards rugby, even featuring, and fussing over, an obscure match between the All Blacks (the NZ national rugby union team) and the touring Italian team while the far more important Football World Cup is on (the progress of which is, on a positive note, seemingly followed by a large number of people).

Talking about sports coverage in the media, my main bone of contention is, however, how we are being increasingly inundated with reports about golf matches and the huge prize monies won by players. It's bad enough as far as NZ radio and newspapers are concerned, but I am now also increasingly faced with these kinds of reports on BBC World Service. Does anybody really care hearing regularly about something that, in my mind, is really a hobby, not a sport?! Golf should be confined to the same margins on which such "activities" as darts and billiards are usually to be found".

Ronald Hilton - 6/7/02