Friday 19 June 2009

The world has changed-again



Spent yesterday afternoon watching England play USA in Prague in the Womens' World Cup. All on the internet . Excellent- is this the end of TV as we know it ?This way of watching games is a must for 2010.






Following their win over Australia at Cobham there is a lot of interest in how England would do against USA. The first half was tremendous with the game tied at 6-6 at the break. In the second half US power prevailed and they ran out 17-8 winners.

In the 1978 Men's World championship England went down by a single goal to USA with Paul Smith playing an epic game. The game was old style 12 a side wooden stick Lacrosse to 10 a side rules. In 1982 I went to the World Championships in Baltimore and within 5 mins knew that the game had changed beyond all recognition . We had entered the era of the plastic stick where defencemen could handle long poles and were athletes who played agressive , all over the field, lacrosse. That process has continued and watching recent visitors Loyola play England agressive lacrosse is played by athletic middies all over the field. This was not the Premiership. Time for 16 man squads?

Yesterday, in Prague , it was very clear that womens Lacrosse is no longer the pretty game that attracted Queeen Victoria. It is all about power, athleticism and all over the field aggression. The US players , brought up D1 College Lacrosse, are taking us to a new game which is fast, exciting , and very , very physical. The world will never be the same again.

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