Thread: World's most famous Australian

Yes. Get rid of all events that depend on subjective judging.

Olympics would be done and dusted in a week

half the time the reasons for one person/team "winning" and another "losing" are completely non obvious to the majority of the spectators

Hmm, better add boxing, most equestrian sports, diving....

In fact I find myself frequently mystified as to why many tries, goals, and wickets are awarded or disallowed. So who wants to have a go at a definition that encompasses 'real sports' and excludes all of these pretenders?

Is Seppo-baiting a sport?

Originally Posted by silentC

Is Seppo-baiting a sport?

More of a National pastime I think

Originally Posted by silentC

Is Seppo-baiting a sport?

No, because they make it so easy, there's no challenge. But it is darn good fun.

Is Seppo-baiting a sport?
Put that in the Olympics, we'd win a gold every time...

Originally Posted by silentC

Fortunately, the compilers of the Macquarie dictionary don't agree with you there, Bob:

sport
// (say spawt) noun 1. an activity pursued for exercise or pleasure, usually requiring some degree of physical prowess, as hunting, fishing, racing, baseball, tennis, golf, bowling, wrestling, boxing, etc. 2. a particular form of pastime. 3. (plural) a meeting for athletic competition. 4. the pastime of hunting, shooting, or fishing with reference to the pleasure achieved: we had good sport today. 5. diversion; recreation; pleasant pastime. 6. playful trifling, jesting, or mirth: to do or say a thing in sport. 7. derisive jesting; ridicule. 8. an object of derision; a laughing-stock. 9. something sported with or tossed about like a plaything: to be the sport of circumstances. 10. Colloquial (a term of address, usually between males): g'day, sport. 11. Colloquial one who is interested in pursuits involving betting or gambling. 12. Biology an animal or a plant, or a part of a plant, that shows an unusual or singular deviation from the normal or parent type; a mutation. 13. Obsolete amorous dalliance.

Well, they do kind of agree with me, they just give the word in ALL its various meanings and shades of same; but to say that sport is "a pleasant pastime" means that we could subsume just about anything we like under this heading. The great nose picking competition, sexual depradations, whittling a woody, whatever we want.

Originally Posted by silentC

Is Seppo-baiting a sport?

Well it's not an intellectual exercise!

P

Originally Posted by Bob Willson

Well, they do kind of agree with me, they just give the word in ALL its various meanings and shades of same; but to say that sport is "a pleasant pastime" means that we could subsume just about anything we like under this heading. The great nose picking competition, sexual depradations, whittling a woody, whatever we want.

Very true and this is in fact my point. If you take the word sport back to basics, there's nothing in the definition that rules out anything commonly referred to as a sport, nor does it rule out plenty of activities not commonly referred to as sport but pleasant just the same.

In fact it doesn't even say that sport has to be pleasant, which is getting more into my understanding of the word. Is there anything pleasant about playing a good game of rugby? Not if you are any good at it, I'd have thought. I spend a fair amount of my time cycling and I can assure you that whilst I consider it excercise and, in it's competitive form, it is certainly a sport, there is nothing pleasant about it. Not if you take it seriously.

Originally Posted by silentC

I spend a fair amount of my time cycling and I can assure you that whilst I consider it excercise and, in it's competitive form, it is certainly a sport, there is nothing pleasant about it. Not if you take it seriously.

And will the closet masochist please stand up.

Well, there is that, and the Lycra shorts

Originally Posted by silentC

Well, there is that, and the Lycra shorts

I won't go shopping for new high heels with you if you wear Lycra shorts.

What even if I shave my legs? Hang on, we're starting to get into Al's territory here. What were we talking about? Oh yeah, sport. So how 'bout them Yankees, huh?

So, is that the next sport then? Yankin'? It is certainly pleasurable enough. Maybe too pleasurable and we should try to inject an element of pain into the procedings. Bang heads on wall maybe. No, hold on, I do that anyway.

Originally Posted by Zed

you nasty anti golf weenies!

I seem to have stirred up a hornet’s nest with my remarks on golf.

Firstly may I clarify that I think Greg Norman is a great Australian. He has indeed done much for golf in this country but IMO as a sportsman he is not in the same league as some of the other worthwhile nominees. In any case how well is he known overseas?

My remarks about golfers are those I met day in day out for 11 years at the club I worked. It did not matter who they were, change the faces and names, but their whinging and moaning about what went wrong and why they played badly was always the same. :eek: Sure some members were okay, usually those with a handicap of 10 or less, however most club golfers are IMO a breed apart and should be confused with real sports people.

I could fill pages upon pages about golfers but the classic was a group of four, all needing a handicap of 155 instead of the maximum 27, who after taking 5 ½ hours to do the course (which should only have taken 3 hours) came and complained about slow play. Need I say more. :mad:

Richard, the term hacker is appropriate.

Zed, I am sorry to hear that you are a golfer. I am also sorry that my post upset you enough to give me a Reddy. Unlike another Peter I don’t give one in return like tit for tat. However if you read my post correctly for you to be upset you must be a club golfer and a whinger. This I never suspected so my apologies to you for being a golfer/whinger.

Finally, if the definition of sport is that of usually requiring some degree of physical prowess what do call it if they ride a buggy around the course and only get of to hit the ball 10 yards and after trying to put 10 times on the same green they give up and move on without scoring. :eek: Surely not sport.


Peter.