Where’s my sport gone? You can be forgiven for asking. It wasn’t so long ago that 2020 stretched ahead into the distance offering any number of spectator treats to savour.
But the new, if temporary, normal does not include live sport. The current state of play revolves around highlights and repeats of events gone by. Our ‘magnificent triviality’ – as the late, great Hugh McIlvanney dubbed it – has fallen victim to the lockdown with all play suspended until (at the time of writing) at least the end of April.
But there is a light at the end of the tunnel for the return of spectator sport. The Olympic flame may be dimmed but it is far from extinguished with the greatest show on earth rescheduled for 2021 from 23 July to 8 August with the Paralympics to follow from 24 August to 5 September.
Closer to home it’s a waiting game. The starting pistol, the half-time whistle, the thunder of hooves and the roar of the crowd. We miss them all, along with the sound of bat on ball. But sooner or later they will be back.