Everybody Wants To Run The World

Sport again. And sports tourism. One thing you have to hand to Alcúdia town hall is that they do make an effort, more so than others. They have now got a brochure for various sporting events to take place over the spring and into the summer. The first, over the Easter weekend, is an international beach volleyball tournament that, not unsurprisingly, will take place on the beach. In April, there will be a Nordic walking what they call "meeting point". Not a competitive thing as such, more a gathering of all those with those damn sticks; Nordic skiing without the snow and also indeed without the skis. This is apparently going to take place in Alcúdia, which may mean in the streets. What a fine racket this is likely to create, all that tapping and clicking of the poles on the pavements. According to the brochure, Alcúdia is the "perfect place" for this singularly daft past-time as it "meets the required conditions for practicing (sic) this activity in terms of weather, location and environment". Hard though they try, they still manage - somehow - to torture the English language. But be that as it may. There will be a half marathon in May, something called "Island Fit" in June "in the incomparable setting of Alcúdia beach, creating a unique atmosphere of co-existence and a frenetic pace for participants" (whatever that means), rapid ball also in June, the night race around the city walls in August, the extreme swim to Formentor, the Balearman triathlon and "Copa Presidente" golf tournament in September, and then in October the first wheelchair tennis open and the frisbee contest on the beach.

The BBC once used to boast of "great summers of sport". Not now they can't, since Sky nicked all the best bits. This all sounds like the Beeb stripped of test matches and the rest. But hush my sarcasm. Hats off to the town hall for trying, especially in the quieter months of the year, and to that end, let us not forget the boat and cuttlefish extravaganzas at the end of March and let us pray that the weather this year is not as damn cold and miserable as it was last year - Nordic skiing, anyone?


QUIZ
Yesterday - The Rolling Stones. Today's title - they changed one word for a Geldof-influenced run? Who?

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