LETTER: Bowled over by England's sporting success

As a patriot and one who has always enjoyed playing or watching sport (I prefer the former as sometimes the latter bores me) I watched probably the greatest game of international one day cricket ever.

Yes, I wanted England to win but I didn’t want the Kiwis to lose. I suppose what I really wanted therefore was a draw. When I compete either in sport or in life, I have the greatest respect for a loser who has given their all.

This contest swung backwards and forwards and as is often the case, in order to win, it was necessary not only to be good at something but also to have luck on your side.

The difference between a six and being out may be a foot on or just past a boundary rope.

The difference between two and six may be an unlucky overthrow.

Usually Lady Luck goes against England but for once she looked down kindly.

I believe that we had many very talented individual performances and also that never say die attitude whilst those Kiwis had that magical thing where the sum of the individual parts was so much greater than that of the individuals concerned.

Still, today I feel proud to be a Brit and we can all remind the world that we have now won world titles in three of the sports we invented.

However, I then found I had missed one of the greatest men’s tennis finals, that Hamilton had won yet again and our netball ladies had also won.

Some day! Some sport!

Alan M Etheridge

Dudley