Published: 26 June, 2015
by RICHARD OSLEY

WHEN it comes to the Olympics, all that really matters is track and field. It’s the spotlight moment for runners like Mo Farah to win a spot hawking Quorn mince on the telly, heptathletes like Jessica Ennis-Hill to secure a tube poster picture selling credit cards and long jumpers like Greg Always-On-TV to cement a slot reading stories to toddlers on the Bedtime Hour. And of course they win some medals too. We should celebrate these guys in their centre stage moment. But this does not mean we should not want to share the Olympic vibes around all sports, and it was especially disappointing to see the bid to bring the silliness of snooker to the 2020 Tokyo Games rejected by a fun sponge Olympic committee this week. Imagine watching someone trying to sink a black ball decider to win a gold medal. Stuart Bingham would be signed up for Celebrity Masterchef and an ad deal in no time.

• BRITAIN has a new number 2 at tennis: Aljaz Bedene, who was born in Slovenia but lives in Hertfordshire. Whereas England cricket fans have never seemed to mind  cheering someone with a South African twang at the crease, the tennis crowd never seem so warm to imported talent. Bedene is not a world-beater but is promising enough. But will he follow in the footsteps of Greg Rusedski, who now seems an affable pundit but, with his broad Canadian accent, never really seemed to considered, in his playing days, to be “one of ours”?

• SKY and BT Sport are really battling for attention when it comes to paid-for sports channel subscriptions ahead of the next football season. In what may seem like padding around the Premier League, FA Cup and the big one, the Champions League, you will see the offer of extra matches from European Leagues you don’t really care about. Sky have the Dutch league and even the Major League Soccer from the US. BT show matches from France. It means “the football” is always on, to the extent you wonder if a saturation point exists at all. But are there really so many superfans who want to watch six matches in a row from all over Europe? The clue to popularity of these unhinged soccer-watching sessions may lie in what you see when the action stops at half-time: Ray Winstone’s odds-calling floating head, or a bantering lad-man stepping out of the bookies. Could it be that our addicted nation is watching any kick from anywhere it can for more than just an interest in the game? Tweets on matchdays suggest gambled lives are being ruined just as much on the result of a Bordeaux or Vitesse Arnhem match as on an Arsenal one.

• I MUST remember to thank him. If I see him, I must remember to thank Richard Osley. Such words must be bubbling around all of your heads after some recent sage advice on this page. Just two weeks ago, the sports diary made the clear recommendation to get tuned in to the Women’s World Cup. Those who followed the instruction have been rewarded with some football which is really worth watching for what it is. With England romping away to the quarter-finals, we’re all Lionesses now.