Role Card 3

Next year (between May and September), you are planning a trip with friends to Britain. Find out:
- is there an occasion when you can be sure to see the Queen? What kind of clothes should you
wear?
- where can you go to watch cricket? Decide if you want to see a big international match or a local
game.
- what would make a good sporting day outside London in June or July? Get as much information as
you can.
- is there anything for your friend who loves watching tennis? Ask for details of dates, etc.

Role Card 4.

You are a travel agent. Your partner is a customer. Read the text on this card, look carefully
at the pictures, and answer your partner's questions.

The first major sporting event of the year is the Five Nations Championship, played since 1910
between the national rugby football teams of England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and France. This
takes place over five Saturdays between January and March, with matches at Twickenham (in
London), Murrayfield (Edinburgh), Arms Park (Cardiff), Lansdowne Road (Dublin) and Parc des
Princes (Paris). Fans of each side travel to support their team, and the atmosphere in a city on the
night before a match is full of excitement and high spirits. There are no trophies for this
championship, only the honour of winning the Grand Slam (defeating all opponents) or, among the
British teams, the Triple Crown. In 1998 Italy was invited to join the championship - making it Six
Nations from January 2000.

The Boat Race, between Oxford and Cambridge Universities, is held on the last Saturday of March
from Putney to Mortlake on the River Thames in West London. Although this is an amateur contest,
it is physically very demanding: the course is almost 7km, the crews train hard under professional
coaches, and the competition is intense. There are no tickets for the Boat Race - anyone can go and
watch from the river banks and the bridges over the Thames, and enjoy the scenes of festivity and
foolery that accompany it. The first boat race was in 1829.

Also in March is the Grand National, a horse race held every year at Aintree in Liverpool since
1839. This is the most popular race in Britain, and millions of pounds are taken in bets. The course
is long (over 7 km) and very hazardous. There are 30 jumps - high wooden fences and ditches filled
with water - and horses and jockeys frequently fall. Perhaps because of the risks and exceptional
physical demands, horses that win the Grand National - such as Red Rum, which won in 1973, 1974
and 1977 - often become popular heroes.

The football season ends in May with the FA Cup Final ('FA' stands for Football Association). The
FA Cup Final is played at Wembley, the English national stadium, and the winners' trophy and
medals are traditionally presented by the King or Queen. Unlike the Football League, the FA Cup is
a knockout competition open to all football clubs in England. Five hundred clubs take part, and it
offers the excitement of little-known teams playing (and sometimes beating) famous clubs like
Arsenal or Manchester United. The Cup Final, like the Grand National, is immensely popular. It was
first held in 1872. There is also a Scottish Cup Final, at the national Stadium of Hampden Park,
which was first played in 1874/

Five Nations Championship The Grand National The University Boat Race
The first passage is from Mr Wright, the autobiography of England footballer Ian Wright. In 1996, Wright was playing for
Arsenal, one of the best-known clubs in Britain, based in North London. He had previously played for a smaller club,
Crystal Palace, in South London. Whenever Wright played for Arsenal against his old team, the fans called him a traitor.
Here he explains how he feels about such accusations:

When I think of the stick I get now from Palace fans, it makes me wonder about their mentality... Fans want it all their
way every time. Of course they want the best players to stay at the club, but then after five or six good years of service,
they cannot respect that a player wants to better himself in his playing standards and financially. It's crazy: none of the
values of real life matter where fans are concerned. Tell me, if somebody was offered a better job, with a company car
and a massive wage rise plus an extra week's holiday and BUPA, would they turn it down? No, they'd be mugs to, so
why should a footballer be any different? I love the passion and enthusiasm and love that fans bring to the game, but
sometimes it's a hell of a job trying to make them see sense.

The second passage is from Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby, which describes the life and passions of a dedicated Arsenal
supporter.

One thing I know for sure about being a fan is this: it is not a vicarious pleasure, despite all appearances to the contrary,
and those who say they would rather do than watch are missing the point... When there is some kind of triumph, the
pleasure does not radiate from the players outwards until it reaches the likes of us at the back of the terraces in a pale and
diminished form; our fun is not a watery version of the team's fun, even though they are the ones that get to score the
goals and climb the steps at Wembley to meet Princess Diana. The joy we feel on occasions like this is not a celebration
of others' good fortune, but a celebration of our own; and when there is a disastrous defeat the sorrow that engulfs us is,
in effect, self-pity, and anyone who wishes to understand how football is consumed must realise this above all things.
The players are merely our representatives, chosen by the manager rather than elected by us, but our representatives
nonetheless, and sometimes if you look hard you can see the little poles that join them together, and the handles at the
side that enable us to move them.
I am a part of the club, just as the club is a part of me; and I say this fully aware that the club exploits me, disregards my
views, and treats me shoddily on occasions, so my feelings of organic connection is not built on a muddle-headed and
sentimental misunderstanding of how professional football works. This Wembley win [against Liverpool in the final
of the Littlewoods Cup, in 1987 belonged to me every bit as much as it belonged to the players, and I worked every bit
as hard for it as they did. The only difference between me and them is that I have put in more hours, more years, more
decades than them, and so had a better understanding of the afternoon, a sweeter appreciation of why the sun still shines
when I remember it.

Which passage says more about money?

Which says more about feelings?
Which do you agree with?
Is there anything in either passage which would not
be true of footballers or fans in your country?