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![]() | Your Sport Relief Superstars ideas ![]() Classic 70s sports show Superstars is coming back to your screens, with nine top stars competing for charity. What fun and games would suit the sports stars best? Last seen nearly 20 years ago, Superstars was famed for making top sports stars compete in madcap 'It's a Knockout' style games. And it will be making a welcome return on 13 July, as some top names - including Sir Steve Redgrave, Austin Healey and Dwight Yorke - compete in a one-off special in aid of Sport Relief. And we're asking you to suggest the games you'd like to see the champs contest. So if you'd pay to see a Beckham v Neville race on crutches, send in your funny games that would suit your favourite sports star. A bunch of snooker and darts players taking each other on in typical Superstars events - squats, cycling etc. This would be feasible but you would need an ashtray and pint glass holder on the bikes... and a team of paramedics. The other obvious thing would involve Anna Kournikova and space hoppers, but I think Channel 5 may have already thought of that! I'd love to see a golf competition between a 'Cricketers' team and a 'Tennis Players' team. I would love to see Lleyton Hewitt (good little golfer) playing the best cricket can offer up! Anything involving Kevin Keegan falling off his bike some humour is timeless!!
How about Subbuteo (another 70's classic)? What are you lot on? Superstars was in fact a programme which invited top sportsmen to compete in a medley of other disciplines, such as track bike racing, weight-lifting, archery or pistol shooting, and with a few events such as maximum squat thrusts or dips between parallel bars in a minute thrown in for good measure. The first was won by John Conteh. I recall Terry Jacks, the judo 'player' winning at least once, Geoff Capes competed, Dave 'Boy' Green, the boxer as well. And one of the best was Lynn (?) Davis, the former Olympic long-jumper (I think!) Whatever, I certainly recall it as an 'It's A Knockout' type of tournament. It was taken very seriously by most competitors - especially Geoff Capes! I think that space hoppers are definitely the way forward, however has anyone considered trying to emulate Kevin Keegan's glorious efforts at Superstars, or other reconstructions of sports stars making arses of themselves? Maybe someone could recreate Goeff Thomas' threatening of the corner flag at Wembley or Ronnie Rosenthal v Villa. I thought the idea of Superstars was to pit stars from different sports against each other in games of skill, speed, and strength. The magic of Brian Jacks squat thrust supremacy and Keegan's spectacular crash of the bike are top moments - don't let these memories be sullied by the image of today's stars racing in pantomime horse suits. Make it classic not comic.
Have each superstar 'managed' by a current Premiership manager who is interviewed after each event with points added for accepting referees decisions, and acknowledging their players' mistakes or the other players' achievements. (I would feel sorry for the superstar managed by Mr Wenger!). I'd like to see some Premiership teams compete in a game where you kick the ball out of your hands into a basket ball net for one point, and if you can hit your opponent on the face it's three points, and if you fall off the six inch wide beam your standing on then you're sent off. Teams of five each would compete in this sport, if it took off it could soon be an Olympic sport! Soap-box derby. It may have already been won by Steve Agnew. Well said, Steve. A 400m medley race using the following: 50m dash on space hoppers followed by 50m on pogo sticks then 200m on chopper bikes finishing with a 100m sprint with a hula hoop. Ah, the 70s revisited!
Although I think it is great to see the sporting world getting involved in fundraising, I have to point out one huge hypocrisy in this. Virtually all those actively participating in sport are in at least one sense contributing to the problems they are trying to alleviate. All of the major sports goods manufacturers have their products made in countries in the far east with a very poor workers' rights record. The vast majority of sports goods are produced in sweatshops where the workers are paid less than a living wage, with compulsory over-time, leading to a working week which can be well in excess of 60 hours, along with the fact that many of these sweatshops employ child labour. The sports companies will try to defend their position by saying that they have introduced codes of conduct for their factories, but as they refuse to have them idependently monitored, these codes of conduct are not met. What would be more effective than all the money raised by sports relief would be if high profile sports persons refused to wear the products made by these companies. There is enough money in sport for them to at least temporarily wear goods by more ethical companies where possible, or indeed for top sportspeople to have their sportswear made independently. This would not just alleviate the symptoms of the problem, which is all Sports Relief can hope to do, but attack the root of the problem. Formula One in kids' pedal cars! | Other top Sports Talk stories: Links to more Sports Talk stories are at the foot of the page. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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