Sun, Sport, and Success!

The Summer has been kind to Britain this time around, the weather has been glorious, the Sport has been non-stop and for the second summer running we’ve been successful. The Olympic Summer was always going to be difficult to top but I think that this one may just have done it.

It kicked off in earnest on June 1, in Hong Kong, where the British and Irish Lions would begin their Summer Tour, with a dominant win against the Barbarians. They would go into the tests in good form, even if there had been one or two hiccups during the warm ups. Winning the first test and losing to the Wallabies in the second took it to the all-important decider on July 6. The all-important decider neatly coincided with a couple of other pieces of British sporting history; Wimbledon, and Chris Froome at le Tour.  As the Lions trounced Australia 41-16, taking the first series win for sixteen years, Andy Murray was getting ready for his moment of history, and Froome was riding the 195km to Domaines. Although, he was the favourite pre-race, the world of cycling is an unpredictable and le Tour de France is far easier said than done.  Just ask Bradley Wiggins, who has been forced to withdraw from the race three times to date. However, on this day Froome showed his dominance in the mountains as one by one his rivals cracked, and for the first time on the 100^th edition of le Tour de France Froome stepped into the Yellow jersey. He would not relinquish the jersey for the rest of the tour and became the second Briton of all time to win the race, only one year after the first. One day after a historic Lions win and Chris Froome taking the Yellow jersey, Andy Murray achieved his ambition and won at Wimbledon, by beating Novak Djokovic. The Scot ended the 77 year wait for a British winner at Wimbledon since Fred Perry won. Arguably, the July 6 & 7 has to go down as one of the great British sporting weekends.

Started with a victory against the Aussies, it was somewhat fitting that the Summer should be closed in the same way. England retained the Ashes in some style, not allowing the opponents a single test victory. Although the weather may have eased them home by stopping play and quelling a good Australian performance in the third test, the win in the fourth test made it 3-0 and a far more convincing score line than merely retaining the Ashes by default.

I think then, we can call this Summer a success, if they keep getting better at this rate then next year should be something extra special!