Andy Murray-Proud Scot and Great Briton

There are those of course, some of them readers of this blog who think we English should not be cheering on the likes of Andy Murray. They would point particularly to his pronouncement that he would be supporting whichever football team England were playing at any given time. This is a standard Scottish jibe and it’s hard to believe the Murray of today would make the same PR mistake again particularly after the support he received from a predominantly English audience at Wimbledon yesterday.


That jibe is tiresomely trotted out whenever England are playing but who amongst us English can say, hand on heart, that they fulsomely cheer the Scotland football team on whenever they play? Why do we feel the need to ask that question anyway? Is it to provoke that reply? In other sports though we English tend towards a British approach, I think. We cheer on Chris Hoy in the cycling and don’t think, hang on he’s not English or what about Barry McGuigan? He wasn’t English but that didn’t bother us.

In Andy Murray, I believe we have everything we’ve been missing in a British tennis player, he’s everything Tim Henman wasn’t, and he’s the streetfighter we always wanted. The sort of player who couldn’t care less what people thought as he went for the jugular. Alright he fell at the last hurdle, how very British and what’s this? Tears as he addressed the crowd, thanking the fans for their support? Those fans make it easier to play at Wimbledon, not a hindrance he said.

Personally I think it was a magnificent effort although I fear this year represented the players’ greatest chance to grab the crown. Federer may be inspired to continue and Nadal and Djokovic will be around for some time but Murray gave tennis fans what they wanted in battling style. Better luck next time, if indeed there is one.

We did however have not only a British but also English Wimbledon champion. Jonathan Marray, victorious in the men’s doubles, must be rueing his win in the same year that Murray won through to the final. That’s life but very well done to you too.