Clare Balding
The boat race was on telly a couple of weekends ago. Our Clare goes up to congratulate Simon Hislop, one of the victorious Oxford crew, right after the race as he was dragging the boat out of the water. Instead of "Well done! How do you feel?" which, although lame, makes for a happy interview, she comes out with, "Simon! As a testicular cancer survivor, how do you feel about winning the boat race?"

The poor chap handled it well, but what a smack in the pods. Never mind that he WON THE BOAT RACE, all she wanted to do was make him talk about his missing nuts in front of a million people.

Not cool, Clare. Let the man enjoy his win for at least a minute before reminding him how his happy sack nearly killed him.

PS anyone else notice the Rocky IV-style training sequences they showed? Oxford were all robotic, working out in perfect synchrony in a high-tech gym while the Cambridge lunks were mucking about in the park. My judgement might have been clouded due to Massive Drugs, but I thought it was pretty damn funny. Obviously the lovable underdogs were crushed by the vicious Soviet machine, so well done all round, BBC.
( Scrumper, Tue 5 Apr 2011, 21:49, 7 replies)

Nothing irrational about this at all
The Horse-Faced One has a spectacular 'talent' for asking vacuous and idiotic questions.

Oh yes: Cambridge were very much the favourites going into the race, slack training methods or not, so it was very much a case of the plucky underdogs training like Ivan Drago and beating the Rocky-esque favourites.
( .Yeti. El amor en los tiempos del cólera, Tue 5 Apr 2011, 22:10, closed)

Interesting
Still I'm sure that both teams had equal amounts of mucking about and rigorous discipline in their training. Just enjoyed the portrayal.
( Scrumper, Wed 6 Apr 2011, 19:26, closed)

Every year I look forward to the Boat Race
It's the opportunity to trot out the old gag about the winning team tossing their cox off the side of the boat.
(Barnetboy, Tue 5 Apr 2011, 23:28, closed)

That might just have been as she's also recently got through a fairly serious case of thyroid cancer
and might just have felt it was a relevant and poignant message of hope to others, no?
( the mighty badger Aphrodite, on a bar stool, by your side, Wed 6 Apr 2011, 8:35, closed)

I did know that
And I thought that perhaps could explain it, but it still seemed awfully off to me. I mean, I am quite sure she wouldn't have enjoyed her co-hosts saying, "Clare! Having just survived thyroid cancer, how do you feel about being able to speak in that interview you just did?"

Further thought: the relevant message of hope could just as easily have been delivered by voice-over, or by Clare once out of earshot of the chap. Right to his face as he's getting out of the boat seemed like bad manners and bad taste.

I'm not belittling Simon's achievement or the difficulties he must have faced getting back to peak fitness after surgery. I'm not denying that his example is a rock solid one for anyone facing with cancer. I'm just saying that Clare was being an insensitive boor to Simon and was labouring a point that already been made a dozen times by then.
( Scrumper, Wed 6 Apr 2011, 19:23, closed)

There
Was also that classic interview, where she suggested that Jockey might be able to purchase a new pair of teeth when he won a particluar race (Grand National i think). The teeth in question were fairly bad but for the love of christ women, he'd just won the race. Insensitive at best, at worst a little bitchy.

www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1167902/BBC-presenter-Clare-Balding-humiliates-Grand-National-winning-jockey-jibe-crooked-teeth.html
(bROKEN aRROW PUA HVI Master, Wed 6 Apr 2011, 9:25, closed)

It seems a bit less bizarrely bitchy when you realise that she's actually a mate of the jockey in question and that his gnashers were a running joke. Of course the Mail is always keen to stir up an argument, and the BBC is always keen to backtrack at speed when it does so. Mind you it still wasn't one of her better ideas to trot that comment out but live television is a funny thing.
(richardm, Wed 6 Apr 2011, 11:33, closed)