Two B's Or Not Two B's

Next Monday's English Championship promotion play-off is between Reading and Swansea.  The winner will be promoted to the premier League and receive in excess of 50 million pounds for just being there one season.  The rewards are even more if they can stay up.  It's little wonder that the fixture is known as "The richest game in football" but spare a thought for the bottom three in the Premier League who will be moving in the opposite direction.

This year it was tighter than usual and with the title already decided, all of the interest was at the other end of the table.  With the exception of West Ham, whose fate was already sealed, the make-up of the bottom three was still unknown.  Five teams (Birmingham, Blackburn, Blackpool, Wigan and Wolves) were struggling to avoid joining the Hammers. Only three could survive. 

It wasn't planned, but last Monday morning I woke up at 2.04 am.  I turned on the radio and, sure enough, the brilliant BBC World Service sports show was on.  It was half-time in all of the matches.  Over the course of the next 45 minutes, as goals went in around the country, so the fortunes of these teams changed, at times within seconds.  The second-last slot was taken by the quixotic Blackpool who were gradually reeled-in by Manchester United.  Now only one spot remained.  As the coverage crossed-over to each ground, tumultuous roars could be heard at the news of goals at other grounds.  The tension was unbearable.  Eventually, an injury-time goal by Spurs consigned Birmingham to their fate.  Of the five teams, only Blackburn had avoided being in the bottom three at any stage of the 90 minutes.  Wolves had managed to drop into the relegation zone on two separate occasions before escaping.  For the record, for those of us with an alphabetical (i.e. trivial) bent, for a while there, all of the "W's" were going down before it was eventually determined that West Ham, Blackpool and Birmingham were the unfortunate three.

This is the kind of drama, the glimpse into the abyss, that for all their wealth, finals, grand finals, superbowls and, ironically, promotion play-offs cannot create.  What great radio it made and what a great medium radio is to deliver that kind of excitement.  It doesn't much help the insomnia though.