The Britometer

You can find the British sense of humor on the sports page. Cruising the BBC's sports Website, who can resist a feature called . . .

Here it is . . .


Now, why can't Americans zero-in on the humor in something like that so pefectly? Huh? I wanna know.

Here's the money quote from the accompanying article:

Andy Murray's Wimbledon campaign is over after his lacklustre defeat at the hands of Cyprus' Marcos Baghdatis - and with him go any lingering hopes of British success.

After a superb run to the last 16 - including a straight sets win over two-time Wimbledon finalist Andy Roddick - Murray seemed a far cry from his usual self as he slumped to a meek defeat.

The 19-year-old did not lack for support on a packed Centre Court, but was unable to raise his game and the Scot admitted as much himself after the match.

Murray's tame exit sees the Britometer slump from the top of the scale to rock bottom in the blink of an eye.

I think the pundits and fans are too hard on Andy. What happened to him would happen to 99/100 people. Only champions who've been there and learned ways to avoid it can avoid it.

Andy had -- uh, well, I can't say that in plain English, because the figure of speech has landed in the gutter. But what I mean is that he had spent the force of his assault on the title in the previous round, during his superb upset of Andy Roddick.

After such a moment, there's always a letdown. After any exciting or pressure-packed moment there is. It isn't a character flaw: it's biology — hard-wired into the nervous system. After an exciting or pressure-packed moment, people let down. Unfortunately, nothing but another perceived emergency can prevent that letdown. For, the nervous system's fight-or-flight wiring is organized into a subsystem that deadens with the passing of a pressure-packed and/or exciting moment. That letdown is just Nature's way of quickly restoring the nervous system to normal.

I have a lesson on letdowns and how to combat them on the main website.

And how exciting can a moment get? To be a young Brit playing out of your mind on Centre Court and defeating Andy Roddick would max-out just about anybody's system!

As we age, we lose some of this elasticity, this ability to relax again following pressure or excitement. This is why older players find it easier to combat letdowns than younger players, like Andy.

He'll learn. There's no reason to think he ain't made of the right stuff.