Italian Alias

Those who know me may be surprised that I have been watching some of the Rugby World Cup this week. I'm still mystified by the intricacies of egg-chasing, but understand enough to follow and appreciate the scoring. Old and new connections meant that when some channel-hopping landed me on the fervent singing of the Italian national anthem, I stayed for a bit of Italy vs O Canada.

I was very excited to hear the commentator refer regularly to a player called Edoardo Gori. I know from football experience that famous people often moonlight as athletes, e.g. my favourite composer of 19th century Jewish liturgical music Mr Lewandowski who recently scored 5 goals for Bayern Muenchen, and former leader of the Children of Israel, Moses, who is now scoring goals for West Ham United. It was great to discover that behind the Italian spelling, Mr Edward Gorey is currently giving a Gothic aspect to the world of Rugby Union.

Andy Ripley RIP

Andy Ripley was an English Rugby player who died recently. The Telegraph obituary quoted the following from his forward to his book about cancer:

"Dare we hope? We dare. Can we hope? We can. Should we hope? We must, because to do otherwise is to waste the most precious of gifts, given so freely by God to all of us. So when we do die, it will be with hope and it will be easy and our hearts will not be broken.”

I hope I can remember this.