Not even the Beeb can get their facts right

The verbosity inherent in many of my postings here is probably borne out of my desire, years ago, to be a sport journalist. That not having happened, this is therefore my outlet for writing about it. I still come across examples, though, in the professional broadcast or print media, of either gross inaccuracy, poor writing or research, or such badly formed pieces of writing that I'm convinced that there are plenty of people out there who could do at least as good a job as many of the pros. Two examples within about 30 seconds on the BBC, no less, this morning. Apparently (using the Beeb's own numbers) England's overnight position of 101-2 in the second Test represents a 40 run first innings lead over Pakistan, who scored a paltry 72. Now I realise that journalists need to be better with words than numbers, but that's pretty rudimentary maths even for me. An easy mistake, though. We'll let that one go. Much worse followed.

Trailing the first Football Focus of the new season, the presenter described Leeds v Derby today as 'one of the key games of the opening weekend'... What the fuck? I'd like to know what gives him even the slightest indication that this is a 'key game' over any other? What possible criteria can he have used to decide this? We have absolutely no idea where these two sides will finish NINE MONTHS from now. They could be 13th and 14th, and this game could have had absolutely no significance in the grand scheme of things whatsoever come May. It's just bloody lazy. They've looked at the two clubs, decided they've got decent levels of support, and on that basis alone have called this a 'key game'.

I realise that his is a very small matter to get worked up about, especially on a day when I'm having to work during the opening Saturday of the football season for the first time in my life, but I'm a relentless pedant, and we have a rich and varied language which throws up any number of words which could have been used in place of 'key' here, many of which are subjective and therefore couldn't be argued with.

Anyway, have a nice weekend, all. I don't know about you but I'm getting really excited about the big Forfar v Dumbarton clash in Scottish div 2. I reckon that could be a key game...