I am on the dangerous ground of amateur psychiatry here, but a belief held personally is that children should be brought up to enjoy whatever talent for sport they have been born with.It is conceivable that, but for the explosion in tele-communications, sports performers would not now be taking themselves so seriously. “I was wrapped up in golf 24 hours a day, total concentration – and that wasn’t me,” he said “I said to myself, `I surrender. If this is what it takes to win, I’m not cut out for it.’ Maybe you have to be very bright or dumb to win. I’m in between.”Knudson decided that if he could not be as strong and as intelligent on the course as Jack Nicklaus, or as dedicated as Gary Player, you might as well relax and enjoy it If you can’t beat it, don’t let it beat you Check the flora and the fauna Go home to the kids. Ski.Ambition, temperament and the urge to make a lot of money comes into this but any number of people in sport today convey the impression that they would be deaf to Hagen’s philosophy. Sometimes, you need to loosen up, have a little fun no matter what you are shooting.

That was proven for me this week.”One of the most important things ever said about sport is attributed to another golfer, the great Walter Hagen, who did more than anyone in his game to raise the status of professionals. Pause and smell the roses is more or less what Hagen was said to go around saying.Some time ago I referred in this column to a Canadian golfer, George Knudson, who was pretty good at the game but discovered that he could not handle winning. Jones just laughed and cracked a joke with his caddy.After beating Norman by one shot to secure his first tournament victory since January, the former US Open champion – who failed to make the Ryder Cup team when he dropped to 12th place in the rankings – said: “I was in a good position but you learn when you mess up I put a lot of pressure on myself I know that now. Humour is seldom given an airing.
The funniest anecdotes in sport are to be found in history, in the lore of cricket, football, rugby and golf, any game you care to mention, because levity no longer figures on the agenda.Awareness of this made the attitude adopted by Steve Jones when in contention for the Canadian Open golf championship last week-end all the more commendable and appealing.At a critical stage of proceedings Jones knew that he had probably given up two strokes to Greg Norman with the sort of shot that causes hackers to think seriously about dumping their clubs into the nearest garbage can No tantrum followed. It is not often these days that you come across anyone in sport who appears to find it even remotely amusing.

I’m all for concentrating fully on the job but not entirely at the expense of light-hearted reflection. One result of media-driven tension is that smiling on the fields of play has gone out of fashion. When it isn’t fiscal the language of sport is the language of urgency – “big games” or “important games” or, heaven help us, “must-win games”. Her race was over even quicker for Terry Lucas after Blessingindisguise put his head down in the stalls as if conducting a personal going inspection. The Australian jockey shot over the gelding’s head in the direction of his homeland.Bollin Joanne’s success enabled her rider, Kieren Fallon, to edge a further winner ahead of Frankie Dettori in the jockeys’ championship, a dual that will indeed run until the days are short and wet.ST LEGER (Doncaster, Saturday): Coral: 5-2 Silver Patriarch, 3-1 Stowaway, 100-30 Vertical Speed, 9-1 Besiege, 12-1 Panama City & Windsor Castle, 14-1 The Fly; Ladbrokes: 5-2 Stowaway, 11-4 Silver Patriarch, 3-1 Vertical Speed, 8-1 Besiege, 12-1 Windsor Castle; William Hill: 5-2 Silver Patriarch, 11-4 Vertical Speed, 100-30 Stowaway, 9-1 Besiege, 12-1 Panama City & Windsor Castle, 16-1 The Fly..

Book At Bedtime will run on Saturday as long as she shows no adverse reaction and is as low as 25-1 (from 66-1) to win again.Bollin Joanne, who created a new course record in a searing Scarbrough Stakes, will run next at either Newbury next week or in the Diadem Stakes at Ascot’s Festival of British Racing. Now, at last, the parachute has opened, with the South African having compiled notable recent victories on Double Trigger in the Goodwood Cup and Maylane in Friday’s September Stakes. The Sheikh Mohammed representation of Anno Luce and Crown Of Light were pulling away at the front, but the suspicion that they were going too fast was confirmed as the pair faded back into the dust. Book At Bedtime, her lungs billowing with a second wind, took it up over two furlongs out and from that point there was to be no denial.The winning jockey was Michael Roberts who, from the zenith of 1992 when he rode 206 winners to be champion jockey, has been in freefall to the 33 successes of the last campaign. They have changed their minds having seen the impressive way in which he has matured during the last few months.Britain had the satisfaction of defeating every nation (including the non-Europeans) when they won from the powerful New Zealanders in 1995.