THE crossover between sport and showbiz has always been infected with an ascloseasthis fever ever since rookie sling-shot ace David felled Goliath and then promptly got himself an agent by the name of Maximus Acropotamus.
Both activities have drawn nearer in an increasing capacity to provide thrills and entertainment as well as, in sport’s case, extol the virtues of mighty physical endeavour.
Crucial to the development of both strands of the entertainment industry is the success of double acts.
In the world of entertainment, you need only think of the likes of Morecambe and Wise, Tom and Jerry, Lennon and McCartney, Sid and Nancy, Ant and Dec (no, don’t think of them), Simon Cowell and his reflection (and no, that’s an image that has to be jettisoned instantly to oblivion).
In the world of sport, dual command performances have been the preserve of such partnerships as Torvill and Dean, Toshack and Keegan, Thompson and Lillee, Drogba and sulk.
Even those couples who were at loggerheads in their own chosen sports arena are inextricably bound up with each other in a symbiotic, perhaps even psychotic partnership. Just remember how Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier are tied by an almost Gordian knot of pain.
To a lesser extent there was the round the track rivalry that initiated Seb Coe and Steve Ovett as bizarre bedfellows in running spikes.
Right now we even have a one-two act at the highest echelon of public office – those chummy comrades in coalition, Cameron and Clegg.
But a momentous, magical, mesmeric, marvellous and mind-defying sports achievement this week has thrown up the possibility of two new double acts – though one unlikely character is the far from common denominator to the pair of prospective partnerships.
The vision of two new axis (or should that be axes?) stemmed from a quite compelling conclusion to the Premier Darts League extravaganza at Wembley.
In an unbelievable display of arrow-wielding oche ostentation, unparalleled world champion Phil “The Power” Taylor threw not just one, but two nine-dart legs – a double flight of fancy never ever before captured by television’s decades-long coverage of the pub game (ahem, sorry, sport).
As fitting an accompaniment as such a feat of marksmanship could get, the cloud nine twice over display was commented on, nay bawled upon, by the first new double act.
Ladeez and gennelmen, I give you ... Sid Waddell and Stephen Fry.
The contrasting duo – one of helium-rising Geordie tones, the other of hoity-toity mellifluousness – were paired for the first time to cover the shoot-out and what a treat they dished out to our ears.
Besides a shared love of the English language, the duo are also former honours graduates from Cambridge.
As Taylor dismantled opponent James Wade with his second nine-darter, Waddell recovered from an almost hellish howl of exultation to declare that there was nothing he (Wade) could do: “It’s just a total eclipse of the darts” echoing Bonnie Tyler’s chart hit.
Fry responded with a “Bonnie Taylor” quip which was almost as tungsten-sharp as his earlier declaration that to be sat alongside Waddell left him “as happy as a pig in... Chardonnay”.
Perhaps the Fry-Waddell link-up could be the start of something delicious. Why confine them to darts? Let them loose on Wimbledon, The Open, the World Cup – anything must be better than Colin “me, me, me, me, me and me” Murray.
If that partnership is not given greater vocal range then, once again, ladeez and gennelmen, I give you... Phil Taylor and Stephen Fry. As The Power was presented with another glittering gong, he mugged and patted his new found follower Fry as if they were old muckers.
What price a departure from bedding the board to treading the boards for Taylor? He and his new chum could cement their 180-carat alliance with a remake of Jeeves and Wooster.
Fry would, obviously, reprise his butler role of Jeeves, with Taylor less a naïve sophisticate as Wooster, but more a duckin’ and divin’ nouveau riche character in the Del Boy mould, who actually upstages the omniscient manservant.
This could be the double act to perfectly straddle both showbiz and sport. What about it boys?
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