Chip and charge

Well, that’s probably not what Andy Murray will be doing at Wimbledon this afternoon, but it gives me a good subject line for dealing with one of the dumbest clichés that gets dragged out every time a Scottish sport star is in the headlines. Here’s the latest instance, grabbed from a BBC ‘Have Your Say’ page:

“I will be watching this. It’s good to see that the future of British tennis is a Scot. Although he only gets called a Scot when he loses. He’s British when he is winning.”

The writer gives a Scottish town as his location, so I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest that this particular charge is being made by a man from north of the border with a chip on his shoulder. But the thing is – it’s not true.

Murray’s nationality doesn’t get mentioned all that often. And whether he’s referred to as a Brit or a Scot seems pretty random, and certainly isn’t associated with his results. Same with Chris Hoy. And oddly, also the case for English, Welsh and Irish sportsmen and women.

Looks like a kind of petty nationalism at work here. Maybe one or two people should think before they open their mouths.