Andy Murray beats Juan Martin Del Potro to win Rogers Cup
(from The Guardian 17 August, 2009.)
The legacy of the Allan Wells ’80s still affects a staff writer at The Guardian. Back then, many Scots were disappointed at the media representation of Wells as British when winning and Scottish when losing. Positive discrimination is evident in this paragraph;
When the set reached 6-6, Del Potro called for the trainer to get some treatment on his shoulder, but he was able to continue. But he made a crucial error in the second tie break of the match to allow the Scot to take the lead 4-2. Murray then endured a barrage of Del Potro forehands, as the Argentine attacked the second serve. But the Scot held on to his advantage and won the tie break 7-3 to level the match.
To most readers, there would be no jarring in the flow of the text. As an experimental juxtaposition, how does the following flow, after substituting Murray for a fictitious English Jenkins?
When the set reached 6-6, Del Potro called for the trainer to get some treatment on his shoulder, but he was able to continue. But he made a crucial error in the second tie break of the match to allow the Englishman to take the lead 4-2. Jenkins then endured a barrage of Del Potro forehands, as the Argentine attacked the second serve. But the Englishman held on to his advantage and won the tie break 7-3 to level the match.
We do not read this kind of text in the England-based press. In an ‘English’ paper that purports to serve England, there can be no call of foul, but in papers that conflate Britishness and Englishness, the deliberate statement of separation only confuses the writer’s actual sentiments regarding the nationality issue.
When The Scotsman does the same thing
Murray served for the set at 5-3 but was unable to get the job done as Tsonga hit back to frustrate the Scot
the context of The Scotsman delivers a jingoistic and insecure message. Scottishness needs to be reinforced. But in The Guardian’s case, we are left with a choice: is ‘the Scot’ merely an acceptable synonym for Murray seeing as the Scots themselves seem to use it as such, or is it a device for marking out differences?
