Feeling Sorry For Ben Ainslie

"Gordon Bryan"Here’s a picture of Alistair Brownlee getting an MBE from The Queen. Brownlee won gold at the London Olympics in the triathlon.

Swimming, plus cycling, plus running, equals gold, all at his home Olympics. Impressive stuff, and that could have got him a knighthood at other times, but the British haul of gold was so large at London 2012 that an MBE was his honour.

Fair enough, and good luck to him I say.

Here’s another picture, of Ben Ainslie.
"Gordon Bryan"
That’s Sir Ben Ainslie now, having received a knighthood after also winning gold at London 2012. That’s in addition to wining gold at the previous 3 Olympics!

That knighthood was always on the cards, but whereas Alistair got his MBE from The Queen, Ben got his knighthood from…Princess Anne.

Now, The Queen was ill, otherwise she would have done it, but Princess Anne? There she was, in her pretend naval uniform, First Admiral of knitting, or whatever it is. I mean come on, bless her socks (knitted), but she’s not exactly ‘A’ division Royal is she?

Why not go the whole hog and get Sarah Ferguson to do it? At least that would have made it memorable. Or why not go all the way and dig Diana up to do it?

Poor old Ben.

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Leave a Reply to Stephanie Norton X

12 Comments

    • The whole honours system is a throwback for sure, and much maligned as elitist nonsense. The Beatles famously handed theirs back, although Sir Paul accepted a knighthood many moons later (part of the establishment by then!)
      It does seem to still be recognised by many as an acknowledgement of high achievement in sport here.
      Cheers,
      Gordon

    • could be that he had a prior engagement, or, as my brother rightly reminded me, Anne does have an Olympic medal herself.

    • I had decided with this blogging challenge to try some shorter posts, about things that make me giggle. Suspect I maybe should have mentioned this was one of those giggling items!
      off to check your A-Z!

  • I apologize for not recognizing who Ben Ainslie is, or Princess Anne. However, the article was interesting enough for me to want to do some research and find out exactly what you’re talking about. And I do agree about Sarah Ferguson making it an unforgettable knighting :0)

    • Hi Stephanie,
      It was just an item that made me giggle. When I recently did a stand up comedy course, this was something I came up with that potentially went into my final routine.
      it didn’t make it in the end!
      I’m interested to see my non British friends struggle with the names/concept – I take it so much for granted!
      Cheers,
      Gordon

  • This post made me wonder if the person being knighted have preferences as to who would knight them. I would certainly want it done by the Queen.

    • Having seen him interviewed on a few occasions, I’m sure he doesn’t mind. Plus, he’s probably met The Queen on other occasions. Did make me giggle though, the thought of him maybe having his shoulders sag when he found out! Ha!
      Cheers,
      Gordon

  • I can see why this made you giggle, GreatG! It’s fascinating for me to see how you all do things over there across the pond. We don’t have knights or MBEs or whatnot over here. Just rednecks and wealthy folks and politicians (sigh). And I agree with you, Ben Ainslie did seem to get short-changed this time around . . . perhaps it’s because Mr. Brownlee has the better hair . . .?

    • Hi Amy!
      Ha, I hadn’t even thought about it being due to better hair – that must be it!
      Rednecks, wealthy or politcian – which one are you? 😉
      G