Talk:Robin Friday/GA1

GA Review

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Reviewer: Sarastro1 (talk) 21:40, 8 June 2011 (UTC)

A fantastic article; just a handful of nitpicks in a very well written and entertaining piece of work. I can't remember the last sports article I enjoyed reading as much as this.

General points:

• A couple of examples where capital letters follow a colon: " the twins were wildly different in academic terms: While Tony did well at school..." and "His laid-back attitude and indifference was already clear: In his father's words, "he didn't care"."
• Two instance where a quote is not attributed in the text: " Having been caught stealing "a car radio or something", he..." and "right around the goalie".
• Several examples of "noun verbing", which is best avoided where good prose is required: "With the opposition paying him..."; " with Friday scoring a powerful left-footed volley"; "With the asking price standing..."; "With Liza, by now the mother of Friday's second daughter, Arabella, beginning divorce proceedings, and Friday claiming that he had had enough of people telling him what to do..." There may be others.
• Some POV in the lead: "However, his on-field performances were consistently excellent..." ("regarded as excellent"?) and particularly "Possessing fine ball skills, exceptional vision, an accurate, powerful shot, great physical strength and an untamable drive to win by any means..." which sounds like hagiography!
• Overdetailing (some examples below): With a character like Friday, it is so tempting to include lots of stories and details about his life. I've had the same problem myself, to be honest. But I think an article should be concise, and in places, this probably crosses the line. Apart from the examples below, however, I'm not going to insist on anything for GA, as I think it meets the criteria, but it is worth thinking about if you wish to improve the article further, or take it to FAC.
  • All done. – Cliftonian^{the orangey bit} 23:03, 8 June 2011 (UTC)

Specific points:

• "Tony was the first of the two boys to make the school football team, soon before Robin joined the side aged 10." Clumsy phrasing "soon before".
• Possibly some over-detailing in the childhood section. I'm not sure we need to know about the teams he supported or his favourite players.
• "Robin was picked up by numerous London sides during his teenage years": Odd phrasing; would "scouted" be better than picked up?
• "He also had a talent for drawing, which he suddenly stopped doing aged 15." Again, slightly clumsy.
• "Despite the controversy surrounding the interracial relationship..." 'The phrasing here suggests this went beyond the family being outraged; or do you mean the controversy around interracial relationships in general?
• "He joined west London club Hayes in December 1971 after scoring twice against them in an Isthmian League match,[7] signing because of the £30 per week that Hayes offered, as well as the shorter distance from his home in Acton.": Long sentence.
• "the spike went up through his behind...": Do we have to be so delicate, or could we use correct medical terms?
• "League managers were sceptical of him...": Not sure sceptical is the right word; unless you change it to something like sceptical he could make it.
• I think the anecdote about when he signed for Reading may be over-detailing.
• "Barnsley then sent on a defender as a substitute..." I find this incident a little unconvincing and probably too much detail again.
• "Friday took his good form into 1974–75. " This reads a little like a tabloid.
• "Around this time an anonymous supporter telephoned the Evening Post threatening to burn down Elm Park if Reading ever sold their new star.": Overdetailed?
• "so bad that even the Evening Post, traditionally favourable to him...": I think "traditionally" is a bit strong on the evidence of two seasons; what about "previously favourable..."?
• Details of his appeal may also be excessive.
• "Although by 11 April promotion looked a long shot...": Long shot is too informal. Improbable?
• "However, his private opinion was rather less wholesome...": Not sure about this phrasing; and I think his regret does not need spelling out here, but you may disagree.
• "the maverick forward": Tabloidese? And a little POV?
• "Friday concluded that he had thrown the ball": Italics unnecessary.
  • All done. – Cliftonian^{the orangey bit} 23:03, 8 June 2011 (UTC)

• External links: All refs to statto.com are showing up as a problem.
  • They work for me. Maybe their server was having trouble? Try clicking through manually. – Cliftonian^{the orangey bit} 23:03, 8 June 2011 (UTC)
    • Working now, but toolserver still shows a problem. Not sure why, so never mind. --Sarastro1 (talk) 23:30, 8 June 2011 (UTC)
• Images: As there will be no PD images of Friday, what about a fair use picture for the infobox? (Not necessary to pass GA, by the way)
  • I had one but it was taken off, apparently just illustrating an infobox isn't grounds enough for fair use. I would argue that the representation on the single cover is enough to illustrate him in any case. – Cliftonian^{the orangey bit} 23:03, 8 June 2011 (UTC)
    • I have it on very good authority that an image serving as a portrait on the article of a deceased subject is fairly solid, as long as there is only one, and the cover could be argued as a separate case as it is referred to directly in the article. But it is not really relevant here, whatever the case. --Sarastro1 (talk) 23:30, 8 June 2011 (UTC)
• Sources: I have no access to the printed sources, but other spot-checks were fine, as were checks against refs which contained text from the source.
  • Lekker. – Cliftonian^{the orangey bit} 23:03, 8 June 2011 (UTC)

This looks to me like a potential FA. If you want to try for this, I would suggest a copy-edit to remove some wordiness and redundancy in parts of the prose (although this is comfortably good enough for GA) and maybe cut some of the "tales" about him, as well as cut back a little more on the over-detailing. Obviously, none of this is needed for this GA review.

• I'm still working on it. Thanks for the advice. – Cliftonian^{the orangey bit} 23:03, 8 June 2011 (UTC)

For now, I'll place this on hold, but there are very few obstacles to this one passing quickly. --Sarastro1 (talk) 22:26, 8 June 2011 (UTC)

• Okay. – Cliftonian^{the orangey bit} 23:03, 8 June 2011 (UTC)
  • • Everything looks good, passing now. Thanks for the prompt replies! --Sarastro1 (talk) 23:30, 8 June 2011 (UTC)

Just adding to this because my comment on him not getting representative honours was removed. I knew and played against Robin Friday between 1961 and 1963. Both he and his brother played for their school team, Berymede Junior School, in South Acton. The school team played in a very well organised football league with an equally well organised cup competition. Although he may have had the footballing skills attributed to him in the article he was not at that age (10-11 years) thought good enough to play for the local district team (I have a picture of that team: actually the representative season was curtailed because of the awful winter of early '63). I mentioned Gerry Francis because he was head and shoulders above anyone else in ability in the area. No-one at that time would have put them in the same league of ability as footballers. Probably too much detail but I was trying to put some perspective on his considered ability at that stage of his life. The article seemed to be saying he was already a genius: he wasn't. But OK with you excluding it. An interesting read(Victor Middlesex (talk) 07:12, 4 May 2012 (UTC))