[Mick]

Is it me or does this article read like it's been translated into English from a different language?

In the first two paragraphs, it uses the words "bloke" and "impolite" to refer to a defense, also "amid" and "got started" instead of "started."  Also the phrase "slightly wobbly passes hurry to their destinations" and "celestial" to describe CM and "palms" to refer to "hands" instead of "trees."  "Painstaking increments" instead of "slow improvement."  "Masterful" pass.  "Curiously."  "Fan palpitations."  "Maestro predecessor."  "Loveliest fade pass."  "Tip-top memory."

Sounds like Grantland Rice or UK English.  Which is, of course, a different language.  Ask humorist and born-in-America-but-England-dweller-of-many-decades Bill Bryson who wrote "Made in America: An Informal History of the English Language in the United States" and "The Mother Tongue - English And How It Got That Way."

Add:  I just checked, the writer spent four years as the London correspondent for the LA Times.

[Mick]

Is it me or does this article read like it's been translated into English from a different language?

In the first two paragraphs, it uses the words "bloke" and "impolite" to refer to a defense, also "amid" and "got started" instead of "started."  Also the phrase "slightly wobbly passes hurry to their destinations" and "celestial" to describe CM and "palms" to refer to "hands" instead of "trees."  "Painstaking increments" instead of "slow improvement."  "Masterful" pass.  "Curiously."  "Fan palpitations."  "Maestro predecessor."  "Loveliest fade pass."  "Tip-top memory."

Sounds like Grantland Rice or UK English.  Which is, of course, a different language.  Ask humorist and born-in-America-but-England-dweller-of-many-decades Bill Bryson who wrote "Made in America: An Informal History of the English Language in the United States" and "The Mother Tongue - English And How It Got That Way."

Add:  I just checked, the writer spent four years as the London correspondent for the LA Times.