The Best Sunday Ever, "Vaughan-y" Calls it a Day and Murrays the Man!

So Sunday after my show I headed to the World Superbikes at Donnington as the guests of the very cool people at Express Insurance, sponsors of WSB rider Shane "Shakey" Byrne, and wow what fun I had!! I have written about the whole experience on my other blog the Motorcycle Diaries, and I also managed to grab loads of pics, so got check it out here!

After the thrill of the races, I was always going to need some very dramatic sport on my Monday to get me excited, and my goodness Andy Murray delivered. Wimbledon this year has already shown signs of being one of the best tournaments ever, not only do we now have the roof (I never thought I would hear a cheer from the crowd at Wimbledon when it rained - oh and anyone else see Cliff Richard looking really crestfallen because his karaoke skills wouldn't be required when it had closed...........genius, if I would have known that was the reason it was there I would have paid the reported £80 million myself!), but some of the tennis has been breathtaking.

Plus for the first time in my lifetime (sorry Jeremy and Tim!) we actually have a player who is good enough to win the tournament. Does anyone else find that really weird, actually supporting one of the favourites for once, and not some underdog, it almost feels dirty, as if the novelty has worn off, although it was clear he was made to work very hard on Monday night. Lots of people seem to dislike Murray, and say he comes across as too focussed and aggressive, and some would even have the temerity to say he is arrogant....................my answer is of course he is!

Unlike Bates or Henman, who on their day could be top class, Murray is actually one of the world's best players and not just for two weeks in June /July either. I remember reading Ian Botham's autobiography, and in the first chapter he talked about being accused of being arrogant, his response was simple, "of course I'm arrogant, do you think I would have the temerity to pull off some of the stuff I did if I didn't have total and utter confidence in myself?"

Never a truer word spoken, obviously everyone one is different, but look at some of the top sportsmen in the world over the last few years, Tiger Woods, Michael Schumacher, Kevin Pietersen etc, are all people who don't exactly lack confidence.

Oh and as for him being aggressive, that's called being competitive, and it's what helps give him the edge over opponents, so if you don't like Murray because he seems grumpy, well I'm sorry but the simple fact is that to be as good as he is, you can't afford to be nice. You have to push yourself day in day out in training, when all of your mates might be down the pub or relaxing at home, you have to be able to dig deeper, be incredibly selfish and single minded and have the ability to motivate yourself when others would simply stop, and all from a young age, it's not exactly conducive to developing a really social personality! Being a sportsmen can be a very lonely and exhausting experience, so I always find it funny when people say, well it would be nice if he smiled from time to time.........if he had time to smile I would say he wasn't focused enough!

I know people will say, well in the past it didn't seem to matter, yeah and in the past rugby players used to drink every night and eat what they like, but professional sport has moved on so much in the last few years, there is no room for a Mr Nice Guy anymore!

Anyway, I also saw Laura Robson win in the second round of the Girls tournament today, and my goodness this 15 year old girl has got a whole world of talent, let's just hope the English Hype machine doesn't ruin her before she is old enough to not have to think about homework!

Commiserations to Stuart Pearce's England U21 side that got trounced 4-0 in the European Championships Final by a very impressive German side, the boys have played really well over the past two weeks, and it's a shame that they were on the end of a hiding, but the German midfield playmaker Mesut Ozil made sure of that...............geez he is good, I hope Arsene Wenger was watching!

I love my cricket, as you know, and it's a sad day today as England's most successful ever Test Captain Michael Vaughan has decided to retire from the sport. He was determined to make this Ashes series, but the combination of his debilitating knee injury and lack of runs, must have meant he had got to the point where he could not see the light at the end of the tunnel anymore.

Vaughan was a top captain and incredible batsmen on his day (anyone who doubts that should watch the 2002/3 Ashes series out in Oz, where at times he was a one man batting line up) and the way he inspired others and got the best out of his team was simply awesome.

Oh I also found some brilliant Pictures on SkySports.com of the Lions on Safari in SA and playing with................well real life Lions......................to be honest after Saturday I'm surprised the boys didn't shove Ronan O'Gara in the cage, but instead Tom Croft and a few of the lads got up close and personal with their hairier (Welsh Front Row excluded) counterparts...........madness!

Right I'm off to London tomorrow to see a specialist about my neck, although it started to feel a bit better, so I am planning on doing some very light training next week, to see how it responds because 5 weeks of no exercise is driving me insane, but I shall be blogging back on Thursday, and I will leave you with a lovely quite from Michael Vaughan from his retirement press conference earlier:

"Two weeks ago, I was in the garden with my little lad Archie. He bowled a ball which hit a weed and knocked my off stump out of the ground - and when a three-year-old's bowling you out, it's time to move over."

Nice!