May 2010 Archives

What a Weekend!!

There was so much amazing sport on for me to peruse, I had a proper Sportgasm, and didn’t actually leave the house, despite the beautiful weather outside, simply so I didn’t miss any action!

Blackpool did the business in the Football league’s richest game, when played out one of the greatest half’s of football I have ever seen with Cardiff at Wembley! You have to feel for Dave Jones, each time his team took the lead, they were pegged back within 4 minutes, and then Blackpool had the audacity to take the lead. That first 45 minutes of action was amazing, and although the 2^nd half didn’t bring any goals, it certainly brought tension, but it was Ian Holloway’s men who managed to hold their nerve, and secure the biggest payday of the clubs history.

I love Ian Holloway, not only is he a top manager, he is simply great to have around the top flight, as he is one of the charismatic men around, and I’m sure we are in for a treat next season as he tries to keep the Tangerine Army up! Cardiff, well as much as I would have liked to have seen a Welsh team in the top flight, they just couldn’t pull it off, and with debt mounting at the troubled club, they will have to hope for a Far Eastern cash injection instead of the £90 million will supposedly make its way into Blackpool coffers after their victory.

We also saw The Cardiff Blues beat a very good Toulon side in the Amblin cup final, Toulouse win an incredibly tense all French Heineken Cup Final, and of course, a certain Special One work his managed against Bayern Munich.

I love Jose, any man who has that much confidence/arrogance has to back up his words with actions, and having won the Champions League with Porto, and now Milan, and this season achieving an unprecedented treble (League, Cup and Champions League) with the legendary Italian side, there can be no doubt that he certainly walks the walk as well as talking the talk. Oh and that Milito is quite tasty too, and congrats to the Inter side, as they thoroughly deserved there win!

Will he jump ship now though and try and bring back some glory to another sleeping giant in Real Madrid, well you would think he would have to be mad to leave Inter now, especially with an offer of a huge contract on the table, but it looks like he might. Some are saying this is madness, but if he feels he needs a new challenge, and he hasn’t seemed to happy of late with some behind the scenes wrangling at the Italian club, leaves it all starting to point him towards taking on possibly the most high pressure job in Football (England manager excluded!).

The MotoGP was pretty damn sweet as well, with Stoner once more crashing out, and he must now be livid at having given up 70 points on the leaders, especially when he has looked pretty damn fast at every circuit so far. After his wasting illness last year, I imagine he would have been just dreaming of getting in a few podiums at the start of the year, but so far, he hasn’t managed to finish a race, which has left the 2 Yamaha riders of Rossi and Lorenzo to battle it out at the front! The Honda’s of Dovizioso and Pedrosa are also looking good, even if Pedrosa let his teammate and Hayden slip by him on the final lap, and I must admit, as much as I love my F1, I can see the MotoGP season providing the most thrills and excitement this year as the season wears on.

Rossi and Lorenzo are so evenly matched it’s frightening, and unlike in F1, no team orders will be on track to keep these two apart! Rossi is still recovering from a shoulder injury, and I think settled for 2^nd in the end, but take nothing away from Jorge who rode and outstanding race, although I do think you will see Rossi taking the majority of the chequered flags in front of his teammate once back to 100%. Either way, this title fight is going down to the wire, and if Stoner can get back into it, and the Honda’s take it up a notch, then this could be an awesome battle for the title.

If that wasn’t enough there was also my boys I trained with a year ago, in the England 7’s team taking part in the IRB 7’s at Twickenham where they unfortunately were knocked out by a very good South Africa side in the Quarter finals, but it was Australia who went on to the lift the trophy, although I have to admit, having watched as much of the action as I could, I would say rugby is the winner in this shorter format of the game. I love 7’s, I loved playing it, and I love watching it, and for anyone looking for a good introduction to rugby, I don’t think you could find a better version to try and watch, as the skill and pace on display at Twickers was quite simply astounding.

After all this I was gutted to sit down on Sunday evening to watch the Premier League Darts final, only to find it had to be postponed till tonight due to a power failure, oh well I really can’t complain having watched about 20 hours of sport over two days, and anyway it simply means it’s on tonight now, as well as England last warm up before the World Cup against Mexico!

I really have had to knock think of the World Cup over the few months, as I know I would simply get so excited my head would explode, and that is not very conducive to watching our boys out in SA, but I just get so pumped at the prospect of this awesome tournament, that I can’t wait for it to get underway, and you can guarantee I’ll be watching every game!

This week see’s me make my cricketing comeback on Sunday with Harborne, and I can’t wait! I’ve been in the gym for just a week, but already I’m starting to feel a lot fresher and fitter, and I am starting to feel that competitive edge coming back into my everyday life, let’s just hope my neck/dilapidated body can hold up this time, but so far so good!

I’m also going to be testing the new Ecolve Electric race bike at Silverstone this Thursday, which I am very lucky and privileged to be doing, although I have had to put off my Snowboarding return till next week to fit it in! If that wasn’t enough I’ll also be watching the England Vs Bangladesh test match which starts at Lords on Thursday, The French Open, in which Murray has just won a thriller in the first round against Gasquet, eventually winning in 5 sets, having come from two down, and of course, the Darts Finals, which I can see Phil Taylor walking, although I do like the look of Simon Whitlock, and of course on Saturday, my beloved Tigers take on Sarries in The Guinness Premiership final!

So in other words, one Sportgasm down, many more to come, bring it on is what I say, and I shall endeavour to blog back later in the week do update you on how my sport absorption has been going!