October 2010 Archives

So I was in awe last night as I watched my beloved Gunners dismantle the team known in Europe as the “Little Arsenal” with some ease, and it was great to not only see Fabregas back from his injury, but the 18 year old wunderkind Jack Wilshere bounce back from his red card on Saturday to show his merits with the ball at feet.......and if those two can stay fit........wow it’s going to be a good season.

Sure Arsenal always seem to play well in the group stages of Europe, but it must be said, this year I have been very impressed by the way the team seems to have a bit more balance to it. More experience e in defence, good holding players in midfield when needed, with Diaby and Song, the creativity of Wilshere and that certain young Spaniard, and of course when you have a wealth of attacking talent like Walcott, Van Persie, Nasri, Arshavin, Rosicky, Chamakh, and even Bendtner (no sniggering) it is looking like Wenger has built a squad to win the Champions League........I hope!! Oh and it was also wicked to see Eduardo fit and scoring again, even if it was odd seeing him score one for the oppo at the Emirates!

Anyway, it’s also great to see an England prospect like Wilshere shine on the biggest stage at the tender age of 18, his fearlessness reminds me of a certain teenager that came on for Everton against Arsenal as a sub and smashed a screamer to win the game................whatever happened to that lad Rooney?

Oh yeah, he had the world at his feet, at one of the biggest clubs in the Zooniverse, and he has decided he isn’t happy? Now I feel two things about this, firstly, you’re a professional sportsmen, whatever things are going on in your personal life, sort them out, stick with the club that has stuck by you and stop being such a child, secondly, I want to see him playing his best again, and if he feels that is not going to happen with United, fair play, time for pastures new.

I almost feel he should go abroad, get away from the tabloid pressure, and start a fresh, but I also feel he should be a man, take responsibility for his actions, and sort it out. Either way, I can imagine most the managers of the big clubs in the world made a call to their Chairman yesterday saying, how much ya got to spend? Even Harry Redknapp chirped up, although I don’t think I could take Rooney in a Spurs top!

Away from all the speculation, how about Stoner at the Aussie MotoGP on Sunday, honestly, he may as well just been given the race before hand, the only thing that was going to stop him winning was another of his far to regular crashes this year, and after the drama of last week, it was a shame that he and Lorenzo had such a huge gap between each other, and the following pack. At least Rossi and Haden made it interesting for 3^rd, which was made even more intriguing by the fact they are teammates next year, and I really can’t wait now for next season now, when Stoner, Rossi and Lorenzo will be going hammer and tong at each other once more!

I had a day of on Sunday for the first time in weeks, and I decided to make the most of it, by watching the aforementioned MotoGP and then a whole world of European Rugby, and my goodness, how good were Leicester? They have had a bit of a miss-firing season so far, but they way they dismantled a dangerous Scarlet’s side showed that they are finally getting things right!

I thought Young’s and Flood looked deadly in attack, the Tuilagi brothers were immense once more, and wow our forwards are blooming ace too! Okay the Scarlet’s aren’t a Munster or Stade Francais, but they showed how dangerous they can be with their try just before half time, and the way in which we responded blew me away. The Tigers put down a marker for the rest of the British teams in the Competition, and bring on the next round I say!

This week I have mostly been chatting to Slipknot, Alter Bridge and Rob Zombie on my new evening show, and also working hard on getting myself back to match fitness, admittedly in still working on the basic strength side of things the fun cardio starts next week, but it’s actually going really well! One day I might actually break into a run again.......one day! I’m also massively looking forward to Supersonic Festival this weekend in Brum, where I work as a roadie for my Johnny Doom, it gives me a chance to see a festival from the other side, and I love the vast diversity of experimental music on display, so I will blog back next week once I’ve caught up with the weekends sporting action!

Be Excellent to each other!

So putting aside the joke of an England game, in which the performance was about as lacklustre as a three toed sloth on ketamine, and the whole Liverpool debacle (why are they delaying selling it when no one wants Gillette and Hicks there?), there was a whole world of sporting excellence on this weekend!

The Heineken Cup made a triumphant return, and while it was great to see Europe’s premiere rugby competition return, it was a bit of a wakeup call for some with Bath and Wasps losing out in gripping encounters, my beloved Tigers just scrapping a win against underdogs Benetton (and boy was it close, nice one Tuilagi) and London Irish pipping Munster at home in a huge win at the Madejski.

The MotoGP out in Sepang gave us one of the best races of the season, and you can have no doubt how much it meant for the wise old master Rossi, to be on top of the podium with the newly crowned Jorge Lorenzo looking up from 3^rd, as all riders would say, he may have won the title, but “I’m the fastest!”. Honestly, I have massively enjoyed this season, even with Rossi out, Pedrosa blowing his chances off the title with his injury, and Stoner misfiring, it may have been a procession for Lorenzo (and who can argue with his consistency) but we have seen some amazing racing. Just think of next year, when you will have Rossi lining up for Ducati, Lorenzo for Yamaha, Stoner for Honda.............I’m actually drooling at the thought of it!

If that wasn’t enough, my weekend was made even better by Sunday afternoon, when the Bee’s won their first game of the Championship season at Damson Park against Esher. I am very privileged to be involved with the boys at the club, and I am loving doing the match Pitch side announcements, but if anything, seeing them run out there each week is spurring me on even more to get back match fit, which I must say is going rather well by the way!

The Bee’s really do play some of the best rugby you will ever get to see, sure it may not be as structured as some of the bigger clubs in the league, but with their improved size in the forwards, and with players like Semi and Adrian Griffiths in the back row, who bring bulk, and incredible ball handling skills and off loading abilities, honestly, they are one of the hardest teams to defend against I have ever seen. They can do structured, but when they go all “Headless chicken" style, they simply rip clubs apart! Esher were good, and either side of half time scored tries to give us Bee’s fans a moment of worry (as it is the 2^nd half that has let them down so far this season) but if anything the boys stepped up a gear, and by scoring 6 tries, they really did a demolition job on the boys from the South.

Nice work lads, bring on the next home game!!!

I can’t tell you how much I am loving the evening show at Kerrang too, as I really do have the freedom now to play whatever I want, and having spent 8 years in radio, dreaming of this kind of job, I am having so much fun!

Training is going really well too at the legendary Arch 20 Gym in the Jewellery Quarter, although I made the school boy error of going a bit too heavy too early on my dead lifts, and now I’m walking around like the hunchback of Notre Dame, but I am surprised at how quickly my body is responding to the strength work, and now all I need to do is get cracking with the cardio.........................the bit that really hurts lol! That starts next week!

Anyway, best get back to listening to the mountain of new music I want to get through, and making my training meals for later, I’ll try and blog over the weekend, and spare a thought for my poor doggy Murphy who has had his manhood *ahem* removed.....................doesn’t he look cute!!

What a result for the Europeans, it really looked going into the singles matches that the Ryder Cup would be won back at Celtic Manor, in glorious sunshine, at a canter..........but that just wouldn’t be dramatic enough would it?

No, instead the US mounted an awesome charge, and unbelievably it went down to the final match between McDowell and Mahan, and right down to the penultimate hole..............now that’s pressure. I must admit, having played a number of sports over the years, pretty much all team sports, I simply cannot imagine what it must have been like to stand over that putt at the 17^th knowing that a miss could cost your team, and continent the sport’s biggest prize.

Hold his nerve he did though, and I must admit, Monty deserved this more than any major win he has failed to deliver over the years. Often a man given a lot of stick for his moody demeanour and seemingly petulant behaviour, I thought the European Captain was simply awesome the whole way through the tournament, he came across as confident, intelligent, savvy, and downright likeable, and his decisions were all spot on, including leaving McDowell as the final singles player, as he knew he was the man to deliver in the pressure cooker esque environment.

Fair play boys, I’m not the biggest golf fan, but even I couldn’t take my eyes off the tournament as it progressed over the weekend, and a lot of praise should also go to the fans who made it such an awesome environment for some of the best players in the world to battle it out, oh special mention to Ian Poulter too, who I thought was the player of the tournament over the 4 days! Yay, take that America!

Oh and having caught up on the MotoGP yesterday from Japan, I must say, putting aside the fact that Stoner won at a canter, and Dovizioso rode superbly, wasn’t it awesome to see Rossi and Lorenzo battling it out hammer and tongs for the entire duration of the race. When it came to the final few laps, you just assumed Jorge would ease off and simply canter to 4^th place, as with Pedrosa out, the Championship is surely his, but no, he went at it with the Doctor, and what a race they had, with Rossi nailing him once again in the final few corners!

On a personal note, I kicked off my brand new In Demand show on Kerrang last night, and I don’t thing I’ve ever had as much fun with my clothes on as I did between the hours of 7-10pm last night, as I have in my whole life. As a presenter I have never been focused on talking about myself, or “What’s in the papers/soaps” as some do, for me it’s all about the music (apart from on my Offside show where it’s obviously all about the sport) and to have a show where I literally get to play the freshest newest tunes, along with some awesome old school classics, with no one telling me what to do music wise, was the most liberating thing ever!!

Bring on 7pm tonight, when I get to do it all again!

So for the first time in 16 months, I’ve awoken on a Monday.....and I’m not doing my usual 10am-2pm slot on Kerrang Radio.....................it’s very odd! I have now taken my dream job of the evening show on Kerrang, which starts at 7pm, freeing up my days to focus more on the sport side of things, and also to give me more of a chance to do my hair and makeup!

Okay I may have been joking about the make-up, but not the hair, and rumour has it, now that I am 1 month back into full time training, there may even be a chance for me to play a bit of rugby again, but we shall see!

Firstly, it has been a huge gap since my last blog, and so much has happened, where to start? Well now I have my days to focus on the sporting side of things (and no, not just heading to Tamworth to snowboard all day!) I will be writing a lot more often, especially, as on my first day off, I’ve only landed the awesomeness of the final day of the Ryder Cup, the start of the Commonwealth games, and even India vs. Australia at cricket! Also because I have no actively started to contribute to BBC radio Five Live, and hopefully, after my special report on the Women’s Rugby World Cup, you’ll be hearing a lot more of me on that certain bastion of British Sporting genius.

I’m also the new pitch side announcer for the Birmingham Bee’s, so you’ll be getting a lot more updates from my fave Championship rugby side, as I will be watching all of their home games, and I hope they can turn around there start to the season which has so far seen them lose all of their games!

I have also been doing a whole world of stuff in the world of motorbikes as I’m sure you are aware, and I was gutted yesterday that the final Round of the British Moto X championships at Hawkstone was called off, especially as we drove for 2 hours to get there, and were forced to turn around half a mile from the track due to flooded roads, although the event was in itself then called off, which was such a shame for my Express Insurance team mate Jake Nicholls who was in 2^nd place and had a chance of winning the title with 75 points up for grabs. Ah well, you can’t beat the British weather it seems!

Anyway, as I write this, Europe are 9.5 to 6.5 over the USA in the Ryder Cup, and we are also ahead in most of the singles matches currently underway, so I will crack on with watching that , and catching up on the Moto GP action from the weekend, and blog back tomorrow with my thoughts, one sad thing was watching Arsenal lose to Chelsea at the weekend, especially as I genuinely though we were the better team, but once more, it just shows that the big name players such as Drogba, can make such a difference...............Chamakh just isn’t quite there yet, but hey ho.............so much for another season ;-)

Right then, I best get cheering on Europe, and also get my lazy arse to the gym, currently 13 stone, only another 3 to go before I’m back at playing weight lol!

Until next time!