Taking the Plunge, and The Ashes don’t Disappoint!

So after 3 years, working with some of the most passionate and brilliant people ever at Kerrang, having spent 18 months on daytimes, and another 2 on In Demand, and 3 years presenting Offside, I decided it was time to move onto the next chapter in my life.

It is with a sad heart I leave, but it was time to move on, and pursue my next goal, within the field of sport. You can probably guess by the dwindling number of posts on here, I was getting less and less time to write and do work for 5 Live, so I thought, why not try and do that full time!

Anyway, watch this space!

One of the great benefits of being unemployed, apart from watching my dopey dog playing in the snow, has been the freeing up of my time for the important things, bear wrestling with my dog, drinking coffee, and watching rubbish films.................I mean.........erm to watch lots of sport!

Yes the last week saw England draw the first Ashes test at the Gabba, following what can only be described as a sensational, record breaking partnership for England by Cook and Trott. Honestly, watching them negotiate that tricky final mornings play was tenser than watching a fat person, who is on a crash diet, in a cake shop. The potential for collapse was always there, but the guys batted brilliantly, and how demoralising will it be for Australia to bowl all day for 0 wickets?? Especially on a fifth day Gabba pitch! Cooky and Trott, any doubts anyone ever had over your temperament couldn’t have been answered in any better way!

Anyhoo, it is definitely us Poms who will have the spring in their step come the 2^nd test, and I reckon this is turning into a bit of a special England team!

The rugby this autumn has been fascinating, first our loss to NZ, in which we showed massive signs of improvement, the simply scintillating display against Australia, a bruising match against the Samoans, and next up was the World Champions South Africa and wow, did England learnt just why a cornered Springbok is so dangerous. They had a real point to prove following their results on this tour, and England must have felt they were there for the taking, but it was not me to be for Johnsons men, and they learnt a very important lesson. After the precision of the Australia game, England were smashed about the park by the Saffers, and while they gave as good as they got (Big Ted and Thommo can hold their heads especially high!) the brute force of the South African game disrupted us.

Still, we may have gone down for the 7th time in a row against the South Africans, but I really think these Autumn tests have shown us the promise we have going forward to the World Cup in 2011. Firstly, players like Lawes and Croft (who unfortunately damaged his shoulder against SA) have shown that just because you are a big unit, it doesnt mean you can’t be exceptional athletes too! I also thought Young’s looked awesome, although he needs to pass from the base of ruck more, as he does that really annoying thing of taking a step with the ball first, which allows the oppo extra time to get up in defence, and until the last game I thought Flood had been on fire!

I’m still not convinced by Cueto, sure he has rediscovered his best form, but I still don’t feel he is a game breaker, and he is too similar a player to Ashton, I would like to see some real attacking talent on the wing, maybe Varndell, or another option like Vainikolo back. I would also like to see Banahan play at outside centre more, as after a shaky start, he showed real promise, and I feel that Tindall’s time has past, and Armitage has lost a shocking amount of form, but Foden has shown what attacking rugby at 15 is all about

.he has been immense in this series!

Anyway, after all of these games to get us in the mood, Scotland's resurgence, Wales stumbling and Irelands inconsistency, it should be one hell of a 6 nations!

Anyone else think Tottenham are looking a bit good at the moment? Yes Man Utd are back to the top with the 7-2 drubbing of Blackburn, which by the way has probably earned Berbatov a few more years at Old Trafford, but surely it is Tottenham, who with the midweek win in the Champions League, and their incredible comeback at the Emirates, managed to come from behind to beat Liverpool.

Now when you look at the league table, sure they may seem some way off, but Our ‘Arry definitely has a way of getting the best out of his players, and of course he does have Bale! I think this could be a much closer league than last year, not only could any of the bottom 10 go down, but at the top, Man City, Spurs and Bolton looked to have really upped their game. Anyway time will tell I suppose!

It has only just dawned on me, that by having my weekends free again, I can actually start playing a bit of rugby again...ohh and cricket on a Saturday!! Woo!

Yeah so really everything is a bit up in the air at the moment, I’m mostly going ot be focusing on the sports side of things, and maybe doing a few music shows somewhere down the line, but one thing is for certain, with all of this time on my hands, I will have lot more time to post here!

You lucky crazy cats! Oh and with the snow, the Bike front is nonexistent at the moment, although I might pop down to the bike show this week!

I shall blog back tomorrow, with my thoughts on the rotation of crops in small allotments, and why the BOC needs to employ Gnomes.................honest ;-)