Recently by Luke Wilkins

Awesome!

It has always been a bit of a tradition in our household to watch the Queen’s speech, mostly because we have a very strong armed forces background, but also due to the fact that by 3pm on Christmas day, we have all stuffed ourselves so full of turkey, sprouts and pigs in blankets, that none of us can be arsed to actually move a finger to change the TV channel

.my mum never let us watch ITV

.it’s too common don’t you know, I mean it has adverts!

Anyway, imagine my surprise this year, when instead of the usual non important stuff that Queen talks about, you know, the government, healthcare, family or social issues, or indeed the conflicts taking place in the world, she has said she is going to be basing her speech around sport!

Now I know a lot of you are probably expecting the Queen to focus on the Olympics, and other major sporting issues that affect this great nation, but I’ve managed to get a sneaky peek at the speech in question, and well I am glad to see that Her Majesty is actually going to be addressing the truly important factors that affect sport today.

First on her agenda is Snoods, you know, those god-awful scarf things that footballers wear. HRH is so upset by these, she has said any player spotting wearing one will be immediately locked up in the Tower, and by the end of the week will have their head on a spike.........although they will have the option to wear the snood once the head is placed on said metal protrusion, as you wouldn’t want them to catch a chill would you.

She also states that due to the lack of integrity of footballers now show, with all of the diving, cheating etc, that football is to be scrapped as our national sport, and indeed Darts will take its place, quite simply because 20 stone men who drink 20 pints a day, smoke like troopers and look like they haven't seen daylight in 40 years, are still better role models to our kids today than say, Joey Barton.

Secondly, she is reportedly very upset by our cricketers down under at the moment, no not because of their lacklustre loss on the last test match, it has more to do with the lack of Moustaches on display, KP aside (although his does always look more like Baldricks slug balancing act in Blackadder than a proper tash), England have shown a veritable lack of facial hair, and one is not amused.

Everyone knows that to be great at cricket you need a few good tashes around, I mean hark back to the days of Gooch, Boon, Robin Smith, and of course the doyen of the handlebar, Merv Hughes. That was when men were men, and facial hair said something about who you were..........mostly that you liked to keep your upper lip warm to be fair......but also because it’s a sign of a real man...or just one without a girlfriend/razor.

She also shows dismay at the reports in the media of all this sledging, she addresses this by saying, sledging has always been around, you should see the stick I give Harry and Wills when they get caught out at Silly Short Leg in ones back garden.

Addressing the World of Pugilism, she hails David Haye, Amir Khan and Carl Froch as giants in the sport, and fighters we can be truly proud of and she gives a polite mention to Audley Harrison............well everyone needs a laugh at Christmas!

The Olympics should prove to be a real showcase of not only our great nation, but our sporting prowess too, especially because the world class athletes will struggle to adjust to the conditions of living in East London, not due to altitude, humidity, or even the pressure of the media, no, mostly because of the nonstop diet of jellied eels and Chas & Dave they will be served every ten minutes.

Finally in regards to rugby, my beloved fave sport, she simply says she is looking forward to the World Cup next year..................because she rather likes the sight of men in Lycra.............and Phillip just can’t pull it off any more, but if she spots anyone trying anything like the Bloodgate saga of last year, she will give them a whopping clip round the ear...................hopefully not drawing any blood.

Anyway, it’s Blooming Christmas Eve!! May you all have an awesome time, and bring on 2011!

The Rock has returned to............Epsom!! Back to my hometown roots!! Not to worry, the reason I have done this as I explained, was to allow me to have more time to focus on this blog, as well as allowing me to focus on the more important things in life.......like debating the virtues of the rotation of crops in small allotments, re-enacting the battle of the Somme with nothing but some matchboxes and some frozen peas, and of course, working out how many times my dog Murphy will chase his tail for 30 mins before he manages to catch it, only to bite it so hard, he has to let go in pain..........and therefore the whole process starts again
.ad nauseum............most fun ever!

Anyway, I have my Sky TV on order, and it arrives in time for day two of the second test, but apart from that, what with a lack of sports channels, and a rather large amount of this white dusty stuff, I haven’t seen a huge amount of sport, but one thing that stands out is poor old Rafa Benitez, 6 months in, just won the World Club Championship, and he has been sacked on the eve of Christmas Eve by Inter. To be fair though, if Liverpool had done that with him, they might not be in the state they are now!!

So with the snow clearing, England looking to bounce back from the disastrous defeat in the last test, in which they put up about as much as a fight as Audley Harrison, and with the Festive season bringing a whole raft of fixtures in the world of sport, I reckon it’s time to get my blog back on!!

I’ve just managed to get a job in my local too, to fund my writing addiction, and I’m still going to be riding a whole world of bikes in my Motorcycle Diaries, plus, plus some rather exciting meetings lined up in the world of media for January, and I must admit, it is truly amazing to be back home amongst the greatest set of friends and family a guy could ever have.

Honestly, sometimes, I feel it’s so easy to forget just what’s really important in life, and coming home really makes you remember that, especially if the important things in life boil down to my mum’s awesome cooking!!

Anyway, time to be away and wrap my presents, unfortunately due to my work situation, my family wont bet getting Ferrari’s and Ponies this year, in fact even the price of coal has risen so much (ps. old people would probably actually love some coal for Xmas........it could keep them warm for hours) so that they will have to make do with a carrot.

Hey a Carrot is for life, not just for Xmas!! Anyway, I might returneth with another blog tomorrow, if not though, well can I just wish you all a very Happy, merry, and festive Christmas, this will be the first one in about 8 years I can spend the whole thing at home with my family...............unfortunately for them ;-)!

PS I love how the news is asking for people with 4x4 cars to make themselves available for elderly neighbours and relatives............I never knew old people were so into off-roading..............hang on was that a joke.............I think it was.........sorry.

Now let me first of all state, I actually like Audley Harrison as a person, he comes across as a really nice guy, with his heart in the right place, unfortunately for the big man, the last place that his heart should be is in a boxing ring!

Audley has announced today he will continue as a “boxer”, despite suffering one of the worse defeats in history, since I foolishly decided to take on my brother in the Rumble in the Suburbs...circa 1988......in my mum’s front room. Back then my brother boxed amateurly, I was only 7, and he was 18. Plus to make if even more one sided, we only had one set of gloves, which I foolishly persuaded my brother to let me wear (as I thought I would be a proper boxer) without realising that getting hit by an ungloved hand hurts a lot more than a gloved one!

Hell even in that fight, although it may have been as one sided as the supposed Battle of Britain, and trust me it lasted a lot shorter, at least I got more than one punch off, I mean Harrison threw on punch...........one punch................I mean if you take into account the money he made that must be the best £ to punch ratio ever managed by a fighter!

I genuinely found myself caught up in the hype for the Haye vs. Harrison fight, with Haye coming across as focussed, determined, successful (or as we Brit’s like to call it...arrogant) to Harrisons understated, nice guy, underdog persona, and at points, the boxing logic part of my brain (yes I have one.........and yes more surprisingly I do have a brain!) shut down to allow me to believe that maybe, just maybe, the gentle giant Harrison could win!

The sad fact is though, Harrison didn’t even deserve to be in the ring with the World Champion, and it seemed to just be a fitting and the final chapter in Audleys embarrassing career that promised so much, but delievered so little, after his Olympic success.

Is Audley that bad a boxer? Obviously not, I mean the guy was a superb young prospect, and seemed to have all of the tools, but making the step up to the big time, he just never seemed to have the right head on.

His career just seemed to go from one joke to another, and every time he stepped in the ring he looked about as energetic as Santa on Boxing Day, and seemed to have no cutting edge. Is it because he is such a nice guy, maybe he doesn’t have that selfish side to him? That ruthlessness that allows you to push yourself harder and faster than your opponent in training and in the ring, perhaps he truly believes all of his hype and feels he doesn’t need to make an effort, hell, maybe he is a pacifist, who knows, the fact is that he has failed to deliver the goods for over a decade now, and that he could even still get a fight with the World Champion should be alarming.

So what does Audley have left to achieve, surely at the age of 39, any matches now will be almost pantomime esque, as people are lured to watch a lame tiger try and justify the hype the industry built up around him? You have to ask, what is he trying to achieve now? Is he doing it for the money? Does he truly believe he can still win a world title? Should any of us care....probably not!

As a fighter, who had so much promise, it must drive him mad not to deliver on it, and he seems as equally non plussed about it as us, but like in life, if you keep letting people down by promising the moon on a stick and not delivering, people tend to get annoyed, and it will be interesting to see how much mileage his career has left. As a truly nice guy, and someone who I think means well, I do wish him luck in the future, but personally, I think it’s time we moved on, and focused on true boxing talents, like the aforementioned Haye, and Carl Froch who pretty much put on one of the best displays of the year, some might say faultless, against Arthur Abraham in Finland on Saturday, yet got hardly any press exposure!

Another nice guy, Froch is genuinely world class, and I personally would love to see him get the credit he deserves, because this guy is truly a talent who can deliver in the ring!

Maybe Harrison should do the right thing and join Henson on Strictly!

As for the snow, my dog Murphy is loving it, and for once, not working has its benefits as I get to spend most of the day playing with him in it, but it’s not exactly great for the sporting world! It seems as though the ice age has actually cometh, instead of developing ways of combating the freezing conditions (such as under soil heating, Snoods etc) maybe we should change our sports to be more compatible with the new weather? More on this tomorrow!

Be excellent to each other compadres!

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 ;-)

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!

It takes you three days to get over a game of cricket..........3 days???????

Well I suppose that’s what I should have expected now I’m the big 30, and more importantly this was the first season where I haven’t been playing rugby beforehand.........but still...............wtf??

I used to be the uber fit guy who would rip into everyone else when they moaned about being sore from playing a bit of cricket, don’t get me wrong I have always played hard, but come on...compared to rugby it’s not exactly “Hardcore” but yet, it has taken me till today to be able to move enough to actually enjoy taking my dog for a walk!

Ah well, could be worse, we could have lost! I am glad to say all the pain was worth it as in my first full league cricket game for almost two years, not only did we managed to win, but I grabbed 3-32, a catch, and was a part of the winning batting partnership as we chased down 166 to win against Olton and WW, not bad for an old man! I must admit as well how much I genuinely enjoyed playing on Sunday too, roll on the next game this weekend, and perhaps, just perhaps it’s time I got back in the gym........either that or get a wheelchair and a full time masseuses!

It was such a good win, we managed to get showered and changed in time to watch the World Cup final................and wow do I almost wish I hadn’t, what an awful game, the only pleasure I took was in predicting the result and score perfectly by saying that Spain would win 1-0............but unluckily I don’t bet, so even that wasn’t much consolation!

The World Cup has been an odd one, I am starting to think that the media pressure and incredible hype around the sporting world’s biggest tournament in this day of the magical interweb, has meant that teams now approach each game with so much fear, as they daren’t make a mistake and lose, that they simply can’t go out and play.

The hosts South Africa deserve immense credit for the tournament, after all, it is not their fault the world’s best players didn’t turn up, but it will genuinely go down as one of the worst ever world cups for me in terms of football played, only really Germany, and some magical moments from teams like Japan even attempted to light the blue touch paper, and I reckon we need a major rethink, or a huge amount invested in sports psychology for the players, before 2014 rolls around.

Better news was the English winning the One Day series against Bangladesh, especially in the way they simply destroyed the Tigers in the deciding one day. It was good for Bangladesh to grab their first win against England, but you have to say that unless they can improve their pitches back home to breed better seam bowlers, they will never be able to truly compete on the world stage, which is a shame as I think they have some amazingly talented batsmen!

I was very happy with the way all of the players brought in during this series, including Bopara, Shazad, Trott and Bell all stepped up to the plate, along with established players like Swann and Broad outdoing themselves, and with Swanny and KP to come back, England really do have an embarrassment of riches coming through the ranks now, maybe it’s the Academy and lions systems already repaying dividends!!

Either way, bring on the Ashes man!

The F1 wasn’t bad either, with Webber’s win bringing about some rather unsubtle taunting of his teams bosses, and after nicking his nose cone to put on Vettel's car in qualifying, understandably so, but I thought the real story was Jenson Buttons drive from the back, and Hamilton’s excellent 2^nd place which keeps him top of the Championship. There is still a very long way to go, but I really fancy these McLaren boys to edge it over the superior cars of the Red Bulls, especially as there test drivers aren’t at each other’s throats and trying ot run each other off the course at every turn.

Silverstone was magnificent in the sunshine, and I hope that will be the case when I go down tomorrow with Michael Dunn, the competition winner on my show, who gets to come and attend the California Superbike school with myself................and I can’t wait!

Awesome news that I have just heard as well, is that all of the Birmingham & Solihull Bee’s home games next season are to be played on a Sunday, unfortunately the rumours that this has been organised to try and tempt me out of retirement and back into a Bee’s shirt (as I do my Offside show on a Saturday and so can’t play) can’t be confirmed right now, but no matter what you can bet I will be there to watch every week at the very least!

Right I best get to bed, and rest my weary old bones, as I have to be up at 5am tomorrow to get to Silverstone, and as I have found out to my peril, my body just isn’t what it used to be J!

So yeah, it’s been ages since I last blogged, for the simple reason that I have been uber manic, but once again, I shall declare my intentions to blog a bit more like Rafa Nadal after 5 coffees, rather than Wayne Rooney after some horse tranquiliser.....................

Yes the World Cup, I have watched every game, and what can I say, I’ve loved it! As a passionate and fervent England fan, of course I was dreadfully disappointed, in fact I actually am almost beyond caring, simply because watching England’s supposed “Golden Generation” was like watching petulant children arguing over who gets what toy in kindergarten.

Yes, there may have been issues in the camp, but I don’t care, they are all grown adults, and they should take responsibility for their actions as men. No excuses, it’s as simple as that, no amount of tension in the camp, or confusion over a 4-4-2 system we have been playing since dinosaurs ruled the earth are excuses, in fact, I hate excuses.

It’s simple, as men, and I don’t mean as footballers, but as men who should show pride in everything they do, we simply don’t have any. Honestly, while England were limping through a World Cup they had enough talent to win, I watched the England rugby team beat an Aussie side they had no right to beat. Know how they did it? Passion and desire, something which our football players seem to know nothing about.

I’m sorry to be so condemning of my national team, but I’m being serious when I say I genuinely feel a bunch of passionate amateurs would have shown more heart than our lads did. I love football, but unfortunately, with the amount of diving, and dishonesty that is now core within the game, what do you expect? If you raise people to play with no pride in themselves, how will they have pride in their country?

People keep saying that they play well every week for their club, why can’t they do it for their country.......simples, they get paid playing for their club and it’s their careers on the line, while with England, they can play as badly as they want, and they still go back to their jobs. Pride, something you can’t buy, but that comes from within......think I’m being harsh, well how about when we were playing badly, why didn’t one of these so called superstars go looking for the ball, trying to turn the game around? I’m sorry, when you are that good, you can have an effect on a game, hell I’m a good Sunday morning footballer, nothing more, but I could have made a bigger difference than Rooney did, simply by chasing every ball down and trying my best..............nuff said.

There are a million and one things I could go on and talk about from the sports psychology side of things, through to the preparation, to the idea that they were simply too tired (try being a rugby player, a top class game is equivalent to a category 3 car crash, yet we play every week too!), but I’m simply going to move on, before my head explodes from frustration.

So as I write this, life is good, I’m loving my show on Kerrang, Spain are about to play Germany to see who will face the Netherlands in the World Cup final, England have beaten the Aussies in a One Day series at the cricket, and I have 4 amazing motorbikes outside my flat for some riding fun, if you want to see what I get up to on them, simply check out my Motorcycle Diaries! In fact the Diaries have been my main focus recently, along with getting nice trips to the MotoGP and Isle of Man, but I am glad to day I am back playing cricket with Harborne, and after two games, both rained off in the end, I can tell you..........I’m back!! Well I got a wicket....................let’s move on swiftly!

So yeah, in other words, from here on in, I will try and blog a whole lot more, even if it’s only a few lines, to keep you updated on what I’m up to and my thoughts on the goings on in the world of sport!

First up tonight’s game, well I reckon Germany are the team to beat in this World Cup, and as good Spain are I can see it being 3-1 to our vanquishers, the Germans, and I for one will be cheering them on, as at least they are playing with pride, and that Ozil is world class........!

So I’ll let you know what I think of the game tomorrow, oh and I’ll also update you on some new and exciting developments in the world of Wilkins!

Magnana