Category: Sport

They Think Its All Over ….


…… It Is Now !!!

Those immortal words, uttered by Ken Wolstonholme in the closing minutes of the 1966 final, forty-five years ago.

The one and only time England have won the world cup.

For some reason every time since then we have had the arrogance to believe that we are entitled to win. Yet of the nineteen competitions we have only twice finished in the top four and that includes the 1966 win. Compare that to the record of  Brazil – 10 times or Germany – 12 times. Even France, Uraguay, Italy and Argentina have performed better than us.

How,  for a nation that considers football to be the national game, can that be acceptable. I do have some views on why it has occurred and the main one is that we have too many players from other countries in our national leagues. Look at any of the top teams and many of the player names are near unpronounceable. Like Tomasz Kuszczak, Mame Biram Diouf,  Dirk Kuyt, Nabil El Zhar … etc.  etc. And so the list goes on.

Surely this means that the pool, from which we must draw our international team members, is diluted since presumably these foreign players are not available to us. These foreign players, while playing for our national teams,  are denying English players a place and the associated skills and experience to be gained from playing at the national level.

I think that our football authorities need to shake up the national leagues and perhaps make some drastic changes to allow some home-grown talent to get the experience they need to play at the international level.

Or else it will be 48 years since the last win !!!

The next tournament will be held in Brazil, 2014 and the preliminary draw is tonight so the World Cup machine is already in motion.

London 2012 – GB athletes banned from 2012 opening ceremony


UK Athletics head coach Charles van Commenee has insisted no British track and field athletes will be part of the opening ceremony at next year’s London 2012 Olympic Games

Where is this mans head ? Obviously a very dark place.

For some olympic hopefuls the 2012 event may be their only chance to participate. So why are they being denied their rightful place at the opening ceremony ?

It might be different if they were going to be out partying and imbibing vast quantities of alcohol. But they are not, they are going to be representing their country.

So they should be able to participate in this one off event.

London 2012 – GB athletes banned from 2012 opening ceremony – Yahoo! Eurosport.

Team Orders – Wrong ???


Christian Horner can argue that F1 is a team sport but that is not true.

For a F1 driver winning is all.  To tell a driver not to race, not to overtake, to hold position goes against the grain. It is wrong.

I understand that he, Horner, wants to consolidate the constructors position that Red Bull hold. That is understandable. But his weasley words, about not wanting to lose points by allowing Webber to overtake Vettel, just don’t make sense. Sure, the last think you want as team principal is your drivers taking each other out. But it really doesn’t matter, at the team level, who came in second and third.

However, at the driver level it make a huge difference. The number of points affects your ranking in the championship and lets not forget that all the drivers are fighting for first place.

I am amazed at how controlled Webber is. Time and again he is given orders presenting him as the number two driver. If it’s not orders then he is given second-rate kit or worse still has kit taken away from him.

I understand that Webber has not yet signed his contract to maintain his place as driver for Red Bull into the 2012 season. I am sure he is thinking very hard about whether he wants to carry on in what appears to be the number two slot, to carry on driving without the full support of the team.

Jenson Button – Hero !!!


In the Canadian Grand Prix yesterday, Jenson made what has to possibly be the drive of his career.  It certainly is the drive of the season so far. The statistics of his drive make interesting reading alone. Two accidents, six pit stops and a drive through penalty. These are Jensons contribution to yesterdays race which was arguably the most exciting of the season.

The race contained everything, red flags, safety cars, superb overtaking charges, collisions and not forgetting the penalties.

While Jensons drive from the back of the pack to win the race in the final lap is the stuff of dreams we should not forget the other drivers who were also making this a race to be talked about for months, no years, to come.

While Vettel was out the front for the bulk of the race all the excitement was behind him until Button brought the race to him. The pressure was really on then and Button forced Vettel into a mistake which handed over the race lead and showed that Vettel is fallible.

But lets not forget Michael Schumacher who was also driving his socks off.  he was within sniffing distance of a Podium finish when it was snatched away from him by Mark Webber, more than once, and then Jenson as he ploughed a furrow through the pack.

The fight for that podium place was  riveting and while I was rooting for Webber I really did feel sorry for Schumacher who was making the best drive of his comeback.

And then there was Paul di Resta who was running 5th when he ran into Nick Heidfeld in his Renault. Di Resta had to return to the pits for a nose/wing change but somewhat harshly the stewards decided that he was at fault and hit him with a drive through penalty. Back out and running in 11th place with a chance of finishing in the points he came of worst while trying to pass Williams’ Rubens Barrichello. He ended up on the damp part of the track, made contact with a wall and he was retired from the race with a puncture.

F1 is going through a renaissance. It has long been criticized for being boring, a procession. This season has proven otherwise. The new tyre rules have made a huge difference that’s for sure.  Then you have to add in to the mix  the technology, in the form KERS and DRS. The KERS system is temperamental and with the DRS system only operational during specific  sectors and only if you are chasing down a competitor and only if you are within 1 second.

But you also have to look at the pedigree of the drivers. Never have so many world champions been competing together. That alone would be enough to make for sparks.

Yesterdays was the 7th race of the season. We have been treated to some fabulous racing this season and there are still 12 races to go. Just imagine the possibilities.

Hamilton, Vettel, Webber


What a finish. What a race. I’m unable to decide who deserves the Man of the Race trophy. Hamilton or Webber ? They both drove their socks off. For me I think Webber has the edge considering he didn’t have KERS.