So in a slight change of topics, football will not be discussed in this blog. Instead the topics of discussion are Formula 1, tennis, cricket, and how to cook a pheasant. The latter is not actually a part of this blog, but if any of you know how to cook a pheasant please get in touch because there’s one sitting on my table waiting to be eaten.
Let’s start with a bit of Formula 1 then shall we? The Monaco grand prix on Sunday was one of the most dramatic of the season. A crash in qualifying left young Sergio Perez in desperate need of a hospital. Thankfully he got to one and is recovering. The main race saw Sebastien Vettel, Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button battling it out to win the race. Vettel’s tyres were on meltdown and Button was close to catching him in what was shaping up to be a thrilling last 6 laps. Then a Vitaly Petrov crash led to the race being stopped for quite a while. The pit crews went to work on the track, Vettel got some new tyres, the race restarted, and he won with ease. Petrov was ok too, if you were wondering. The race also saw a coming together of Lewis Hamilton’s Mclaren and Felipe Massa’s Ferrari. It looked to the naked and relatively untrained eye that it was typical reckless driving from the young Brit; a style of driving that has made him so interesting to watch, and a style that livened up the sport when he made his sensational debut season back in 2007, missing out on the Championship title by a point. The stewards agreed with my amateur view that it was Hamilton’s fault for the crash. This left a fuming Hamilton to give a feisty interview to the BBC. Lewis Hamilton is proud to be black; his main idols are Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela and his dad, and before his Championship title in 2008 he was quoted as saying that to win a World Championship would show that it’s not just white people who can do it. In reality, it was only a matter of time before he played the race card (no pun intended), and he did this during the feisty BBC interview. “Maybe it’s because I’m black” was the answer he gave when asked why he kept getting called up to the stewards. Maybe Lewis, but maybe it’s nothing to do with that and more to do with the fact you do silly things? And in reference to showing that more than white people can win the Championship, I was always under the impression that to win the World Championship you have to drive your car the quickest consistently, rather than be a certain colour. But what do I know?
Had enough of F1 yet? How about a spot of tennis then? The French Grand Slam at Roland Garros got underway last week. It’s now at the quarter and semi-final stages with all the big dogs still in the men’s draw still in. Roger Federer has been foolishly overlooked by many for this tournament due to the dominance of Rafael Nadal on clay, and the dominance of Novak Djokovic in all things tennis. The big Serb has not lost a match for longer than I care to remember (BBC Sport informs me he won the last 43 matches), but he will face the Fed Express in the semi’s in what should be a thriller. If all goes to form the other semi final will be contested between Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal. The hugely cheerful Murray is carrying a bit of a knock on his ankle, but completed a thrilling comeback over fourth round opponent Victor Troicki. The pundits have been commenting on the fact he appeared to be in a bad mood during that match. Can you believe it? Andy Murray, in a bad mood? Next you will be telling me that the Pope is actually a Catholic. In the woman’s side of the draw, World Number 1 Caroline Wozniacki got knocked out early on. The young Dane still hasn’t won a Grand Slam, but there’s always a future in modelling for her I’m sure if a Grand Slam still eludes her in a few years time. Speaking of models, soon to be married Maria Sharipova screamed her way into the semi-final earlier today. To tell you the truth (because most people like the truth) her high pitched squealing after every shot is not conducive for blog writing. It looks like hard work for all the players out there in the heat on the clay courts. Clay courts look very unappealing to me; very dirty. One thing is for sure, if you dropped your food on a clay court, the 3-second rule would have to be abandoned. There’s no recovering food with dirty clay stuck to it.
Finally in this whistle stop tour of sport, I move to the cricket. Never before has a positive result looked so unlikely. The final day of the first test match of the summer, much like the previous four, saw rain. England were still on their first innings with South African Jonathan Trott playing a usually dull but massively effective, and in the end, match winning innings. England declared in the afternoon 92 runs in front, causing Michael Vaughan to tweet about it being a pointless 2 hours left. Oh Michael how you were wrong. After the playoff final finished I switched over to see Sri Lanka were 58-8 with Graeme Swann on fire (not literally though, don’t worry). Minutes later, in front of almost no-one in the crowd, England wrapped up the win thanks to a Chris Tremlett short ball. Sri Lanka will be metaphorically kicking themselves, England will be literally patting each other on the backs, and the ECB will be under pressure to review having Cardiff as a test match venue. It can’t be faulted for drama; the first Ashes match of 2009 saw massive squeaky bum time when England batted out the last day for a draw, and this match just gone saw even greater drama. What it didn’t see though was supporters, and that’s a problem.
So that’s the round up of sport this week. Hope you have enjoyed it, and if you haven’t, I suggest you just stick to ‘The week in sport’ segment on Sky Sports News. I wouldn’t blame you either; Georgie Thompson is very good at her job…
No comments:
Post a Comment