Category: Sport

Lions Tour 2017

A good reason to get back to the keyboard after such a long lay-off.

The last time they were here in 2005 I kept a record through paper clippings and photos of the Lions’ tour. Well the world has truly moved on, so much of the reporting is far easier to find digitally and so the task of keeping a ‘scrapbook’ falls I think to the blog. This will make keeping the blog active all the more important.

Well the team arrived during the week and tonight in Whangarei they play their opener against a NZ Barbarians team. In the tradition of tours this team is weak and so a gentle introduction. However, unlike other tours this is the only straight forward match for the tourists. Aside of the Tests the Lions play all the Super Rugby teams and NZ Maori. A short but truly intense tour.

We have tickets for the First Test in Auckland and the Hurricanes game. Depending on the health of JC I may go to the 2nd Test in Wellington or to watch it on a big screen at the Embassy Cinema courtesy of MSP rugby club.

Fist game tonight will be watched with red shirts on and traditional curry meal.

Let’s go.

Brentford feature in the sports pages

 An interesting article about player development and Brentford’s need to change their approach. I listened to an interesting overview of the same in one of the Beesotted podcasts.

Brentford

Why Brentford ditched their academy in favour of developing Premier League outcasts

Championship club’s decision to focus on a reserve side playing top opposition in friendlies is paying dividends under head of football operations Robert Rowan

Robert Rowan Brentford
Brentford’s head of football operations Robert Rowan, right, makes a point to the head coach, Dean Smith, at the club’s Jersey Road training ground. Photograph: Mark Chapman/Brentford FC

It is a sunny Tuesday morning in west London and Robert Rowan, Brentford’s head of football operations, is watching Kevin O’Connor putting his B team squad through their paces. “Twenty-five press-ups for the strikers and then we go again,” commands the coach to his group of young players gathered from six European countries.

Cricket at the Basin Reserve

Yesterday Sara and I went to the Basin to watch the second Test against South Africa.

It was hardly classic cricket conditions with minimal sunshine, somewhat chilly and a nice chilly southerly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was not a great performance on the part of the Black Caps. In the end they had lost by 8 wickets by the end of the day, Day 3. We had already left but were mostly present to see the tumble of wickets and slow scoring.

Not really a great advert for cricket or New Zealanders at times with the number of people who were pretty pissed by early afternoon.

Round the Bays active family

Last weekend was the annual fun run and serious run in Wellington. In total about 10,000 people participated; about 2,000 each for the 10km and the half-marathon. Eleanor and Joe each did the ‘half’ while Shaz did the 10k.

All did well with Joe and EQ running in less than 2 hours and Sara beating last year’s time by a bit. Joe was possibly more comfortable at the finish than Eleanor. Good stuff by all concerned though.

Sven was in the crowd cheering on heartedly though maybe too American-like for me. Isaac was watching too as he apparently does not like running. I had planned to run but again the body showed its vulnerability and injuries to the achilles and calves proved to be limiting.

Maybe in June I can have a go if the body improves? Maybe the old man needs to fins something more suited to later years of life?

No dream upset this time around

Branislav Ivanovic proves the unlikely star as Chelsea rout Brentford

Chelsea 4 – 0 Brentford

FA Cup
Stamford Bridge
Chelsea’s Branislav Ivanovic celebrates scoring their third goal.
Chelsea’s Branislav Ivanovic celebrates scoring their third goal. Photograph: Eddie Keogh/Reuters

Antonio Conte can do no wrong. The Chelsea manager watched his team ease into the fifth round of the FA Cup at the expense of Brentford, who did not turn up until the second half, and the icing on the cake was provided by Branislav Ivanovic – a player he had dropped from the starting line-up.

It would appear that Brentford played in keeping with a lot of this season- inadequately. Surprising that it would take them to the second half to get into the game- one that was so anticipated. I suppose all will have continue to save their dreams for another year.

Euro 2016

England denied by Russia’s last-gasp equaliser in Euro 2016 opener | Football | The GuardianEngland looked to have won through Eric Dier’s goal when Vasili Berezutski equalised in injury time to earn a draw for Russia in Marseille

 

The action has started. Friday night was the opener in Paris with France playing Romania.

We have been accessing the action through alternative routes. Primer TV is showing some in NZ. Sky has the rights but is showing it on a specific channel so not through our Fanpass subscription- as Sky Sports internet access.

So we have used VPN to access ITV sport and will do the same to watch on the BBC.

So far so good and an example of technology overcoming the rights lock-down that is hard to maintain in the modern world.

And as far as the football was concerned-England looked good, capable but lacked control. Should have had the game in the bag before the last minute equaliser.

 

London mayor: The Sadiq Khan story – BBC News

A profile of Sadiq Khan – the council estate boy turned lawyer, then MP and now mayor of London.

Source: London mayor: The Sadiq Khan story – BBC News

He has often said that his early impressions of the world of work shaped his belief in the trade union movement. His father, a bus driver for 25 years, “was in a union and got decent pay and conditions” whereas his mum, a stay-at-home seamstress, “wasn’t, and didn’t”.

He lived with his parents and siblings in a cramped three-bedroomed house on the Henry Prince Estate in Earlsfield, south-west London, sharing a bunkbed with one of his brothers until he left home in his 20s.

He attended the local comprehensive, Ernest Bevin College, which he describes as “a tough school – it wasn’t always a bed of roses”. The nickname “Bevin boys” was at that time in that part of south London a byword for bad behaviour.

It was at school that he first began to gravitate towards politics, joining the Labour Party aged 15. He credits the school’s head, Naz Bokhari, who happened to be the first Muslim headteacher at a UK secondary school, with making him realise “skin colour or background wasn’t a barrier to making something with your life”.

Mr Khan was raised a Muslim and has never shied away from acknowledging the importance of his faith. In his maiden speech as an MP he spoke about his father teaching him Mohammed’s sayings, or hadiths – in particular the principle that “if one sees something wrong, one has the duty to try to change it”.

Sadiq Khan plays football at the 2015 Labour conferenceImage copyrightGetty Images

He was an able student who loved football, boxing and cricket – he even had a trial for Surrey County Cricket Club as a teenager. He has since spoken about the racist abuse he and his brothers faced at Wimbledon and Chelsea football matches, saying he felt “safer” watching at home and became a Liverpool fan simply “because they were playing such great football at the time”.

So now my claim to fame in life is that I used to play Sunday morning football on the astroturf in Wandsworth with the Mayor of London.

He will resign his seat at Westminster. TC to get the chance? You never know.