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What a fantastics weekend of sport, especially for British sports fans.
3 play off finals, with Hull gaining Premiership status for the first time with a superb goal from the oldest guy on the pitch, Doncaster turning over Yorkshire rivals Leeds and Stockport beating Rochdale in a thriller yesterday.  All in all great for us northern chaps!

I didn’t get to see the second two matches as I was on a stag night in the Yorkshire Dales where they have just got running water and the occasional inside toilet, so no mobile phone reception and definitely no satellite TV or internet cafe.

This meant that having watched Hull win and then the England cricket team bat at 2.4 an over for a few hours of tedium I received a nice surprise when I got back to civilisation.  Predictably the England middle order had collapsed but then unpredictably Panesar bowled career best figures of 6/37 and in reply Strauss made a century, with England running out winners by six wickets. I thought the game had draw all over it but it just proves it can change so quickly.

Then the Monaco Grand Prix and Lewis Hamilton claiming first spot despite crashing on lap six.   The win puts him 3 points clear but the Championship looks like it could be a close run thing with Ferrari hot on the heels of McLaren. Is it me or has the coverage of this year’s F1 been slightly muted?  I’ve hardly heard any mention of it in the press and we have the prospect of the first British Champion for years.  Last year there seemed to be loads of coverage about Hamilton winning in his rookie season.  It’s almost as if winning it in his second year is either expected or not exciting enough.  Then again maybe its just me.

Anyway, all in all a great weekend for sport, even if I didn’t get to see a lot of it.  It’s still good to see the Brits doing well for once - let’s just hope that England can go on to win the Test series and you never know maybe even Andy Murray might have a good run at Wimbledon.  That might just take our minds off of the European Championships, although we do have a friendly tomorrow with England facing USA - joy!

Lewis Hamilton got off to a flying start this weekend in Australia, taking pole position in qualifying, and then never losing the lead from start to finish.  It was just as well he was clear of the pack as there was chaos behind him with the safety car being used 4 times and only 7 drivers actually finishing the race.

The good news for Hamilton was that none of his closest rivals finished and the good news for his team was that Ferrari had their worse start to a season for 16 years picking up only one point.

Hamilton himself was please with he way he controlled car and tyres but still wants to improve, which is a sign of the ambition of the guy and bodes well for the rest of the season.  I for one, will be very surprised if he isn’t crowned World Champion later this year

After the near misses of the F1 World Championship and the Rugby World Cup, finally we have had a weekend to be proud of.  I’m not just talking about Portsmouth’s demolition of Newcastle this weekend (incidentally a result, which puts them in the Champions League spot), but the wins of Justin Rose, Paula Radcliffe and Joe Calzaghe.

Joe Calzaghe was the first to win, defending his Super Middle Weight title successfully against the Dane Mikel Kessler.  This fight was not a full gone conclusion and Calzaghe was hit with some good shots and rocked a couple of times, but ultimately his guts, determination, stamina and ability to adapt got him through.  He is now eyeing up a step up to light heavy weight after defending his title an amazing 21 times. 

Then came Paula Radcliffe, who won a close run London Martathon on Sunday.  The win itself is remarkable enough and something to be proud of, but considering she gave birth to her daughter Isla just 10 months ago, it is made even more remarkable. 

And then Sunday afternoon up stepped Justin Rose in the Volvo Masters, knowing that a win would also give him the European Order of Merit Title.  He seemed to be coasting 4 shots clear until the 11th, where he made a double bogey, and then went on to drop 2 more shots in the next 3 holes.  This was compounded when Graeme McDowell produced an Albatross 2 at the 17th to show that anyone of 5 could potentially win.  However, it was the 18th hole at Valerama, which once again gave us the drama, with the top 3 (Rose, Dyson and Kjeldson) all taking bogeys, and going into a 3-way play off.  With Padraig Harrington finishing 2 shots down in 4th, it meant that Rose was assured the Order of Merit title and this seemed to relax him enough to go on and win the play off with a 12 foot putt.

The timing for all three couldn’t be better in terms of spot lighting their sports with the Sports Personality of the Year Award coming up in December.  All should be in contention along with Lewis Hamilton, and of course Jonny Wilkinson. Let’s hope it does go to one of the “smaller” sports and for somebody who actually won something rather than just came close.  Britain needs to celebrate winners rather than the “nearly men”.

The weekend has come and gone along with our hopes of being crowned World Champions in at least one high profile sport.

I and millions of others sat down to watch England try and become the first side to retain the Rugby World Cup, on Saturday only to see the Springboks prove to strong.  Funnily enough the talk before the game was of the mistakes that the South Africans had been making throughout the tournament and how Jonny would be able to take full advantage of them.  Unfortunately it was the English boys, who made the mistakes, and always right in front of the posts to make it an easy conversion. That coupled with not being able to win our own line outs in kep positions, meant we only ever looked like scoring a try once and that was taken away by an Austalian  - poetic justice there I guess - where are the Russian linesmen when you need them?

In the end though it was the South African’s defence that win the match for them and although we all felt disappointed we should remember that England started the World Cup as 80/1 to retain it and did well to get as close as they did.  Let’s hope they can build on the experience and turn it on in the 6 NAtions next time around.

Then there was Sunday.  At least we could rely on Lewis Hamilton to restore some pride!  Wrong again.  I missed the start and tuned in with 20 laps to go and Hamilton 40 plus seconds behind the 5th place he needed to be.  Ironic that his car should elt him down at the last hurdle but strangely satisfying that Alonso didn’t pip him to it, or is that just me?  There is of course the appeal that McLaren will launch but I wont hold my breath and I wouldn’t like to see him win like that, especially after the other scandal that has dogged the sport this year. 

The FIA have to be careful - there are so many rules and regulations that they are in danger of turning people off the sport.  It ceased to be about the best driver years ago, but it should certainly not be about which team has the best lawyers.

All in all not the best week for British Sport, especially with the the Football team looking likely to drop out of Euro 2008.  If that happens I might need to go off on holiday for a month next year.  Somewhere away from all Television.

On the upside at least the Pompey boys won away from home again to maintain there 5th spot in the Premiership, although it was yet another controversial weekend for referees. FIFA should definitely look at the use of video technology to avoid such controversy….

So England made the semi-finals against all the odds having turned over the Ozzies and were expected by most people on the know to get thrashed by the French, who would surely be bouyed by a huge partisan crowd in the Stade de France.  It was not to be. 

If we are to believe the rumours, the England Rugby World Cup team have turned their performances around and motiviated themselves by playing the “The Gambler” a well known Kenny Rodgers song.  (Kenny Rodgers is a country and western singer for those not so well versed as the England Rugby team).

Unlike their predecessors it seems this team thrive on being the underdogs and the doom merchants insisting they have no chance.  Let’s hope this continues for the final where South Africa are clear favourites and would have been even if they hadn’t thrashed us 36-0 earlier in the tournament.  The good news is that not only has no side ever retained the Web Ellis Trophy but also no team have ever won it having lost a game in the group stages.  So really nothing to lose then!

Overall Saturday’s match was not a great spectacle but as I mentioned a long time ago now when talking about the England football team, sometimes its good to win ugly.  I’m sure if England grind out another close win on Saturday having spent 40 minutes kicking the ball about rather than running in 5 tries that there will be few people chastising them for it!

First up an apology to my reader for not posting for over a week - something called work has gotten in the way.  I’ve been flying about rural Yorkshire meeting some interesting people.

But what a week or so of sport.  It was good to see the Blue Army turn over Burnley mid week with a second string team, and even better to see Coventry beat Manchester United.

Then  there is the Jose situation.  I said in this blog at the end of last year that he might go over the summer, so I wasn’t too far wrong.  The fall out will go on and on with this and I think that will be it for Chelsea this season.  By the time they realise that the Israeli guy can’t coach and buy in somebody else, they will be too far behind to compete.

Then there is the Rugby World Cup with England bidding to not be the worst holders of the trophy in the entire history of the event.  They have to beat a strong Tonga side to do that so fingers crossed thay they manage it and then dont get too much of a mauling from the Ozzies in the quarter final.

And what about the F1 Championship.  Its offical - Lewis Hamilton doesn’t like Fernando Alonso.  He has finally come off the fence and said it rather than toe the diplomatic party line.  Whatever happens it’s been a great season for Hamilton and Alonso will not be there next year.  Let’s hope Mclaren sign Jenson Button and the British young guns can take on the world together.

Well lots more I could say but its getting late again after another long day.  And even later now as this didn’t post the first time and I had to start again.  Time for a beer I think! 

Its been a busy week for me and so not much time for blogging, but its also been a busy week in the world of sport.

First up England winning, and not only winning but winningwith some style against Russia mid-week.  Due to a complete cock up with keys, which I wont go into, I managed to miss the first half and so both of Owens goals, but it was good to see England pretty much in control of the second half with the exception of a 10 minute spell. 

Who would have thought that Heskey could make such an impact that Gareth Barry would fit in so well and that Owen would hit top form all at once?  You could heap praise on McClaren for finding a winning formula, but we all know that this team was picked due to the huge number of injuries he was faced with.

An interesting dilemma now for Stee McClaren.  Stick with a winning team or go backto the old and tried and tested formula (that’s irony) of playing as many stars in one team as possible regardless of fit and balance.  Tough one that! He might choose to make changes under the guise of people being on yellow cards and trying to avoid suspension.  To my mind though he should stick with this team, and leave the stars on the bench.  e.g. Lampard, Beckham and Rooney.  If somebody is suspended he can bring people back in at that point.  Psychologically it will be good for the team that has just played, give the big names a kick where they need it and go some way to intimidating the opposition when they look at the bench!  

An interesting test of McClaren’s mettle, although no doubt there will be any number of injuries before the next set of fixtures. 

Then there was the decision from the FIA regarding McLaren/Ferrari.  $100M fine - I nearly fell off my seat when I heard that.  No doubt being kicked out of the constrictors championship will hurt more than the money, but it is still a huge sum of money regardless of the amount floating about in the sport. 

The upside from a British point of view though is that they have not penalised the drivers, so Lewis Hamilton who has seen his lead pegged back over recent weeks still has a chance of becoming World Champion.  Credit to Alonso here - he has come back well and shown his true class.  It just goes to show that when he concentrates on racing and stops whining he can do it!

Then today we had a woeful performance from England against the Ozzies in the the Twenty20 World Cup, as they went down by 8 wickets and with 5 overs left. 

With England facing South Africa tonight in the Rugby World Cup this evening, it could be business as usual today for English sport - well we couldn’t expect to have antother day like last Saturday could we?

Current F1 champ Fernando Alonso’s relationship with young pretender Lewis Hamilton hit an all time low during the Hungarian Grand Prix this weekend.

Their relationship has been strained all season with Hamilton putting the temperamental Spaniard under pressure with a series of 9 straight podium places.  However, it plunged to new depths when Alonso delayed exiting the pits on Saturday and by doing so denied Hamilton a chance to complete a final flying lap.

Alonso was subsequently shunted down 5 places on the grid to 6th finishing 4th, while Hamilton clocked up his third victory, increasing his lead to 7 points.

It now appears that the two are not talking - or at least Alonso is not talking to Hamilton, who says he has tried to make amends but will not go out of his way to speak to his team mate.

If they don’t sort their differences soon then Ron Davis may be forced to act.  Alonso’s petulance also cost McClaren constructors points this weekend and he won’t allow it to continue.

Whatever happens, you can bank on the fact that come the end of the season Davis will have to choose between his two stars and my money is that he will keep Hamilton having backed him with money and time since he was 10. 

Whether or not Alonso is right in his assertion earlier in the season that Hamilton is getting preferential treatment remains to be seen (although my belief is that he has been rattled by the fact that Hamilton is proving to be the better driver in an identical car).  Frankly I don’t care if Hamilton is receiving preferential treatment or not, as long as by the end of the season we have a British F1 Champion again!

Lewis Hamilton has stated that he needs to “up his game” if he is to finish World Champion at his first attempt, despite making it 9 podium places in 9 races.

The young Brit started on pole position but finished third, and admits to making several mistakes in the race.  Up until now he has an unblemished record in that area.

He openly admits to choosing the wrong tyres, not having balance in the set up during the race and making an error in the pits, which cost him time.

The good news is that despite all of that he is still 12 points ahead of Alonso in second place.  However, is this just a minor blip or is the lack of F1 experience and the pressure and expecation of a nation starting to take its toll on the 22 year old.  It would be no surprise if this were the case.  Let’s hope he can make amends in Germany on 22nd.

Lewis Hamilton made it 8 podium places in 8 starts finishing third in the French Grand Prix yesterday, and extending his lead to 13 points over team mate Fernando Alonso, who finished 7th.  However, there was the first chink in his armour, as he was overtaken for the first time, having started in 2nd.

Ferrari finished in the first two spots and appear to now be mounting a challenge to McLaren in the constructors championship. 

The race itself was a tactical battle with McLaren seemingly content to settle for third place early doors when it became clear it would be difficult to catch the Ferraris. 

All eyes are now on Silverstone next week where Hamilton will be keen to impress in front of his home crowd.  He remains his confident self though and is convinced that McLaren still have the upper hand on Ferrari.  Let’s hope that’s the case and that he can finish the season as World Champion.  I have got bored with F1 over recent years, as have a lot of people I think, but have tuned into the last few races now that there is a genuine chance of a British World Champion.