Posts Tagged “sport”
England v. Slovenia
by Matt Wharton on June 23, 2010
The England squad made a visit to a South African orphanage this morning.
“It is so good to put a smile on the faces of people with no hope, constant struggling and facing the impossible” said Sipho Umboto, aged 6.
Edit 15:22
Goal! Jermain Defoe! England 1-0 Slovenia
The Ashes: The first Test drawn
by Matt Wharton on July 12, 2009
Unbelievably England have managed to hold off the Australian bowling attack and scrape a draw in the first Test from what was looking like dire circumstances.
It was looking extremely dicey once Collingwood’s wicket fell but Jimmy Anderson and Monty Panesar managed to survive 69 balls and save the Test.
It’s going to be a brilliant and interesting summer of cricket if this Test is anything to go by.
Teacher sacked for push-up punishment
by Matt Wharton on December 5, 2008
How times have changed.
A British teacher has been suspended after making his pupils do push-ups as a punishment for arriving late to class.
The Derby Moor Community Sports College, where the unnamed teacher worked, said an investigation was underway and that its “priority is to ensure that students are happy to be in school.”
I’m sure push-ups are not an Ofsted approved punishment but it seems to me to be a fitting punishment at a Sports College.
Mr Crouch my sadistic PE teacher at school would make pupils do push-ups for the slightest infraction and loved every second of it.
Sachin Tendulkar sets new run record
by Matt Wharton on October 17, 2008
BBC News reports that India’s Sachin Tendulkar has set a new record for the most runs scored by a batsman in Test cricket, overtaking the mark set by West Indies’ Brian Lara.
Tendulkar, 35, scored the 15 extra runs he needed to overtake Lara’s aggregate of 11,953 on day one of the second Test against Australia in Mohali.
Since regaining his form and ensuring his continued presence in the Test side there has been some inevitability that he would break Lara’s record. I and about half a billion people on the subcontinent congratulate him on this record breaking feat.
"The bowler’s Holding, the batsman’s Willey"
by Matt Wharton on September 28, 2008
Just had a customer at the cinema who wished to buy tickets but had forgotten her membership card with which she could get a discount off the price. So I asked her name so that I could search the members database to find her, she replied “wily, spelt W-i-l-l-e-y.”
I thought interesting as that’s not how I’d pronounce that surname and it put me in mind of the apocryphal quote attributed to cricket commentator Brian Johnston in regards to the West Indian bowler Michael Holding.
“The bowler’s Holding, the batsman’s Willey.”
And through his Wikipedia entry I find the following YouTube video of what is regarded as the best bowled over of Test cricket ever.
9.69 seconds
by Matt Wharton on August 16, 2008
Usain Bolt wins the Gold medal for the men’s 100m sprint with a World record time of 9.69 seconds and if he’d had any challengers on his shoulders then he’d have run faster but instead he started celebrating his victory at least 5 meters before the line.
Phenomenal! If anything could knock Michael Phelps off the headlines of the newspapers then Usain Bolt’s 100m run I think just did.
Olympics 2008: Men’s Team Sprint
by Matt Wharton on August 15, 2008
They said that the Laoshan Velodrome in Beijing was quick but I don’t think anyone was expecting this.
Great Britain’s men’s team sprint trio in the qualifying heat break the world record with a time of 42.950 seconds. The favourites for the Gold medal in this event France cycled in the following heat and could not match the mark set down by Team GB and were in fact a half second slower.
They set down a mark that the favourites for the gold medal France who cycled in the following heat couldn’t match and were half a second slower.
With a time of 17.19 seconds Jamie Staff cycled the fastest ever opening lap.
Edit 11.25 GMT Team GB have raced their way through to the final against France with yet another fast time but it seemed to me that they weren’t even pushing it as hard as they did in the heat. I can’t wait for the final.
Edit 12.12 GMT 43.128 seconds and Great Britain are the Olympic champions in the Men’s Team Sprint.
Olympics 2008
by Matt Wharton on August 8, 2008
Beijing 2008 has begun and I’m surprised to discover that sprint swimmer Mark Foster is the flag-bearer for Great Britain as I can’t believe that he’s still competing at nearly 40 years of age. Most swimmers have limited longevity for example Ian Thorpe retired in his early 20s and that Foster is still able to compete at an Olympic standard is astonishing.
The BBC’s Monkey animation for the opening of their TV coverage is very cool.
England lose and so goes McClaren
by Matt Wharton on November 22, 2007
After the England football team’s abysmal performance against Croatia last night resulted in them failing to qualify for the Euro 2008 the coach Steve McClaren has been sacked.
Croatia played for and got the win even though it was irrelevant as they were guaranteed to qualify and to top the group unless convincingly beaten by England.
A series of defensive errors cost England the match and apart from a short spell of good play at the start of the second half the players’ underperformed.
England shouldn’t have really been in the position of needing a draw from last night’s match but failing to win matches against lowly ranked Israel and Macedonia earlier in qualifying set them up for the possibility of failure.
Cricket World Cup Final
by Matt Wharton on April 28, 2007
I’ve not caught a whole lot of the 2007 Cricket World Cup but I just watched the final and it was a really extraordinary match in more ways than one.
Adam Gilchrist put in a truly astounding performance and scored 149 off 104 balls and broke two records in the process not only the highest total in a World Cup Final but also the quickest century too.
Thanks to Gilchrist the Australian team set a daunting total for Sri Lanka of 282 from 38 overs to win (due to rain the number of overs was reduced to 38).
The Sri Lankans to their credit didn’t seem too fazed by this and when Sanath Jayasuriya and Kumar Sangakkara got into their flow they looked to be on target to get the required runs. The loss of Sangakkara’s wicket came as a bit of a blow but that did mean that their captain Jayawardene would be coming to the crease and if he could pull off yet another great innings as he did in the semi-final against New Zealand there was still some hope.
It wasn’t to be though as firstly Jayasuriya’s wicket fell, the weather stopped play yet again and on the return Jayawardene suffered a bad LBW decision.
With the light fading and the run rate rising to unattainable levels the match descended into farce when with three overs to go the umpires offered the light to the batsmen. Everyone then assumed the match was over and Australia were declared the winners of the tournament followed by the organisers bringing out the stanchions onto the pitch for the award ceremony only for the umpires to order them off and to restart the match again.
The foregone conclusion now reached it’s actual conclusion with the end of the 36 over and Australia were now officially the champions of the 2007 Cricket World Cup, their third in a row.