Tuesday, February 28, 2006

It's International week

England take on Uruguay at Anfield tomorrow night in their last friendly before the World Cup Squad is selected. The England team is as follows:

Paul Robinson (Tottenham), Gary Neville (Man Utd), John Terry (Chelsea), Rio Ferdinand (Man Utd), Wayne Bridge (Fulham), David Beckham (Real Madrid), Michael Carrick (Tottenham), Steven Gerrard (Liverpool), Joe Cole (Chelsea), Wayne Rooney (Man Utd), Darren Bent (Charlton)

With Michael Owen and Ashley Cole still out injured and now Frank Lampard out with a hamstring there are chances for some of the fringe players to put forward their case for selection. Wayne Bridge is an interesting one, after being out most of the season I'm not convinced that he is the man to fill Cole's shoes but then who else is there. He must take this chance and put up a strong performance.

I am also pleased that Sven has gone for Michael Carrick, he is an excellent player in the midfield holding role and is one of the reason why Tottenham are having such an excellent season. It seems incredible that Sven will pick a Spurs centre back to play in midfield ahead of an actual Spurs midfielder. However the person with the biggest chance is Darren Bent of Charlton. He has been in excellent form all season and deserves this. I think everyone realizes that Owen and Rooney will always be first choice and that Crouch will also be going, but the places after that are up for grabs. Sven knows what Defoe and Vassell are capable of and now he is giving Bent the chance to show his international credentials. He needs to grab this with both hands and put in a strong performance as this could well be the only chance he gets. Good luck Darren

The curse of the new moose

After reading the lovely article written here it got me thinking. For a long time now my father and other football friends have been trying to understand the reason for the decline in the fortunes of Cambridge United. So, after three years of deliberations what did we decide? You guessed it, it's all down to the new moose.

Cambridge United took the moose on as a mascot in the 1990's and at the time purchased a very threadbare Moose's outfit presumably from a dodgy second hand fancy dress shop. For years he wandered around the pitch throwing sweets to the kids and mucking around. Sometime in the early 2000's a campaign was started to get a brand new moose outfit, and the money was duly raised by the supporters. What was purchase however was not ideal, a brand new body was fine, but the head now has a stupid toothy grin and does look kind of scary.

Since we have had this new outfit the form of the team has been abysmal. We have been relegated from the football league and now sit 15th in the Conference. The number of games that we have won away from home can be counted on one hand with fingers to spare. We have not had a decent cup run and have consistently lost to teams in lower leagues. The person in the suit may not have changed, although I suspect they have, but the change of suit has not been for the better.

The question now is will our fortunes change in the next few weeks, as the moose has not appeared at the last two home games. Does this mean that we are not the only people who have this theory. Has the moose been caged? or worse? More than likely the person in the suit has been on holiday. But you can rest assured that me and the people around me will be watching with baited breath to see what the fate of the moose is.

The Influence of a Sports Potato

as written by the Long-Suffering Potato-Wife.

When I take our daughter to nursery school in the morning, she insists on playing an imagination game and we both have to pretend to be going somewhere in our car. Normally this entails "Going to the Moon" (she loves putting on her spacesuit once we get there) or "Going to China" to see the Panda Bears in the jungle, and chinese dragons flying around the sunrise. Other favourites include a boat or yellow submarine in the ocean - spotting whales with snails on their tails, or mermaids waving at us.
Today, our daughter chose a new topic which caught me a little short. We were "Going to the Football". Okay, I thought...I have no idea what we should be spotting along the way to the football, so let's leave it to her.
We exited the driveway, turned the corner, and proceeded through our village streets - and I asked her what she could see on the way to the football.
"We have to look out for the moose, Mummy" came the little voice from the back seat.
(Explanation - my Sports Potato husband has influenced my 3 year old daughter so much about his one particular sports team that she already associates the team mascot (a Moose) with football already.
"What else will we see going to the football, then?" I called.
"People, Mummy - lots of people going to the the football"
This wasn't going to be a great traveling expedition, I could tell. She wasn't accepting of my proposal that we might need to see some footballs perhaps. In an attempt to distract her, I pointed out a field full of sheep to our left, as we drove into the countryside surrounding the village.
"Look at those sheep" I said.
"Sheep!" she exclaimed, "What are they doing at the football!"
We then had a conversation about how the Moose could get rid of the sheep on the pitch. And very shortly afterwards, drove into the football stadium carpark, and entered (she'd forgotten the need for her ticket for a short while, but magic-ed it up from the car somewhere). On entering the football we climbed up onto the stadium seats, and we took a thick blanket with us also, to keep us warm.
(Explanation - I have none - I have no idea where she picked up the notion from, regarding needing a blanket at football, but it seems like a good one - considering her first real life football experience on Boxing Day of last year involved a small smattering of snow, and a chilling winter wind).
I took the Moose away with me, after dropping her off in her Nursery room. Up close, she's afraid of that football moose.

Monday, February 27, 2006

Behind the 8 ball

Well we are just days away from the start of the NRL season and the New Zealand Warriors are already rock bottom of the league after having 4 points deducted for breaking the salary cap in the last two seasons. (See here ).

This is a basic schoolboy error and could mean that they lose a lot of revenue this year. I mean after all who wants to go and watch a team that have absolutely no chance of winning anything this season. No news on yet if they plan to appeal, but I would be hoping for a fine. Lets hope that on the field they make abck the 4 points in the first 2 games and prove to everyone they are credible contenders

Sunday, February 26, 2006

Weekend Roundup and Team of the Week

My team of the week this week is the Warrington Wolves. They recorded a stunning 46-24 win over Hull which was totally unpredictable. Lee Briers led the way with an individual total of 18 points. This combined with a Henry Fa'afili hattrick led the Wolves to their first win of the season. This must come as huge relief to Paul Cullen who has seen his side lose the last two weeks to sides that can only be described as inferior. Behind at the half they rallied to storm to victory with the senior players finally standing up to be counted. They really needed this win and they have to continue this from into Friday nights fixture with the unbeaten St. Helens. They currently lie 7th in the table and with everyone bar St. Helens having been defeated then if they can win next week they will be back on course for top four. The secret now is to learn how to beat the lesser sides as well as the good ones.

Moving onto Rugby Union congratulations to the Wellington Hurricanes who moved to top of the Super 14 table with maximum points from three games. I said all I needed to say about them here. Keep up the good work

Elsewhere it has been a disastrous weekend in rugby Union. Northampton Saints suffer their first defeat of 2006 when they were beaten 30-3 by London Irish (Match Report found here ) This allows us all to put into perspective the fact that try as they might the Saints are not capable of challenging for a top five position this season. If they can finish strongly and then consolidate over the summer then next year they will have a better chance. To finish top five these are games you need to win, and not only were they beaten the only points they had to show for it were from a solitary Carlos Spencer penalty. There is no doubt that they were hurt by the loss of Reihana and all their six nation internationals. But just like any other league, you must have strength in depth. There is still a relative amount of inexperience in the Saints team so I will look to them to bounce back strongly from this defeat next weekend

Moving onto England. I was very arrogant on Friday about this and now I have to eat humble pie. I cannot believe that England could contrive to play so badly that they would lose to Scotland. So only Ireland now have the chance of winning the triple crown and England blew the best chance they have had for a long time to win the Grand slam. Quite simply we were outfought, Scotland simply wanted it more than we did. There were a lot of below par performances and some strange managerial ones. Waiting to long to bring on Lawrence Dallaglio and why oh why did he let Harry Ellis back on the field after the blood bin substitution. When Dawson came on we were getting quick ball to the back and really stretching Scotland. When Ellis came back it was slow ball again giving the Scots plenty of time to set up their defense. Now I could sit here and blame some of the poor refereeing decisions that were made in the last 10 minutes, but the fact is if England are going to have half a chance of defending the World Cup next year they have to be able to put teams like the Scots away before the 70 minute mark. Credit where credit is due the Scots were that much better than us. I imagine there are a lot of kiwis with big smiles on their faces after this result.

From one disaster to another, Golden State almost certainly bowed out of the play off picture with 2 defeats over the weekend. Whilst losing to San Antonio by 17 points was to be expected, the loss to Houston by 3 points Friday night was a harsh one to take. They had the chance to win but unfortunately Jason Richardson missed a three point attempt. There can be no blame laid at his door though as he scored a season high 39 points on the night. The simple fact is that although Golden Sate seemed to have improved this season they have not improved enough to make the play offs. Lets hope that they can continue with this form to have a respectable end of season finish and then score the right people in the close season to mount a credible challenge next season. I will be looking for a much stronger year next year

Friday, February 24, 2006

The weekend ahead

So what's on for the weekend ahead. Not much from a football perspective. No game for Cambridge United but there is a midweek international that sees England face Uruguay, which I will preview on Tuesday.

In the world of Rugby Union there is a lot on. Making an early bid for team of the week are the Wellington Hurricanes who have just beaten the Cats by 13 points at the Cake Tin in Wellington. This now sees them top the Super 14 table with a maximum 15 points (Match Report here). The Hurricanes trailed behind approaching half-time but managed to score a crucial try before the halftime whistle to take them in with the lead and they never looked back. This is the best ever start from them since I started to follow them and will definitely have a lot of teams paying them closer attention. The big hurdle for them to overcome will be how they perform on their travels. They are off to South Africa next week and will need to pick up victories over there to ensure their push for a top four finish. Special mentions need to go to Lome Fa'atau for scoring a fine brace of tries and to David Holwell who has now moved to fifth on the all time scorers list

Sticking with Rugby Union the Six Nations returns with England taking on Scotland. Nothing to talk about here England will win this quite convincingly they are just too good for the Scots. England to win 13+

The bigger game from my perspective will be the Northampton Saints taking on London Irish. The Saints will be without their International players as well as the influential Bruce Reihana in one of two crucial games over the next three weeks. London Irish are just ahead of them in the table and a four or five point victory for the Saints would see them start to bridge the gap to the top four teams. It will be a great clash between two Kiwis hoping to show off their considerable skills. I'm going to take "King" Carlos Spencer to win the battle over Riki Flutey and bring the Saints home by 1-12 points

Moving on to the world of Rugby League the Warrington Wolves have a massive game this weekend at home to Hull. At this point of the season we should not be talking about must win games, but this is a must win game. After two defeats in the opening rounds of the Super League another defeat could condemn them to also rans after only three rounds. They simply must win this to have a realistic chance of a top four finish, or possibly even to qualify for the end of season play offs. Samoan Danny Lima thinks that getting back to basics and completing their sets is the answer. It will help.They must keep the ball and wear out the Hull defence. The playmakers need to start to create the opportunities for the wingers and the forwards will need to make the hard yards. Lets hope the appearance of the Sky Sports cameras will inspire them to their first victory of the season. Optimistically I'll take the Wolves by 1-12 points.

And finally we go to basketball. The Golden State Warriors are on the road for two games this weekend, firstly at Houston and then at San Antonio. If they are to have a realistic chance of making the play offs they must win at Houston. It's hard to see them winning on the road at San Antonio so they must beat Houston to keep their slim hopes alive. Jack McCallum writes on Yahoo sports that Golden State should start to look to next year now. I'm going to stay on the optimistic side and say that they still have a chance, though they will need to win at least 4 of their 6 games this coming week. There is not much substance behind this article and he thinks that Sacramento will finish above them. This is all based on his opinion, lets hopes he's wrong.I'lll take the Warriors to win one and lose one this weekend.

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Rubbish...

What a terrible start to the week. Both of my teams that were in action last night took an absolute pasting. First up the Golden State Warriors were hammered 102 - 77 by Sacramento. It looks like they need to wake up after the All Star Break. Not only was it a defeat but it pushed the Warriors into last place in the Pacific Conference severely denting their now somewhat hopeful play off ambitions. They are now on the road for two games and must win at least one of them or they can start to think about rebuilding for next season. They were outscored heavily through the first three quarters and must start to get off to better starts. In this game you cannot afford to miss shots and give teams big leads. I hope they bounce back strongly and start to build on their first half of the season form to at least keep me interested for a while longer.

So we come to Cambridge United and my optimism for an away draw at Burton last night. Surprisingly they opted to keep the same team as Saturday but failed to produce the same result. I watched the game on the internet, yes I know it's sad, hoping that we could take the game to Burton. Unfortunately this was not the case as Burton kept us under pressure for long periods of time. However our defending was excellent and we held out to half time leading to me starting to feel optimistic about a result.

30 bloody seconds into the second half and that was shattered as we were caught napping and a goal down. 15 minutes later that was 2-0 and game over. I appreciate that to get a point away from home is always a good result but come on. What do we have to do to realise that we need to start attacking. Lets force the home team to play football and at least think about how to cope with us. Lets stop trying to get teams on the break, we have the capability to beat teams because we are better than them. If we stop them playing then we have a chance, letting them play is our biggest downfall. Rob Newman is again talking about dropping senior players, something he has done after most defeats away from home this season but has failed to follow up on. This time will be easy as Mark Peters will be suspended, lets hope this isn't disastrous for us. With 10 days before our next game we need to think about our approach to away games to get those points we so badly need.

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

What's happened to the FA Cup?

Can anyone remember the time when a weekend full of football would be eagerly anticipated? No me neither. The truth is the magic of the FA Cup is starting to disappear. This used to be something that everyone looked forward to, giantkillings, end to end football, penalty shoot-outs and last minute goals in extra time. Who can forget the Arsenal vs Manchester United semi-final in 1999.

Last weekend saw the FA Cup fifth round, and aside from Colchester daring to take on the mighty Chelsea it was dull. Manchester United and Liverpool couldn't be arsed to play a good match. Every other TV game was bland. It has come to something that even the leaders of the Championship will sacrifice the FA cup in order to rest their top players. So much for the fines that should be handed out for not fielding your best team.

So what's the problem. In short money. There are too many team who are looking to jump on the cash cow of the Premier League or the Champions League. There is a guaranteed European place but that doesn't hold much for those looking like they will get relegated. The truth of the matter is that you get more passionate games in the first two rounds as non-league and lower league clubs do battle without a care in the world because they know about the riches a third round tie at Old Trafford can bring them. Teams attack and full strength sides are always played. The FA premier League and the FA have killed the FA Cup. Looking at the quarter final draw we should expect a boring Liverpool vs Chelsea final, but if it turns out to be Birmingham vs Newcastle you can bet everyone will be talking about how the big teams just couldn't be bothered

It's a midweek game

Cambridge United travel to Burton tonight fresh from a hard fought victory over Southport at the weekend. The first thing we need to remember is our away form is poor and to add to that Mark Peters is now suspended for two games following his booking for celebrating with the fans on Saturday. This can be described as needless or that the ref was over-exuberant, in any case it leaves us with out a key central defender. At the time of writing it is assumed that this suspension will kick in for the game tonight although it may well be Saturday before he has to miss a game.

What will be interesting is the formation that we will be playing. Normally away from home we leave one man up front and hope to catch our opponents on the break. This man is normally Craig Westcarr who has done very well in this role. If we play this way tonight I would expect this to be Jamie Guy though I would prefer if we actually went out for a win and started up front with the returning Fola alongside Jamie. Our manage, Rob Newman, has never started with Fola after he has come back from injury or suspension so I am going to suspect that we will start with one up front and hope for the best. I am calling a 1-1 draw on this one. Time permitting I will be back later on to discuss the result

Sunday, February 19, 2006

Weekend Roundup and Team of the Week

Welcome to the weekend round up and team of the week. This weekends team of the week is the Northampton Saints who scored a remarkable 58-17 victory over Saracens. Full match report is available here. They came back from being 10-0 behind after 8 minutes to put on 46 unanswered points, scoring a remarkable 7 tries, 4 of which went to Sean Lamont. Its been 10 years since a Saints player score 4 tries in one match, and a lot of credit needs to go to Sean for this Herculean effort. It was an excellent time for the Saints to record their first five point win of the season, and now hopefully they can use this as a springboard to climb the league. They currently sit in 7th place, but a win over London Irish next Sunday could see them move ever closer to a top 5 position, which would be even more of an astonishing effort given their poor early season form. On Friday I took the Saints to win by 1-12 points, boy am I glad I got this one wrong.

Sticking with Rugby Union, the Wellington Hurricanes won again(as predicted here on Friday) on Saturday beating the Western Force 29-5. Full match report is available here. This sees them at the top of the Super 14 table after two rounds with a maximum 10 points. They were really fast out of the blocks and were 14-0 up after 5 minutes. What encourages me about this win is that the forwards are scoring tries. Historically the Hurricanes back have been one of the most potent forces in all of the Super12 teams, but they have been let down by the lack of strength in depth of the forwards. With Jerry Collins leading form the front and Rodney So'oialo seemingly in his prime the Hurricanes are starting to show good attacking forward play as well as an extremely well organized defense. With another home game to come against the Cats next week, I really am starting to think the anything less than a semi-final place this year will be a bad season for the Hurricanes.

Onto football and Cambridge United scored their first victory of 2006 by beating Southport 2-1 on Saturday. As usual they did not make it easy for themselves, and instead of going on to dominate the game after scoring they allowed Southport to equalize before Mark Peters played the get out of jail free card to score the winner. The game itself was dire, Cambridge will be kicking themselves for not building on a heavily deflected Rob Wolleaston goal midway through the first half. They were never really troubled by Southport until they started to defend deeper and deeper in the second half. This is a typical ploy of Cambridge, the longer they go on holding to a slender one nil lead the deeper they get and the worse the defending gets. Don't get me wrong the current set of defenders we have are good and what a bonus it was to see Mark Peters back to his best after all the talk at the end of last week about dropping him.

Three points was nice even thought it was not a pretty victory. The game could have got out of hand at the end as once again we decided to take the ball to the corner at every opportunity. I cannot for the life of me understand this, we have already thrown away two points to Forest Green because of this tactic, yet we still persist with it. Rob Newman said that this is what Chelsea do so its good enough for Cambridge United, well it would be if we were as good as Chelsea. It's quite simple they have great players we don't. Throw the ball in the box and go for another goal that will really kill the game off. There were some very angry players making some very dangerous tackles, and this can easily be avoided. The big positive of the game was the front pairing of Bridges and Guy. Rob Newman could do worse than try to secure Guy on loan until the end of the season. If we can move Bridge back to midfield and try him up front alongside Fola we could have a very dangerous frontline. Another big game looms on Tuesday as we travel to Burton where we all hope we can break our away hoodoo.

Finally Rugby League and the Warrington Wolves continue their disastrous start to the season with a 26-20 defeat by Huddersfield. Despite racing to a 10 point lead in the first 8 minutes their defense could not hold out and the score were tied going into half time. Huddersfield went on to press home their advantage with four more second half tries compared to two form the Wolves. This is the worst possible start for Warrington as neither Huddersfield nor Salford were expected to be in the top six of this years Super League. Coach Cullen is really going to have to earn his money if they are to be considered a team capable of making the end of season play offs in October. I realise that they have suffered a number of injuries from last weeks game and that hasn't helped. However Rugby League is a very physical game and that is likely to happen every week, if there is not strength in depth then it will be a very long season for the Wolves. It's very important they bounce back quickly although with Hull, St. Helens, and Wigan their next three game it is hard to see where the first win will come from.

Friday, February 17, 2006

The weekend ahead

It's time to look at the weekend ahead for all my sports teams. Starting with football

Cambridge United, will be at home to Southport who are currently rock bottom of the league. This is a massive game for the U's as they are yet to record a victory in 2006. As commented in earlier posts I believe we have to start looking for next year, having said that we cannot afford to lose games like these. We must not get drawn into a relegation battle again this year. It looks like captain Mark Peters will be dropped and the 4-4-2 formation adopted. Peters was substituted before half time in the Altrincham game, and is form of late has not been good. Lets hope Adam Davies or Dan Gleeson can step up to the mark and bring some much needed stability to the defense. David Bridge, fresh from his England debut, should start up from with on loan Jamie Guy. Lets hope they prove to be the hot strike partnership we so desperately need. I'm going for a 3-1 win for Cambridge

Rugby Union - Wellington Hurricanes take on the western Force in New Plymouth on Saturday morning, my time. The Hurricanes will want to carry on their opening round form and keep themselves at the top of the Super 14 table. The problem with the hurricanes over the last few seasons has been consistency and it could be likely that the Mr. Hyde team turns up, lets hope not. They are forced into making four changes but the returning Paul Tito will only boost the team. Tana Umaga is forced out with a slight injury, but with the ability to move Nonu in form the wing, this should not impede the team at all. Fingers crossed for another 13+ points victory

Northampton Saints take on Saracens in a massive game. The saints form this season has been up and down, and I would like to think that they can build up on their good draw against Wasps last week. If Carlos Spencer is in form, then they should pick up the win fairly comfortably and then start to move up the table. They will have their three international plays back as the six nations is on a week off, and this is what should swing the balance in the saints favor. However Saracens cannot be dismissed and if the Saints are to win this they will need to bring their best game. I take Saint by 1-12 points.

Rugby League - Warrington wolves will take an injury hit squad to Huddersfield this weekend. This is not good news. Last week was a terrible result and they need to win games like that if they are to be considered serious contenders this season. Huddersfield will not be an easy game but they need to bounce back and let the rest of the league know that they mean business this year, Paul Rauhihi (hamstring), Stuart Reardon (broken hand)Rob Parker (ankle) are all definitely out and will all be missed. The Salford game may have been a bruising encounter, but most games will be. This game will indicate the way the Wolves season will end up. I'm going to take the wolves by 1-12 pts.

Basketball - No game for the Warriors this weekend. A win and a loss during the week has helped stabilize their position in the pacific conference. They will e gutted about a two point loss to Memphis, but bounce back well with an excellent win over the Clippers. They still sit 2 games back from a play off position, and will hopefully push on after the break to get back those 2 games and go above the Lakers.

It's silver


Massive congratulations to Shelley Rudman for winning a silver medal in the women's skeleton at the winter Olympics. Though she was fastest in practice, on paper she was not one of the fancied runners. Lying 4th after the first slide she improved to second and briefly help onto the gold medal position before the number 1 rated Maya Pederson, took it off her. The full story can be found here at BBC Sport

This is a really refreshing story for British sport, I hope now that Shelley can go onto get the sponsorship she deserves, to give her a really crack at the gold medal in four years time. I would hate to be sitting here in four years having to listen again to how her local community had to rally round to raise the cash because no-one form British sport could come up with some sponsorship for her.

Keep up the good work Shelley, we will be keeping an eye on your very promising career.

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Sports News, My Views

Welcome to the second edition of sports news, my views

Up first:

Sports News: Formula One considers promotion and relegation.

My views: Have they gone mad. Of all the crap ideas they have come up with over the last few years to get this sport back on the roadmap, this has to be the worst. In a sport that gets dominated by one driver every year, they want to start to put the focus on the guys who finish last. How will the TV coverage show this. I can hear the commentator now " Well Alonso is going to win this so we will now concentrate on some second rate driver at the back. Don't worry though we will see Alonso on every 10th lap as he laps the poor suckers who can't get a decent car deal. Formula One needs to take a leaf out of A1's book and start to look at making the cars more equal, or every year it will not always be the best driver who wins the competition.

Sports News: NHL to probe betting ring

My Views: This is a real shame. Last year there was no hockey at all and this year it is involved in a betting scandal. Unfortunately these types of scandal go around all sports. Some are mere allegations, but some turn out to be true. I sincerely hope in this case that nothing is proven, I think Hockey has suffered enough over the last 18 months. On a lighter note the person they are questioning has the most apt name in a while, Phoenix Coyotes assistant coach Rick Tocchet (presumably pronounced Rick Toshey), which just makes me think of the old Rick O'Shea jokes we made as kids. Please e-mail if you require further information

Sports News: GB's Rudman sets pace in training

My Views: So what. Last time the winter Olympics were held we had the best skeleton player\rider whatever, and she still lost. What will be different this time? Everything and a gold medal I hope, but probably nothing. This has to be one of the most insane sports I have ever seen. Throwing yourself down a bobsled run head first on nothing more than a tin tray. One thing I can say, is it take balls! Good luck to Shelley Rudman, I hope she makes it and comes home safe with a medal

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

It is Valentines Day

.. and what better way to spend it than watching the Liverpool and Arsenal match on the telly. So far Gerrard's missed a penalty... and that's about it. Something better happen soon

Alternatively its the skating on the Winter Olympics, or watching the highlights of Bode Miller crash out from certain gold in the slalom event of the combined event.

What's my fantasy?

I admit it I'm a fantasy addict. Any sport, even ones I know very little about. And how many of these competitions have I won over the years - just the one. I remember it clearly, it was a Yahoo fantasy baseball competition, and now I am very proud to enter the winners tournament every year.

I've been sitting here picking my fantasy golf team for next week, yes really, and trying to work out what draws me into this. The sad answer is stats, pure and simple. I love to study stats. I like to know my teams strengths and weaknesses and those of their opponent. I look at last years ratings, compare them to the previous years and try to work out what is a good pick or not. For sports I don't understand I just go for the automated draft, and then trust to luck. Which is currently not good.

Here below are the fantasy games I am currently playing and my relevant position

Fantasy football - Game 1 991st out of 9576
Game 2 32nd out of 1000
Fantasy American Football - finished 8th out of 10 (useless bloody quarterbacks)
Fantasy Basketball 10th out of 12 in my league
Fantasy Ice Hockey 7th out of 12 in my league
Fantasy Golf ranked in the 53rd percentile

So you can see I may study hard but I'm basically rubbish. I will use this blog to track my teams movements detailing how far behind the leaders I am, and any tips and clues along the way. Of course if anyone wants to help me out all tips and hints are gratefully received

The fantasy baseball season is soon to be upon us, and I will throw my cap in the ring for this. I play on Yahoo, so if anyone who stumbles upon my blog would like to join in, just leave me a comment and prepare to show me how to play the game

Sunday, February 12, 2006

Sports News, My Views

Welcome to the every other day feature of my blog, this is where I take some sports news of the last 48 hours and give you my views on it. Credit for this idea should go to Larry Csonka over at 411mania.com/wrestling who does something almost exactly identical for wrestling news. So here we go

Sports News. Wales make 14 man Scotland suffer. Wales beat Scotland 28-18 in the RBS Six nations after Scot Murray gets sent off for kicking a welshman in the head.

My Views. This is good news, especially for England, they are now the only undefeated team left and in the box seat to win the Six nations. Andy Robinson should be focusing on this to motivate his team to the Grand Slam.

Sports News. Patrick Viera says that Thierry Henry's future at Arsenal is uncertain

My Views. No kidding. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out that a player like Henry needs to be playing in all the best competitions. With Arsenals current form being poor, they currently sit 5th in the Premier League, one place outside the Champions League places. My guess is that despite what he says if Arsenal fail to make the Champions League then the call of Barcelona will be too much for him. Wenger is going to have a tough job over the next few weeks to make sure that his team get into the last remaining Champions league slot

Sports News. Day 2 of the Winter Olympics sees the first gold for Italy. Gold for the USA, Norway, Holland, Estonia and Russia. Also bad news for the USA as Michelle Kwan is forced to pull out of the figure skating.

My Views. Hands up all those people who knew the Winter Olympics was on. Thought so. For a moment I wondered if I could be bothered but somehow I got hooked on watching of all things the 30km Cross Country skiing race this afternoon. The question here is why did I have to go to Eurosport to watch this. Surely the winter Olympics should get as much publicity as the summer ones. Now this may be the case in places like Norway, Sweden etc. But not here. I just wonder how much we are missing out on. I'll be attempting to tune in as much as I can over the next tow weeks, even if it is only to see the hopeless Britain struggle into last place

Weekend Roundup and Team of the Week

Here we go with the weekend round up and team of the week award.

Rugby Union starts us off because my team of the week is the England Rugby team. Fresh on the heels of last weeks success over Wales, England managed to triumph again in Rome. The result was a 31-16 victory. I have to give credit where it is due. The Italians are proving themselves very difficult to beat and are probably going to be the most improved side of this years' six nations. It looks like England are going to be the team to beat this year as they start to get back to their world cup winning form of 3 years ago. Andy Robinson has them playing well enough, so I am expecting back to back six nation trophies and going out of the world cup next year with a whimper.

The Northampton Saints took on London Wasps on Sunday and ended up with a commendable 19-19 draw. This is a great result as the Saints season has been one of major disappointment. When they announced the signing of Carlos Spencer everyone expected them to be able to put in a push for the premiership title. However they have spent the larger part of the season at the wrong end of the table. Recent weeks have seen an upturn in their fortunes and this result is showing they are heading in the right direction. Roll on next season.

Football. I make no apologies that I will rant more and more about Cambridge United than any other team I follow. I am a long time season ticket holder and suffering fan and will use this blog to vent my frustrations at every opportunity.

Our away day blues continue. Altrincham 2 -1 Cambridge United. Despite describing them as the worst team we have seen this season at the Abbey (Cambridge's home stadium) we still canot buy a win away from home. In the last 4 seasons we have only managed 4 away wins. That's pathetic. Even without the suspended Fola Onibuje and Dan Gleeson we should have won this game at a canter. Don't get me wrong I'm a big fan of Rob Newman, our manager, it's just that he cannot break the hoodoo and with more new debutants in the side it is getting to the stage where they have to introduce themselves to each other before the kick off.

On the positive side there was another goal from David Bridges, and next year a good goal scoring midfielder will be invaluable. If we are starting to build for next years campaign now, then we need to look to players like this as the future. We can right this season off, as we won't go down and neither will we make the play offs. The time is now to separate the wheat from the chaff and but the basis of our team for a play off assault next year. You can expect a bigger rant on this next week after I will have suffered 90 minutes of the mediocrity they are currently serving.

Rugby League Warrington Wolves opened up their campaign against the Salford Reds. This could be a make or break season for the Wolves. After a strong showing last term, many expected them to do well in the premiership play-offs especially after signing Andrew Johns. However defeat to Hull was still a respectable showing. There have been a number of comings and goings in the off-season and I am going to stick my neck on the line and predict a finish of 4th.

Bugger! I wrote this prior to the game. Warrington were humiliated 6 -24 by Salford. Coach Cullen had this to say:
"We were completely outplayed from start to finish by a far more enthusiastic Salford side.
I'm bitterly disappointed by our effort. Handling errors and lack of completion were the reasons we lost. Salford were far more efficient and far more professional and applied their game-plan far more religiously than we did."

too bloody right you were, you've got a couple of weeks to get things sorted out or I'm going back to being pessimistic all over again.
Basketball. 2 games for the Warriors this weekend - one win and one loss.
Friday Indiana 107 Warriors 95 Top scorer Mikael Pietrus 23
Saturday Warriors 99 Cavaliers 91 Top scorer Jason Richardson 31

I follow the Warriors as that was where I saw my only NBA match, and they won. Little did I know at the time that they were not going to be the best of teams to follow. They are currently standing 4th in their division 10 games off the league, and if they could start to win some more home games that will get better. This is by far the best season they have had so far since I started to follow them.

Great effort from Jason Richards on Saturday to only be outscored by 2 points by LeBron James, and excellent scoring from the bench. I'd like to see more consistency over the next few weeks, as currently sitting just 2 games back from a playoff position is starting to give me hope

Friday, February 10, 2006

Stand Back....

There's a Hurricane coming through. Who would have thought it? Not me obviously. I predicted an Auckland win, but the Hurricanes opened up the inaugural Super 14 competition with a spanking 37-19 win over the Auckland Blues. This was despite the fact that they got off to the usual start and were 3-16 down at halftime. A 30 minute five try blitz helped seal the victory. (Full report is available here)

Now here is the thing - this is where I will get carried away - dreaming of home semi-finals and lifting aloft the trophy in Wellington after humiliating the Crusaders in the final. I don't know why I do this, because as I strongly suspect, they are only building up my hopes to bring me crashing down to earth with a loud thud.

This is the common theme with all my teams - start well, build hopes and then let me down at the final hurdle. Although to be fair with some teams even the building hopes is sometimes a struggle (i.e. Green Bay Packers, Cambridge United and the England football team). Still, I must not grumble. I will dust of the yellow and black scarf, find the Hurricanes fridge magnet and tell anyone who will listen how this is going to be the 'Canes year. I mean it has to be sometime........doesn't it?

Thursday, February 09, 2006

Welcome fellow sports potatos

Welcome to my sports blog. Over the past 3o something years I have noticed the tendency to get become absorbed in to more and more sports, and more specifically certain sports teams to a point where I search the web to track down results from all over the world just to find out what happened in a minor non-league game somewhere in the lower reaches of the south island of New Zealand.

In this blog I am going to record my thoughts about all the sports teams I follow, report on the games I see, whether that be in person or from the comfort of my couch, and lament about the losses I know nothing about. I don't claim to be an expert in any sports, except maybe football (soccer to some of you), just your average everyday sports nut.

So here below is a list of all the sports and the teams that I currently follow.
  • Football - Cambridge United (Conference) and England
  • Rugby Union - Northampton Saints (Guiness Premiership), Wellington Hurricanes (Super 14), Wellington Lions (NPC) and England
  • Rugby League - Warrington Wolves (Super League) and New Zealand Warriors (NRL), Great Britain and England
  • Cricket - Somerset (County and one day) and England
  • American Football - Green Bay Packers (NFL)
  • Baseball - San Francisco Giants (MLB)
  • Basketball - Golden State Warriors (NBA)
  • Ice Hockey - open to suggestions, currently San Jose looks good
  • Aussie Rules - Sydney Swans

So as you can see I don't jump on bandwagons, and there are good reasons for following each of these teams that I will explain as we go along. And of course if anyone out there knows of a sport that I'm missing and a new team for me to hinder, help support with passion just let me know.