Sport for sports sake

I'm a big fan of baseball. :-)
  

Olympic hopefuls #6 - Chris Mears

In the latest of my series of fit and cute Olympic hopefuls for team GB, let me introduce you to 19 year old, Chris Mears. Chris is a diver who has overcome some amazing setbacks in his life, including being given only 5% chance of survival by doctors when he suffered complications from a ruptured spleen three years ago!

Grrrrrrrrrr Rugby hunks

Yesterdays 6 nations rugby game between Italy and England was not a pleasant affair. There were certainly some weird looking guys in the teams, but there were a few cuties/hunks playing. I felt that it was important to share this with you!

Tommaso Benvenuti

Sergio Parisse

Ben Foden

Owen Farrell

Amir's chest

I have little interest in boxing. I don't quite understand the thrill of watching 2 guys try to beat each other up. In fact, here's a quick fact for you: the boxing glove actually makes it easier for a guy to kill another guy, compared to bare knuckle fighting. When fighting without gloves, you have to be careful not break your hand so your don't punch as hard. Therefore, far more men were brain damaged and killed once gloves were invented.
 
Anyway... I may not like boxing, but I know a sexy boxer when I see one. For years I have fancied Amir Khan and as I saw him on TV last night, I thought I'd share some pictures. He has lovely eyes, obviously fit body and is always so polite when interviewed. However, I have noticed that someone sees fit to shave his chest sometimes - if he wants a volunteer, he just has to call!

And this image doesn't leave much to the imagination!

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Coming soon to a blog near you...
The Question. 

This isn't a joke

Look carefully, actually not that carefully.  Who designed these outfits?!

Olympic hopefuls #1 - Louis Smith

It's less than a year to the London Olympics (we have tickets for 4 events!) and I thought it would be a fine idea to highlight a few of our sporting hero's who are hoping to be part of Team GB next summer. And of course, they will all be male, fit and cute!

Let's start with 22 year old Louis Smith, gymnast who specialises in the Pommel Horse. I have seen him interviewed a couple of times and he seems a dedicated and grounded guy.

Weekend

It was a splendidly busy weekend.  I drove along a painfully slow M25 on Friday to arrive at parents at about 6pm.  Pete was already there having got a train from a London appointment.  We went up the local pub with the parents. A great way to spend a summers evening.

On Saturday morning, Pete and I went to Tunbridge Wells.  It's a great place to look around the shops - from the usual in-every-high-street to the independent ones.  However, the main reason for the visit to Kent was to attend a BBQ with guest of honour my nephew Sam who turned 18 on Sunday.

We had a lovely party and finished late - though Sam finished far later as he went to Maidstone with some friends after midnight to go clubbing (as he was officially over 18) and was keen to waive his ID in the face of a bouncer.  Of course, no-one asked for his ID!

Here is a picture of 3 of my nephews - the 3 brothers.  Sam is the upside down one in the photo below, which is actually a remake of a photo I took in 2007.

On Sunday, we drove to London to watch some fit ladies wearing very little in a world Beach Volleyball competition.  It was officially part of the Olympic warmups and the 'stadium' for 1500 people was in Horse Guards Parade.  For those outside of the UK, William and Kate rode through the arch after their wedding.  It's a fantastic location for a sporting event.

It was a shame that it wasn't the mens competition, but we were both impressed by the skills required by the pairings.  The Brazilians beat the USA for the record.

Here are some images from the day.  That's Ronnie Wood in the 3rd picture and a guy gyrating with one of the dancers in picture number 4!

Steven Davies

In the sports news yesterday morning, details of England drawing a thrilling match with India in the World Cup was followed by news that wicket keeper Steven Davies has come out of the closet.

As I have said before, it's tough coming out, but telling the sporting world that you are gay is a brave decision.  He is one of only a few elite sportsmen to do this.  I don't blame those that stay closeted, especially in football, but I hope that more guys can live without the burden and worry and come out 'easily'. It's really not worth living a lie.

Obviously, Mattie Mitcham is out and proud - and is very vocal about it too.  He's so cool!  Another sportsman that came out recently was rugby player Gareth Thomas.  You could argue that the macho and possibly homophobic world of rugby makes Gareth a real hero. A post from Andrew's blog here explains more.

In a way, I was disappointed not to see the usual puns for Steven Davies - I had expected...

He bats for the other team
He likes to position himself behind the batsman
His favourite view is of the middle stump
He has a firm hold on the bowlers balls
etc etc etc

Anyway - here's to Steven Davies... gay icon!

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Don't forget, in a few days time '5 on the fifth' will be live on the net. Take 5 photographs on the days leading up to the 5th - publish those on your own blog and then add the link to my blog so that others can see your images. You can either take 5 random pictures or follow this months theme which is: LINES.  

If all goes to plan, you will not have to add a comment to include a link to your blog - watch this space for instructions! 

The Ashes

This posting is NOT part of the 30 day challenge...

In celebration of The Ashes starting in Australia, here are a couple of pictures of England cricketer Stuart Broad.  I am not a massive cricket fan, but this cute guy could turn me...

1:00.31

So I have achieved something today... my very first 10k race!

It was actually far more difficult that I thought it would be. Running in the morning is not something I enjoy and I had little energy despite boosting the Lucazade profits today. I was struggling (not helped by being unable to train due to shin splints for the past 2 weeks), but was doing a respectable speed until the 6km mark, my left knee gave way and was incredibly painful for the rest of the race. I am pleased with 1 hour, nil minutes and 31 seconds, but it would have been less had my knee not given up. I am still in a lot of pain as I type this and my leg no longer wants to bend.

The day started at 5.30am (yes, crazy time) with a quick breakfast and then off to the station to get a train into London as the race was in Regents Park. The mad thing was that there was supposed to be engineering on the rail line so we were expecting to have to get a bus, then a train, hence the early start. However, First Capital Connect had stated on it's website that the engineering had been postponed and an hourly service (rather than the usual 4-6 trains per hour) would run... but didn't mention what times the trains would run! Even more stupid is that National Rail Enquiries had no knowledge of this change!

Anyway, we made it to the park in plenty of time and after warming up, me and 200+ others ran 3 laps around the eastern end of this grand Royal park. Some were real athletes and were finishing as I started lap 3. I have no idea where I finished, but about a quarter finished after me.

For those runners who have done 10k, half marathons or even marathons who may scoff, let me remind you that I have never been fit in my life and this was the longest I have ever run! I have another race in May in St Albans and I therefore have a month to train, all subject to the knee healing of course.

For the record, the shin splints were fine. And finally, for those taking part in the next "5 on the fifth", there is now a Facebook group here.

Skiing

I am pre-posting this Blog entry as I will be in Edinburgh.

As the ski season draws to an end and unfortunately, I didn't make it abroad this year, here are some reasons why I like skiing:

- it's the only sport I have ever been good at
- the feeling of skiing on a crisp sunny morning on virgin snow is amazing
- the air is pure
- holidays are always a good thing
- you get fit while eating and drinking too much
- ski instructors are cool and usually good to look at

and it gives me an excuse to publish a nice picture...

Anyone but England

A company in Aberdeen is selling t-shirts with the slogan: "Anyone but England" as a souvenir for this year's football World Cup... that Scotland will not be attending.


The press picked up on the story yesterday and some have labelled the t-shirts as racist. There is certainly an argument that negative statements, even in jest, perpetuate the often unfriendly feelings from north of the border.

I think that racist is too strong a word, but I wonder how a Scotsman would feel seeing something negative like this in London? Wouldn't the view be something like "typical English still mistreating the Scots" - but probably far wittier!

If only I knew a nice Scotsman to ask?

We all know that England wont win the World Cup, so the t-shirt is actually redundant anyway!

Ski Cross

The only sport that I have ever been good at is skiing. I really enjoy it and am pretty proficient - if I bothered to work at it, I think I could reach teaching standard.

I used to watch it on TV years ago, but I don't think that downhill works on TV and slalom is great to actually do, but a bit dull on TV.

But now I have found Ski Cross!

I haven't been watching much of the Olympics, but have really enjoyed the Ski Cross racing. It's got to be the most exciting sport at the Olympics.

It's the skiing equivelent to motorcross. Usually 4 competitors race down the course at the same time. The course includes both naturally occurring terrain and artificial features like jumps, rollers and banks.

Catch me at the 2014 Olympics representing Great Britain!

Another world champion

It was Lewis Hamilton last year that had Britain celebrating as world champion in the greatest motor racing championship... Formula One.

But this year, super cool Jenson Button is the Formula One world champion. Two British champions, both in their twenties! Jenson won the championship at the Brazilian Grand Prix today cutting his way through the field from 14th to earn a respectable fifth. That's all he needed!

It's a well deserved season win after an interesting year that saw many twists and turns (did you see how I made that phrase fit so well?!). I think that next years season will be even more fascinating and hopefully will be about the driving and not the politics.

And after all the years that Jenson has been accused of being a playboy and enjoying his wealth a bit too much, here is the justice. OK, he has been enjoying the fast paced world and sexy ladies, but he is also a great driver!


Coming in my next blog posting... a letter to my 16 year old self.

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Back home from the lowlands

We got back from a great weeks holiday in The Netherlands late last night, so I will blog about that tomorrow I think.  Today will be one of washing, tidying up and wishing that we had not had coffee and applecake every day for a week...

In the meantime, and for no other reason than he's a cutie and in the news, here is Nelson Piquet Jr:

The Ashes

England win the Ashes!

Let me start by saying that I am not a huge cricket fan having had it spoon fed from an early age - my Dad loves the game. I can't get too interested in test games - they require patience and dedication. I don't have enough of both.

I quite like the new(ish) 20-20 game. It's fast and has more action - it could well revolutionise the game in general, as the format is not only good to watch, but it's also TV friendly. You can't expect TV companies to set aside 5 days from the schedule for a test game (apart from sports networks perhaps). We'll see how it all develops over the coming years and the Indian Premier League could be the template.

So to the Ashes. It is amazing that a series of games played every couple of years between the same two countries: England and Australia, has so much interest. For those not into cricket, the Ashes is a competition that started in 1882 and is played every 18-30 months - see this wikipedia entry for more information.

To highlight how cricket can be a strange game, here are some stats from this Ashes tour:

Who scored most runs? Australia
Which team had six of the seven leading run makers? Australia
Who took most wickets? Australia
Which team had the three leading wicket-takers? Australia
Who won the series? ENGLAND!!!!

But even if you don't care about the result, there are two very good reasons to watch England... Alastair Cook (right) and Stuart Broad (left), who is very sweet with his (currently) floppy blond hair, but talks complete cricket jargon in interviews to confuse us.


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Which boxset?

As I haven't been able to run due to the leg injury (have I mentioned that?!), I have been undertaking some non-impact excercise in our "home gym"... well it's a cross trainer and a bike. As I find this incredibly boring, I have been watching 24 on DVD whilst sweating. It helps to pass the time.

I am coming to the end of the 24 episodes and as I will probably carry on with this excercise routine for a while yet, I need another boxset to view. I don't think I want to go on to the next series of 24.

So does anyone have any suggestions? It has to be a continuing story, to tempt me back to the gym time and again. It must be high quality, probably drama (UK or US based).

Come on people, ideas please!

I have to mention this... why is Windows Vista so very crap? I now can't connect to the Internet as it tries to connect to the same wireless network twice and I can no longer print as the "print spooler" keeps turning off. I am not sure how much time I have wasted reading user forums trying to fix this Microsoft rubbish!

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The season starts here

The new football season starts today and I can't say I'm too excited. For years I would attempt to see a pre-season friendly and then look forward to the opening game, but not this year. Football is now an expensive day out, but more importantly I find it a little depressing knowing that my club, Crystal Palace, is unlikely to achieve much this season. Also, the business itself appears to be stagnating and sadly I see a day when we are relegated as Simon Jordan's financial support dry up. And who can blame him from getting out of the game?

We are a club stuck in a poor position and we seem to be repeating the same approaches to the football business which have not worked year on year. We are in a rut and I don't see an obvious way out, other through luck – perhaps happening upon some amazing talent for free who can lift the squad, but that still doesn't deal with the underlying business.

It's not too late to make a change, but I fear that time is running out. I believe that some fresh vision is needed and calculated risk taking required. The club has dipped it's toe into this "forward thinking space" a few times: including a team in the USA that was designed to produce some talent to come to London and a partly successful youth Academy, but other parts of the club are very poor.

Lacklustre marketing over the past few years has meant that the profile of Crystal Palace is low and we have appalling attendance figures. Every year we should have been working hard to attract all types of people to the stadium, thinking much longer term (getting into schools for example). When you consider that several million people live within a 5 miles radius, you have to question what the marketing people are actually doing?

It looks to me like the club has run out of ideas. Of course, it's not all the managements fault. The "game" has changed and Palace missed the opportunity to progress when relegated from the Premier league a few years ago.

The gulf between the rich clubs and everyone else is huge and the gap is growing and growing. It means that, unless a rich benefactor pumps millions into a club, there's no chance of moving up the leagues.

For me, money is ruining the game - take Manchester City and the vulgar amounts they are throwing about. You can't tell me that the players that have been signed recently are going to further the cause of the club - it's all about money. According to the press, Gareth Barry wanted to leave Aston Villa to play in the Champions League with Liverpool and he is now paid a fortune at Man City with no European football at all! Adebayor was said to have begged Manchester United and Chelsea to buy him on the day he was signing for City!

Am I jealous of the money - well yes and no. The game for me is all about hope - perhaps one day we will achieve something special having grown a great team and that's being taken away by the big spenders and the growing gulf between big and small clubs. Or.... the top 6 or so and the rest. What I want is to support a team that gives itself a chance and to have followers who get behind the team, management and board. Why should I spend £50+ on a Saturday to travel to the game and enter a run down stadium to watch a team that stands no chance of success? Once I may have down that, but the future looks so bleak, I just am not interested.
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On ya bike

My friend Andrew has written a fine blog article on some recent British sporting achievements including the Tour de France. By pure coincidence I was going to mention Mark Cavendish in a blog entry after his heroics in the Tour. If you have ever read a bit about the race, you will appreciate the superhuman effort it takes to compete and even finish it. A couple of years ago, the race started in London and Pete and I spent Friday through to Sunday as spectators and had a great time. This is one of my favourite photographs of the event - taken at the time trial that included a nice ride through Hyde Park.

A very funny book that uses the tour as its main theme is called French Revolutions (get it?!) by Tim Moore. He also wrote a crazy book about the boardgame Monopoly that is also rather humourous.

And finally, after Andrews thoughtful blog on sporting events, I thought I would show Mark Cavendish and his outstanding assets.

Nice position Rafael

I saw this news story today that confirms the Chinese are truly loopy.

I wont be around for a few days, so I will "pre-post" some more miscellaneous photographs to appear in a couple of days - so watch out for that and add comments if you wish, especially after seeing the picture of a huge cock.

And also feel free to add your own caption to this image of Rafael Nadal...