I wish Annabelle Croft would brush her hair!

I'll keep you blogged...

Doha

I have been avidly watching the WTA Championships in Doha. I like the round robin system. I like that you can lose and still play the next day. It's interesting to see how players react to a loss. Usually they'd have a week or two to practice more and work on their weaknesses but in Doha they have to get up the next day and play another top 8 player. It's a good insight into their mindsets, I think. It's all about their mental toughness.

So far the results have been a little surprising. Two players are noticeably under par - Dementieva has an ankle injury and Jankovic is suffering from some kind of nasty bug. Tis sad because I like both of them and they've really been struggling. Janko is already out having lost two straight matches and Dem (?) has to beat Sam Stosur today if she's to play any further part in the competition. Stosur, however, is looking in scary form. She avenged her French Open final defeat against Scary Schiavone by beating her on the first day in two sets, then demolished a previously very impressive looking Wozza in straight sets. Another lady in impressive form is the rejuvenated Zvonareva who beat both Janko and Azarenka in straight sets.

I want Clijsters to win overall, as ever, but I'm hoping for a few good matches before that final. These end of year championships have such potential for some great battles but so often fall short of expectation. Hopefully this year that'll change.

So I am once again pleased with Arsenal. They've progressed into the last eight of the Carling Cup. Could this be the first trophy in five years? God, I hope so. They beat Newcastle 4-0, and even without the controversial second goal it was a resounding win.

I had all kinds of great Fed Facts for you but, as ever, my internet is playing up and won’t stay connected long enough for me to check them. It’ll have to wait until next time. They are pretty good though.

I’ll keep you blogged...

Ray-ray Rules!!

Yes Ray-ray! He thumped The Fed 6-3 6-2 in a resounding victory. It took one hour and twenty five minutes for Ray-ray to seal his sixth Masters 1000 title. It seems to have done wanders for his self belief. He's already talking about winning a Slam which is a big change from his 'I don't know' after the lacklustre defeat to Wawrinka in the third round of the US Open. I'm really hoping the next step is a great run, and potential win, in the World Tour Finals at the end of November. It'd be great for him to win that. Even though I have mixed feelings about Ray-ray (the attitude is sometimes just so poor), I want to see him win a Slam. I think he deserves one. He definitely has the game for one. He can beat The Fed, GoNads, Djoko... he just needs to do it at the Slams. He needs to find a way to bring his best tennis to the Slams and he will win. He's too good not to. But the next couple of years are vital. He needs to do it in this time or I fear he won't do it at all.

I'll keep you blogged...

Many Updates

The Premiership is back in action after an International break this weekend. Arsenal are taking on Birmingham and will hope to end their poor run. I'm thinking a 4-1 win. That's be good huh? Oh, and Chelsea to lose. Come on The Villa! Yeah!

In the world of tennis Ray-ray has marched with great certainty through the Shanghai Masters, not dropping a single set. He'll be facing either The Fed or Djoko in the final, contending for his second tournament if the year. I think he needs this one. He needs something to give him a little self-belief before going into the ATP World Tour Finals. It'd be great if he could win that. Ending the season on a real high. Fingers crossed for this final though.

The Commonwealth Games have come to an end. England's total medal haul was 143. Pretty good I'd say. 37 Gold, 60 Silver and 46 Bronze. We came third overall as India pipped us to second place by winning a final Gold on the final day whilst we could get only Silvers out of our three Badminton finals. Australia won a ridiculous amount of medals. There was no catching them. Tom Daly won a second Gold for the individual diving and dedicated his wins to his father, who couldn't be in Delhi because he's going through chemo. Lovely young man that Tom Daly. Excellent teeth.

Ah, the sun is shining and blue skies prevail so I'm off out to play some tennis. Pattie Schnyder is playing Andrea Petkovic in the first of the ladies semi-finals in Shanghai. It's turning into quite the battle. Petkovic has battled her way to one set all after Schnyder was winning a set and 3-1. Now Petkovic looks well and truly to be in charge. The rollercoaster that is a tennis match.

Am reading a great book at the moment - Get Her Off The Pitch by Lynne Truss. She wrote Eats, Shoots & Leaves which is one of my all-time favourite books. She was also born in Kingston and went to Tiffin (where I did not go - too stupid to get in - but it's still in my area). Plus she was a Sports Journalist for four years. I like her a lot.

I'll keep you blogged...

Dismal England

Just watched England play Montenegro. Pretty poor, I have to say. They were unlucky with a couple of penalty shouts (one stonewall hand ball) but mostly it was just a poor display. No drive, very little penetration, very few shots on or off target, no passion. I mean, really, it reminded me of the 0-0 against Algeria in the World Cup. Bleurgh.

My sporting highlight of the day: India winning the women's 4 by 400 relay. Very exciting stuff. The noise... I've never heard anything like it. The crowd, not at all biased, were going insane. England took a pretty good Bronze but quite frankly I didn't care as I was celebrating India's victory. It was pretty cool. You could tell, even on TV, that the atmosphere was electric in the stadium.

Also the lovely Tom Daly and Max Brick won the synchronized diving which is great. I like diving. It's elegant and pretty and intricate and concentrated. It's really quite beautiful. I'm going to enjoy watching the individual finals tomorrow.

I'll keep you blogged...

Internet Grrr...

My internet has decided to only work for about five minutes at a time, which means I start writing and get a whole post done, then try and submit it but find I can't because I no longer have a connection. I can't even save it. I can't tell you how many times I've started a post over the past six days...

Here we go again.

So many things have happened. The Commonwealth Games have been going on for a couple of weeks and there has been some drama. After all the 'will the rooms be ready in time' madness there have been yet more dramas - people being disqualified, athletes getting sick, talk of the pool water being dirty... it's been quite the soap opera! And also quite the medals fest (is that how you spell it?) for England - 111 as I type. 27 Gold, 49 Silver, 35 Bronze. Not too shabby at all. Highlights for me? Men's Gymnastics all-round competition, any swimming (I can't get enough of the swimming), and ladies 100m (for the drama drama drama!).

Ok, what else? Hamilton's run of bad luck/form continues. The Japanese Grand Prix was a wash out for qualifying so the qualifying and race all took part on the same day. Hamilton suffered a five-place grid penalty for changing his gearbox (a necessary change say his team) and started in eighth. He got a great start and was looking at coming in fourth in the closing stages of the race when he lost third gear and was easily passed by Button. He came in fifth and drops to fourth in the constructor championship. Vettel and Webber finished with a Red Bull 1-2, with Alonso slipping in third. Hamilton is all but out of the title race.

If you're reading this it actually worked so I'm smiling from ear to ear right now.

I'll (try to) keep you blogged...

Woohoo...

Ok, so I've composed myself enough to be able to talk about our victory. By God, was it exciting! I've never known golf like it.

First of all the final day is on a Monday for the first time since the first ever Ryder Cup in 1927. An extra day of a well-known sporting event always provokes excitement. It's like finding that the last present under the Christmas tree is yours - just when you thought all the joy was over, there's more. So it's majestic Monday and people all over Europe (and, I guess, America) are pulling sickies to watch (or if you're like me and too poor to have Sky Sports, listen) what is sure to be a great day of golf. They were not disappointed.

Lee ‘Gangster’ Westwood (Why do I call him that? Answers on a post card please.) started proceedings against Steve Stricker. Lee’s brilliant Ryder Cup performance didn’t quite find him on this extra day and he eventually lost the match. First blood to the US. The score was now 9 1/2 – 7 1/2. That was too close for my liking. The nail biting continued as the next match went the way of the US also, bringing the score to 9 1/2 – 8 1/2. One point. Eek!

Then came two stalwarts of the team – Luke Donald and Ian Poulter, with a point each. And a hard-fought, very exciting shared point from Rory McIlroy made Europe’s total 12. Looking good. However that pesky Tiger had something to say about The USAs chances and trounced his Molinari brother (Francesco), and that seemed to pump his fellow Americans up as Overton, Mickelson, and the two Johnson’s all won their matches too. With Jimenez winning his and Fowler birdie-ing the last four holes to draw level with a devastated looking E. Molinari who was sailing smoothly to victory until Rookie Ricky found some magic. The score after all these results with only one match to go?

13½ – 13½.

Ahhhh!!

The drama. You couldn’t write it. It was all down to one Graeme McDowell against one Hunter Mahan. G-Mac (as the media and players have affectionately nicknamed him) had been up all day but was down to only 1up when he was our last hope. Whether he knew that or not I don’t know but I’m guessing by the way he celebrated winning hole 15, and consequently going 2up, he had to be somewhat aware that it was pretty important he win. And by gum, win he did.

Europe beat America 14 ½ - 13 ½. The second Mahan concedes there is complete pandemonium as the team, the caddies, and pretty much every member of the crowd rush to McDowell to celebrate. There was A LOT of noise on the radio. I myself was jumping up and down. What a great memory to have been there – made me wish I’d driven there through the night.

Great game. Absolutely fantastic weekend+day. The drama was beyond belief. Who would have guessed it’d come down to the wire? After America’s start and then Europe’s come back... Brilliant stuff.

The only negative? Now we have to wait a whole year for the next one. Will Europe retain the Cup? Bring on 2011.

I’ll keep you blogged...

Ryder Cup...

WOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Internet Breakdown

I would like to apologise for my absence - my internet decided not to work. But it's back now and I'm back now and the sports fun can continue. Hurray!

Today I want to talk about golf. Not a lot of people like golf. It's long and boring and often incomprehensible. I admit I don't know a whole lot about golf - not all the strange rules or what, in the Ryder Cup, the difference is between 'foursomes' and 'fourballs', but I know I like it and I'm excited to spend time to find out all about it. That's one of the greatest pleasures in my life, not just in sport but in everything; learning about things I'm interested in. There's such delight in discovery.

So the Ryder Cup. So exciting! I'd never really watched it before but I love how they go around together and all wear matching outfits. (The great debate: who's outfit is better, America or Europe? Tough call. Europe is stylish and simple and shows off Lee 'Gangster' Westwood's new figure nicely but America is bold and a beautiful purple and I love the cardigan thing. It's such a hard decision. I change my mind every hour. Right now I'm preferring Europe. The red emblem on the America outfits clashes horribly with the lovely purple which is swinging it in Europe's favour.) I love how when they do a good shot they pat each other on the back and high five and hug. It's all so raucous and celebratory and so un-golf-like. It's nice to see the players interacting with each other as golf is usually such an individual sport.

Moreover, the play has been really exciting. The momentum is swinging back and forth. America were up now it looks like Europe are going to go ahead. As it stands right now it's Europe 5-6 America but Europe are up... ooo, 6-6! The two Mcs beat Zach Johnson and Hunter Mahan. The crowd are going mad. What I was trying to say is Europe are up in three of the four games still being played and the fourth is tied and would get half a point should it end that way. As it stands Europe will finish the day 91/2 - 61/2. That is pretty damn good. COME ON EUROPE!

Uh oh... America just got one back. Matt Kuchar putts a long birdie to go 1up against the Molinari brothers. (The Molinari brothers... brilliant. They sound like great soap opera bad guys.)

The drama is quite immense. If there was ever a time to get into golf, the Ryder Cup is it.

I'll keep you blogged...