Sports Category
Sports news, commentary and scores with wit and added value. We compare and contrast the best and worst sports reporting in the mainstream press, blogs, TV and online. We love the English Premier League (Arsenal, Liverpool, Spurs, Manchester United and Manchester City) and all things football but we cover cricket, rugby, the Olympics, tennis, golf, F1 and highlights of the sporting year.
Arsenal marketing department flashes media list of Wenger’s targets
DON’T panic Arsenal fans. Get those season ticket renewals in asap. Arsene Wenger has got lots and lots and lots of money to spend. Fact!
Neil Ashton and Sami Mokbel tell Mail readers:
“The Arsenal boss has targeted Fiorentina striker Stevan Jovetic, Liverpool goalkeeper Pepe Reina, Borussia Dortmund attacker Mario Gotze and midfielders Victor Wanyama of Celtic and Toulouse’s Etienne Capoue.”
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Never leave a Coventry City match early: Dan calls the radio station (Audio)
DAN left before the end of Coventry’s match with Crewe. He called BBC Coventry and Warwickshire to vent his speleen. He was outraged and sickened that the Sky Blues had played so poorly. How had they failed to score in both legs of their Johnstone’s Paint Trophy semi-final? Only, he was wrong. Coventry scored twice in the 90th minute.
Spurs fans attacked in Lyon for being Jews
IN Lyon, a mob of around 50 locals have attacked Tottenham Hotspur fans drinking in the Smoking Dog pub ahead of their team’s Europa Cup match in the French city tonight. Why? Some of the mob made Nazi salutes. Sours has a vocal Jewish following. Can a connection be made? Dave Eales, is the pub’s landlord. He says:
“At 10.18pm the pub was rammed with Tottenham fans watching the Champions League on the television… They [the attckers] threw projectiles through the windows. There was a stand-off. They didn’t get into the bar. Then it calmed down. Then they came back a second time and it all started again. There were three injured Tottenham fans taken away by ambulance. One of them had a head injury. I’m not sure how bad it was.”
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Posted: 21st, February 2013 | In: Sports | Comment (1)
Oscar Pistorius: Hilton Botha and the troubling case of Denise Stratford’s murder
WHO’D be Detective Hilton Botha? Having ben subjected to a grilling by Oscar Pistorius’s lawyer Barry Roux, we learn that the copper is scheduled to answer an attempted murder charge in May. He and two other officers are accused of opening fire on a minibus taxi loaded with passengers. They were arrested in 2011.
It is alleged that they were drunk and driving a State vehicle.
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Posted: 21st, February 2013 | In: Reviews, Sports | Comments (3)
Oscar Pistorius murder: kak-handed policing and an empty bladder
OSCAR Pistorius Murder Trial: The police are in the dock.
Hilton Botha
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Match-Fixing in soccer: Dan Tan and FIFA’s corruption
BRIAN Phillips has investigated football-match-rigging:
I am a midlevel Hungarian gangster. You are a Finnish referee. So here’s how it works. I get a call from a lieutenant in the syndicate — not from Dan Tan himself, the boss has to be protected, but from a middle man somewhere in Asia. Maybe Singapore, where Dan Tan is based; maybe someplace else. The caller says: We need so-and-so to happen in such-and-such soccer game. So I fly to Helsinki from Budapest and take a train north to Tampere, where you’ll be officiating a match in the Ykkönen, the Finnish second division, between FC Ilves and FC Viikingit. We meet. It’s not as if I’m lugging a duffel full of cash. The money will be laundered; we have the systems in place. I want you to be comfortable, after all.
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Arsenal: did the fans really boo them off? The experts can’t agree
ARSENAL lost to Bayern Munich in the Champions League. So bad was the defeat that even the hoardings started to troll the Gunners. So bad was it that the Sun’s Steve Howard spotted Gunners fans starting to leave “after just 19 minutes“. Really?
He asks:
And who could blame them?
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Even the Champions’ League hoardings troll Arsenal
ARSENAL are heading out of the Champions’ League. A 1-3 defeat to Bayern Munich spells exit. How bad is it? Well, it could be better for Gunners fans – even the the hoardings have started to troll Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal. The legend running about the Emirates pitch last night asked: “are you uefa champions league level?”
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Oscar Pistorus murder trial: His affidavit in full
THE OSCAR Pistorus Murder story is tabloid manna. Was the fabled double-amputee running champion no cartoon Zebedee made human, rather a baser, more Earth-bound man who murdered his lover, Reeve Steemkamp? Did he really shoot though a shut door not knowing who was on the other side, shocked to the core when returning to his bed – from where he had retrieved his gun (he kept his 9mm pistol under it) – to find his lover gone?
When he heard noises from inside the bathroom, didn’t he think it was his lover might be taking a midnight leak? Didn’t he tap the bed next to him and search out his lover? He didn’t switch the lights on. He fired. Then, realising Reeva was missing from the bed, he picked up a cricket bat and smashed in the locked bathroom door. He carried the dying woman downstairs in his arms.
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Posted: 20th, February 2013 | In: Key Posts, Sports | Comment
Oscar Pistorius murder trial: the curious case of Kevin Lerena’s toe.
OSCAR Pistorius murder trial: the curious case of Kevin Lerena’s toe. Every moment of the runner’s life is being reviewed in light of the fatal shooting of his lover Reeva Steenkamp. The tabloids are looking for his darker side, scouring the star athlete’s life for flashes of temper and emotion. Today the Sun settles upon his “pal” Kevin Lerena:
The Paralympic idol — accused of the gun murder of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp — blasted boxer Kevin Lerena’s toe in a crowded trendy restaurant.
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Oscar Pistorius murder trial: Reeva Steenkamp’s death is a comic strip
OSCAR Pistorius murder trial: South Africa’s City Press has turned the death of Reeva Steenkamp into a comic strip. Those Taiwanese CGI wizards have competition:
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Arsenal only spend big when the season tickets are up for renewal
GOOD news for Arsenal fans. It will take an £100m investment in players for the Gunners to compete for the Premier League title, and Arsene Wenger has £70m to splurge in the summer. It’s a start. The Telegraph’s Jeremy Wilson states:
Around £70 million will be available for squad strengthening this summer, with Arsenal targeting “three or four” players, including a genuinely world-class striker to fill the void that has been left by Robin van Persie.
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Posted: 18th, February 2013 | In: Sports | Comments (4)
Oscar Pistorius murder: steroids and the Devil made him do it
OSCAR Pistorius murder trial: If it bleeds it leads. The Sun and Mirror lead with the murder of Reeva Steenkamp. The Mirror shares with its readers the thoughts of Reeva’s mother, June Steenkamp, 66:
“WHY KILL MY ANGEL, OSCAR”
Pistorius has not been convicted of any crime. He’s yet to stand trial. After the loaded headline, we hear from the mother who has lost a child:
The mum of the model shot dead by Oscar Pistorius wept yesterday: “Why would he kill my angel?”
Distraught June Steenkamp, 66, spoke out as it was revealed her daughter Reeva’s skull had been crushed – and a bloodied cricket bat was found at the scene in Pistorius’ luxury home in Pretoria, South Africa, after the horror on Valentine’s Day.
Speaking publicly for the first time since the disabled Olympic and Paralympic Blade Runner athlete was charged with murder, mother-of-three June sobbed uncontrollably as she described 29-year-old Reeva as “the most beautiful person in the world”.
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Posted: 18th, February 2013 | In: Sports | Comments (3)
Arsenal: Arsene Wenger is worth 16.6 points to the overachieving Gunners every season
WHAT is Arsene Wenger worth to Arsenal? Of late, the one who, as the famous banners declares “Knows” has had his position questioned. Results have gone against the Gunners. Defeats to lower league opposition in this season’s domestic cups and no silverware since 2005 are cited as evidence for Wenger’s declining influence. But to get rid of Wenger would be wrong. It’s not that Wenger’s Arsenal is failing; it’s more that his side have been fighting above their weight for years.
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Posted: 17th, February 2013 | In: Sports | Comments (9)
Oscar Pistorius: punched hole in bathroom door and tried to resuscitate Reeva Steenkamp
SOUTH Africa’s Beeld newspaper says local hero Oscar Pistorius tried to save his shot lover, Reeva Steenkamp. He punched a hole in the bathroom door to get to her. She was still breathing when Oscar Pistorius picked her up and took her downstairs. This is ‘known’ because blood was spattered on the stairs. Other sources say they heard Steenkamp trying to breathe.
An unnamed source says Pistorius gave Steenkamp mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
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Posted: 17th, February 2013 | In: Sports | Comment (1)
MisMatch of the Day: lip syncing Premier League managers
MISMATCH of the Day – Ep 1, Chelsea boss Rafa Benitez enjoys booby sex, Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has to “slip and slap the pudding”, Manchester City’s Roberto Mancini has never been better:
Oscar Pistorius: Reeva Steenkamp is turning on the world – it’s what she would have wanted
THE OSCAR Pistorius murder trial: Why are we watching it? The Paralympian’s girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, 29, died at his home in Pretoria on Thursday. Steenkamp was shot four times. Bullets hit her in the head, chest and hand. It seems as through they were fired through the bathroom door at the runner’s home on the Silver Lakes Golf Estate on Thursday. A 9mm pistol was found at the home. The next day the Sun led with the photo of bikini model Steenkamp in a bikini.
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Posted: 16th, February 2013 | In: Key Posts, Sports | Comment
Oscar Pistorius murder: no tears in court, Trish Taylor’s bitterness and taking sides
OSCAR Pistorius is front-page news. The double-amputee, “the fastest man on no legs” who became a Paralympic and Olympic robo-legend, is accused to murdering his lover, 30-year-old Reeva Steenkamp, at their South African home. He’s been in court.
The Indy: “Pistorius Weeps”
Daily Express: “Blade Runner sobs in court”
The Times: “The anguish of Oscar”
Like the Express, the Sun opts to lead with the alleged killer’s nickname, focusing on the unfortunate “Blade” angle – although the murder weapon is said to have been a gun:
“Blade Runner suicide watch”
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Posted: 16th, February 2013 | In: Key Posts, Reviews, Sports | Comments (2)
Luton Town v Millwall: Pleat’s confused predictions and the fixture’s history
MARK Lawrenson, miserabilist BBC football pundit, is sharing his predictions for the weekend with David Pleat, the former Luton Town and Spurs manager (cue that song):
“Luton have beaten Wolves and Norwich fairly and squarely with a lot of determined effort and I think playing Millwall at home is a great chance for them to get into the sixth round.”
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Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini says he won’t get sacked… which can only mean one thing
BEING a football manager is a lousy job. Perform slightly badly and everyone wants your head on a pole and the media dissects your every thought to see if you’re going mad or deciding you’re thoroughly incompetent.
And so, to Roberto Mancini, stood their with a bemused look of incredulity on his face and his little Man City scarf.
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Posted: 15th, February 2013 | In: Sports | Comment (1)
Real Madrid: Ronaldo keeps finding the weakest link in every team
SO. How did Daily Mirror betting forecaster Derek McGovern fare in Real Madrid’s match with Manchester United? Ronaldo scored a great goal. It was McGovern who noted:
When the opponents don’t have a weakest link to single out, he tends to chicken out. So don’t be tempted by ludicrous odds of 4-6 for Ronaldo to score tonight and instead lump on at 11-10 that he doesn’t.
Ronaldo always hits the weakest link? Which is why he scored against United, the runaway Premier League leaders, and TEN El Classico goals against Barcelona. Maybe he just keeps finding that weak link. Or – maybe – he’s just brilliant…
Posted: 15th, February 2013 | In: Sports | Comments (4)
The Jedburgh Hand Ba game: in photos
THE Jedburgh Hand Ba game played in the town centre by two teams the Uppies and Doonies, who are chosen by where they live. The game lasts for hours as the try and score a goal at each end of the street. This is how they do St Valentine’s Day on the Scottish borders. It’s not cuddles you need, bunnykins. It’s body warmth:
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Posted: 14th, February 2013 | In: Sports | Comment (1)
Oscar Pistorius ‘murder’: Wayne Rooney is dripping in blood for Nike
WITH Oscar Pistorius under arrest for the alleged murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, might Coleen Rooney and Nike be wondering about another advert? One Nike ad enthused thatPistorius was “the bullet in the chamber.” This Nike advert of old had Manchester United and England’s Wayne Rooney dripping in blood:
Oscar Pistorius ‘murder’: The Nike bullet ad is removed
OSCAR Pistorius, the South African Paralympian, has been charged with the Valentine’s Day murder of his model girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp. She was shot dead in Silver Lakes, Pretoria. She was shot with four bullets.
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Posted: 14th, February 2013 | In: Sports | Comment (1)
Frank Lecerf teaches Romain Grosjean how to drive a Renault at speed without crashing
FRANK Lecerf’s car wanted to go Belgium. Quickly. His adapted Renault Laguna stuck at 125mph. (Mr Lecerf is a registered epileptic.) The brakes failed. Whenever he braked, the car sped up. Mr Lecerf kept going until the petrol ran out. It turns out like most things – wine, mussels, celebrities, politicians and buter, which all have silos and lakes based in Belgium – cars also like to die there.
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