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.
Wayne Kelly Wins National National Scrabble Championships With Caromel Travails
WAYNE Kelly is the British National Scrabble Champion of 2011. Warrington Wayne beat Southampton’s Gary Oliver, 39, by way of words such as “caromel”. You , of course, know that caomel means to turn into caramel. It was worth 69 points. He also scored well (74 points) “travails”.
To Wayne go the title and a £2,000 cash prize at the event in central London.
Says he:
“I was really up against it for most of the competition. There were some tough games. I was really nervous about the final – it is so much easier to play when no-one else is watching your every move.”
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Best Photos From The New York Marathon 2011: Occupy Pain
HATS and toenails off to Geoffrey Mutai, of Kenya, who beat 47, 101 other runners to win the 2011 New York City Marathon in new record rime of 2 hours, 5 minutes, 6 seconds, crushing the previous mark of 2:07:43 set a decade earlier. For his pains, he wins $70,000. Most of the other get memories, sore nipples and a medallion…
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Geoffrey Mutai, of Kenya, celebrates after winning with a course record in the men's division at the New York City Marathon in New York, Sunday, Nov. 6, 2011. Mutai finished in an unofficial time of 2 hours, 5 minutes, 6 seconds, crushing the previous mark of 2:07:43 set a decade earlier. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)
Arsenal’s Andre Santos Says Beating West Brom Was Good For The ‘Gays’
ARSENAL’s Andre Santos has a typo on twitter.
Santos says the Gunners victory over West Bromwich Albion was “verry good win gays”.
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Aberdeen’s Darren Mackie Is The School Reading Champion Who Doesn’t Read Books
DARREN Mackie of Aberdeen FC is Meldrum Primary School’s reading champion. Hurrah! Only, he never reads books. He only reads “magazines about cars, health and general interest”.
As he says:
“My favourite book is Lord of the Rings although I haven’t read the book I have watched the films.”
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Alex Ferguson’s First 25 Years At Manchester United: In Photos
SIR Alex Ferguson has managed Manchester United for 25 years. His tenure began with a 2-0 defeat to mighty Oxford United. What happened next…
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Posted: 4th, November 2011 | In: Key Posts, Sports | Comment
John Terry Race Row: A Tabloid Hoax And Applying The Principles
JOHN Terry Race Row: Anorak’s at-a-glance look at the Chelsea and England captain in the news.
Is John Terry a racist because he used the world “fu**ing black c***” towards QPR’s Anton Ferdinand? Terry says no. The police are investigating. The only evidence we’ve seen of any wrongdoing is an out-of-context YouTube clip. But, still, sections of the media are gunning for Terry, who once, allegedly, tried to silence them them with a super-injunction. Is the media out for revenge? Will a tabloid soon ask: “So. Why hasn’t Terry Cheated On His White Wife With A Black Woman?”
The Sun: “JT probe over teen race rant”
Cops investigated John Terry over a recording in which a man is heard calling a teenager a “black c***”, The Sun can reveal. The England and Chelsea skipper was alleged to have been the man on the tape — and the words are the same as those he is accused of screaming at QPR’s Anton Ferdinand last month.
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Posted: 4th, November 2011 | In: Sports | Comment (1)
John Terry: Blaming The White Working Class For Chelsea Captain’s Trials
JOHN Terry Race Row: Anorak’s at-glance look at the Chelsea captain in the news:
John Terry is in Fabio Capello’s provisional England squad for the internationals against Spain and Sweden this month.
Mark Norfolk writes in the London Evening Standard:
Racism is deep in football’s working-class roots
Blame the entire working class for racism? That sounds fair:
Whatever the outcome of the escalating furore over the alleged racist incident between John Terry and Anton Ferdinand, there are those who, at least in the far reaches of their minds, might be asking whether it is indeed racist to call someone a “black c***”.
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Posted: 3rd, November 2011 | In: Sports | Comments (3)
Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Amir And Mazhar Majeed Shouldn’t Have Bothered With Lawyers
HOW successful were the lawyers in keeping former Pakistan captain Salman Butt, 27, Mohammad Asif, 28, Mohammad Amir, 19, and the corrupt agent Mazhar Majeed out of jail?
Butt’s lawyer Ali Bajwa:
“He has gone from a national hero to being a figure of contempt. He has lost almost everything. There is only his liberty and his family left to lose. What purpose would a custodial sentence serve?’
Salman Butt: jailed for 30 months
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Posted: 3rd, November 2011 | In: Key Posts, Sports | Comment
Manchester City’s Mario Balotelli Burnt In Anti-Catholic Witch Hunt
THIS year’s Edenbridge Bonfire Society celebrity guy, a giant effigy of Manchester City striker Mario Balotelli. Last year, they burnt Wayne Rooney. This year’s voodoo ceremony features the likeable Balotelli, whose home was set alight by a firework set off in his bathroom. It might have been Ryan Giggs, the Welsh Wizard but this isn’t Pendle…
Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney Is A Nose: Video
WAYNE Rooney is a nose. For anyone wanting to be as smooth as Ryan Giggs and Wayne Rooney, there is Diablo wine – the family man’s tipple of choice:
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John Terry Race Row: Racist Chelsea Fans And Newcastle’s Zero Tolerance
JOHN Terry Race Row: Anorak’s round-up of the Chelsea captain’s travails in the news:
Front pages:
The Sun: “POLICE PROBE TERRY RACE ROW”
Daily Star: “Race row cops will quiz Terry”
The Back Pages:
The Times: “Terry fced with England axe – Capello under pressure to omit captain as police investigate racism claim”
Should you lose your job because of an allegation?
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Posted: 2nd, November 2011 | In: Sports | Comments (3)
QPR’s Anton Ferdinand Retweets His Views On Chelsea’s John Terry?
HAVING said he was maintaining a dignified silence until the FA has completed its investigation into Chelsea’s John Terry’s allegedly racist rant, QPR’s Anton Ferdinand goes on Twitter. His “no comment” comment turns into a spot of retweeting other people’s comments on the row:
In reply to one idiot tweeting “RT this you f****** BLACK C***” 1 England captain” Ferdinand retweets this:
“More proof of JT leading his moronic fans by example.”
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Posted: 1st, November 2011 | In: Sports | Comment (1)
‘Immoral’ Bottom Fingering Sees Two Persepolis Players Banned From Every Stadiums In Iran (Video)
TO Iran, where Persepolis players, 
have been banned from entering any and all Iranian stadiums after partaking in a post-goal ‘bum grope’ celebration during the Persian Gulf Cup match with Damash Gilan – a match that was broadcast live to a vast audience.
Rezaei his also said to been spotted “hugging a teammate too intimately” following a goal later in the game, with both players’ conduct being deemed ‘immoral’ by the Iranian FA.
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Posted: 1st, November 2011 | In: Sports | Comment (1)
John Terry’s Racism: Matthew Syed Insults Chelsea’s André Villas-Boas
DAY 10 of the media’s persecution of Chelsea captain John Terry over alleged spot to racial abuse aimed at QPR’S Anton Ferdinand.
Before we see Matthew Syed’s words in the Times, Ferdinand would like to speak. He says:
“I have very strong feelings on the matter, but in the interests of fairness and not wishing to prejudice what I am sure will be a very thorough inquiry by the FA, this will be my last comment on the subject until the inquiry is concluded.”
And that’s it.
As for facts, all we know is:
* Terry shouted: “Oi, Anton, did you think I called you a black c***?”
* Terry says this was an attempt to explain to the QPR defender that he had not racially abused him.
* Ferdinand has told the FA that he did not hear Terry’s alleged abuse at the time.
You can make what you will of the anomaly.
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Posted: 1st, November 2011 | In: Key Posts, Sports | Comments (20)
Liverpool’s Steven Gerard Spotted Leaving On Tanzanian Bus
LIVERPOOL fans looking for Steven Gerrard have been looking in the wrong place. Forget the treatment room, Stevie G’s on the back on a Tanzanian bus…
Spotter: Chris at Pies
France Fined For Facing Down Kiwi Sportsmanship: Everton Do The Z Cars Dance
THE Rugby World Cup was long and dull stuff. Who wouldn’t rather have watched the dwarf tossing? One highlight, so we are told, was the New Zealand haka, a spectacle that has all the excitement of tourists on a Spanish costa watching a pre-dinner flamenco show, albeit without any chance of audience participation or fun. The rival team are only allowed to sit and gaze in wide-eyed appreciation as the other team makes goggle-eyed promises to gut you or slit your throat.
The French team have been fined €2,875 for advancing on the New Zealand haka before Sunday’s World Cup final. The French decided that before their biggest match of the players’ lives they should stir their own blood by forming themselves into an arrowhead and not just sit and appreciate the fact that their toils had earned them the best seat in the house.
Anorak would have preferred it had the French done something a bit more French, like retreating behind their own lines before half of them join the Kiwi side, playing boules or setting up some trestle tables and chairs and hosting a fantastic cheese and wine party.
Such is the wonder of the haka that it’s odd that football has not adopted the unbridled gamesmanship. As Everton come out to the theme from Z Cars, the opposition must not make a single noise for fear of causing offence to those raised on the tune. Now, if David Moyes and the lads can just make a dance up…
Posted: 31st, October 2011 | In: Sports | Comments (5)
Chelsea’s John Terry Is Innocent: Daily Mail And Stan Collymore See what They Want To See On YouTube
DON’T we all hope that Chelsea captain John Terry is innocent of racially abusing QPR’s Anton Ferdinand? Racism is a issue bigger than football’s tribalism. Other than a YouTube video we’ve seen no further evidence to support the case for Terry’s guilt.
Chelsea manager Andre Villas-Boas has defended his captain. Better, perhaps, had the excitable Portuguese manager left the FA to conduct their inquires, as QPR’s Neil Warnock has, and backed his man in private. Villas-Boas opined:
“All of the players have been quiet about it because we know what happened. Nothing happened, so there is nothing to discuss.”
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Posted: 31st, October 2011 | In: Key Posts, Sports | Comments (10)
The Hollow John Terry Racism Debate: After Cantona and Kitson, The Chelsea Captain Matters
IAN Holloway, the likeable Blackpool manager, wants to share this thoughts on the accusation that Chelsea captain John Terry racially abused QPR’s Anton Ferdinand. He writes in the Independent:
I can’t sit here and claim I’ve never made a comment that I shouldn’t have on a football pitch. In the heat of a game, especially when things are going against you and you’re frustrated, you tend to say things that you shouldn’t.
For sure. Anyone who has played competitive sport at any levels would not like their muttering aired in the full glare of a media feeding frenzy.
I remember one training session at Bristol Rovers where I slaughtered a Welsh and a Scottish lad because they were winding me up. I was shouting all sorts of horrible things to try and provoke a response and I was bang out of the order.
Is it racism when an Englishman abuses someone from Scotland or Wales? Arsene Wenger says racism is being called a a paedo.
Former Reading striker Dave Kitson said racism was ginger:
“We talk about kicking racism out of sport but this is just as bad in its way.”
The Daily Star reacted to that with the headline “Kitson’s a right ginger whinger”.
The players’ association chief Gordon Taylor said, rightly:
“It belittles racism to compare the two issues.”
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Posted: 30th, October 2011 | In: Key Posts, Sports | Comment (1)
Manchester United’s Rio Ferdinand Blasts John Terry? Daily Mail Guns For Chelsea Captain
THE Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday continue their pursuit of Chelsea’s John Terry, part of a vengeful media looking to get their own back on aman who, allegedly, tried to silence them with a super-injunction. The lead back page story screams:
RIO: I BELIEVE IT WAS RACIST
Well, John Terry has admitted to using the words “fu**ing black c**t” in the vicinity of QPR’s Anton Ferdinand, Rio’s younger brother. The Chelsea and England captain claims there was no racial intent. Terry maintains his innocence.
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Posted: 29th, October 2011 | In: Sports | Comment (1)
Arsenal Put Five Past Chelsea: Wenger Exposes Villa-Boas’ Failings: Photos
ARSENAL beat Chelsea 5-3 and all is right in Arsene Wenger’s wonderland. The question is this: which manager would you rather have: Wenger or Andre Villas-Boas?
After the match the manager’s spoke:
Andre Villas-Boas:
”Has the situation affected John? No, not at all. It hasn’t distracted him at all, I don’t think. For me, it was never a situation. It’s a misunderstanding. This is just defeat for a team, a very important defeat and nothing else. The decisive moment might have been when Mata was free on goal and misses the chance to go 4-3 ahead. We’ve seen some great open games recently between the top teams and this is one more. We will have to reflect on the mistakes we made and there are a couple of things we can improve, but the commitment and desire is there. We must evolve. It’s a loss against a big team picking up form. It’s two defeats in a row and we have to get things right.”
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John Terry Racism Row: Chelsea’s Andre Villas-Boas And Arsenal’s Wenger Are Badly Wrong
JOHN Terry Racism Saga: Did Chelsea captain John Terry racially abuse QPR’s Anton Ferdinand? We do not know. Terry says his words have been taken out of context and misunderstood. But the allegation is enough to sully Terry’s name:
The Mail leads with news that Sky has handed “unseen footage” to the FA.
The word “unseen” suggests that there is something worth seeing. But we don’t know if there is. All we know is that Sky has delivered footage from its 20 cameras to the FA to view.
Arsene Wenger, the Arsenal manger, sheds few a words on the matter:
“It came to me, how much credit can you give to something that is said on the pitch in a passionate situation? How deep do you read into it? If you have played football, you have said something to your friends; sometimes that they are an idiot – but you do not really think he’s an idiot. And that’s what I mean, in a passionate situation inside the game doesn’t mean that you can say anything. But you are not always politically correct on the pitch.”
Wenger is wrong. This is not about political correctness. This about racial abuse. The words “black c**t” are not taken lightly, but backed by 400 years of racial abuse against blacks. If political correctness means it unacceptable to racilly abuse a man in public, then we’re all for it.
“The debate is: Do you want every player to be followed by a camera? And analyse completely what he said after the game? That’s what we should do?”
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Posted: 29th, October 2011 | In: Key Posts, Sports | Comments (7)
The Olympic Torch In Photos
TO Northampton University, where the 2012 Olympic Torch has been unveiled. By the time the torch reaches Stratford, it will have lit 3,432 spiffs, 456 bar-b-cues and 7 braziers on London Underground picket lines. Welcome to the UK, peoples of the world…
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Posted: 28th, October 2011 | In: Sports | Comments (4)
Fifa Awards World Cup TV Rights To Sepp Blatter’s Nephew Joseph Blatter
FIFA have appointed Infront Sports and Media as the organisation’s “exclusive sales representative for the distribution of Asian broadcast rights” for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. Phew! Those negotiations were surely painstaking. And then there must have been a lengthy tendering process.
Niclas Ericson, FIFA’s director of TV, assures us:
“Infront offered the best package for this important and very complex project both in financial as well as marketing aspects. We believe that the team will deliver the best possible results for FIFA and help us achieve our distribution and financial objectives in Asia.”
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Posted: 28th, October 2011 | In: Key Posts, Sports | Comment
The BBC Turns Leeds United’s Simon Grayson Into A Joke
LEEDS United manager Simon Grayson will not be used to illustrate how irony is dead in the age of the internet and soundbites.Context is all.
The BBC reports:
Leeds United manager Simon Grayson has also denied being interested in taking charge at the King Power Stadium.
He said: “I was a legend down there. It’s a club that’s very close to my heart but this club is far closer to my heart. I’ve had an affiliation with Leicester in the past, but my sole aim is to do well for Leeds. I’m totally focused on Leeds and that focus has never dwindled during my time at the club. ‘m delighted things are going well here and I want to continue doing the job I’ve set out to do.”
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Why Is The Daily Mail In A Rush To Find Chelsea’s John Terry Guilty Of (Alleged) Racism?
JOHN Terry (Chelsea and England) V The Media and, apparently, QPR’s Anton Ferdinand. How a newspaper story works:
Daily Mail – October 27, 2011:
John Terry will be confronted by evidence from three QPR players who have backed Anton Ferdinand in the FA’s race row inquiry. Sportsmail understands that Clint Hill, Paddy Kenny and Shaun Derry have provided statements that point to a serious flaw in Terry’s version of events at Loftus Road on Sunday.
Ferdinand was baffled by the statement the England and Chelsea captain issued on Sunday night, particularly his claim that YouTube footage showed him responding to an accusation from Ferdinand that Terry had just called him ‘a black ****’.
Kenny, Derry and Hill — an active players’ union representative — question whether any such exchange took place, given that Ferdinand had no knowledge of a racial element to what was said until after the game.
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Posted: 27th, October 2011 | In: Sports | Comments (6)
