November 2011
8 posts
SPotY-watch update →
The final ten candidates competing for the chance to succeed Tony McCoy as BBC Sports Personality of the Year (SPotY) Awards was announced last night. The shortlist, determined by the votes of…
Young Apprentice: Pocket watch leaves Atomic out... →
The (size ten) shoe is on the other foot as Young Apprentice does Bargain Hunt. Rather than selling, the teams are asked to buy ten items for Madame Tussauds waxworks ranging from the statuesque Elle…
Young Apprentice: How to win the discount buying... →
As we enter week six of eight of this season’s Young Apprentice, the final and the prospect of becoming the recipient of Lord Sugar‘s investment must seem within touching distance for the seven…
Arsenal lose tempo, rhythm and two points in draw... →
Arsenal 1 Fulham 1 Vermaelen 82; Vermaelen (og) 65 On a day on which the entire Arsenal team donated a day’s wages to the charity Save the Children, they proved to be in an equally giving mood on the…
The end of the innocence →
I want my little boy back. It’s not that I’ve lost Isaac as such. But there is no escaping the fact that he is no longer the innocent little toddler which, in some way, he will always be in my mind’s…
Young Apprentice: Raw potential wins as Vanity’s... →
This week on Young Apprentice it was the turn of many people’s favourite assignment: the advertising task. Led by Zara Brownless, Team Atomic finally won their first task with their youth deodorant…
The week in numbers: w/e 20/11/11 →
2 - For the second successive week, Ronan O’Gara kicked a last-minute drop goal to earn Munster a victory in the Heineken Cup. This week his kick defeated Castres 27-24. 5 – Pakistan beat Sri Lanka…
Young Apprentice: How to win the deodorant task →
It’s time for Young Apprentice to tackle everyone’s favourite task: advertising. Four weeks into the process Team Atomic have yet to win a single task – and Harry M is the only candidate to have lost…
October 2011
12 posts
Van Persie a class above as Arsenal edge past... →
Arsenal 2 Sunderland 1 Van Persie 1, 82; Larsson 31 Robin van Persie put in a captain’s performance as his clinical finishing proved the difference in a game which Arsenal dominated for long periods,…
Giro di Lombardia: Zaugg completes 2011 season... →
Milan to Lecco, 241km 2011 has been one of the most thrilling seasons in cycling in recent memory, so it was only fitting that the Giro di Lombardia brought the curtain down with a denouement as…
Giro di Lombardia preview →
Milan to Lecco, 241km Saturday sees the 105th running of the Giro di Lombardia. Also romantically known as the ‘classic of the falling leaves’, it is the last of the ‘Five Monuments’ of the European…
The week in numbers: w/e 9/10/11 →
0.009 – In seconds, the gap by which Sebastian Vettel beat Jenson Button to pole position at the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka, equivalent to an estimated 69 centimetres. 24 – Despite finishing third…
Van Avermaet wins Paris-Tours as breakaway... →
Voves to Tours, 230.5km Belgian Greg van Avermaet (BMC) profited from being part of a decisive 21-man group missing all the pre-race favourites to claim the most prestigious win of his career at the…
Tour of Beijing stage 4: Lucky 13 for Viviani in... →
Stage 4: Yanqing Gui Chuan Square to Shunyi Olympic Rowing & Canoeing Centre, 189.5km The fourth – and longest – stage of the Tour of Beijing finished in a regulation sprint after a six-man escape…
Paris-Tours preview →
Voves to Tours, 230.5km One of cycling’s oldest races, tomorrow (Sunday) sees the 105th running of the Paris-Tours one-day classic. A sprinter-friendly race, this year’s edition offers up the…
Tour of Beijing stage 3: Roche keeps up the family... →
Stage 3: Mentougou to Yongning, 162km Nicolas Roche finally delivered his first World Tour victory – and his first international race win of any kind in over three years – winning the Tour of…
Steve Jobs (1955-2011) →
Steve Jobs died last night at the age of 56, after a seven-year battle against ill health which included pancreatic cancer and a liver transplant. The co-founder, chairman and former CEO of Apple and…
Tour of Beijing stage 1: World champion Martin... →
Stage 1: Bird’s Nest to Water Cube, 11.3km individual time trial British riders occupied four of the top five spots in the Tour of Beijing‘s opening individual time trial, but none could match newly…
The week in numbers: w/e 2/10/11 →
51 - Tiger Woods‘ latest world ranking, the first time since 1996 he has been outside the world’s top 50. Woods has not won a tournament since the 2009 Australian Masters and had spent 778…
My sporting month: October 2011 →
Summer turns to autumn, the clocks go back an hour and our evenings grow dark, damp and cold. It can only be October. But as the leaves turn brown and fall from the trees, the world of sport is in…
September 2011
17 posts
5 tags
Arsenal find their Ox in the box →
Arsenal 2 Olympiacos 1 Oxlade-Chamberlain 8, Santos 20; Fuster 27 The record book will show that Arsenal beat Olympiacos 2-1 to become the only one of the Premier League’s four representatives to win…
Analogue audio memories (part 3): Cassette tapes →
This short series of posts takes a personal trip down memory lane looking back at my experiences with analogue audio. You can read parts one and two here and here. In the previous two posts, I have…
The week in numbers: w/e 25/9/11 →
2:03:38 - Kenya’s Patrick Makau set a new world record time of 2:03:38 at the Berlin Marathon, taking 21 seconds off the previous record held by Haile Gebreselassie. 1 – Sebastian Vettel requires…
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Cavendish takes World Championship gold to add... →
Mark Cavendish and the Great Britain team finished the UCI Road World Championships on top of the cycling world. The fastest sprinter in the sport put the exclamation point on a week which showcased…
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Bolton provide ideal cannon fodder for Gunners →
Arsenal 3 Bolton 0 van Persie 46, 71, Song 89; Wheater sent off 55 As they did last week against Blackburn, Arsenal produced a chalk-and-cheese performance in each half against Bolton. They were…
Analogue audio memories (part 2): Reel-to-reel and... →
This short series of posts takes a personal trip down memory lane looking back at my experiences with analogue audio. You can read part one here. Reel-to-reel tape This magnetic tape system was the…
2 tags
SPotY-watch →
In exactly three months’ time (Thursday 22nd December) the 2011 BBC Sports Personality of the Year (SPotY) Awards will take place at the BBC’s new MediaCityUK complex in Salford, Manchester. As ever,…
6 tags
Forget about your worries and strife as Arsenal... →
Arsenal 3 Shrewsbury 1 Gibbs 33, Oxlade-Chamberlain 58, Benayoun 78; Collins 16 They started poorly and showed some familiar defensive weaknesses, but Arsenal‘s young Carling Cup team, featuring…
The week in numbers: w/e 18/9/11 →
6 – Novak Djokovic‘s 6-2 6-4 6-6 6-1 victory over Rafael Nadal in Monday’s US Open men’s singles final improved his 2011 record against the Spaniard to 6-0 and made him only the sixth man to win…
Analogue audio memories (part 1): Vinyl records →
I stumbled across this poster recently and – aside from the fact that you probably have to be of a certain age to understand why cassette tapes and pencils went together – it got me thinking about…
4 tags
Arsenal show substance as Perišić wonder goal... →
Borussia Dortmund 1 Arsenal 1 Perišić 88; van Persie 42 A late volley by substitute Ivan Perišić earned Borussia Dortmund a share of the points in a game they had dominated for long stretches….
The week in numbers: w/e 11/9/11 →
141 – In his debut Test innings Australia’s Shaun Marsh scored 141, surpassing his father Geoff’s top score of 138, which he accumulated over a 50-Test career. 13 – The top four men’s singles seeds…
4 tags
Jittery Arsenal turn the tide to repel visiting... →
Arsenal 1 Swansea 0 Arshavin 40 Arsenal took the first tentative steps on the road to rehabilitation after the humiliating 8-2 defeat at Old Trafford a fortnight ago with a stuttering victory over a…
Yesterday’s hell, today’s paradise, tomorrow’s... →
In years gone by you couldn’t have paid me enough to persuade me to go on the kind of holiday we have just had. An Italian holiday camp packed with pools, water slides, overexcited kids, blaring…
A week in the dark ages →
I have just spent an entire week on holiday without access to the internet, TV or even newspapers. No Facebook, Twitter or email. No RSS news feeds direct to my iPhone (which was drowned, presumed…
4 tags
Travel memories #5: Sydney Harbour, Australia →
Where? Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge, photographed from Mrs Macquarie’s Chair. When? August 1997. What? Two of the most distinctive and iconic structures anywhere in the world sit just a…
My sporting month: September 2011 →
Ah, September. The end of summer. The beginning of autumn. The conclusion of the last major events of the year in tennis (the US Open) and cycling (the Vuelta a España). The start of the quadrennial…
August 2011
16 posts
The week in numbers: w/e 28/8/11 →
1 – England‘s Test world ranking after the 4-0 series whitewash of India. They were ranked just fifth in the world 12 months ago. 10 – England have now won all 10 Test matches in which Tim Bresnan…
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Classic TV intros #10: The Six Million Dollar Man →
A regular series looking back on classic TV show intros … Programme The Six Million Dollar Man (100 episodes, 1974-78. Also six TV movies.) Premise Astronaut Steve Austin (Lee Majors) suffers…
3 tags
Vuelta a España: Sagan and Kittel debut wins... →
Contrasting maiden Grand Tour stage wins by a pair of Vuelta a España debutants – Peter Sagan and Marcel Kittel - punctuated what should have been a relatively quiet couple of days for the big names,…
iPhone-less →
Thanks to an incident involving a flooded ditch in which I came off rather the worse (for which read ‘soggier’) for wear, I have been without my iPhone – and as a result mobile access to the internet…
4 tags
Vuelta a España: Chavanel leads as heat picks up... →
In blistering temperatures touching 40ºC, the red jersey worn by the leader of the Vuelta a España has been passed from rider to rider like a hot potato. For the first time in the race’s history,…
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Vuelta a España: Stage 2 recap & analysing the... →
Stage 2: La Nucia to Playas de Orihuela, 174km On a blazing hot day on which temperatures touched 40°C, Sky’s Chris Sutton claimed the first indivdual stage of this year’s Vuelta a España after a…
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Vuelta a España: Team time trial winners & losers →
Stage 1: Benidorm, 13.5km team time trial Leopard-Trek stormed to victory on a hilly and technical team time trial course in Benidorm to open the 66th Vuelta a España, beating the Liquigas-Cannondale…
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Vuelta a España preview →
The 66th edition of the Vuelta a España, the last of cycling’s three Grand Tours, gets under way in Benidorm on Saturday and concludes three weeks later with its traditional finish in the centre of…
4 tags
Walcott leaves Udinese chasing shadows and Chamakh... →
Arsenal 1 Udinese 0 Walcott 4 If the scoreline had a ring of familiarity to it for long-time fans of the club, the manner of it was neither familiar nor comfortable. Theo Walcott gave Arsenal the…
4 tags
History repeats itself as Barton’s bite neuters... →
Newcastle 0 Arsenal 0 Gervinho sent off 76 The more things change, the more they stay the same. It may be a new season, but Arsenal‘s goalless draw at Newcastle brought with it many echoes of the…
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Eneco Tour stage 3 & 4: Gilbert runs for the... →
In what is proving to be a closely fought race of seconds, Taylor Phinney conceded the overall lead to Philippe Gilbert after the Belgian champion proved uncatchable on a hilly finish in the…
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UK riots: causes and effects →
I don’t really watch the TV news any more as – being something of an information junkie – I tend to absorb it online during the day. In fact, before the last few days the last time I sat through an…
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Eneco Tour prologue: Phinney delivers on his... →
Prologue: Amersfoort, 5.7km World under-23 time trial champion Taylor Phinney took his first major professional win by blitzing the 5.7km prologue of the Eneco Tour of Benelux. The 21-year old BMC…
