Showing posts with label Sports. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sports. Show all posts

31 October, 2006

running

I think I was a little hasty today. A colleague told me about something happening in Reading on the 25th march 06... Do you want to know what I did?

I signed up for next years Half Marathon.. yes, 13 miles of running the grey and wet roads of Reading. Put it in your diary's, so that nearer the time you won't mind me asking you to contribute towards my registered charity JezArnoldBeerMoney

Any regular readers here may remember that one of my 30th birthday resolutions was to get fit. The others were keeping a journal (still do here..), stop smoking and manage my cash better. Well, most of those are going great! Obviously the get fit needs some work, as my belly is starting to remind me of Gazzas mate, five bellies!

So I have a 19 week training plan, which involves a lot of running and a lot of recovery, and I aim to do the race in less than 2 hours! I am extending the plan to 23 weeks, as I want to make sure I finish the bloody thing. A few of the people at work, are doing it as well... So there is no way I am letting them down!

14 October, 2006

England vs Croatia

What a disapointing week of Euro 2008 fixtures. Having played four games in our Group E fixtures now (and winning the first two) we go and draw against Macedonia, at home... Steven Gerrard and Gary Neville both hit the post.

Worst is that we lost 2-0 to Croatia in Zagreb, after a goal from Eduardo and a freaky own goal by Gary Neville, which jumped over keeper Paul Robinsons foot as he was about to boot it down field...

Anyway my own team, Aston Villa are still vying for Premiership leaders, after a 1-1 draw with Chelsea and we are still in 7th place in the league.. Now that owner Randy Lerner outright owns the team, perhaps we can see new signings in the January transfer window? heres hoping that I can't start taking an interest in my team again!!

03 September, 2006

England vs Andorra

I missed the match, as it was only Andorra. It was Englands opening qualifier for Euro2008, played at Old Trafford and we cruised to a 5-0 victory. Peter Crouch got two, Steven Gerrad got one, and Jermain Defoe the other two.

See the BBC write up here

In other news, my football team Aston Villa FC have finally got rid of 'Deadly' Doug Ellis, and we now have a new chairman Randy Lerner from the USA, who bought his stake for approx £64million. With him and Manager Martin O'Neill, perhaps we will do a lot better than the previous 26 years.. New signing Stillian Petrov from O'Neills old club Celtic for £6.5mill should help..

17 August, 2006

England vs Greece

Steve McLaren and John Terry, respectively the new Manager and Captain of the England football team, won their first game last night, in a 4-0 drubbing of Greece in a friendly. JT even managed to get first on the score sheet, with Peter Crouch grabbing two and Frank Lampard, who during the recent World Cup had the most shots in the tournament, managing to score one as well!

Lets hope this means a turn around in the quality of the England team, and a win at the 2008 European championships!

10 July, 2006

02 July, 2006

26 June, 2006

21 June, 2006

England vs Sweden

The final game in the group stages, and its against a team England have not beaten in 38 years, nearly as long ago when we last won the World Cup!! This time its on the more respectable time of 8 o'clock but unfortunately on ITV. In recent years, my opinion of ITV has gone downhill. I am not a BBC fanboy, but there coverage of sports always seems so much better. ITV have a tendancy to slag the team off, when they make the slightest mistake. I don't like to hear it...

With Rooney starting the game, we have to win or draw. We have already won the group, but the result of this match decides who will be playing Germany in the next round. I would rather have Ecuador... But within two minutes of the game starting, Michael Owen twists his knee and is out. England seem to play so much better in this game, with Rooney and Crouchy upfront. It isn't long before a long shot from Joe Cole puts england ahead.

I don't know what Sven says to the Engalnd boys at halftime, but after a grest first half, I sometimes wonder if its along the lines of, "Ok Lads, we are beating my home country. Lets not make it a whitewash, and lets have some sloppy defending in the second half" When they comeback on, they dont seem as fired up as they were in the first half. It isn't long before Allback scores...

With Rooney bought off in place of Stevie G, England seem to play a little better. When Gerrard scores, its amazing!! But ITV are still slagging the team off... Larson socres in the dying minutes of the game.. its 2-2. BBC's match coverage as usual is superb... Match Report Stats/Action Photo Gallery Rate Players Virtual Replay Your views

However, we have won the group and get to play Ecuador on Sunday afternoon. Sweden get Germany!! The rest of the second round up reads:


Saturday, 24 June 2006 ArgentinavMexico, 20:00 GermanyvSweden, 16:00


Sunday, 25 June 2006 EnglandvEcuador, 16:00 PortugalvHolland, 20:00


Monday, 26 June 2006 ItalyvAustralia, 16:00 SwitzerlandvUkraine, 20:00


Tuesday, 27 June 2006 BrazilvGhana, 16:00 SpainvFrance, 20:00

17 June, 2006

England Vs Trinidad & Tobago

The hype for this years FIFA World Cup is going through the roof here in England!! I suppose it doesn't help that is being held in Germany, and the Germans have said, "Come on over! even if don't have tickets.. Its time to party!!"

And you know? No-one partys like the Germans :D

I lived in Germany for three years, and had a wonderful time! The beer is cheap, and the bars were open all night! To be fair, you didn't need to know much German except, "Ein bier bitte" or "Pommes mit mayo.." and its really hot there during the summer.. I imagine everyone is really enjoying themselves:)

Everyone is 100% behind England (except the Scots.. You know who a Scottish persons favourite two football teams are? Scotland and anyone playing England..), so its a little annoying to watch a game like the one that half the country knocked off work early to see on Thursday.

Some lucky B***tard (namely my little brother) was fortunate to have a mate, who knows someone who managed to get him a bloody ticket.. While me and Sy watched the first half in this deserted pub, where we had the big screen all to ourselves. There was nobody else in the room with us.. and considering the terrible performance, you could sort of understand. However, we headed into Reading for the second half and ended up in Bar Risa.

Bar Risa is Chav central! Its great to watch England matches, because everyone is really happy (unless they lose of course), but even in there there was a sense of WTF?!? When Rooney came on, the team suddenly seemed to change up a gear, but still no goals. Until the 83rd minute when Crouchy heads one in! Closely followed by Steven Gerard, with a typical strike to the back of the net! WoooooooHooooooo!!! Match Links courtesy of the BBC:

Next game England Vs Sweden.. We don't have to win this game, it all depends on where Germany come in there group...

In other news, I am looking for a car.. Cheap insurance, bit a little different.. Less than £1000 please! Any ideas?

11 June, 2006

England vs Paraguay

Me and Zena have finally got the house sorted.. well nearly :)

Our first guests were Sy & Chrystal. Both good friends from Uni, who live a 15 minute walk away, they came over when the place was a bit of tip! Fearless Phil also came over the other night to watch the opening game of the World Cup. This weekend though, we have had some of Zenas good friends from Southampton up, Jayme and Don! They are fortunate to have been our first guests to stay over as well in our spare room!

Anyway yesterday in the 30 degree heat, me and Don watched the England Vs Paraguay game on TV courtesy of our new cable box. Nice and cool sat indoors, and with England 1-0 up we headed to a pub in Caversham to catch the second half with Sy, Phil, Chrystal and her friends. It must be the best time to drive in Reading; there was not a car on the road! But there was no parking anywhere :(

It was nice to be out in the sun on such a nice day! Even a lacklustre performance by England didn't dampen our spirits. The BBC coverage of the game was great, but the online game performance is amazing. You have to see what BBC is doing for the coverage of every game. Obviously they are doing a match report and also the action as it happens, 10 photos of the game, you can rate the players (or the Ref) and see your views. But I think the highlight of BBC onlines World Cup coverage is the videos (must be on the ISP list) and also its Virtual Replay.

Virtual replay is a Flash app, and has full statistics, highlights in detail, as well as Player/default/referee camera angles which is great for seeing how a particular play went!! clever! well its not, but its very well executed which on my broadband connection is super speedy... :)

Now that the house is looking liveable, you are welcome to come and stay over.. give us a little warning please! We are looking forward to seeing friends and family, that we haven't seen whilst we have been away! Reading is only an hour away from most places in the UK - London, Southampton, Bristol and Worcester is only 1 hr 30 mins! Give me or Zena a call/email and we will see you soon..

House Warming Party once we get paid :) all welcome!!

13 September, 2005

England win the Ashes

England_win_ashes 18 years after England last beat Australia in the Ashes Test series, we have finally won!! Thanks to the captain Michael Vaughn and star players Andy Flintoff and Kevin Pieterson.



This is so great!! Especially since when I first got to NZ and the All Blacks beat the Lions in the Rugby. As I am off to Oz soon, I can't wait to take the piss sooo bad!!



Bad Luck to all you Aussies.. But then Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath are way past there best now.. ;-)

07 July, 2005

26 June, 2005

Rugby NZ 2005

1st_test Over here in NZ we have Rugby Fever with the first test of the British and Irish Lions against the mighty All Blacks... with 25,000 Brits, Taffs, Jocks and Paddys over here as part of the Barmy Army you would have (thanks for the grammar update daddio!!) thought that we could have played a little better for the first test. After all we did every one of our games against the provincial teams (we lost to NZ Maori though..) but intead we get thrashed 21-3 ... heres the full BBC story and heres the British Lions write up