Part 8 of my sporting diary, as Wigan shock Manchester City, Rashid and Hales point the way to a worrying future, and Lizzy Yarnold is the golden girl again.
Plenty of talking points in the FA Cup. Dele Alli is still
cheating, but the press seem to have swept that under the carpet;
Southampton heaped more misery on Alan Pardew, and the taxi four; and
Wigan crushed City's bid for a quadruple, as Will Grigg seemingly
remains ablaze.
There was a lot of controversy surrounding
Wigan's marvellous win. I'm all for the tunnel cam innovation, and I'd
actually prefer to see this introduced in football rather than VAR. And talking
as someone who has been taunted by brave lads behind stewards before -
Villa Park, 1996 League Cup semi-final springs to mind - I can
understand the frustration felt by City fans that night.
It
would be amazing though if City win the League, Champions League, and
League Cup, and Wigan go down in history as the club that prevented the
grand slam. Football might be completely dominated by money now, but at
least the sport still has the odd surprise up its sleeve for us.
I
had two trips to Boreham Wood this week. The first match on Saturday
saw the Wood win a nerve-wracking match 2-1 against Gateshead, earning a
bit of revenge for the FA Trophy defeat a few weeks ago. The second match, on Tuesday night against Maidstone, was just as tense. Boreham Wood missed a penalty, but eventually won 1-0 against ten men.
The club are now sitting in fourth place in the National League, and whisper it quietly, the play-offs seem a realistic proposition. There will undoubtedly be many nervy moments as we enter squeaky bum time, and I'm not sure I can cope. But either way, Boreham Wood's achievements this year should be applauded.
Worrying times at the moment for the future of Test match cricket. I have no problems with Adil Rashid and Alex Hales choosing to play white ball cricket only, but what does is say for the longer version of the sport?
With serious money to be made in T20 cricket across the world, who can blame a cricketer nowadays for choosing to earn as much as possible? Test match cricket used to be the pinnacle of the sport, but there will be a generation now coming through that see the riches of the IPL and other leagues, and choose this route. As a lover of Test match cricket, this prospect fills me with dread.
I haven't watched as much of the Winter Olympics as I would have liked to have done. But I was gripped by the ladies skeleton at the weekend. A hearty well done to Lizzy Yarnold for retaining her Olympic crown. Rather her than me, though. Going head-first down an icy track at high speeds looks fun, but also terrifying at the same time.
It appears as if Elise Christie is destined for heartbreak when it comes to the Olympics. A lot of people have found her crying a tad annoying, yet surely you must have a heart of stone if you don't feel a bit sorry for her.
Yes, there are worse things happening in the world at the moment - Trump, shootings, Brexit, terrorism, Trump, global warming, Trump - but Christie has just had her Olympic dreams crushed, and someone shoves a microphone under her nose and expects a coherent response. I think we need to cut her a bit of slack, but judging by Twitter - should you judge any public opinion on Twitter? - I'm in a small minority when it comes to this point of view.
Previous entries:
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7
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