Category: Sports

The England vs. Trinidad & Tobago match just ended. For the first 82 minutes it was horribly frustrating to watch: England had possession two-thirds of the time, but were incapable of putting the ball where it needed to go… in the net. And then Rooney came on and inspired everyone, and Beckham put in the perfect cross, and Crouch kept his eye on the ball for the first time in the match. 1-0. And at the 90th minute, Gerrard pulled off a beautiful, lightning-quick, feint right, lunge left, shoot sequence to make it 2-0. Delightful. Just don’t leave it so late next time – OK?

The nearest decent motor racing circuit is Lime Rock, down in north-west Connecticut. I’ve been down there a couple of times before, and I’ve just decided to drive over for Monday’s events. (For those outside the US, Monday is the Memorial Day holiday.)

It’s about 155 miles from Brookline to Lime Rock, so I’ll set off around 5:30am. However I’m not planning to drive all the way home at the end of the day. (Yes, I’ve done it before. No, it isn’t fun – it rather spoils the day. Besides the holiday traffic on I-90 will be awful.) Instead I’ve reserved a motel room in Lee, Massachusetts, and I’ll head home on Tuesday. I can’t dawdle, though: I’m meeting a former colleague for lunch at 11:30am in Chestnut Hill, and I’ve got a phone call at 12:30pm.
Expect lots of photos. And memo to self: take lots of water and plenty of sunscreen. It’s forecast to get close to 90F on Monday.

I just watched the qualifying session for Sunday’s Grand Prix in Monaco, including Michael Schumacher’s convenient “error” at the last corner on the last lap which prevented Alonso from taking pole position. Schumacher cut the apex too close, ran wide, and stopped short of the wall, which brought out a local yellow flag. As the BBC reports:

The manner of Schumacher’s mistake provoked claims from many of his rivals that he had deliberately stopped on the track to prevent anyone from challenging his pole position.
The way his Ferrari ran wide looked very unusual, and he then stalled the engine while making an apparently ham-fisted attempt to reverse it out of the barrier.

My assessment was that Schumacher could have completed the turn without stopping, and that his “mistake” was too uncharacteristically sloppy – and too “convenient” – to be anything other than a deliberate attempt to block his rivals. Of course he’s under investigation. By the time you read this, we’ll know if Schumacher is going to be first or last on the grid….
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[UPDATE: He’s going to start last! A good call by the officials, I think. Perhaps they noticed that little smirk on Schumi’s face during the post-qualifying interview.]

Farewell Alan Shearer. One of the best centre-forwards of all time. (And it’s been 18 years!! Back in 1988 he actually had some hair!)

I’m not a typical sports fan: I don’t support one team exclusively. When it comes to football (English, of course), I tend to cheer on three clubs: Arsenal, Manchester United, and Liverpool. (And I have a soft spot for Newcastle, too.) But I’m more interested in watching a good match than seeing “my” side win at any cost.
All of this is a roundabout way of explaining my distinctly mixed emotions at watching Liverpool’s 7-0 thrashing of Birmingham in tonight’s F.A. Cup quarter-finals. This was not a good match. By half time there were really only two open questions:

1. Would Birmingham snatch a consolation goal, and
2. Would Liverpool’s score get into double digits?

Ah well. Let’s hope that Birmingham is relegated from the Premiership: based on recent form, they’re less deserving than Portsmouth.

This afternoon we went up to Lynn to visit our daughter, son-in-law, and grandson Tommy. When we got home, the postman had left a bulky padded envelope containing the DVDs of this summer’s thrilling Ashes cricket match series. Three DVDs, with eight hours coverage of one of the greatest sporting contests in history. So far I’ve watched the first disc: the First Test at Lord, when Australia got off to a wobbly start, destroyed England, and eventually won by 239 runs, and the thrilling Second Test at Edgbaston, when Australia put England in, stumbled, and then fought back to come within 2 runs of snatching victory. Tremendous stuff.
Two more discs… I know how I’m spending my time over the next couple of days.

So Alonso will join McLaren in 2007. These announcements of team changes are getting earlier and earlier, and they really mess things up. Who’s Renault going to support when the chips are down – Fisichella or Alonso? And this kind of thing only happens in F1, as far as I can see. Can you imagine Van Nistelrooy playing for Manchester United against Chelsea when it was known that he had already signed for Chelsea next season? F1 is a team sport, and announcements of changes should take effect immediately. And then we could avoid nonsensical stuff like this from Alonso:

“I’m pleased that we are able to make this announcement now as it will allow my current team and I to focus 100% on defending the world championship next year.”

Yeah, right.

When I was in England last week, the most prominent DVD displayed in the shops wasn’t a blockbuster film, or a music video: it was the three DVD set covering this summer’s Ashes – the cricket series between England and Australia. However it bore the dreaded Region 2+4 logo, meaning that it wouldn’t play on US DVD players. (Yes, I know I could unlock mine, but I’d prefer not to have to.) So I was delighted to find that a company called Dreamcricket is about to start shipping the US (NTSC) version. Warne, Flintoff, Vaughan… and Richie Benaud’s farewell. I can hardly wait!

I went to bed early to get a few hours sleep before getting up to watch the Japanese Grand Prix in the middle of the night. It was definitely worth it: it was a thrilling race, with an inspired performance by Raikkonen in the McLaren. The TV coverage of the final battle between Fisichella and Raikkonen was great, enhanced by side-by-side telemetry readout of brake and throttle from both drivers at the bottom of the screen.

It was fascinating from a technical point of view. The McLaren is almost perfect, but it has one weakness: the front wing tends to be slightly less effective under asymmetric airflow, so when it’s following another car closely the front end can lose grip. The effect is small, but it shows up quite clearly from the in-car camera. The result was that Raikkonen took a long time getting around Michael Schumacher, and was unable to overtake Mark Webber until the Williams driver pitted. Without those delays, the final dual wouldn’t have been necessary: Raikkonen would have been long gone. (After the last pit stop he was hauling in Fisichella at better than a second a lap!)

(So much for those who think that there’s no passing in Formula One!)

Pietersen reaches his century on the way to a total of 158, as England draw the Fifth Test and thereby win the Ashes for the first time since 1987! According to reports, England has gone cricket crazy; one writer compared it with the Red Sox winning the World Series last year. (I’m not going to risk commenting on that!) Anyway, congratulations to both teams. (I wonder if the BBC will release a “highlights” DVD that will play on Region 1 players.)