Category: Sports

Today’s F1 Grand Prix was from Spain, and once again it was being televised on network TV five hours after the event. Again I face the dilemma: whether to avoid all sources of news so that I can watch the race without knowing the result. I decided to do so, with some difficulty – even my screen-saver is a news channel! (Mac OS X “Tiger” includes a cool RSS reader screen saver.)

An impressive performance from McLaren (which is sponsored by Sun – so where do I find a T-shirt?) and Kimi. Ferrari’s awful season continues: perhaps Bridgestone tyres should quit….

I took a few minutes this afternoon to watch the culmination of a great season for Chelsea FC: defeating Bolton 2-0: “Chelsea sealed their first championship for 50 years with victory at Bolton. Frank Lampard struck twice in the second half as manager Jose Mourinho added the Premiership to the Carling Cup in his first season in charge.” I watched all of the second half of the match, and I thought that both Lampard’s goals were delightful. I’m not particularly a Chelsea fan (in fact I’m not a dedicated supporter of any one team: I’ll cheer for Manchester United, Arsenal, and Liverpool – sorry, Steve), but Chelsea’s championship victory is very well-deserved.

Time for the 4th round in the 2005 Formula One season: the San Marino Grand Prix. (San Marino? Relax: it’s just an excuse for the Italians to get two races in the season.) Here in the US, most GPs are televised live on Speed TV, with pretty knowledgeable commentators who treat the audience as fellow enthusiasts. However four of the races are shown on network TV (CBS) instead. This was one of those, which meant (1) it was tape-delayed until 1PM EST, and (2) we had to put up with inane, hyperactive commentators who assume that the viewers know nothing about the sport. So turn the sound DOWN, and make sure you have a good book to read during the interminable commercial breaks.
Fortunately I managed to avoid hearing the results in advance, so I was able to enjoy the thrilling battle between Alonso and Michael Schumacher over the last few laps. The Ferrari was clearly quicker, but Alonso never put a wheel wrong, and he was able to make it four out of four for Renault. (Of course if Schumacher hadn’t screwed up during qualifying, he’d have run away with the race.)
(As for my man David Coulthard, let’s just say that it wasn’t one of his best days….)

The Malaysian Grand Prix takes place this weekend, and reports from the first qualifying session suggest that it’s going to be a very interesting race. Once again the Ferraris seem to be out of contention. (Sadly, so is my man DC – though at least he was faster than Michael Schumacher.) However I think I’m going to put common-sense ahead of enthusiasm, and let the VCR watch this one for me – the TV coverage runs from 1:30am to 4am here in Boston….

I just watched an excellent Grand Prix in Australia. [My sympathy for my SunUK colleagues: if they stayed up to watch, it’s now 4:45AM over there.] Close competitive racing, plenty of passing, general uncertainty because of all the new rules…. In the end Fisichella scored a solid win for Renault, while Michael Schumacher’s Ferrari was in the garage.
I’ve always been a David Coulthard fan, and I was disappointed when McLaren let him go at the end of last season. While it was gratifying that the new Red Bull (ex-Jaguar) team picked him up, nobody expected very much from them. I was therefore delighted that Coulthard was able to hold on to 3rd for most of the race, and finished 4th, ahead of the Williams and McLaren drivers. Stunning!

So finally, incredibly, the Red Sox have done it.
When I came to the USA 23 years ago, Boston sports was all about the Celtics. Larry Bird, Robert Parrish, and all the rest of them: although there were various pretenders (Philly? LA?) the Celtics were the natural champions.
Then came a drought. Occasionally the Red Sox would tease their fans, but everybody knew better than to take them seriously.
Then, quite unexpectedly, the star-less Patriots started winning; grinding out victories with a frightening implacability.
And now, from the depths of despair after three games of the ALCS, the Red Sox have swept to victory, under a total eclipse of the moon. Sweet. Stay safe, everybody.

Like Steve, I was (on balance) glad that Manchester United beat Arsenal. Even if it did end the Gunners’ record-breaking run, the Premiership is now really exciting. But not this way:

BBC SPORT | Football | Premiership | FA acts after Old Trafford battle: “Manchester United’s Ruud Van Nistelrooy has been charged with serious foul play by the Football Association for a tackle on Arsenal’s Ashley Cole.
And Gunners boss Arsene Wenger has been asked to explain his comments about Van Nistelrooy and referee Mike Riley.
Van Nistelrooy has been given until Tuesday to “deny or admit” the charge which will be heard on Thursday.”

Here in New England, the Patriots stretched their streak to 21 by beating the NY Jets. And back home in old England, Manchester United finally ended Arsenal’s 49 game unbeaten run. All good things must come to an end….

I went with my son-in-law, Mark, to the New Hampshire International Speedway in Loudon, NH, to see my first ever NASCAR race. I’ve enjoyed motor racing since I was a kid, both in the UK and USA, but I’ve always gone to “road courses”: I like to see drivers turn left and right!
The race was sold out (the NHIS seats 91,000 101,000), the weather was warm and sunny, and it was a good race. The only frustrations were the number of cautions (a dozen, each requiring track crews to come out with ambulances, wreckers, and street sweepers to clean up the circuit), and the stupid restart system which deliberately mixes slower, lapped traffic into the pattern. The effect is to significantly penalize the 3rd place and subsequent drivers compared with the first two. Only after the very last caution of the race, a couple of laps from the end, was there a simple uncomplicated restart, and it led to some really close racing.
I had a dilemma: who to cheer for? I know little about the NASCAR circuit, and have no strong affiliation to any team, driver, or sponsored product(!). On the other hand, watching a sporting event “in the abstract” isn’t very satisfying. Needing a hat, I wandered over to the trailers selling memorabilia and decided on Matt Kenseth, last year’s champion in a Ford “Taurus”. (They use the names of street cars, but don’t be fooled.) I bought a hat and a model car, (shown here) and returned to my seat to watch the race. Matt had qualified poorly, back in 31st position. It was fascinating to watch him fighting his way up through the field to 4th place, coping with lapped traffic, overcoming a mistake in the pits, and so forth.
And just for the record, Kurt Busch (Matt’s team-mate) won the race from Jeff Gordon, with Ryan Newman (who led for the first 170 out of 300 laps) coming in third.
I’ll be going again. Thanks, Mark!