SPORTING NEWS OF THE WEEK 6

FOOTBALL

• Safety fears hit football as 3 legs are broken in 3 days. The unlucky recipients were; Bobby Zamora, Luka Modric and Antonio Valencia.

• Europa League – Man City 2 v 0 Salzburg: Silva and Jo the scorers.

 Liverpool 4 v 1 Steaua Bucharest: Ngog x2, Cole and Leiva

CRICKET

• England win both the 1^st and 2^nd ODI’s versus Pakistan;

1^st ODI

England – 274/6 (41overs) = S Davies 87, Trott 70, Strauss 41, Bopara 35*.

Pakistan – 250/9 (41overs) = K Akmal 53, U Akmal 43.

ENGLAND WIN BY 24 RUNS.

2^nd ODI

Pakistan – 294/8 (50overs) = K Akmal 74, Shafiq 74, Broad 4-81.

England – 295/6 (49.3overs) = Strauss 126, Trott 50.

ENGLAND WIN BY 4 WICKETS

• Clydesdale Bank Semi-Final’s;

1^st Semi

Somerset – 312/6 (40overs) = Trescothick 76, Compton 55, Suppiah 42*, Butler 36.

Essex – 217allout (29.3overs) = Foster 58.

SOMERSET WIN BY 95 RUNS.

2^nd Semi

Yorkshire – 257/5 (40overs) = Rudolph 106, Brophy 64.

Warwickshire – 260/6 (35overs) (D/L) = Chopra 76, Bell 57.

WARWICKS WIN BY 4 WICKETS ON D/L.

• The sad news has emerged that Andrew “Freddie” Flintoff, one of England’s finest ever all-rounders, has been forced to retire from all forms of cricket due to a troublesome knee. His presence will be missed from the game but his legacy will live on forever as a superb athlete, player, character and performer.

TENNIS

• A great couple of week’s tennis at Flushing Meadows for the US Open has come to an end. After defeating Novak Djokovic in a superb finale in 4 sets, Rafa Nadal finally completed his career slam. This came alongside Kim Clijsters beating Zvonareva in the Women’s tournament.
• The best match of the tournament was not the final though. Instead the epic semi-final between Djokovic and Federer which went to 5 sets with Djokovic finally prevailing after having gone 1-0 and 2-1 down. It was a match played with heat, intensity and rhythm and was the very finest brand of tennis that has been seen for quite some time.
• A very close friend of mine, Pearl, is a huge Djokovic fan. I would like to pay homage to her as, though her hero put her through just about every emotion (something relayed quickly on to me!) she never lost hope in him and supported him to the bitter end with great pride. She also taught me much about the passion in tennis and I must admit, I have more of a soft-spot for Djokovic than I did, even supporting him in his semi and final! “I am so proud of Nole”, says Pearl. “He played so well, I was crying when he had his match point against Federer after Federer had had two of his own”.

A magnificent spectacle for tennis and here’s to hoping for more of it next season!

FORMULA ONE

• After taking a brilliant pole-position, Ferrari man Fernando Alonso backed it up with a superb victory in front of the Tifosi to kick-start his championship challenge. After having been overtaken by Button to the opening corner things didn’t look good for him. His pit-stop managed to catapult him ahead of Button – who finished 2^nd – and he never looked back.

BOXING

• Amir Khan agrees a defence of his WBA light-welterweight title against Marcos Maidana for December 13^th in Las Vegas.

• Wladimir Klitschko successfully retained his IBF and WBO Heavyweight belts against Samuel Peter, stopping him in the 10^th round in front of the Frankfurt crowd.

• Ricky Hatton has entered rehab after allegations of cocaine snorting has appeared.

SPORTING NEWS OF THE WEEK 3

• Tottenham lose first leg of first Champions League game 3-2, after being 3-0 down after 28 minutes away from home against the Swiss outfit, Young Boys. Roman Pavlyuchenko scored a brilliant second after Bassong got Spurs on the board.

• Babel gives Liverpool a 1-0 advantage of Trabzonspor in Europa League with the away leg next Thursday.

• Aston Villa draw 1-1 with Rapid Vienna away in their Europa League opener, with youngster Roy Bannan scoring after another youngster, Mark Albrighton set him up.

• Alastair Cook gives his Test career a much needed kick-start with 110 in the 2nd innings of the 3rd Test versus Pakistan as England lose at the Oval after a collapse with England falling from 194-3 to 222 all out following Cook’s dismissal as well as having been 94/7 in the first innings.

England 233 (Prior 84*) Wahab 5-63
Pakistan 308 (Ali 92*) Swann 4-68
England 222 (Cook 110) Amir 5-52
Pakistan 148/6 (Butt 46) Swann 3-50
Pakistan win by 4 wickets.

• William Gallas secures North London switch from Arsenal to Tottenham
• French International defender Squillaci comes to Arsenal for rumoured fee of £6.5million.
• Algerian defender Haliche moves to Fulham.
• ·Mario Balotelli makes his long awaited move to Man City history with supposed £24million bid.
• Liverpool misfit Alberto Aquilani is sent on loan to Juventus with a permanent deal to the Old Lady looking on the cards.
• Craig Bellamy makes eventual shock move to Cardiff after too many personal differences with City see him left out in the cold.

• Roger Federer wins in Cincinatti in the run up to the US Open after beating Mardy Fish in the final.

• New Zealand defeat South Africa in a thriller of a rugby match in front of 95,000 at Soccer City, the All Blacks win narrowly 29-22 to break Bok hearts.

• Theo Walcott and Andy Carroll grab hat-tricks in the Premier League as Newcastle, Arsenal and Chelsea all beat Aston Villa, Blackpool and Wigan 6-0 respectively.