Right on Cue

Sunday 22nd December 2008 - a typical afternoon of festive sporting indulgence: Arsenal drew with Liverpool. India humbled England. Man Utd beat Liga de Quito to win the Club World Cup and David Beckham was unveiled at AC Milan.

But I elected to dedicate my afternoon to a chubby baby faced 26 year old from Harlow. Around eight hours after I'd sat down, Shaun Murphy clinched the most dramatic of victories, 10-9 over Fu Ka-chun, (or in the Western media 'Marco Fu') to win the UK Snooker Championship.

There's an old saying in snooker; "every pot a pint of blood". It refers to putting every modicum of thought, cunning and tactical nuance into a shot. Last night was one of those encounters. The final ball was not potted until 12.21am.

It was a bizarre first frame. Murphy went ahead with breaks of 26 and 36 leaving Fu needing 3 snookers to stand any sort of chance. Most players wouldn't have bothered leaving the chair. Indeed the ever-controversial Ronnie O'Sullivan had earlier conceded a frame when he was only 23-0 down. But the un-assuming Happy Valley resident (yes that really is a place in Hong Kong) was up in a flash.

And when Murphy found the cue ball heading towards the middle pocket Fu only needed another 4-point foul to be back in the frame. Unfortunately for Fu, he then fouled with his waistcoat handing Murphy the first frame.

Nerves dominated the following 18 frames with both players making uncharacteristic errors. "That's probably the worst game we've played throughout the tournament" said Murphy after the match.

But this didn't detract from the spectacle. As with much that is broadcast on TV today - being good, and being good on TV are two very different things. Quality is very much subservient to entertainment. John Sergeant was clearly never a great dancer. But he made great telly. X-Factor winners are never truly talented. If they were they'd have found success through the traditional pre-Cowell route. Instead, they make brilliant TV.

Similarly the final frame was far from text-book snooker. There were errors galore in the 32-minute decider. Eventually it all came down to a pink in the far left pocket - effectively championship ball. Murphy has a reputation for his consistent long potting but, like in penalty shoot-outs in football, this is one of the few times when talent counts for very little.

Murphy took his time. Then attacked. The pink flew. It missed by a mile. Hitting both sides of the pocket cushion it re-bounded back towards the Englishman, and dropped neatly into the middle pocket.

Six or seven hours practice a day in the months leading up to the Championships. Forty-six frames within the tournament itself. And the title is won due to that most mysterious of anomalies - luck. Such is sport.

(Images used courtesy of: http://image.hotdog.hu/_data/members1/497/676497/images/sajat_fotok/murphy5.jpgg
http://chaobreederxl2.proboards80.com/index.cgi?action=calendarview&thread=40)

Perspective Please

Sport is by definition an artificial situation. Tennis is impossible if you ignore the lines. Likewise football doesn't work if the ball and the players don't stay on the pitch. That is the point of sport - it is pretend. If it weren't it would replicate real life, thus losing it's most popular appeal.

That's why managers standing in front of advertising boards in suits answering questions about 'their feelings' doesn't quite work. Suddenly everything's just a bit too serious.

Arsenal are, as I write these words, 7 points behind Chelsea who are at the top of the Premiership. Yet in his post match interview Arsene Wenger was asked whether he thought his team were still in with a chance of winning the title.

It is moments like these which confirm Roy Keane's observations 2 weeks ago as being accurate. Sport, and football in particular, has become such a large business, so blown out of all proportion, that the continual media narrative surrounding it is beginning to be shown in its true colours.

Obviously Arsenal can still win it (please note can not will). Of course they were never out of it. Last season it only took a draw and a loss before Alan Hansen proclaimed Man Utd were in crisis. This season the big shout from MOTD HQ is that this could be Liverpool's year.

"They're trying to sell something that's not there", was Keane's response to the supposed pressure Wenger was under via sections of the media following a run of poor results in November.

Similarly, Sky Sports have tonight opted to go for the headline: 'Scolari Blasts officials' following the Chelsea managers' relatively mild complaint about the referee in his post match interview.

But so long as sport remains big business, with big shiny coffers then this phony analysis will continue. An injury update will still merit a 'breaking news' strap, and men in suits will go on sitting around the MOTD table, discussing in the most somber of tones, the situation that Chelsea now find themselves in.

One point from three home games against their main title rivals - surely an opportunity for the pundits to deliver some cataclysmically over-hyped expertise on the dangers facing the team.

But we must remember the sports presenters' most frequent assignment is to talk about the trivial parts of sport: to find within them some kind of wisdom. Some kind of meaning.

Not every game can be a thriller. Not every goal a last minute pile-driver. What myself and Mr Keane crave, is just a little bit more perspective the rest of the time.

Then there were four

Both the ATP and WTA rankings for the 2008 tour were released a few days ago, giving me the perfect excuse to write a review on one of the most competative years in recent memory.

Starting with the WTA tour Maria Sharapova won the third Grand Slam title of her career by defeating Ana Ivanovic in the Australian Open final. The French Open is now the only major missing from the Russian's trophy cabinet. Venus Williams won her fifth Wimbledon singles title, beating sister Serena in straight sets. And Jelena Jankovic became the only No. 1 tennis player who has not yet won a singles Grand Slam title. She reached her first Grand Slam final at the U.S open, but lost to Serena Williams 6–4, 7–5.

The biggest shock came in May when Justine Henin announced her immediate retirement from professional tennis. She's the first incumbent No.1 to quit - having spent 171 weeks at the top with 41 singles titles, including seven Grand Slams, to her name. But a knee injury, a general lack of sharpness and a probable lack of desire had transformed the Belgian into a beatable player. In a world of double handed big hitting I'm pretty sure we'll never see quite as sexy a one handed back hand again.

It's testament to the standads Roger Federer sets himself that winning the US Open, taking the Masters Series in Hamburg and Halle, with a 66-15 match record merits a poor year. I guess when you look back, the prevailing storylines are his health and the three-pronged attack from Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray.

Nadal won the French Open for the fourth consecutive time, tying Bjorn Borgs record in the process and becoming only the fifth man in the open era to win a Grand Slam singles title without losing a set. Meanwhile World No. 3 Novak Djokovic was in devastating form as he capped a huge season by racing to his first Tennis Masters Cup title in Shanghai on Sunday. The final victory earns Djokovic 50 points in the ATP 2008 Race and takes him to within just two points of second-placed Roger Federer at the season end.

He's become the first British player to win five titles in the Open Era, he's made it to No. 4 in the world and reached the US Open final. Yet for all this I can't say I'm the biggest fan of Andy Murray.

I don't think it's because of his disgraceful behaviour at the Olympics. It's not his zero charisma or monotonel drivel. Nor is it due to the fact that he wore a Paruaguay shirt when England were playing them in the 2006 World Cup. I don't even think it's his unecessary fist clenching after every point he wins.

The big three have undoubtedly become the big four this season. Murray has developed into a truely talented player with an unquestionable ability to scrap for points like no one else. Maybe it's the huge chasm in character between Murray and the rest that I take issue with: Federer is cool, calm, charming, a real gentleman. Nadal is quirky. His odd routines and colourful beach-like clothing is a breath of fresh air. And Djokavic is known for his sense of humour and light hearted approch. Murray appears grumpy and arrogant by comparison. He eats during press conferences and gives mind numbingly boring in interviews.

But enough of that. The big rivalry that is Nadal - Federer is fast approaching it's 4th year. The eagerly anticipated battle for No. 1 will begin in the first week of the 2009 season when both World No. 1 Rafael Nadal and No. 2 Roger Federer contest the Qatar ExxonMobil Open in Doha, beginning January 5. It's an encounter no tennis fan will want to miss.

WTA Rankings

1. Jelena Jankovic - Serbia
2. Serena Williams - U.S
3. Dinara Safina - Russia
4. Elena Dementieva - Russia
5. Ana Ivanovic - Serbia
6. Venus Williams - U.S
7. Vera Zvonareva - Russia
8. Svetlana Kuznetsova - Russia
9. Maria Sharapova - Russia
10. Agnieszka Radwanska - Poland

ATP Rankings

1. Nadal, Rafael - Spain
2. Federer, Roger - Switzerland
3. Djokovic, Novak - Serbia
4. Murray, Andy - Great Britain
5. Davydenko, Nikolay - Russia
6. Tsonga, Jo-Wilfried - France
7. Simon, Gilles - France
8. Roddick, Andy - United States
9. Del Potro, Juan Martin - Argentina
10. Blake, James - United States

Images Courtesy of:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/low/tennis/7454793.stm

http://shasunredemption.wordpress.com/tag/severine-bremond/

www.rickstv.com/tennis/

http://sports.popcrunch.com/andy-murray-has-a-dodgy-thumb/

http://www.whatsalltheracquet.com/archives/020831.php

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tennis/7492053.stm

Joga Bonito?

A joke. Boring. Only 4 teams. Too predictable....













All are fairly typical views of the Premiership from continental football fans. And to be fair they have a point - only 4 teams have won the Premiership since its creation in 1997. The last team to break into the current top four was Everton in 2005. And a weekend when each of the guys in the graphic above fail to score is deemed a minor miracle.

You don’t have to be Derren Brown or even Eileen Drewery to predict what will happen in the Premier League this (08/09) season. Manchester United will win, Chelsea will finish second, Arsenal will finish third and Liverpool fourth. Testament to how predictable the premiership has become comes in the form of pundit's supposedly 'radical' predictions that Aston Villa might push Liverpool for 4th place. Yet commentators rarely go a season without declaring - ad nauseam - that the Premiership is the most exciting league in the world.

"This league is in great danger of becoming one of the most boring but great leagues in the world. The top four this year will be the same as next year. […] The only games they lose are to each other. Not many sides outside the top four are beating them." (Kevin Keegan, May, 2008)

A similar pattern was seen in the late 70's and 80's. From 1976 to 1988, the championship only twice left Stanley Park - the area of Victorian greenery that separates Anfield from Goodison. Four teams won the title in those 12 years and neither Nottingham Forest nor Aston Villa, the rogue clubs of 1978 and 1981, ever threatened to repeat the feat - Villa were relegated six years after taking the title. For the readers of the Liverpool Echo it was a golden age, to everyone beyond the Mersey it was a predictable farse, watched by progressively fewer people.

But today English football is achieving record popularity and those who think it would draw more supporters if smaller teams had more of a chance ignore the fact that bigger clubs would shrink. Look at France where money is more equally divided. Their best players go abroad making their domestic league irrelevant when compared to its rivals.


So to ensure a debate ensues I would appreciate your thoughts on the following:

- Should we adopt a salary cap or draft system?
- Is Sepp Blatter's 6 and 5 idea workable?
- Would a more even league mean more success for the England team?
- Does recent success of premiership clubs in Europe make up for the predictability of the domestic league?

Images Courtesy of: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/eng_prem/7139276.stm
www.fmgamer.tv/.../index.php/t19655.html