Comebacks, Rain or Shine

My Sporting Weekend 10-12^th June 2011:

Warm-Up's:

Friends Life t20 (Cricket):

Lancashire V Yorkshire, Lancashire batted 1^st but made a poor start when Tom Smith was bowled for an LBW by Adil Rashid and was out for a duck with only the 2^nd ball of the game. Wickets then steadily fell until the 13^th over, with Rashid getting another and Azeem Rafiq taking 3 and Lancashire looked in trouble as they only had 62 when the 6^th wicket fell. But Karl Brown and Luke Procter stabilised the innings with a partnership of 60 off the last 7 overs for Lancashire to reach 122.

Yorkshire made a steady start and looked set to win with a couple of overs to go, until Procter took hold of the ball and ripped through the Yorkshire middle order taking Anthony McGrath and Gerard Brophy in 2 ball in the 13^th over and Gary balance in the 17^th to keep the match alive. Yorkshire then began to fall apart with Richard Pyrah and Rashid both being run out leaving Rafiq and Ryan Sidebottom needing 10 off the last over for the victory. And this was reached with 2 balls remaining after Rafiq hit 2 4's, with paddle shots, over the wicket-keeper's head to win the match.

The near capacity crowd seemed a little quiet, and I think that this was due to the slow (!!!) run-rate, with an outfield that was slow and big boundaries, their was lack of 4's ad 6's, but overall does it really matter if a match is high or low scoring, surely as long as it is competitive that is what matters. Oh and Yorkshire winning helps a lot too.

International Origin (Rugby League):

England V Exiles, The Exiles got the opening score, after Jamie Peacock turned over possession with a poor offload, and after some good play Willie Manu went over on 7 minutes, England then responded on 21 minutes, with Richie Myler going over after James Graham made a good break. But it was the Exiles who led at the half with Francis Meli going over after Iosia Soliola knocked Brett Hodgson's chip kick back inside. The next points didn't come until 10 minutes before the end of the game when Joel Tomkins intercepted a long pass and went the length of the pitch to take the lead, but as England tired George Carmont found a gap in the defence with an angled run and went over with the final play of the game, for the Exiles to take the victory 16-12.

England did have some spells where they played well in defence but going forward they found it hard to string together good series of plays, especially as they had so many players taking the ball at 1^st receiver, instead of playing it simple.

Rangi Chase had an excellent game for the Exiles, easily breaking through the English defence with his mazing runs, and even through he was a bit suspicious in defence, this performance, as well as his Castleford form, could push his way into the New Zealand squad, but I don't see him taking Benji Marshall's spot any time soon as he probably the worlds current best rugby league player. He also made a great half-back partnership with Thomas Leuluai and they easily controlled the Exiles offence with virtually no mix ups or errors.

Unfortunately for the concept of an united England team Sam Tomkins was on the receiving end of a lots of boos from a significant section of the crowd, surely if you are paying to see an English team you should support the English players, and it you happen to have a dislike for a certain player you should just keep quiet, but overall I think that this was the type of game England need to play in preparation for playing the Aussies or Kiwis and was a success.

Firestone Twin 275's (Indy Car):

After returning to its historic place on the schedule a few years ago, following the Indy 500, the format of the Texas Grand Prix has now reverted back to an old format with 2 races on 1 night to give fans at the Texas Motor Speedway double the action. Both races consisted of 1l4 laps with the grid in the 1^st race being set by standard oval qualifying, and the grid in the 2^nd race being set by a lottery draw-out after the 1^st race.

Race 1, After the 1^st start was waved off, for Alex Tagliani jumping the gun, Dario Franchitti made a good start and pulled away from the rest of the field, until Will Power got into 2^nd and bridged the gap. The 1^st set of pit-stops came and went with Franchitti extending his lead further and as it came up to make a decision whether to splash and go, or change the tyres, for the final stop of the race, Charlie Kimball and Wade Cunningham came together bringing out the 1^st caution of the race. The race restarted with 10 laps remaining and although Franchitti led until the end their was some close racing between the front 4 cars of Franchitti, Dixon, Will Power and Tagliani as they pulled away from the rest of the field, with Franchitti winning by a car length. Further back in the field Takuma Sato had a good race finishing 5^th, after doing well to run up front with the leading pack all race.

After a quick celebration from Franchitti, and a few driver interviews, the draw was made for the 2^nd race, which was actually quite interesting with each driver getting some air time to review their 1^st race or talk some rubbish, but it was a bit drawn out due to their being 30 drivers. Tony Kaanan selected the pole, with Franchitti taking 28^th, Dixon 18^th and Power 3^rd, which was unfortunate for Franchitti from a championship point of view as he had to get around 25 cars to challenge Power. And with some faster cars further back in the field it looked as if their was going to be constant overtaking through out the 2^nd race, but saying that their was a lot of overtaking in the 1^st race anyway.

Race 2, At the start of the race Power pulled away from the rest of the field with a group of 4 cars, including leader Kannan, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Helio Castroneves, as Franchetti was finding it hard to overtake towards the back of the field, mainly due to being set-up for running up at the front. After the 1^st set of pit-stops the 3 Penske cars were running in the 1^st 3 spots, with Power leading, followed by Ryan Briscoe and Castroneves, and Franchetti was down in 15^th. The final pit-stops started with about 10 laps to go, and after some near misses the green flag stayed out until the end of the race with Power taking the chequered flag and Franchetti finishing in 7^th. But from the start of the race Power always looked like he was going to win due to his starting draw, and the fact that their were no cautions played in to his hands as he pulled away from the rest of the field, leaving his competitors behind as he extended his lead over Franchetti in the championship standings to 21 points. Marco Andretti had a good 2^nd race finishing in 6^th after gaining 21 spots from his 26^th position start, as did Dixon who finished in 2^nd from a 18^th place start.

This was a great format, with each race being ran in different conditions, dusk and night, meaning that the cars needed different set-ups, as well as the short sharp races meaning that the drivers didn't have much time to hang around, and had to get to the front as early as possibly for any chance of winning. Although I am not too sure about the random draw to set the grid for the 2^nd race, maybe a completely inverted field would work, so 1^st place finisher starts in 30^th, 2^nd in 29^th, etc. etc., but I can understand that their needs to be something happening between races to keep TV viewers and fans in the stands interested. So maybe a random draw could still work, but with the finishing grid of the 1^st race being split into 3 groups of 10 (ie. 1-10, 11-20 and 21-30), and then having the random draw within that group, so if you finished between 1^st and 10^th the worst you would start would be 10^th, and the same between places 11^th to 20^th and 21^st to 30^th.

Also Indy winner Dan Wheldon did a good job in the commentary box, providing some good driver experience and explaining some driver nuances that would have been missed by the rest of the commentary team.

Grand Prix du Canada (Formula 1):

The race started under safety car conditions due to the heavy rain and standing water, Sebastian Vettel was on pole and Fernando Alonso made a good start after the safety car went in, but he was unable to take the lead as Vettel held him off. Also on the start Lewis Hamilton spun Mark Webber out as he went up the inside of him up to the 2^nd corner, earning him a stewards investigation. But this investigation was never completed as on the 8^th lap, he had an incident on the pit straight when he tried to pass team-mate Jenson Button , who had made a mistake, when he faded back across the road and left Hamilton nowhere to go apart from the wall.

Button then received a drive through penalty for speeding under safety car conditions, and as the rain stopped he was one of the 1^st to switch to intermediate tyres, and was soon overtaking cars and making up positions, but his progress was halted when the rain came again, bringing out the safety again, and eventually the red flag with 25 laps complete.

After a 2 hour break the race re-started again under safety car conditions, with Kobayashi making a good restart, in 2^nd place, holding back Alonso until he had to pit, due to the wet tyres not being fast enough any-more, where he lost a lot of time after getting backed up behind team-mate Filipe Massa. Then after coming back out, on lap 38, Button went up the inside of him, but he did not yield and Button hit him on the right rear corner, leaving him spinning out and beached on the grass, as well as puncturing Button's front left tyre, sending him to the pits for the 5^th time.

After restarting Vettel easily pulled away again from the rest of the field, and further back in the field both Paul di Resta and Adrian Sutil earned themselves drive through penalties for avoidable accidents with Nick Heidfeld and Nico Rosberg respectively.

On the 51^st lap, after running well in 2^nd, Kamui Kobayashi made a mistake and allowed both Michael Schumacher and Massa past him and as slicks became the tyres of choice Massa found himself clipping the wall and damaging his nose cone after aquaplaning across the wet track.

On lap 56 Nick Heidfeld tagged the back of Kobayashi's car, and slid off the track as his front wing went under his car, and the safety car was soon out due the the debris on track, and this helped Button , who was 4^th, with the field closing up again, as for the previous 10 laps or so he was making good lap times after taking slicks early and getting good heat in the tyres, as well as making up a few positions.

The race restarted with 10 laps to go and Vettel pulled away again, but left behind a fantastic battle for 2^nd between Schumacher, Webber and Button, and after getting into 2^nd Button was catching Vettel and going into the final lap he was within a second. Then on the last lap Vettel made his 1^st mistake of the race, going wide onto the wet, allowing Button to pass him and take the win, with Webber in 3^rd, Schumacher in 4^th and surprisingly Vitaly Petrov in 5^th, who managed to sneak through all the carnage with out getting too much TV attention.

This was a fantastic and highly entertaining race that was made by the wet weather, but spoilt by the 2 hour red flag

Main Event:

Uefa Euro U21's Group B (Football):

Spain V England, England made a good, energetic, start putting Spain under pressure high up the pitch as soon as they got the ball, which allowed them to win the ball back fast and put the Spanish defence under pressure. But it was Spain who got the opening goal, on 14 minutes, when Ander Herrera headed between Tom Cleverly and the post, after Javier Martinez headed across from a corner. Burt the goal was without controversy with a Spanish player blocking off Michael Mancienne, leaving a clear path for Martinez to get to the ball, and then replays showed that Herrera may have handled the ball at exactly the same time as he headed towards goal.

England then dropped back and didn't really do much as Spain kept the ball for longer periods and created a couple of chances, but England came back into the game for the last 10 minutes of the 1^st half, with Kyle Walker making some good runs down the right wing, which brought Daniel Sturridge into the game.

Throughout the 2^nd half Spain were always on top, and England were left chasing the ball, as Spain easily kept possession, but with 2 minutes to go Danny Welbeck got the equaliser when he beat the offside trap and slotted in after a Walker through ball, as the Spanish defence went walkabout.

Defensively England played quite well, with Phil Jones and Chris Smalling forming a good partnership, but it was in the centre of midfield that England lost out as they found it hard to keep the ball, as well as Mancienne, Tom Cleverly and Jordan Henderson not really getting into the game, and breaking up the Spanish possession, England did create a couple of good chances though, and Walker always looking dangerous when he got the ball and ran with it. Also England’s substitutes didn't really make that much impact on the game, but I think that Scott Sinclair should have come earlier, to try and give England something down the left-hand as they were pretty ineffective down that wing.

Spain controlled the ball well, but had a couple of mix-ups in defence that England couldn't capitalise on, and they just didn't have enough shots at goal to try to kill the game off. Martinez played well for Spain, and probably was their best player, as he bossing the central midfield position by moved the ball around well and building the Spanish attacks. Both teams now need to win their next games, and I think that their will be a repeat of this game in 2 weeks, when the final is played.

Cool-Down's:

I was watching the 24 Hours of Le Mans Sportscar race and saw Audi's Allan McNish's big crash after contact with Anthony Beltoise's slower Ferrari and even though it was quite disturbing and emotional to watch it was riveting viewing and was a testament to the build quality of the cars and track that neither driver was seriously injured, as well as the Ferrari driving away from the incident. It was also very lucky that none of the marshals or photographers were injured after being showered by bits of carbon fibre as they were stood on the other side of the crash barrier that look the impact of the car, which although it shot the car in the air, it kept it out of the void in-between the stands and safety barrier protecting the track officials and spectators.

Yorkshire CCC were meant to be on Sky for their 2^nd televised game of the weekend on Sunday, but unfortunately the weather prevailed and not a single ball was bowled, with both teams taking home a point each.