Europe Beware, The Brits Are Coming

My Sporting Weekend 24^th July 2011:

I didn't catch much sport this weekend due to the Tramlines Festival held in Sheffield, but Sunday saw the final stage of the 2011 Tour De France, with Mark Cavendish taking the stage victory along the Champs-Élysées, as well as winning the points classification, and the prestigious green jersey. This rounded off a fantastic tour for the 'Manx Missile' who won 5 stages and became the most successful Brit ever to ride in the Tour.

Earlier in the day we also had another Brit winner, with Lewis Hamilton taking the victory at the Großer Preis Santander von Deutschland (German GP). Hamilton made a good start from 2^nd place taking the lead off Mark Webber before the 1^st corner, and due to the cool track temperatures affecting tyre performance neither Mark Webber or Fernando Alonso could get the jump on him by trying to use the undercut that has worked so well at past races this season.

Sebastian Vettel had his worse finish of the season, in 4^th, coming off the track on the 9^th lap after driving over the wet white lines, and losing a lot of time to the leading 3 top drivers, which he couldn't catch up. But this didn't really hinder his attempt at a 2^nd world championship as his lead over 2^nd placed Webber was only cut by 5 points to 75.

In the late evening IndyCar made its 2^nd Canadian stop of the season for the Honda Edmonton Indy, and after the shenanigans 2 weekends ago in Toronto, Sundays race started with Alex Tagliani taking a big chance going up the inside of the 5th corner, but he locked his breaks, hitting Graham Rahal and cutting his tyre. This sent Rahal off the track and as he came back on he spun and collected Paul Tracy, ending both their days and bringing out the 1st caution of the day.

After qualifying on pole Takuma Sato led the 1st 19 laps before losing the lead to Will Power, and then quickly lost 2nd and 3rd positions to Scott Dixon and Dario Franchetti respectably.

The 2nd full course caution came out on lap 25 after Mike Conway went up the inside of Oriol Servia and shunted him off the track, the restart then provided more action with the cars going 3 wide and Viso taking a dive up the inside of turn 5, damaging Dixon's radiator, but their was no need for the caution this time.

Soon after their was more action on turn 5 with Ryan Hunter-Reay spinning Sato out as he went up the inside of him, but they both kept going, and after pit stops re-jigged the field Power, Helio Castroneves and Franchetti, led the rest of the pack, as they battled for victory. Further back in the field JR Hildebrand made the best overtaking manoeuvre of the day as he went past Vitor Meira at the end of the long straight after getting in his slip stream.

After narrowly avoiding accident on the 2nd restart, Franchetti, finished 3^rd, but Power's race was just as clean and took the victory after taking the lead off Sato early on, and Castroneves was 2^nd.

Apart from the incidents centred around turn 5 the new Edmonton course layout didn't really provide that much overtaking action, and the race did seem to become tedious towards the end, especially as the 1st 3 positions didn't look like changing.

Sunday was rounded off with the final of the Copa America, and Uruguay taking a record 15^th title as they beat a poor Paraguay team, 3-0, that had drawn all of their previous games, and never really looked like scoring.

Recent Results:

LV County Championship: Yorkshire: 239 & 260 (76.5 overs)

                                         Lancashire: 328 & 194 (65.0 overs)

                                         Lancashire beat Yorkshire by 23 runs

Leaving It Late Pays Dividends

My Sporting Weekend 9-10^th July 2011:

The 1^st thing I caught during the weekend was the final 10km, or so, of the 14^th stage of the Tour De France as the leaders were climbing the final, of 3, big climbs that they had to face during the day.

Sandy Casar was leading, with a gap of around 50 seconds, but Jelle Vanendert made a break from the chasing pack and caught him with about 6km to go, before taking the stage victory with a lead of 21 seconds. In this chasing pack of about 10 riders their was yellow jersey holder Thomas Voeckler, as well as last years champion Alberto Contador, and the Schleck brothers, and after allowing Vanendert, who was no threat in the GC, to ride off their was some jockeying between the pack before Samuael Sanchez, and then, Andy Schleck broke away as they tried to catch up with Vanendert in the General Classification.

Next up I saw the final 5 races of the FIM Speedway World Cup, and although the meeting was nearly finished their was still a lot of action to come, starting with the 21^st race finishing in virtually a dead heat for 3^rd place. This was between the Aussie Darcy Ward and the Dane Nicki Pedersen, who was originally given 3^rd, but after review this overturned and 3^rd place was given to Pedersen, leaving the Aussies 5 points behind leaders Poland. In the next race Aussie Trot Batchelor took the victory, but a 2^nd place for Janusz Kolodziej left the Poles with a 4 point lead with 3 races to go, so in a move to try and catch the Poles by being able to play their Joker, the Aussies threw the next race with Davey Watt finishing in 4^th. This meant that Chris Holder had to win the penultimate race, but a 3^rd placed finish gave the Poles their 3 consecutive World Cup victory, as Jaroslaw Hampel came 2^nd and Nicki Pedersen took the win.

The final race then had a great battle between 2 of the worlds best riders, Tomasz Gollob and Jason Crump, with the lead changing several times before Gollob took the victory to collect his 17^th point from a possible 18 to round off a fantastic evening for himself and his team.

Sunday saw professional rugby league return to Blackpool for the 1^st time since Blackpool RLFC went bust, with Bloomfield Road hosting the Northern Rail Cup final between Leigh Centurions and Halifax.

After an even start early tries for each team were wiped off by the video ref, and then Halifax took control of the game and got the 1^st score, again with the help of the video ref on 19 minutes when Miles Greenwood went over. Halifax then got a 2^nd try and went into the 2^nd half with a 10-0 lead.

After a poor 1^st half a different Leigh side came out in the 2^nd half, and after a good period of domination they got 2 tries to draw the scores level, but Halifax took the lead again when Rob Worrincy went over in the corner on 67 minutes. Leigh then had all the pressure again and drew level with 5 minutes to when Jaime Ellis went over for his 2^nd try, and as it was looking certain it was going to go to golden point extra-time Tom Armstrong went over in the last minute for Leigh to take the lead for the 1^st time and take the victory.

This was a exciting and great match to watch with end to end action that could have gone either way and was a fantastic advert for non-Super League rugby league.

The main event, and defiantly the highlight of the weekend, was the FIFA Women's World Cup Final between Japan and the USA held at the Commerzbank-Arena in Frankfurt on Sunday night.

The US dominated the attacking play in the 1^st half as they easily created good chances, with Megan Rapinoe, Lauren Cheney, Abby Wambach and Carli Lloyd all narrowly missing excellent opportunities. But Japan kept their composure in possession as they held on to the ball quite well, although they didn't create that much in the final 3^rd of the pitch.

Eventually the US got the breakthrough, on 68 minutes, with Alex Morgan slotting the ball past the Japanese keeper, Ayumi Kaihori, from the edge of the area after a hopeful through ball, over the top, from Rapinoe. But 10 minutes later Japan were level with Aya Miyami flicking past US keeper, Hope Solo, after the US defence couldn't clear the ball in the area. The Japanese took confidence from this goal and created some more good chances, but neither team could get the winner and the game went to extra-time.

The US look the lead again towards the end of the 1^st period of extra-time with Wambach getting her 4^th goal of the tournament as she headed in from the edge of the 6 yard area. But the Japanese equalised again, towards the end of the 2^nd period, with their captain, and the tournaments best player, Homare Sawa scoring a flick on at the near post, with 3 minutes to go. Then in the dying moments of the game Azusa Iwashimizu was sent off for taking down Lloyd on the edge of the area, but the US couldn't take advantage of the free-kick and the game went to penalties.

The US had an awful penalty shoot-out with Kaihori saving both Boxx's and effort's as well as Lloyd missing as the US failed to convert any of their 1^st 3 penalty's, and Japan took a 2 nil lead with Aya Miyama and Mizuho Sakaguchi scoring, and Yuki Nagasato missing. After Wambach scored the US's 1^st penalty Japan got the winner with Saki Kumagai blasting the ball into the top left corner.

Realistically USA should have won the game in normal time after the amount of good chances they had, as well as the fact Japan didn't didn't create that many good chances, and although they were unlucky to be pulled up for an offside in the 2^nd half when Shinobu Ohno was through on goal, Japan were quite lucky to take the game to penalties.

This has been a great tournament with some exciting and dramatic games and the Japanese deserved their World Cup victory after some fantastic performances throughout the tournament, although they were quite poor against England in the group game.

Also Yorkshire finished their disappointing 20-20 campaign with a victory over Derbyshire to finish 6^th in the northern group, and miss out on the quarter-finals.

Recent Results:

Friends Life T20: Derbyshire: 127-7 (20.0 overs)

                          Yorkshire: 128-2 (18.0 overs)

                          Yorkshire beat Derbyshire by 8 wickets

Drama and Controversy Reigns

My Sporting Weekend 9-10^th July 2011:

Warm-Up's:

2011 Super Rugby Grand Final (Rugby Union):

Queensland Reds V The Crusaders, The Southern Hemispheare's elite union competition came to a close this weekend with the Final of the recently expanded Super Rugby competition.

After a tight start, mainly dominated by the Crusaders, the opening points came on 32 minutes with the Reds's Quade Cooper slotting through a penalty, won at the break-down.

But soon after the Crusaders responded with Dan Carter kicking through the Reds defensive line, before re-gathering and touching down under the posts, the Reds then got the final points of the half with Cooper again slotting through the posts again, after receiving a penalty for being tripped off the ball.

Although the Reds had a pretty poor 1st half, allowing the Crusaders to dominate them, the Crusaders didn't take advantage of this and the Reds were lucky to be only 1 point behind.

The 1st points of the 2nd half came from penalty easily slotted over from Carter, won from an infringement at the scrum, but it was the Reds who got the next score, taking the lead, with their 1st try of the game, on 50 minutes, with Digby Ioane going over after coming on to the ball at speed and having a good run, breaking through the Crusaders defence.

Momentum then shifted in the Reds favour for the 1st time in the game, as the crowd got behind their team, but another penalty for Carter levelled the scores at 13 all and unfortunately for the Reds they had a try wiped off for a supposed knock-on after Rob Simmons broke through and touched down, with replays showing that the score should have stood.

But the Reds did get the next try with Will Genia going over after a 60 meter mazing run, ending with him sprinting away from the Crusaders defence, and after Cooper missed the conversion it set up a tense finish to the game as the Crusaders looked to level the game. And a late penalty given away by the Reds Radike Samo, gave the Crusaders the chance to put some pressure on the Reds goal-line, but Samao atoned for his error by winning the interception off the line-out.

During the final play of the game, while looking to tie the game, Crusaders turned the ball over, giving the Reds the victory in front of record Australian attendance at the Suncorp Stadium for another Queensland sporting victory.

The Reds defiantly deserved the victory, and after hanging on in the 1^st half they came out strong in the 2^nd half, and after a period of handling errors they started to dominate the game, punishing the

Crusaders for not being able to take advantage of their 1^st half dominance.

Honda Indy Toronto (IndyCar):

The IndyCar Series made the trip north of the border to visit the streets of Toronto for the 1^st of 2 Canadian races this season (with the next 1 being in 2 weeks at the Edmonton City Airport).

After a clean start Tony Kanaan and Ryan Briscoe had a coming together on the 2^nd lap, putting Kanaan out of the race, and bringing out the 1^st full course caution of the day. Then soon after the restart Marco Andretti and Oriol Servia made early pit-stops, as they tried to get on alternate strategies, with most the most of the cars further back in the field soon following them. And it was Dario Franchitti who was one of the 1^st leaders to come in, on lap 28, and luckily for him Helio Castroneves went up the inside of Alex Tagliani, spinning him out, to bring out the 2^nd caution. This put the rest of the leaders to the back of the field as they took their 1^st pit-stop, leaving Franchitti in the lead.

After the restart Scott Dixon had a good run moving from 11^th to 6^th, before James Jakes spun out , bringing out the 3^rd caution, and as this was happening 2 of the 3 Canadians, Paul Tracy and James Hinchliffe, had a good battle through a couple of corners with quite a lot of contact, before Tracy had to pull in because of a cut tyre.

Then on lap 48 Tracy was involved in another incident, hitting Vitor Meira up the back end when he had nowhere to go, blocking the track and bringing out the 4^th caution, and most of the cars then pitted for what should have been their last stop, re-jigging the field once again.

After the restart, on lap 55, Mike Conway and Briscoe came together and spun each other out, but they both kept going, only bringing out a local yellow flag. Then on lap 57 Franchitti went up the inside of Will Power, clipping him and spinning him around, to bring out the 5^th caution, and according to the American broadcasters this incident earned Franchitti a drive-through penalty for avoidable contact, but after the restart this decision was supposedly overturned after a review. Then at the end of the race this sequence of events turned out to be a fabricated story announced by VERSUS and their was never a penalty issued.

The restart came on lap 62 with the leaders Graham Rahal, Ryan Hunter-Reay and EJ Viso going 3 wide into the 1^st corner, with Rahal coming out in the lead and Viso getting a cut tyre after being back up onto Justin Wilson's front wing, dropping him to the back of the lead lap. And the 6^th caution came out soon after on lap 66 when Tagliani and Power came together, putting Power in the wall and ending his day with suspension damage.

They restarted with 14 laps to go, but the caution was then out again soon after with Danica Patrick hitting James Jakes and flicking Tagliani up into the fence, and luckily for Tagliani his car bounced back down and didn't flip over, but this incident eventually finished his eventful day. And all these cautions played into Rahal's hands, giving him the opportunity to save fuel as he looked to reach the end of the race without having to pit again, and finishing up at the front end of the field.

The race restarted with 10 laps to go, but their was more incident, as cautions bred cautions, with Andretti turning Servia, who then hit Justin Wilson causing a jam in the 1^st corner, and the final restart eventually came with only 5 laps to go as Franchitti held the lead from Rahal around the 1^st few corners. But unfortunately for Rahal he spun round after Dixon had passed him, but he kept it running, and dropped to the back of the lead lap, eventually finishing in 13th. This left Franchitti and Dixon 3 seconds, and increasing, in front of the rest of the field to battle it out for the 1^st position, and it was Franchitti who took the victory with Hunter-Reay in 3^rd, Andretti in 4^th and Meira in 5^th.

This was quite a good race to watch with a lot of action, but the amount of full course cautions did become tedious at times, and also the race was a bit marred with the American broadcasters (VERSUS) error in announcing that Franchitti had received a drive through penalty. Especially as their was a lack of apology after Race Control officially corrected their error, and then they preceded to ask every interviewee about the situation, drawing some confused faces.

Main Event:

FIFA Women’s World Cup Quarter-Finals (Football):

England V France, England made a quick start to the 1st half with Kelly Smith having a good chance within the opening minute, but for most of the half each team cancelled each other out in the centre of the pitch as they found it hard to keep possession, mainly due to oppositions closing down speed, as well as some lax passing.

The French keeper, Celine Deville, looked very nervous but after England's early chance the only real pressure they put on her was during the couple of corners that they won, and she was never forced to make a save. In contrast France put the English keeper, Karen Bardsley, under constant pressure as they looked to shoot whenever they got near the edge of the area.

During the 2nd half England got the breakthrough when Jill Scott found herself in space on the edge of the area, after some good play, before lifting the ball over Deville, into the back of the net. But as England dropped back and defended their lead France took control of the match as they peppered the English goal with shots, and they eventually got the equaliser on 87 minutes with Elise Bussaglia putting the ball in, off the post, from the edge of the area, to set up extra time.

Again during the half England found it hard to keep possession, with too many poor passes and hopeful long balls, but it was dropping back and allowing France to come onto them, instead of pushing further forward and moving the ball out wide, that cost them the victory in 90 minutes.

Extra-time kicked off with the England team looking quite tired, especially Kelly Smith who was hobbling around for the last 10 minutes of the 2nd half, and Faye White who was substituted in the 1st 2 games and rested in the 3rd, but all the substitutes were used and they had to play on with what they had on the pitch.

The 1st period of extra-time was more evenly matched with both teams creating a couple of good chances, with the best one being Ellen White shooting wide after a good flick on from K Smith that gave her space in the box.

But in the 2nd half France started to dominate again as England looked to play out the draw and take their chances in a penalty shoot-out. And England did hold on for the penalty shoot-out.

Karen Bardsley saved the 1st penalty, and England then took the lead with Kelly Smith scoring her penalty, this was followed with Elise Bussaglia, Karen Carney, Gaëtane Thiney, Casey Stoney and Sonia Bompastor all scoring before Claire Rafferty missed at the scores level at 3 all with a kick each to go. Eugenie Le Sommer then scored meaning that Englands captain Faye White had to score to keep England in the game, but she hit the crossbar, sending France through to the semi-finals.

Overall England were pretty poor, and although they defended well at times, they found it hard to keep hold of the ball and build good attacks, and France truly deserved the win after dominating the game, with one telling stat being that France had 33 shots compared to England’s 7.

Germany V Japan, I only saw the last 10 minutes of regulation play, with the score at 0-0, and by all accounts it seemed as if Japan had had a fantastic game, keeping a clean sheet, as well as creating some good chances of their own.

This meant for the 2^nd time tonight extra-time was to be played to decide who went through to the semi-finals. The 1^st period passed with little incident, but 2 minutes into the 2^nd period Japan took the lead with Karina Maruyam firing past German keeper Nadine Angerer from a tight angle after a good through ball from Homare Sawa. From that point Germany had Japan pinned back in their own half as they looked to get the equaliser, but Japan defended well as a team, only allowing the Germans to shoot from outside the area.

When the final whistle blew it was met with a shocked silence from the Wolfsburg crowd, probably because it was just assumed that the German team would easily get to the final, and then win.

After being outplayed by England in their previous game I was pretty surprised at Japan's performance, and thought that they would have been dominated by the more physical Germans, but it shouldn't be too much of a surprise they performed as well as they did as they are ranked 4^th in the world.

Brazil V USA, This was another thrilling and dramatic match that was full of incident and was the 3^rd quarter final to go to extra-time and 2nd to penalties. The US took an early lead when Daiane turned the ball into her own net after a low cross from Shannon Boxx, but it was Brazil who had the better possession as they looked to get the ball to star player Marta. But she didn't make much of an impact in the 1^st half as the US defenders put her under pressure, stopping her from playing, and her persistent moaning to the ref earned her a yellow card at the end of the half.

Brazil took control of the 2^nd half, and they got the equaliser after a series of controversial decisions from the officiating team. 1^st US defender Rachel Buehler had a penalty awarded against her as she went shoulder to shoulder with Marta in the box and challenged for the ball, with replays showing that this was quite a harsh decision. Cristiane stepped up and took the penalty, which was saved by the US keeper, Hope Solo, but it then had to retaken due to encroachment into the area from the US players. And Marta stepped up, converting with a low shot into the right corner.

The rest of the half was played out to a 1 all draw, but 2 minutes into the 1^st half of extra-time Marta came up with some quick movement and a good volley into the far corner for Brazil to take the lead.

Then as the 2^nd half of extra-time went on time-wasting and feigning injuries crept into the Brazilian game as they looked to play out the game for a 2-1 victory, but the US grabbed the equaliser when a cross from deep by Megan Rapinoe was headed past the flailing Brazilian keeper at the back post by Abby Wambach.

This meant another penalty shoot-out, and with the score 3-2 to the US, Daiane missed Brazil's 3^rd penalty, and with all of the next 3 penalty's converted the US took the victory 5-3.

This game was a lot more even than the previous 2 quarter finals I saw, with both teams holding onto the ball well, but it was in creating shooting opportunity’s that let both teams down.

Also Marta unfortunately became the focal point of frustration for the American and local fans every time she touched the ball, which was quite undeserved as it wasn't her fault the penalty had to be re-taken, and she defiantly wasn't the worse Brazilian for diving and feigning injury.

In the other quarter final Sweden beat Australia 3-1 to set up a semi final with Japan, in Frankfurt, and in the other semi France will take on the US in Monchengladbach.

Recent Results:

Friends Life T20 (Cricket): Yorkshire: 150-7 (19.3 overs)

                                          Durham: 144-8 (20.0 overs)

                                          Yorkshire beat Durham by 3 wickets

A Day In The Sun, Night In The Rain

My Sporting Weekend 1-2^nd Of July 2011:

Warm-Up's:

FIFA Women’s World Cup (Football):

England V New Zealand, England dominated the start of the game, but it was New Zealand who got the opening goal, on 18 minutes, with Sarah Gregorius slotting in, assisted by a good run that beat the offside trap and cut-back cross from Amber Hearn. England then carried on their domination of the game with the better of the possession, but although they created some good chances, they disappointingly had only 1 shot on target. And as the half went on New Zealand came more into the game, with quick counter attacks, and a couple more shots of their own.

The 2nd half started, again, with England having all the possession as they pushed forward, and as the match went on they started to get more and more desperate looking for the equaliser, allowing New Zealand to counter-attack. Then on 63 minutes Jill Scott equalised with a looping header to the back post, off a long cross from from deep by right-back Alex Scott. As England pushed forward looking for the lead New Zealand had more of the ball in good positions, but they couldn't capitalise on their possession and a scrappy 2nd goal gave England the lead, on 81 minutes, with Jess Clark firing in after J Scott rolled the ball across the box in her direction.

New Zealand were physical throughout the match, and fortunately for them the referee was very lenient as their wasn't a single card shown, but they couldn't capitalize on this physical dominance and after 2 defeats they are now out of the tournament, but they do have a final match against Mexico to try and get something from the tournament. Goalkeeper Jenny Bindon was probably New Zealand's best player, making some good saves and keeping them in the game, until the 2nd English goal went in.

England made hard work of their victory and now face Japan in their final group-game, with a draw most probably putting them through to the quarter finals, and a win hopefully making sure they miss Germany in the next round.

Super League (Rugby League):

Wigan Warriors V Leeds Rhinos, Leeds had a good 1^st half, leading 18-6 at the break, but Wigan were unlucky not to have been awarded 2 penalty tries (although they did score soon after the 2^nd incident) after Pat Richards was twice taken out in the air when trying to catch high bomb's on the Leeds goal line.

Wigan came out of the blocks fast in the 2^nd half with 2 quick tries as they took the lead, and control of the game, but as both teams tired errors crept into the game and Leeds Zak Hardaker got a try on 70 minutes after a good dab through from Danny McGuire. Both teams then had good chances in the last 10 minutes, with McGuire having a try chalked off for a knock-on as he tried to kick through, but it was Wigan who took the victory after their 2^nd half fightback.

NatWest Womens Quadrangular Series (Cricket):

Australia V India, Chesterfield is not well known for hosting international events, but on Thursday and Saturday Queens Park cricket ground hosted 2 games in the current Womens Quadrangular series involving England, Australia, India and New Zealand, the 1st match being New Zealand V Australia, which Australia won by 29 runs, and the 2nd match involved Australia and India.

Just as I walked into the ground the 1^st wicket fell, in the 6^th over, as India were batting, and just after the opening power-play was completed the 2^nd wicket fell, as India seemed to be floundering at 28 for 2. But opener Poonam Rout held the innings together and formed a good partnership with Mithali Raj, who scored 49 off 61 balls before being bowled by Shelly Nitschke. Rout then took the lead, reaching 60 before being caught by Jess Cameron, and soon after that Harmanpreet Kaur went for 31, after being caught by wicket keeper and captain, Jodie Fields. After that wickets fell regularly until the end of the innings, with Amita Sharma being the top score with only 18 and India made 215 with their 10^th wicket falling with 2 balls to go.

India made a good start with the ball, only allowing 14 runs in the 1^st 5 overs, but Australia picked up the pace, reaching 52 by the end of the 1^st power-play. And soon after the 1^st wicket fell, in the 11^th over, as Meg Lanning was run-out after a miscommunication with fellow opener Nitschke.

Australia reached 100 in the 24^th over and it looked as if they would catch India's target, of 215, with a few overs remaining, but India's Jhulan Goswami and Ekta Bisht carried on their good spells with the ball as the Aussie middle order found it hard to get runs. And it wasn't until Sarah Coyte came to the crease that that the Aussie's innings were stabilised with her making 17 off 19 balls which helped Australia to dramatically win the match on the last ball. Needing 1 from the last ball Coyte scampered through for a single, with both the wicket keeper (Anagha Deshpande, who had a good game taking 4 catches) and bowler missing the stumps, as they tried to run out both batters.

This was a good day out watching cricket, and I thoroughly enjoyed my 1^st ever international cricket match, and realistically it does not bother me watching either men or women as all that I care about is seeing competitive sport, and not too many walk-overs.

It was just a shame their was very little advertising for both matches at Queens Park and I only found out about the games by accident on Thursday while looking for upcoming Yorkshire fixtures.

Main Event:

WBA, WBO, IBF, IBO Heavyweight Titles (Boxing):

David Haye v Wladimir Klitschko, After 2 years of will they, wont they, between David Haye and the Klitschko brothers, one of the most hyped up fights in recent history actually took place on Saturday night with Brit Haye taking on the younger of the Klitschko brothers, Wladimir, at the Imtech Arena in Hamburg.

Leading up to the fight it had been raining all day and the soaked crowd were kept waiting even longer when Haye delaying his entrance to the ring, keeping Klitschko waiting backstage, as he tried to gain the psychological advantage.

Both fighters had a tentative start to the fight, with the significantly larger Klitschko controlling the centre of the ring, and both fighters looking to land quick jabs, and the odd bigger shot.

In the 2^nd round both fighters landed head shots, and all though they weren’t very effective, they would have given them both confidence to go back for more, and try and land bigger, heavier shots.

The 3^rd round came alive with Haye landing a big right handed shot, and for the first time the crowd could be heard singing and this was then followed by both fighters landing combinations.

A close 4^th round came and went with similar action of a few head shots and during 5^th round Haye started to get cocky as he dropped his guard and defended himself against Klitschko's jabs with his quick reflexes. But it was Klitschko who ended the round on top after landing a few combination punches.

The 6^th was close and cagey again and in the 7^th Klitschko was deducted a point for pushing Haye to the floor as the cageyness continued, and as both fighters tired, the 8^th and 9^th rounds had less action, with only a few bigger shots being landed.

Klitschko's fans started to make some good noise in the 10^th round as he responded to Hayes jabs with a couple of landed shots at the end of the round, and in the 11^th round Haye received a standing count after it looked like he slipping down as he stepped into a Klitschko jab. This seemed to be punishment from the ref from playing wolf, with going down to easily as Klitschko towered over him.

In the 12^th and final round Haye landed a good right handed shot and Klitschko looked shaken as he held onto Haye while trying to compose himself, as well as not allowing Haye to build on this momentum. And as the round continued both fighters landed a couple of shots as they tried to end the fight, but it wasn't to be, and the fight went the distance.

Both fighters claimed victory after the final bell but it was the Klitschko camp who looked the more convinced of the victory. And it was Klitschko who got the unanimous decision by a large margin, taking Haye's WBA title.

During the fight Adam Booth looked cool and calm in the corner as he relayed information to his boxer, with the rest of the team keeping out of the way, giving Haye space, and compared to this Emanuel Steward was starting to get a bit flustered in Klitschko's corner, as the rest if his team crowded around him. Also Haye used a tactic of going to ground as Klitschko took control and towered over him, over-exaggerating the pushing down and during recent Klitschko fights (both brothers) have been allowed to dominate their opponents by holding on to them, and pushing them around.

In Haye's post match interview he revealed that he was fighting with a broken toe on his right foot, which he said stopped him from pushing off that foot as he tried to land a big right-handed shot, but this seemed to be a bit of a poor excuse as tried not to give Klitschko the credit for the win.

The Klitschko's have now completed their goal of unified the heavyweight division between them

Recent Results:

The Co-Operative Championship (Rugby League): Sheffield Eagles 30-26 Barrow Raiders

Friends Life T20 (Cricket): Northamptonshire: 132-7 (20.0 overs)

                                          Yorkshire: 144 (20.0 overs)

                                          Yorkshire beat Northamptonshire by 12 runs

                                          Yorkshire: 152-5 (20.0 overs)

                                          Nottinghamshire: 156-4 (18.1 overs)

                                          Nottinghamshire beat Yorkshire by 6 wickets