World Snooker Championship Preview!

For the next 17 days the the worlds top 16 and 16 qualifiers will descend on the city of York to battle it out for the World Snooker crowd. Undoubtedly the bookies favourite to take Graeme Dott's title(pictured right) is Ronnie The Rocket but I wouldn't be so sure as he is known to get frustrated and I 17 long days may prove to much for him. This leaves 7 times world champion Steven Hendry but he recently changed his cue which is a massive gamble and I think this will prove to be his downfall. Personally my favourite to win it this Would be John Higgins he hasn't been in the best form of late but he has 2 finals to his name (one in 1998 which he won) and I think he will be able to raise his game for the biggest occasion despite recent disappointing form.

I will also be looking forward to see if there is any new young talent coming through to the latter stages making a name for themselves like Shaun Murphy did 2 years ago when the 125/1 outsider from Rotherham actually went on to become World Champion.

No one ever knows what to expect at the Crucible but one thing is for sure there will be plenty of shocks, misses and maybe a maxium.

Don't Give Up The Day Job!

Last night saw the first woman ever to commentate on Match Of The Day as Jacqui Oatley covered the Premiership game between Fulham and Blackburn now i was prepared to give her a chance but in my opinion she has had it and should not be allowed near a microphone again. I'm not being sexiest she was just shit. I'm all for giving woman a chance as they are no better or worse than men and I think other woman in sport do a great job such as Gabby Logan, Michela Tabb, Hazel Irvine and Sue Barker just to name a few. I think the fact that she was so poor may make it harder for good woman commentators to make the step up to important matches as the broadcasters may use last night shambolic display against them which would be a shame.

Donny In Paint Job Success!

Today my hometown club Doncaster Rovers won their first trophy in the 128 year history of the club. They beat Bristol Rovers 3-2 after extra time in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy final.

Bristol Rovers hadn't conceded a goal throughout the competition so far but that didn't last long - just 43 seconds was on the clock when Jonathan Forte smashed the ball home to give Donny a dream start. Things got better for the South Yorkshire side when on loan keeper Neil Sullivan launched a goal kick straight to Paul Heffernan who vollied the ball into the Bristol goal 2-0. At this point I thought job done but all credit to Bristol Rovers who was determined to make a fight of it and after the break Richard Walker pulled a goal back from the penalty spot after Sammy Igoe was fouled and then Igoe himself levelled for the League 2 side. At this point it was end to end stuff and the result really could have gone even way with chances at both ends. With the match looking like it was heading into extra time Paul Heffernan raced clear of the Bristol defence but hit his shot wide of the target. The winning goal came in the 1st period of extra time when Doncaster's captain Graeme Lee leaped highest to meet Sean Thornton's in swinging corner and bulleted a header into the net with just minutes remaining and therefore became the last goalscorer of an English football match at the Millennium Stadium and secure Doncaster's first trophy.

Remarkably 60 000 were in the Welsh capital to watch the final with Donny bringing 20,000 fans despite an average gate at the Keepmoat Stadium being around 8500 and 40 000 Bristol Rovers fans made the 40 minute journey despite an average gate of around 5000.

Its Unbelievable Jeff!

I was browsing the Internet the other day and i came across this petition to make Sky Sports presenter Chris "Kammy" Kamara an MBE. Despite presenting Goal's On Sunday he is better known for the Soccer Saturday programme, where he usually appears over live video link providing brief updates on the match he is watching and he is often known to get over excited with "Its Unbelievable, Jeff!" to host Jeff Stelling, his best known catchphrase amongst others.

Most football fans will know who is he already but if like me you want to reward Kammy for his services to football and for brightening up your day even when your team is losing (like mine are recently) then add your name to the list which can be found here http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Football/.

Top Ton

Today saw Matthew Hayden hit the fastest world cup century off of just 66 balls beating the previous record set by Canadian Jon Davidson in 2003 by just one ball. The remarkable thing about this is it wasn't against a minow but against the team currently ranked number one in the world South Africa. Hayden's innings consisted of 14 fours and 4 sixes before getting caught just 3 balls after breaking the world record for 101.

Bob Woolmer's Death

The Cricket World Cup was overshadowed tonight when the confirmation came that the Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer was murdered less than 24 hours after the shock defeat against Ireland sent them crashing out of the competition without progressing out of the group stage. The post-mortem examination established that the former England player had died as a result of "manual strangulation", police commissioner Lucius Thomas said.

Jamaican police say Bob may have known his killer or killers as there were no signs of forced entry into his room and none of his possessions had been taken. "Bob was a large man. It would have taken some significant force to subdue him," he said, adding that police were ruling nothing out and had "lots of lines of inquiry". Authorities are studying CCTV footage from the hotel to see who was around when the murder took place.

All i can say is i hope whoever did this will be bought to justice and and the cricketing nations who made the super 8 stage will put on a show to make Bob proud.

Six Sixes!

Herschelle Gibbs made history earlier today in the match between South Africa and the Netherlands when the South African batsman hit six sixes in one over. This is the first time it had been achieved in a one-day international. It had been done before in first class cricket with West Indian legend Sir Viv Richards the first to acheive the feat whilst playing for Nottinghamshire against Glamorgan in 1968. Before the tournament began American Billionnaire Johnnie Walker said anyone acheiving this feat would be donated a million us dollars to give to a charity of their choice so Herschelle has choosen the the Habitat For Humanity charity. Gibbs went in to make 72 off of 40 balls before being caught from the same bowler that he smashed for 36.

My Season Ticket!

Today i received my certificate telling me i am on the Arsenal season ticket wating list but i am 45,709th in the queue so not long to wait now!

Up The Tempo Lads!

At the start of the week i was happy when i realised that I could watch all of Arsenal's 3 games this week live on the T.V but so far we have suffered a frustrating 0-0 with Blackburn and a disappointingly embarrassing 1-0 defeat at PSV as Thierry Henry quite rightly says "they only had one shot" which is correct but the goalscorer Mendez should have been closed down by Toure and Senderos much quicker. This leaves only the Carling Cup against Chelsea this week and with Henry definitely not going to be involved it looks like another tough match but i will be rushing home from Portsmouth on Sunday to be back in time to see it never-the-less and the Fact that Mr Wenger says he will only play people who has played in the competition so far doesn't bother me as that actually only leaves Lehmann (who is suspended) Van Persie(who is injured), Gallas, Ljungberg and Henry - not as many as you may think!

So why have we been struggling to beat these medioka teams? To me and many other Arsenal fans I have spoken to its obvious. The answer is we have been playing at walking pace but when you consider in the team there is Henry, Walcott, Eboue. Clichy, Toure and Fabregas just to name a few we could out run any team in Europe as we show when we have conceded the first goal the pace shows and we get back into the game but as last night showed we cant always wait until we are 1-0 to start playing. At least in the return leg 2 weeks today at The Emirates we will start 1-0 down so we may be able to start with the fast, free flowing football Arsenal should and are capable of producing all of the time.

Good luck on Sunday lads!

Trip To The Emirates

As a Christmas present i recieved 2 tickets to tour The Emirates Stadium - the £390 million home of Arsenal.

The tour was led by former Arsenal legend Charlie George whos most famous goal was in against Liverpool in the 1971 FA Cup final which secured Arsenal the double.

On the tour i got to sit in the players horse shoe dressing room and have photos taken with the players shirts. Other parts of the tour included sitting in the directors box, the press conference room, the dug outs.

Despite all this the best bit for me was just sitting in a normal seat and looking around the stadium. I've seen it on the TV loads of time but actually just sitting there is something else you dont realise how big it is until you've been and the atmosphere is electric with just a few dozen people so i can't imagine what it must be like in front of 60 000 people. I loved the old stadium Highbury and i still get a tear in my eye when i see its sad state now the move is something that Arsenal needed to do and will allow them to compete financially with the best teams in Europe.

All in all it was a great day. I enjoyed it so much that when i got home i joined the Arsenal season ticket waiting list! Hopefully i dont have to wait too long to get my ticket now.