Maria Sharapova Wallpaper

Following the success of my Jessica Jane Clement Wallpaper I decided to upload my latest wallpaper I created for my desktop. This one is of Russian tennis star Maria Sharapova which I made using Photo Brush and it is now available for you to download if you wish.

The resolution is 1024 by 768 but can easily be changed.

Ricky Rescues Point For Clarets!

Margate 1-1 Chelmsford City

Ricky Holmes came of the bench at Hartsdown Park to rescue an opening day point for the highly fancied Chelmsford City. I was surprised when I found out he wasn’t starting as I rate him as the best player in non league football but his introduction with 30 mins left changed the game as his pace and directness left the Gates defence tied in knots.

City handed competitive debuts to Danny Gay, Lee Protheroe, Andy Duncan, Aidan Collins, Ben Sedgemore, Bertie Brayley and John Keeling but it was the home side who had struggled with financial problems in the close season who made the brighter start on a beach of a pitch with very strong winds which is why Player-Manager Robin Trott tried a cheeky lob early-on to try and catch new ‘keeper Danny Gay off his line but the former Heybridge Swifts man was equal to it. Shortly afterwards, Jimmy Jackson forced Gay into a parry which resulted in a scramble in the goalmouth but nothing came of it.

Chelmsford’s best chance of the half fell to center back Aiden Collins who turned on the edge of the box but his shot deflected off of a defender and went wide. Margate should then really have been down to 10 men when Steve McKimm tangled with former team mate Brayley having just been recently booked but the ref turned a blind eye.

The first half was a typical first game of season affair with both sides feeling each other other out and it wasn’t the best spectacle with the best action coming when a kids football bounced onto the pitch so the ref had to run about 60 yards to remove it as it was the otherside of the half to were the linesman on that side was.

Immediately after half time the home team went close when Jackson thumped a drive onto the post and forcing it to bounce agonisingly across the face of goal. But the Clarets returned the favour eight minutes later, this time Protheroe holding his head as his free-kick whacked the crossbar.

Margate then took the lead when James Haworth appeared to be pulled down for a possible penalty but, in the resulting confusion, defender Luke Coleman found the net with the loose ball. After this it was all Chelmsford as the Clarets pushed for an equaliser with Ricky Holmes at the heart of every City attack and their reward came 5 minutes from time when the ball fell kindly for Holmes, who drilled low and hard from the edge of the area to rescue a point.

After the game City manager had this to say:

“We should never have conceded in the first place. but not many teams will come to Margate and take away three points so, on this occasion, we’ll settle for one.”

I was very impressed with some of the debutantes particularly Danny Gay who showed a safe pair of hands and he claimed any balls in the air. Lee Protheroe dead ball abilities really impressed me not only did he hit the bar with a free kick outside the area but all off his corners were whipped in with purpose and all threatened. Andy Duncan and Aidan Collins were also commanding at the back and dealt with everything that came their way. I was less impressed with Bertie Brayley and John Keeling but its still very early days and I wont judge them on one game on a difficult pitch.

Chelmsford City Sign Former Ipswich Star!

Chelmsford City yesterday evening secured the signiture of local lad Aidan Collins on a one year contract. Aidan began his career at Ipswich Town and was part of a very sucessful youth side and made his first team debut at just 16 in 2003. In January 2007 he was put up for sale due to a persistant injury and was snapped up by Cambridge United. However in May 2007 he was forced to retire from professional football due to injury at the age of just 20.
Despite this though he was handed a trial with the Clarets and has impressed in the 3 friendlies I have seen him play with commanding performances in the heart of the City defence against Crystal Palace, Ipswich Town and Colchester Utd. The management team at Chelmsford obviously don’t feel his injuries will strike again and if they are right this could prove to be a shrewed signing as The Clarets look to gain promotion to the Conference South after narrowly missing out in the play offs last year.

Barnet VS Arsenal

Yesterday I went to the annual pre season friendly at Underhill to see Barnet take on Parent team Arsenal. Arsenal promised to bring a strong side and they didn't disappoint with Alumnia, Clichy, Toure, Flamini, Denilson, Walcott, Adebayor and Van Persie all in the starting line up. Eduardo was at Underhill but he wasn't named in the squad but he did chat to the fans and gave Sky Sports News at interview in which you could see me behind him which pleased me.

There was a 5 minute delay at kick off due to crowd congestion but when the game did get underway it was a fast start for the first game off the new season but there weren't really many chances until the 18th minute when Van Persie hit a low corner into Theo Walcott who chipped it in to Adebayor who half vollied the first goal. Barnet could have equalised two minutes later but Alumina pulled off a great one on one save to show the watching Fabianski he wont be giving up his position without a fight.

At Half time Arsenal made six changes including Fabianski and Nordveit who made their debuts. The first half wasn't much different to the first half but the first chance came from Walcott who sprinted down field but instead of pulling the trigger himself he decided to square it to Adebayor which in my opinion was the wrong option and I was proved right when the chance went begging. Although Walcott did have an excellent game and I think he will be amazing this season and really show his potential. Adebayor should have had his 2nd goal when Flamini put him through but in akers of space but some how dragged it wide. There was a sour note in the 2nd half when Denilson got strecthed off after a nasty tackle by Puncheon but the tannoy announcer later told us it wasn't serious but that did nothing to dampen the boos every time Puncheon was on the ball.

Barazite doubled the advantage with a rocket shot into the far corner of the goal. The Arsenal youngster received the ball in the right-hand channel and his fierce drive flew into the net, leaving Harrison helpless.

The latter stages of the match saw Richard Evans a Barnet fan in his “late 40s” and from Wembley come on. He had paid £10,000 for the privilege of coming on during the game and every time he got Barnet got the ball the fans were shouting Evan's squad number of 28. He did manger to touch the ball once but not surprisingly looked out of place as he was so slow and had no clue what he was doing but he and the 5,091 fans enjoyed it never-the-less.

Just as we didn't think the day could get any better just as we were leaving the car park me saw the one and only 'Halfur' who is a legendary Arsenal Fan who got his name by every season buying the Home and Away kit cutting them in half and sowing the home and away kits together.

The highlights of the match and Arsene's post match interview are shown below.

Chelmsford Beer Festival 2007!

Today saw the end of the 4 day long Chelmsford beer festival. Being A CAMRA member of course I went (on more than one occasion) and we were lucky to be blessed with some nice weather. I tried many different real ales to many in some peoples opinon and found lots of new ones i really liked aling with some old favourites such as Fullers London Pride, Bishops Finger from Kent and Nelsons Revenge from Norwich.

Curb Your Enthusiasm Back For A 6th Season!

HBO has officially confirmed that there will be a sixth season of Curb Your Enthusiasm. The new episodes will air beginning on September 9. This is a surprise to me as originally the show was only going to last for 5 seasons and the last episode in series 5 was called The End. However this is good news for all CYE fans and Cheryl is trying to convince creator Larry David to make more series beyond this current one which is pretty pretty pretty good!

Wimbledon!

Weather permitting today sees the start of Wimbledon. For the next 13 days the best men and woman competitors will be in action. Unfortunelty Andy Murray will not be taking part as he hasn't recovered from his wrist injury so I can't see Britain having anyone left in either draw by the weekend.

My favourites for the title this year are Roger Federer and Maria Sharapova. Federer is virtually unbeatable on grass and will be trying to equal the great Bjorn Borg record of winning 5 straight Wimbledon titles. The Womans draw is alot more open with Justine Henin the top seed but I think Maria has the power to beat her and crucially Maria has experience of winning Wimbledon at the tender age of 17 and this is the only slam that Henin hasn't won which could play on her mind. Maria also got to the final of the Nottingham tournament last week on grass and I watch every match she plays and she is looking as good as I have seen her for a while.

Bye Bye Thierry

I woke this morning to read that my hero had decided to move to Barcelona. I don't hold any grudges against him as he wants to win trophies and play on the highest stage he can and Arsenal's lack of ambition in the transfer market along with boardroom scuffles has cost us the best player we have ever had and the world have ever seen.

Arsenal have shown last year they can cope without him at we still finished 4th despite him being out for most of the season and we got some good results against the big teams and when he is not in the side Arsenal do tend to play more of a team game rather than looking for one man all of the time but we will still miss his undoubted class, his first touches and his pace.

The thing that pisses me of most about this deal though is the £16m price tag. Last year Chelsea and Barcelona were prepared to pay £50m for him but I think they would have given us a blank cheque, signed it and say write your own price down but we rejected so why accept £34m less for him a year later its stupid. Charlton are getting £17m for Darren Bent so how can the best player the world as ever seen be worth £16m he has 3 years left on his contract so he can't go anywhere so just hold out for more or say he can't go anywhere. It was the same with Vieria when he left the priced halved within a year when we didn't sell him but I think the tie was right to sell Vieria as he wasn't as good as he had been and we had Cesc Fabregas coming through the ranks but Henry is still the best player in the world right in the middle of his prime so this is a big blow as Arsenal will probably buy an 8 year old kid for a fiver to replace him.

So why did Thierry decide to leave now after all only 12 months ago he committed his future to Arsenal and said I have never played in Spain and I never will do this is my last contract? This is what he had to say

"David Dein is no longer there and there is no denying the fact this has de-stabilised the team and the manager. Arsene Wenger has said that at this moment he will not commit to the club past the expiration of his current deal, which finishes at the end of this coming season. I respect his decision and honesty but I will be 31 at the end of next season and I cannot take the chance to be there without Arsene Wenger and David Dein"

So it looks to me like Arsene Wenger will be leaving next summer otherwise why didn't he say to Henry no I will be here which would have made him stay and if Wenger does leave next summer how many of the players that he bought in will want to leave with him? - that's my main concern

Anyway Arsenal are now going to need a new captain and the obvious choice will be Gilberto has he was Henry's vice captain, he is the most experienced player and he was captain for most of last season whilst Henry was injured but I would like to give it to Kolo Toure who has all the attributes to be a good Arsenal captain and I think one day will be. Cesc Fabregas is also an option I would like.

I'm not bitter towards Henry he gave us 8 years of wonderful service and its not his fault the bored can't get their fingers out of their arses and sort all the crap out that is happening at boardroom level maybe now they will realise they need to work together for the good of Arsenal rather than squabbling like school children its just a shame this had to happen to make them realise it. Had David Dein not had been forceds to quit non of this would have happened Dein loves Arsenal and just wanted to moved the club forward is that so bad? - You can see what the manager and players thought of him and how influential he was so for god sake may him a member of the board again. I hope Thierry enjoys the rest of his career and maybe he will come back in a coaching role when he finishes playing. One thing that is certain to happen now next season is I bet Arsenal will play Barcelona at some stage in the Champions League.

Ronnie Irani Calls It A Day

Essex captain Ronnie Irani has annouced his retirement from first class cricket with immediate effect. Ronnie had planned to retire at the end of the current county season but due to a consultation with his Dr. it was discovered that his knee injury is more serious that first feared.

Muller-Wolfahrt's (Ronnie's Doctor) expert opinion is that to carry on any form of professional sport at this point would serverly affect Ronnie’s lifestyle and health and that his career should therefore end immediately.

This is what Ronnie had to say when he commented on his injury "I'm naturally disappointted things are ending this way. I was hoping to swallow this bitter pill at the end of season but unfortunetly my playing career has come earlier than anticipated."

"I feel that I still have a duty to finish off the season on the sidelines with Essex and hopefully have a small part to play in helping the team during the remainder of the campaign."

"I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone involved with Essex County Cricket Club from the Committee to the members and supporters and to the players."

Ronnie's playing career stats

3 Test Match Appearances

86 runs @ 17.20

3 wickets @ 37.33

31 ODI Appearances

360 runs @ 14.40

24 wickets @ 41.20

232 First-Class Appearances

13472 runs @ 41.58

339 wickets @ 29.51

315 ‘List A’ Appearances

7733 runs @ 30.93

309 wickets @ 25.22

27 Twenty20 Cup Appearances

651 runs @ 28.30

England U21's VS Slovakia!

Last night I went to Carrow Road in Norwich to watch an Under 21 International Friendly between England and Slovakia.

In truth there was only ever gonna be one winner and before Ashley Young was tripped inside the area which resulted in Keiron Richardson scoring from the spot David Nugent had already hit the post and Nedum Onuoha forced a good save from the Slovakian Keeper. England then should have had another penalty when Ashley Young was fouled again but it was to soon after the 1st one so the referee bottled it.

England ran riot in the 2nd half and it was one way traffic as Nigel Reo Coker's drive was deflected in to make it 2-0. Newcastle defender Steven Taylor headed England's third from a good cross by Ashley Young from the left wing. The best goal of the night came from Tom Huddlestone who curled a peach from outside the box into the top left hand corner. Reading's Leroy Lita the pounced on a loose ball and calmly slotted home to complete the rout six minutes from time.

After the 90 minutes there was a penalty shoot out arranged by England manager Stuart Pearce to help his players practise in case they needed to take them in the forthcoming championships. England won the shootout 4-3 with Leighton Baines the only England player to miss.

All in all this was a useful exercise for England who will now head to the U21 championships full of confidence and no doubt believing the can win it.