Pitch invader #winning (part 2)

It was all smiles at first but then big Nickey Brennan (former President of the GAA) went and spoiled it all.

Dear me. As you know touching the Queen is a no no. So going for the auld Patrick Kavanagh wink and elbow language of delight is definitely out. Supposedly royal protocol aides stepped in and resolved the kerfuffle.

Word is he's since apologised. *sighs*

Pitch invader #winning

Big ups to Brazil's own Bobbyo Charlie and his new found Russian fandom.

Cute

Meanwhile, has Fernando Torres scored for Chelsea?

I tried not to throw up

But I failed.

Meet Barcelona football club: champions of Spain, long time self professed holders of the moral highground and - until now - a sponsorless organisation. Priding themselves as a family led, community driven, anti capitalist association in direct opposition to their high flying, lose spending rivals in Madrid, the absense of a sponsor had become a point of principle for many Barca fans.

But having introduced the Unicef logo to the jersey in 2006 (in what many felt was a cynical exercise to familiarise fans with a logo on the jersey), Barca have now revealed shirt that is the result of the Qatar Foundation record 30 million euro a year sponsership deal. It'll be worn next season and will generate 165 million euro for the club by 2016.

Meanwhile Unicef have been bumped to the back to reside somewhere above a Messi ass.

For a rather heated debate on the issue (with even more hyperbole than you'll get from yours truly) why not head on over to the folks at Boards.ie.

Sports blogger sees space shuttle from plane

Don't worry boss it wasn't me. I was at my desk, labouring through the day while sports bloggers from around the world got to photograph the latest prequel to Star Trek.

Stefanie Gordon tweeted this picture between naps. She has other pictures there too. Check out her sports blog Not Your Typical Girl's Blog.

Story via the good folks at broadsheet.ie who as usual have their finger on the pulse, yada yada.

One touch keep away with Dennis

Proof of the power of the nutmeg, with Dennis (Bergkamp [of course]).

For the three of you who haven't seen this yet

Don't know Dead Cat Bounce yet? Find them gigging in a town near you.

Lord of the Rings strikeout for New York Times

Taken from the New York Times: the only newspaper correction you'll ever care about.

Bada-bing bada-boom.

Even though the NYT might need to brush up on their Tolkien, the Met's knuckleball pitcher R.A. Dickey's certainly doesn't. Apparently something of a bookworm he named his other bat Hrunting, the sword used to slay Grendal's mammy in Beowulf. Altogether now: "What. a. dude."

If you're not with the programme, get with it.

Orcrist - Thorin's weapon,
by Audrey Corman

Sting - Bilbo's and subsequently
Frodo's weapon, by John Howe

Get your Tolkien on at Tolkien Gateway. Check out the almost excellent NY Times piece. Info via the greatest website on the web, Broadsheet.ie.

The last thing your ailing fantasy golf team needed

Even though injury hasn't stopped him in the past (see Tiger wins US Open with one leg), Mr Woods pulled out of the Players for the second year running due to a niggle.

Oh well. I spose the golfing world will just have to move on. Again.

What the - Norm has a sports show?

Sports Show with Norm Macdonald	Tuesdays, 10:30/9:30c
Wait What? – Gloria Allred Press Conference Antics
www.comedycentral.com
Sports Show Norm Macdonald #SportsShow

Anti-adhesive solution anyone? I'm glued to the screen.

Norm who? See Daily Show clip.

Bah-ha-rain

Sandbucket eejit of the day

A member of Austria's Olympic swimming team has been rescued after becoming buried in sand on a Florida beach.

Jakub Maly, 19, had spent hours digging a 7ft-deep (2.1m) hole in the sand on Sunday, then jumped in. It collapsed around him, burying him up to the neck.

Rescue workers spent two hours digging him out after bracing the sand around his head to prevent it collapsing more.

Mr Maly was in danger of being crushed by the pressure of the sand. He was taken to hospital, then discharged.

Recently advertised: "New position for land-based lifeguard on Florida coast: no swimming qualifications required."

Read the rest of the BBC report here.

Seve

Skip foward to 2:30

Jogging

Or is it "yogging". (Maybe Simon and Lewis at the Yogscast could help you out.)

Either way, get into that Diamond League spirit.

Diamond League

Of course I mean athletics, not StarCraft II.

The athletics season proper kicks off today with the opening Diamond League event of the year in Doha, Qatar. A further 13 Diamond League events are planned with a finale in Sprouts this September.

Usain Bolt shattered the 100m world record at the 2009 Diamond League meeting in Berlin. Sub 9.5 this time Usain. Pretty please?

Here is the list of superstars to watch over the coming months.

Event	Superstars to watch
Men's 100m	Usain Bolt, Tyson Gay, Asafa Powell
Women's 100m	Shelly-Ann Fraiser
Women's 200m	Allyson Felix
Women's 400m	Sanya Richards
Men's 800m	David Rudisha, Abubaker Kaki
Women's 800m	Caster Semenya
Men's 5000m / 10,000m	Kenise Bekele
Women's Pole Vault	Yelena Isinbayeva
Women's High Jump	Blanka Vlasic
Men's Javelin	Andreas Thorkildsen

Nearly all above have broken the world record in their respective events.

Janey mackers.

Check out the Diamond League.

Head tilt-slow nod fact of the day

Did you know that the King of Hearts is the only king without a moustache in a standard deck of playing cards?

What the... Oh yeah...

Bonus fact: the King of Hearts is sometimes refered to as the "Suicide King" (on account of him stabbing himself in the head with a sword). However this nickname is not fully accepted because of differing design patterns which fail to show unequivocally that the hand and sword belong to the King.

Pictures (which you can buy for a few hundred squid) are via Jack of Spade.

The always classy Ted Lowe bows out

Born: 1920; died: 2011; involvement with snooker: 1947-1996; occupation: full time dude.

Quote: "He's going for the pink, and for those of you with black-and-white sets, the yellow is behind the blue."

Legendary Clive Everton has written a no nonsense obituary for the Guardian.

El Farsico

You can bank on another:
"Disappointed football fans surrounded by Barca and Real supporters wonder why they bothered watching".

See The Journal for the rest

Snookered Trump out Trumped

First Trump

Second Trump

Top Trump

A World Championship, a birth certificate and an assassination.

Not the most Tr(i)umpant long weekend for the Trump clan...

See BBC, Huffington Post, Broadsheet

Spanish Cup crushed by bus

Sergio Ramos well known footballer, red card fiend and butterfingers.

Nevertheless All Star Sports say his 3 million a year contract is about to be increased to 4.5 million.

Yeah... but is he happy? Tell me that.

Linford's Lunchbox

Ant and Dec can actually be funny.

Linford Christie wins gold at the Barcelona Olympics.

Think I'll skip lunch after that...