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...

52 and Counting

Read Barca vs Real report (Irish Times)
Click here to see Mourinho's post match press conference outburst (via BBC)
(for similar toy-tossing-out-of-pram performances see that time Chris de Burgh wrote a letter) (Culch.ie)
Click here for predictive info on Messi's record breaking year (Sports Haze)

Sadler's Wells Calls it a Day

One of the greatest sires of thoroughbred racehorses has passed away at the age of 30. Sadler's Wells died of natural causes yesterday in Coolmore, County Tipperary; the farm which had been the place of his birth, training and retirement.

As a horse he was a superb winner for the legendary trainer Vincent O'Brien, picking up four Group 1 races (Derrinstown Stud Derby Trial, the Irish 2,000 Guineas, the Eclipse Stakes and Phoenix Champion Stakes). But as a sire he excelled to become the greatest sire in the world, producing 74 individual Group/Grade 1 winners and more than 293 stakes winners.

Sired himself by Northern Dancer (the greatest sire of the 20th century), Sadler's Wells was 14 times the leading stallion in Britain and Ireland. Among his progeny are In The Wings, Salsabil, Barathea, Kayf Tara, Istabraq, Montjeu, Galileo, Imagine, Islington, High Chaparral, and Yeats.

Although Sadler's Wells has already left a legacy which has shattered record books, his sons taken on and expanded his mantle as the top European sire. Galileo for instance has twice been the leading stallion in Britain and Ireland having fathered 16 Group/Grade 1 winners including New Approach, Soldier of Fortune, Rip Van Winkle, Red Rocks, Cape Blanco, Teofilo and Lush Lashes.

Below is a selection of horses sired by Sadler's Wells which went on to win Group 1 (or in the case of National Hunt horses, Grade 1) races. Put simply this list of horses could rank as a list of the greatest horses in Europe for the past 20 years.

Man alive, talk about $ signs…

Group/Grade 1 Winners Sired by Sadler's Wells

Foaled	Name	Major Wins
1986	In the Wings	Coronation Cup, G. P. de Saint-Cloud, Breeders' Cup Turf
1986	Old Vic	Prix du Jockey Club, Irish Derby
1987	Salsabil	1,000 Guineas, Epsom Oaks, Irish Derby, Prix Vermeille
1988	Opera House	Coronation Cup, Eclipse, K George VI & Q Elizabeth
1989	El Prado	1991 Irish Champion Two-Year-Old Colt, 2002 Leading sire in North America
1990	Barathea	Irish 2,000 Guineas, Breeders' Cup Mile
1990	Fort Wood	G. P. de Paris
1990	Intrepidity	Prix Saint-Alary, Epsom Oaks, Prix Vermeille
1991	Carnegie	Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, G. P. de Saint-Cloud
1991	King's Theatre	K George VI & Q Elizabeth
1991	Northern Spur	Breeders' Cup Turf
1992	Istabraq	Champion Hurdle x3
1992	Moonshell	Epsom Oaks
1994	Ebadiyla	Irish Oaks, Prix Royal-Oak
1994	Entrepreneur	2,000 Guineas
1994	Kayf Tara	Ascot Gold Cup x 2, Irish St. Leger x 2
1995	Dream Well	Prix du Jockey Club, Irish Derby
1995	King of Kings	2,000 Guineas
1996	Montjeu	Prix du Jockey Club, Irish Derby, Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, G. P. de Saint-Cloud, K George VI & Q Elizabeth
1997	Beat Hollow	G. P. de Paris, Arlington Million
1998	Galileo	Epsom Derby, Irish Derby, K George VI & Q Elizabeth
1998	Imagine	Irish 1,000 Guineas, Epsom Oaks
1998	Milan	St Leger
1999	High Chaparral	Epsom Derby, Irish Derby, Irish Champion Stakes, Breeders' Cup Turf x 2
1999	Islington	Yorkshire Oaks x 2, Nassau Stakes, Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf
2000	Brian Boru	St. Leger
2000	Powerscourt	Arlington Million
2000	Doyen	K George VI & Q Elizabeth
2000	Refuse to Bend	2,000 Guineas, Queen Anne, Eclipse
2001	Yeats	Coronation Cup, Ascot Gold Cup x 4, Irish St. Leger
2002	Playful Act	Fillies Mile
2003	Alexandrova	Epsom Oaks, Irish Oaks, Yorkshire Oaks
2003	Ask	Coronation Cup

For an essay on Sadler's Wells early achievements see here.

Click here for the Coolmore statement on it's most prized animal.

The 5 best cricket catches ever

Andy Bichel (AUS)


Adam Voges (AUS)


Justin Kemp (SA)


Dwayne Leverock (Bermuda)
(The flying fridge/gazelle/policeman who lives above a curry shop. Better known as Sluggo...)


The chicken/ferret dance (IRL)

Ireland are going to win the Rugby World Cup

You heard it here first.

At 25/1 to win the thing Ireland are the bet of the year. You can even get them at 30s and 40s... *blushes*

Make it so Number 1 - d'eye mean - BOD.

BOD out foxes McCaw (again)

Willie Anderson accepts the challenge of the haka (1989)

Munster haka vs the All Blacks (2008)

Tom Humphries and 50m EUR footballers

Earlier this season Fernando Torres was sold from Liverpool to Chelsea for (a reported) 50 million EUR. Two seasons ago Cristiano Ronaldo moved from Manchester United to Real Madrid for 90 million EUR. Rumours of clubs splashing out 30 million EUR+ for a teenager are commonplace. Even though the financial crisis has obliterated my understanding of monetary value I can still grasp the fact that these are ludicrous figures.

I read something yesterday (via the Mirror) which made me a little sick:

Futebol Finance's highest paid players in world football in 2010
1 Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid, £11.3million)
2 Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Barcelona, £10.4million)
3 Lionel Messi (Barcelona, £9.1million)
4 Samuel Eto'o (Internazionale, £9.1million)
5 Kaka (Real Madrid, £8.7million)

I suppose (at the end of the day) (as I say) football - like everything - is a business.

Maybe I'm nostalgic and a bit of a sap but isn't football kind of all about the local kid, kicking a ball against his garden wall in the shadow of his home team's ground? Pelé grew up in the slums of São Paulo; Maradona learned to play with oranges because he couldn't afford to buy a football. Sepp Blatter, the current President of FIFA, is adamant that the professional game and the game at the lowest levels must essentially be played in the same way, with the same ethos and with the same ethics (hence no video technology at the World Cup, but that's for another day).

But what are the chances of a young chap in London breaking a top team in one of the top footballing leagues (England/Spain) where clubs, under pressure for instant success, simply splash a load of cash on already established names. With all the money floating around it's hard to see how a local kid could make it on talent and pluckiness alone.

I was getting thoroughly depressed with all this buzzing in my head until I remembered a superb article on this very subject written last year by my favourite sports journalist (he is also IMHO the best sports journalist of them all).

Tom Humphries' journalism during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa read more like a travel blog than a back page sports column. After a month of Humphries' recounting South Africa's rich cuisine, its (ahem) "interesting" social hierarchy and apparently bewildering traffic laws, I had the impression Humphries enjoyed the travel side of the World Cup much more than the football itself (which let's be honest was enormously disappointing). Yet in spite of the oftentimes tenuous link to the football, Humphries' writing always had an edge which left you thinking.

In the particular article which I recalled yesterday, Humphries discusses the reckless abandon with which the World's biggest football clubs spend their money on foreign players. Home grown talent, most especially in England, is overlooked in (oftentimes vain) attempts to contract the next wonder player from Italy, Brazil or the Far East. Just think of Ryan Giggs vs Juan Seb Veron; or Frank Lampard vs Lucas Levia; I mean who would you rather...

The detailed research carried out by Humphries backed itself up in the World Cup itself with Germany (consisting of young players, all of whom were given the chance to play at the top level in Germany) progressing all the way to the semi finals before losing out to eventual winners Spain.

The real proof of the quality of the article was the effect it had on the RTE footballing panel. It provoked praise, admiration and even *shock horror* admissions of actually-I-think-I-might-have-got-it-wrong-in-my-past-analysis-there-Bill from rather bemused Johnny, Liam and Eamon.

Now if that doesn't win you a Pulitzer I don't know what will.

Click here to read the Tom Humphries article "Fewer chances for younger talent in a culture of fear" (Irish Times).

No answer blowing in the Windies

Chris Gayle, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan.

Dwayne Bravo, Kieron Pollard and Sulieman Benn.

Each one a cricketing star.

Not one of these players will be playing for the West Indies in their latest One Day Internationals vs Bangladesh/Pakistan. Most have been axed from the squad (although Bravo is injured and Pollard has prefered to play a bit of IPL).

I'm sure they'd find a home if they wanted to pull on a green jersey and wack a few sixies in Clontarf or Stormont.

In the world of international cricket, these days it seems everything's up in the air

Via cricinfo

Messi or not, here he comes

 

Via the BBC
Lionel Messi just scored his 48th goal of the season.

Yeah - his 48th. *bows down in praise*

Spanish record that (in case you were wondering)...

Quick recap
Messi has won the Spanish League four times, the Spanish cup four times, and the Champions League on two occasions.

He has won the Ballon d'Or (world footballer of the year) in 2009 and 2010.

He has also been the top goal scorer in the Champions League for the last two seasons and excelled as the de facto talisman of the UEFA Team of the Year three years running.

All this and he's still only 23 years old.

Whywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhy!!

I'm still hopeful Andy Carroll will do the business up front with that Uruguayan goalkeeper Kenny has signed as a strike partner...

Happy song to celebrate Messi's awesomeness 
(and to remind us that our existences matter too)

Emigration returns to Ireland

 

via Cricinfo