Sunday 8 November 2009

Nuremburg, Twickenham, Molineux and Jarman Park

SOME weekend. David Haye was magnificent against the 7ft 2in Russian giant Valuev... and despite one judge in Nuremburg scoring it even, the Londoner is the new world heavyweight champion of the woooooorld! Not bad for a man seven-stone lighter than his oppo!
Thing is, the IBF and WBO world champion Wladimir Klitschko says he didn't watch the fight, says he was out "performing magic with a friend. It's a hobby of mine." Is that a euphemism? And Haye's euphoria may be tempered by Klitschko saying: "We've had enough of Haye spending our money promoting him to fight us. The result from Nuremburg makes little difference to me. They can shout all they want. I have two defences of my titles next year and neither are against them."
At Molineux, Wolves faced giants too, in the shape of on-form Arsenal, on a run of 18 games unbeaten... thought they were actually unlucky with the 4-1 scoreline, though the third and fourth goals from the free-scoring Gunners were pretty special. Poor old Wolves, an own goal and a deflection left their fans bleak in the Black Country.
Twickenham was an even gloomier place to be on Saturday... even Jonny Wilkinson couldn't lift an England side carrying so many injuries, though it was Wilko, like old times, who scored all England's points. Wales did the normal against the All Blacks in Cardiff... level at half-time, out of it by the end.
Few will have seen the events of Jarman Park, Hemel Hempstead yesterday where Goldhill Baptist saw off Adeyfield to move into serious contention for the South Bucks Church League Third Division honours. But hey, it matters to some of us!
While England prepare for the second game of their African safari - having won the first against the Diamond Eagles in Bloemfontein where Jonathan Trott received hardly any abuse - South Africa are crushing Zimbabwe in Benoni.
My betting career is going downhill fast. The opening win of £3,167 from a two pound stake three weeks ago - my first ever bet on football after a lifetime of writing about the game - appears impossible to follow. I was on for £6,000 until Bolton imploded against Aston Villa and Portsmouth succumbed to Blackburn's second half revival.
The two big stories of the day? Michael Owen is NOT going to replace the injured Carlton Cole in England's squad to play Brazil and Phil Brown is headed OUT of the door at Hull. Both mistakes in my view. Owen is a big game hunter, Brown's character will be impossible to replace at Hull.
So what about this afternoon? Chelsea captain John Terry is all over the Mail on Sunday suggesting Manchester United are there for the taking without Rio Ferdinand and his mystery back injury. Terry says: "It's a good time to be playing United. This is our chance to pull away at the top and put ourselves five points clear."
He's right of course. I'll just pop down the bookies...

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