365 Sporting Days
Sharing a passion for Sport!
I was looking forward to a game of rugby union between England and Scotland A at Welford Road in Leicester, but woke up to news that the game had been cancelled due to positive Covid tests in the Scotland camp. London Skolars were away in Keighley, a long trek, but happily Broncos were at home. I bought a ticket for […]
I don’t quite know how to describe the weather for Round 7 of the cricket. Rugby weather might be the best way to put a name to the rain and wind that descended on most of the country. The first round of games since 2019 to see members allowed back meant warm, waterproofs were needed for those lucky enough to […]
Saracens Women play Loughborough Lightning for a place in the Final
Monday 17th May saw new freedoms in most of the UK, it also saw rugby at the renamed StoneX Stadium! I was one of the lucky season ticket holders to get my hands on a ticket. I couldn’t have been happier or more excited to be at a game of rugby, and I’ve been at some memorable occasions in the […]
We all knew the weather in April was too good to be true! And so those April showers have rocked up in April. The rain was the biggest winner overall sadly. Durham v Worcestershire – Emirates Riverside, Durham. Joe Leach won the toss for Worcestershire and put Durham in to bat. A win for Durham by 258 runs. Durham 246 […]
I started writing about rugby for the site In The Loose, before setting up my own thing. I’ve always considered myself to be fair, impartial and unbiased, in fact I try my hardest to think about the game first then my team. Being a Saracens fan has tested that resolve since the news of their Salary Cap transgressions broke in […]
In November Saracens were given a £5.4 ish fine and a 35 point deduction, having been found to have breached the salary cap for 3 seasons. As a Saracens fan that’s felt pretty awful, but more was yet to come! There’s been a sense of glee around any negative news around Saracens from some quarters, I was loathe to believe […]
It’s been a torrid few weeks to be an England and Saracens fan, a time that started with such hope saw a crowd of us rock up at Allianz Park at 8am on a Saturday morning to watch England win the World Cup. That didn’t quite go to plan as South Africa pretty much did to us what we did to the All Blacks, perhaps Warren Gatland was right and England had put in their all in that astonishing semi-final. Losing Kyle Sinckler after 2 minutes didn’t help. But the match literally personified the rugby saying – The forwards decide who’s going to win the match, the backs by how much – England were out muscled from minute one. Although […]
This was one I couldn’t write while I was watching, the long awaited match between Pakistan and India. I drove up from Taunton through torrential rain, heading to Manchester a place renowned for rain at the best of times! Saturday evening was spent with some of my Stani Army friends at a restaurant in Wilmslow, Lal Qila followed by ice […]
A second visit to the county ground in Chelmsford in a week, what a treat! The day promised no rain, which meant a bigger crowd than the one that came to watch Essex beat Middlesex. Tom Westley won the toss and put Worcs in to bat. With Sam Cook away with the Trent Rockets and Jamie Porter presumably injured the […]
Oh the absolute joy of being able to go to the County Ground and choose where to sit! I’d applied for every day possible but only been successful for the T20 match against Sussex. I travelled up to Derby to watch my first County Cricket for nearly 2 years only to find the match was abandoned. I had a lovely […]
These two teams played each other by way of a warm up match, with the home team scraping a win by 2 points. Things hadn’t gone too well in the season proper, with Raiders propping the league up and Skolars just one place above them. Skolars had 2 wins to their name, with one of those being against Raiders at […]
To my absolute delight I booked 2 days at Derby to watch Essex play Derbyshire, my first County Cricket for nearly 2 years! I rocked up to the ground at around 10am to be asked to sit in my car. The news at that time was that Derbyshire wanted the game abandoned due to ground conditions and that 2 officials […]
Round 10 saw my team Essex sit out as they’d planned to play an India team, Covid put paid to that, it also saw England having to put the whole squad picked to play Pakistan in an ODI series into quarantine after 7 people in the camp tested positive. That meant an opportunity for several uncapped players and most teams […]
At last I received the much awaited email to tell me I could go and watch my county, Essex play a game of cricket! The opposition were the Sussex Sharks, a very good white ball team, with a powerful bowling line up, missing Jofra Archer, but still full of speed. Also featuring 16 year old Archie Lenham who’d taken 3 […]
2 nights after watching Sussex beat Essex they were at my second Countu, Surrey. Both teams had a good start to the T20 Blast, having played 3 and won 3. Weather allowing one would lose that winning record. This was my second visit to the Oval since 2019 having been lucky enough to be at one of the trial days […]
Round 2 of the Championship play offs saw Saracens taking a 60 point lead into the game. With a prize of Premiership Rugby and European Challenge Cup Rugby on the line these 2 matches probably constituted the most important fixtures in Saracens’ history. Failure to make it back into the top league could see the club cease to exist in […]
The visitors for this match, Barrow sat unbeaten at the top of the league after going unbeaten in their 6 games. Skolars had been beaten by Hunslet the week before, with the visitors putting 62 on the board to Skolars 10, some score to come back from. A surprise inclusion on the Skolars team sheet was Head Coach, Jermaine Coleman, […]
Saracens as a club have been involved in many ‘big’ games since I had my first season ticket in 2010, but I’d judge both this and next weekend’s match as the most important in the club’s history. Their team sheet reflected that fact – Saracens 15 Alex Goode – 21 England Caps, European Player of the Year 2019 14 Alex […]
Rugby League is a game of momentum, it’s also incredibly unforgiving when it comes to errors. Sadly for Skolars they had none of the first and made too many of the second. This was the first match back with crowds for the Skolars and biy it sounded good. A coach load of Hunslet fans and the ‘usual suspects’ for the […]
After an evening in the exulted conditions of Lord’s what better thing to do than to visit a local club helping to ensure the game carries on! A Facebook friend, Keith, had invited me to visit Hadleigh and Thundersley Cricket Club to see the All Stars initiative in action. I’ve visited the ECB site to get the initial lowdown on […]
What better way to get back to live cricket than an evening at Lord’s! I had bought myself tickets for the Edgbaston test, but with the lack of firm info on tickets and my second vaccination being only 2 days before the start I opted for a refund. I wasn’t quite ready for a crowd of 18,000 with no social […]
The first test match of the summer started at Lord’s on a bright sunny day, it was almost inevitable that Day 3 saw torrential rain in the South, that coincided with Day 2 of this round of games, meaning more weather affected matches. A young Sussex All Rounder, Danial Ibrahim, set a record to become the youngest player ever to […]
Having had a week when Essex and I’m sure the rest of the country saw torrential rain and even huge hailstones one afternoon, the weather actually remembered the fact that it was nearly June and the cricket season to boot! Good weather rocked up, would good cricket too? Let’s look around the country – Durham v Essex – Emirates Riverside, […]
The start of the season proper saw Skolars welcome Crusaders to the New River Stadum, adverse weather and dodgy windscreen wipers saw the start delayed by 15 minutes as Crusaders arrived late. One name in particular stood out for me on the visitors team sheet, one Patrick Ah Van. a man who played 54 times fo the New Zealand Warriors […]
