365 Sporting Days
Sharing a passion for Sport!
I’m going to try to keep this to the rugby! Well do my best anyway, although I’m not loving the pre-amble on BT Sport, I was at the game but I’m watching back if I can bear to. My own day started with lunch with two of my Harlequins friends, Sue and Henry, some good chat and a Costa, what’s […]
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 […]
With 2020 here, this is a good time to look back on a great summer for Essex, one that ended with them lifting the County Champions Trophy! This is my 2019 Wickets, Shots and Joy post! The season started with a loss at Hampshire for Essex, with Hampshire scoring a huge 525 for 8, I wasn’t there to see one […]
Round 4 of the Champions Cup saw Munster arriving at Allianz Park; my first experience of Munster was at the impressive Thomond Park in Limerick in December 2012, followed up by their visit to the gloomy Vicarage Road. This was another double header and with the first match finishing Munster 15 Saracens 9 and the second Saracens 19 Munster 13 […]
I started out the World Cup with tickets to 15 matches, that meant I’d be watching and taking photos of every team at least once. Weather in Bristol meant I didn’t get to see Sri Lanka, both their matches there, against Pakistan and Bangladesh were rained off. However I did get to see the Top 10 Batsmen runs wise in […]
Where were we? Well, I’m going to take a step back to build more of a picture of how it was in the Upper Compton Stand on Sunday. I was sat next to Jonny, a Doctor, from Birmingham, now living in Wimbledon; he was with 3 or 4 friends and their tickets had been sorted for them by a friend […]
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 don’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 […]
The County Championship is back, but not quite as we know it! Instead of the 18 counties in 2 Divisions we have, 3 groups of 6. Each team will play 10 matches. At the end of that set of games the top 2 from each group will move into Division 1 for the next phase of the competition. The team […]
I’ve been a fan of Leinster from afar for many years but had no idea how this provincial rugby team came across its players. I asked Nathan Johns a very talented young writer and Co-Founder of the excellent https://tightspiral.substack.com/ to write an article to explain just where and how they’ve grown such a successful set up over the years. In […]
Having been a Saturday afternoon TV Rugby League fan I experienced my first live game at the Valley in 1996 when London Broncos played St Helens. The match was decided by a controversial try by Apollo Perelini – St Helens won by 4 points with the final score being Broncos 28 St Helens 32. An exciting game, I was hooked! […]
A Twitter connection led me to Bob Broomhead and his Go Again project, it looked like the sort of thing that pressed a lot of buttons for me, we had a good Zoom chat back in February. Having interviewed David Priestley, a Consultant Psychologist, while he was at Saracens a few years ago it was great to see potential mental […]
Could Karachi beat the odds and win after batting first?
Work meant I missed most of the live action during the week, but here’s a quick summary of what happened in matches 5-10. Match 5 – Peshawar Zalmi v Multan Sultas – Wahab Riaz won the toss for Pehsawar and put Multan in to bat. Peshawar won by 6 wickets Multan Sultans – 193 for 4 – James Vince top […]
I wrote an article during the enforced break due to Covid about the Disciplinary goings on this year, out of 8 hearings, only 2 of the offences had seen a red card brandished https://debsknigsport.com/2021/01/30/disciplinary-matters-does-sir-need-to-brush-up/ Based on the fact that 5 red cards were shown over the weekend of 19-21st February it suggests a Zoom meeting may well have taken place. […]
A beautiful day in England meant I took myself out for the day rather than watch the cricket on the TV, but in common with PSL5 I aim to write about each game. Match 2 – Islamabad United v Multan Sultans – Shadab won the toss for Islamabad and out Multan in to bat. Islamabad won by 3 wickets Multan […]
PSL6 Kicks off with the Champions Karachi Kings hosting the Quetta Gladiators
PSL6 Starts today in Karachi with the Champions Karachi Kings playing Quetta Gladiators. The Final takes place in Lahore on Mondaty 22nd March. I’d planned to fly out to watch as part of celebrations for my big birthday on March 17th, but as with so many things Covid has put paid to that. This is a 6 team tournament. Here’s […]
With loud fanfare in the cricket world the IPL auction took place this week. whether you like it or not it’s a big thing and it won’t be going away any time soon. Initially players were retained by their teams, those who were released or new to the tournament went into said auction. There were several notable bds and non-bids, […]
Virat Kohli’s name has helped fill many column inches in the aftermath of the second test between India and England. He was out for a 5 ball duck in the first innings, bowled by a peach of a ball by Moeen Ali, his face was an absolute picture of shock as the ball spun round him to hit the stumps. […]
The Premiership Clubs have just had a 2 week break from playing; which means the officials have had the same time to have a bit of chat and a brush up of the laws and their interpretation. Since the Barbarians debacle, involving 13 players, there have been 6 appearances before the Disciplinary Committee for those playing the mens’ game, 2 […]
Sunday 4th October was the last time Saracens Men played a meaningful game of rugby, that being a 17 all draw against Bath rugby, they’ve had one warm up match against a Leicester Tigers XV but the club and its fans have been without rugby for nearly 4 months. We have to go back to Friday 28th February for Ealing’s last Championship game, a 8 – 17 win at Coventry. They played 2 games against both Newcastle and Bristol in November and December preparation for the new Championship season. This cup is a warm up competition with the hope that the Championship, now split into 2 leagues can start on March 16th; both teams featuring at Vallis Way have ambitions […]
Most Saracens fans will have been happy to put 2020 behind them for rugby reasons as well as all those everyone else faced. It was truly an Annus horribilis. Once the news of the club breaching the salary cap things went from bad to worse, as a £5.4m fine and a 35 point deduction was turned into a 105 point […]
A comment by a young rugby writer about Italy and project players got me thinking and on the back of that I wrote an article on Italy and where they are in 2020. https://debsknigsport.com/2020/10/25/the-6-nations-italy-when-is-enough-long-enough/ In their Autumn Nations Cup match against Scotland on the first weekend of the tournament they had just one ‘project player’ in their starting 15, being […]
