365 Sporting Days
Sharing a passion for Sport!
Round 2 saw Yorkshire and Lancashire enter the fray, I’m starting to write this on Good Friday, Day 2 of this round and a quick glance tells me I’ll be mentioning at least a couple a couple of the Lancashire batters, but not their famous bowler, Jimmy Anderson, neither he, nor Stuart Broad in Round 1 featured for their county, […]
Having spent a weekend in Paris in glorious sunshine in Mid-March, Spring decided it wasn’t quite ready to arrive fully and the first day of the new County Championship season saw me dressed in thermals as if I was going to watch a rugby match! It was COLD! The wind being the biggest issue in Chelmsford, the ‘new’ floodlights swaying […]
Salary Cap news over recent weeks has put some of the glare and ire back on Saracens, who will be known as the team that were relegated due to irregularities over a couple of years. The fall out 2 years ago very nearly saw me turn away from this game, one I love watching and a club I love supporting, […]
My first experiences of watching professional sport on a regular basis happened standing on the terraces at White Hart Lane as a teenager, those were the days of rocking up and paying your money then trying to stay on your feet, in my case, while watching a game of football. That was in the mid to late 70’s and a […]
I found myself in the strange position of being an England rugby fan in Paris wanting France to win a game of rugby against them. I was last in Paris in February 2020 when I saw this ‘new’ French team beat England in some style, the gap was only 7 points but this young France team were a sight to […]
It was rude not to buy myself a ticket for the Friday night game between Wales and France, I’d enjoyed being back in Cardiff to watch the All Blacks so much in the Autumn. I’d paid £75 for that ticket, a seat in the No Alcohol section for this one set me back £100. I can’t sing the praises of […]
On 25th September 2020 the worst thing happened to Police Sergeant Matt Ratana, he was shot dead inside a police custody facility in London. The New Zealand born officer had served 30 years in the force and was nearing retirement. Matt was born in the Hawke’s Bay Region and was of Maori descent. But he was so much more than […]
An article I wrote in 2020, I thought it needed a refresh on the weekend Italy went to Cardiff and beat Wales, the 2021 Champions, in the dying moments. After so many calls over this 2022 tournament to exclude Italy, one of the shareholders in the company that is the Six Nations, there is unbridled joy at this win, their […]
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 glorious afternoon at the Stonex Stadium saw Wasps Women visiting, the last game of the regular season was a cracker! Saracens had been heavily beaten in Exeter the week before. Exeter Chiefs Women scored 54 to Saracens 12. Wasps had played and lost to Gloucester Hartpury Women. Saracens had 15 wins for the season and Wasps 9. This was […]
This was a week when winning the toss wasn’t great, in most cases, as you’ll see below! The weather has been mixed in Essex over the last week with a smattering of rain over several days, I imagine that will have been replicated across the country. It’s hard to know the reasons behind the absolute runs fest happening in virtually […]
With a full-time job for a while this is a sitting on the sofa watch, having watched a cracking game between Saracens and Wasps in the final round of the Premier 15’s. Saracens face a team with some top class French players as well as one of my favourite players of all time, Sergio Parisse, still brilliant in one of the most key positions on the pitch at 38. Based on Saracens win at Gloucester they can beat any team at this time, I’m watching with bated breath and hope! It’s good to hear Nick Mullins and David Flatman on commentary, it should be a balanced affair commentary wise. I’m going to type this as I go along, so excuse […]
A long pre-planned theatre trip and a daughter to get to the Eurostar meant I wasn’t able to attend the first 2 days at the Cloud County Ground to watch Essex v Yorkshire. Day 3 was a no brainer with Joe Root due to bat. There were 3 draws in the 7 matches played and centuries up and down the […]
My daughter arriving from Paris and a couple of brilliant theatre trips put paid to me being at the County Ground to see the Essex batters collapse for a second consecutive week. I managed to keep tabs on all of the matches and know I’m going to have another sizeable list of centuries at the end of this write up. […]
I’m starting this on Day 2 and none of the games have gone yellow on the BBC App – so no 2 day results, which is surely a good thing, there have however, at this stage, been runs galore! I wonder how long the list will be by Day 4? It’s a rugby weekend for me, England Women v Ireland, […]
With Saracens due to play on Sunday I was free to make my way to The Stonex Stadium to watch 2 groups of young players involved in the Saracens Junior Academy Pathway. I’m going to cheat and take some info from the Saracens Academy website – THE SARACENS ACADEMY HAS A STRONG AND PROUD TRADITION OF PRODUCING HOMEGROWN PLAYERS. CURRENTLY […]
A grotty Sunday afternoon saw Harlequins visiting the Stonex Stadium, Saracens had an away Premiership win under their belt when they beat the current Champions at the Stoop and a home win in the Premiership Rugby Cup, could they make it a trio? I was happy to see just the one captain this week, with that being Mako Vunipola. Jack […]
Today was a great day for the Hiunslet Parkside team, but I’m going to start this with a moan. It wasn’t a great day for the club. Had this been my first Rugby League game rather than 25 years of watching the game in London, I doubt I’d return. Everyone loves an underdog, and although I was hoping my team, […]
Bath made their journey up to North London on the back of a good win against the Champions, Harlequins. Saracens had been defeated by both Wasps and Gloucester in their previous 2 Premiership games. Both teams were missing international players, but 2 of Saracens’ Scots, in the ever improving Andy Christie and 100 Saracens cap man Sean Maitland had returned […]
The rugby calendar ticked back to a Premiership Rugby programme, the week before this years’ Six Nations starts. Saturday had brought a win for Bath against Champions Harlequins, hopefully the season is looking up for the famous West Country club. London Irish beat Exeter at home moving them up to 6th in the table and Gloucester had a good away […]
Saracens first visitors of the New Year were a much improved Gloucester, a team I was looking forward to seeing live, with a couple of highly rated Scotland players in their ranks, in Adam Hastings at 10 and Chris Harris in the Centres. Two forwards in particular had caught my eye over the time Saracens were away from the Premiership. […]
Boxing Day Rugby! Having checked again and again the match was on, Unlike poor Newcastle and Sale fans whose match was ‘covid cancelled’ as Saracens European match against Pau had been. Annoyingly just days after Saracens made their statement around covid cases all games against French opposition where travelling into France was needed were postponed. Leinster, in spite of being […]
In 2017 I wrote an article about my favourite World cricketers, I’d seen 9 teams that year and picked at least 1 player from each country. I picked 4 for England, being Alastair Cook, Jimmy Anderson, Moeen Ali and Jonny Bairstow. One of those players has since retired from international cricket, another may be doing so very soon. It turned out that the player stepping away from Test Cricket would be Moeen Ali as I now update this article in the midst of an Ashes series in Australia that isn’t going too well for England. The calls to reinstate Jonny Bairstow are coming thick and fast. The original article was written during the 2019 Ashes series in England; I’m going […]
A quick summary of how the competition is going to work this season (Covid allowing). With Marseilles at last getting their finals on the weekend of May 27th. Pool Stage Clubs were allocated into three pools of five – Pool A, Pool B and Pool C. The pool stage will consist of five rounds with each club playing four matches […]
A weekend away re-arranged twice due to Lockdown saw a great weekend in and around Birmingham for me. I most probably wouldn’t have driven all the way to Exeter and usually wouldn’t be keen to watch a tight loss. But having read some of the comments around the game I wanted to add my opinions too. The photos are courtesy […]
365 Sporting Days 