An Otway Odyssey

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, “odyssey” = noun (pl odysseys) a long eventful journey.

No shit.

Some of you may or may not be aware of my weekend past time of mountain biking. Occasionally I get a bit ahead of myself and sign up for crazy events such as 100km Marathons. It happened last year when I completed the BMC 100km Classic. For some strange reason, I signed up to compete (well, “take part in” really) in the 2010 Otway Odyssey. A 100km MTB Marathon that runs from Apollo Bay on the Great Ocean Road up through the Otway Ranges to the township of Forrest. And as I discovered this weekend, the OO made the BMC look like a swift jaunt to the shops to get skittles. The first 50km is basically up (and with a total elevation gain of around 2000m you’d expect that), then there is around 27km of beautiful singletrack around the world class trails in Forrest before the final 13km loop to the finish.
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The Commentary Box Facebook Page.

Ok ok ok. I know I said I’d try harder. So here it is. Me trying harder.

Before the year runs out and I haven’t posted anything at all, I thought I’d better get my thoughts and expectations for the sporting year ahead. Sadly I’ve already missed the boat on the Australian Open, but if I had had chance to blog about it before the event I would have written about my hopes that Andy Murray would do well. You can imagine my delight that he did very well indeed. It is a shame that Roger Federer still exists! I did manage to catch Murray live in his second round match against Marc Giquel and I was stuck by how much more aggressive he looked on court. I had high hopes. I guess the only disappointment was that Murray couldn’t take that final set against Federer. I guess we all knew The Fed would prevail, but I had hoped Murray would take a set or two off him. Still, I have hopes for Andy. I have no doubt he will win a major one day, I just don’t think it will be Wimbledon. He seems far more at home on the hard courts of Australia and the USA.
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Wow. Long Time.

I must apologise to my legions of readers for the lack of posts recently. Sadly, I will have to play the work card. There’s been far too much of it recently. I do, however, have every intention of returning to regular posting within a few days. A Christmas holiday will do me a world of good. Since my absence though, the image of Andrew Strauss lifting the Ashes is a pretty good holding page.

If you fancy getting my regular tweets, you can follow me on Twitter. I’ve certainly been a little more active there!

In the meantime, we’ve had a lot of sport in the past few months. Jenson Button became F1 World Champion, despite his best efforts to throw it away. He’s now followed the money to McLaren, where he will be second fiddle to Lewis Hamilton. Manchester City, much to my frustration, succeeded in notching up an amazing run of seven consecutive Premier League wins. Fortunately, a fantastic win against Chelsea sees us on our way again. The England Cricket team somehow managed to notch up a ODI series win against SA, although I think the rain helped. This Trott character seems to be the business. And finally, the England rugby team raised few eyebrows with a poor showing in the Autumn Internationals. Although Rob Andrew et al seem to be convinced we’re getting better. At least no one was sent off this time. That IS an improvement.

Oh, and did anyone catch any of the cricket from Adelaide recently? Cracking test match between Windies and Australia. Would have loved a Windies win, especially since the hammering they coped from the Aussie press after the first test. Who says test cricket is dead? Game of Champions.

I look forward now to heading to France for Christmas, where I can relax with Sky Sports and Real Ale. Various musings will be coming your way in due course.

Bonos Nochos.

England reclaim The Ashes

WARNING: This article contains information that some Australians may find distressing.

Blimey! What a result!

Before I begin, I’d like to just take a moment to revel in my Englishness as I wallow in a jacuzzi of Australian misery. After all, I am an England fan, and this is the best thing thats happened for some time! For the next few weeks, every time I speak to an Aussie, there will be a twinkle in my eye and a wry and knowing smile. England getting one over the Aussies doesn’t happen very often, and I am in pole position to make the most of it.

As the article continues, I will try to become more objective, but right now, all I can say is, BOO YA!
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Can Man Utd make it 3 in a row?

I was meant to write this article last weekend, before the premiership kicked off. But unfortunately I was down the coast in Sorrento in a friend’s beach house, recovering from a round of golf and an afternoon wine tasting. I’m sure you can now understand why I didn’t get round to it. Still, I’m here now, and super psyched that the football season has begun. Also, I think we could do with a break from cricket on this blog!

To business then. Regular readers will know that I’m a Manchester City fan. And as such, I’ve been looking forward to this season with salivating anticipation, if that makes sense. As I’ve just been reminded, 11 years ago, at the start of the 1998/1999 season, City were building up for their assault on the then Division 2 [League Two] title. My early childhood hero, Georgi Kinkladze had just departed for Ajax, and things didn’t look good. Still, we had Paul Dickov and Kevin Horlock, among others! Surely things could only get better?
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Freddie's Last Hurrah

Well game on then. For England the equation is simple. 1 Test match. 1 Win needed. 1 Ashes series. For Australia, the equation is equally simple. Despite the fact that they need only a draw, I can guarantee that Ricky Ponting’s men will be all guns blazing. They will want to leave England 2-1 winners. So what a game we have in store. I only hope that the game proves to be the nail biting finish that this series deserves, and that we are not robbed of a good contest by the weather or a placid pitch.

England head into this test low on confidence and middle order ability, and it would be an astonishing turn around were they to upset the odds and win this week. But in order to do so, they must display the determination and aggression that will be needed to wrestle the urn from under the number 1 ranked team in the world. And if they have the will, they can certainly do it. After all, aside from the 1st test and the 4th Test debacle, England have been on top in this series, and must take heart in the fact that, if they bowl in the right places, and don’t give their wickets away, they have every chance.
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Andrew Strauss contempltes England's short comings

What a shocking weekend. I left work on Friday night looking forward to watching what could be the defining test in this Ashes series. Although I had a bad feeling about this test match, not in my wildest nightmares did I envisage such a car crash of a performance then I have done this weekend. Now, as I write this, with England 172-7, still 150 odd runs behind, I have every expectation that they will be all out by the time I finish writing. As an aside, my lacrosse team also got hammered, and the only bright spot, was Carlton’s win over Geelong.

In all fairness, I thought Australia were outstanding. Their bowlers finally delivered the sort of performance that has been expected of them ever since the series began. Making best use of the seam and swing friendly conditions, they tore through the England batting line up as if they weren’t there. A small figurine made out of cheese with a wooden stick would have been more successful then England’s middle order. Australia could have performed at half the standard they have done, and they would still have won by an innings.
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Andrew Flintoff gets five-for

It is with a sense of Titanic relief that I am writing about an England win.

I woke up at 4am on Monday (Australian time, about 7pm the night before in Blighty) and hurriedly checked the Day 4 score. I then tossed and turned for hours after I learned of Clarke and Haddin’s mammoth stand. My Inner-Australian was getting a bit lairy and hurling empty tinnies against the inside of my skull (I don’t know where he came from, he just turned up one day with his mates and an esky full of VB). Surely England couldn’t throw this away. Surely!? I kept running all the possibilities through my head. “If Haddin and Clarke add another 100….”

This fear comes from a very deep place in my psyche. It is born of 27 years supporting Manchester City and watching the England Cricket Team. If you’ve never been an England fan, or even a sports fan, you’ll never understand. But as the day’s play drew nearer, I sought reassurance from my fellow sufferers in England. They failed to provide any, so, thinking positive and before heading out the door to go to the pub, I declared to no one in particular that England would have it won by lunch. Positive thoughts.
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Jimmy Anderson and Monty Panesar hold out

Talk about sore winners. Or drawers. Or whatever they technically are, but such is the media reaction to England’s remarkable escape from the jaws of defeat that greeted Australia this morning.

I must admit, I remained in bed for half an hour this morning, dreading the thought of checking the cricket score. The previous day, prompted by the wickets of Cook and Bopara, I had gone out to the shops to purchase a digibox which would enable me to watch the Tour de France rather then the cricket. If I can’t see it, it’s not happening. But despite this, I was still drawn to the cricket like some kind of crazed drug addict. I think I skulked off to bed around lunch (11pm here) and resigned myself to the inevitable, trying to formulate come-backs for the pommy-bashing I would no doubt receive in the morning. There was still a small voice of hope in my head, but he was being violently suppressed by my subconscious Riot Police.

You can understand my joy then, when I did finally drag myself out of bed. Suddenly, a day of work wouldn’t be so painful.
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