Tuesday 31 January 2012

Too Many Clasicos? How Can You Have Too Much Of This?



By Shane Thomas

When Real Madrid and Barcelona were set to play in the quarter-finals of the Copa Del Rey, the howls of lament could be heard from fans and pundits; "Too many clasicos!", "I'm sick of seeing Real & Barca all the time!", "What's next, are they going to play each other every week!?"

Saturday 28 January 2012

Djokovic & Murray Serve Up Drama Worthy Of The Gods



By Shane Thomas


Novak Djokovic beats Andy Murray 6-3, 3-6, 6-7, 6-1, 7-5 to reach the 2012 Australian Open Final.

It's been about 24 hours since the epic confrontation between Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray. I trust you've got your breath back. I sure hope the players have. No-one would begrudge either man a lie-in after yesterday's exertions.

With Rafael Nadal waiting in tomorrow's final, Djokovic went into the match looking to maintain his position at the top of the tennis mountain, Murray arrived looking to prove to his doubters that he belongs near the summit of said mountain. In the end, they were both successful.

Thursday 26 January 2012

A Lukewarm Australian Open Is Ready To Turn Up The Heat



By Shane Thomas

The men's tournament at the Australian Open has been a touch lukewarm thus far, not fitting of what is a golden age for men's tennis. But that should soon change as we've now reached the semi-final stage.

Despite the portents of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Juan Martin Del Potro, not to mention the coming names of Milos Raonic, Bernard Tomic and Alex Dolgopolov, the sport remains the domain of the big four, and it's those men who will slug it out amongst themselves in the first Grand Slam of the year.

Monday 16 January 2012

The Fall Of Tebow Gives America Its Very Own Black Mirror


By Shane Thomas

This week's sporting metaphor concerns Charlie Brooker's brilliant television mini-series, Black Mirror. In the first episode, "The National Anthem", the plot centres around the British Prime Minister (Michael Callow) being forced into a situation where he has to have sex with a pig on live television (this blog post will contain spoilers for the aforementioned episode).

Saturday 14 January 2012

Episode 48 - 2011 in Review (Part 4) w/Emma Hyam

Emma Hyam helps us bring our 2011 retrospective to a close as we dissect the last 12 months in Motorsport, Gymnastics, Snooker, Boxing & Athletics. Added to this we close with a brief look at the inherent sexism in the world of sport, and conclude with our sporting heroes & villains for the year.

Sporting Hero (Domestic):

Jonathan - Mark Cavendish
Shane - Mark Cavendish
Emma - Sarah Stevenson

Sporting Hero (Foreign):

Jonathan - Aaron Rodgers
Shane - Lionel Messi

Sporting Villian:

Jonathan - Carlos Tevez
Shane - Pennsylvania State University
Emma - Sepp Blatter

The Greatest Events In Sporting History' is available from http://www.simplysyndicated.com/shows/sportinghistory/

Tuesday 10 January 2012

The Diary Of A Pessimistic Arsenal Fan - The Return Of The King


By Shane Thomas


ARSENAL 1-0 LEEDS UNITED

12 minutes away from yet another frustrating FA Cup draw with Leeds United, Thierry Henry scored a timely winning goal to send the Emirates Stadium into raptures. The Arsenal legend's storybook return was the headline of an otherwise sterile encounter in which Simon Grayson's side almost earned themselves a creditable replay.

Friday 6 January 2012

Episode 47 - 2011 in Review (Part 3)

No guest host, but still tons of sport to review on this episode. Our penultimate year in review show takes on Cycling, Cricket, Swimming, Darts and Golf.

The Greatest Events In Sporting History' is available from http://www.simplysyndicated.com/shows/sportinghistory/

Thursday 5 January 2012

Episode 46 - 2011 in Review (Part 2) w/Greg Blanchard

We take a trip over the Atlantic Ocean for our second part of the retrospective on 2011. As we bring an American onto the show, it only made sense to review the sports that keep many North Americans in thrall. However, in the interests of balance we also look at the last 12 months in "sarker", better known as football to most of us.

The Greatest Events In Sporting History' is available from http://www.simplysyndicated.com/shows/sportinghistory/