Jezza´S Sports Report

Well, here it is, what you’ve all been waiting for (really!), my list of End of Season Footie Awards, some tongue-in-cheek and some serious, but before I launch in to that, some Sports Snaps to update you, after a humdinger of a sporting week.
Rugby Union and what a send-off for Our Jonny Wilkinson as he led Toulon to retain their Heineken European Cup, only the 3rd club to achieve this feat, with a resounding 23-6 win over Saracens in Cardiff. Not content with scoring 13 points with his boot, but he orchestrated the French win and was replaced to a standing ovation 2 minutes from time. Now all he has to do before retiring gracefully from the game is to lead the Toulonnaise to the 2nd leg of their dream Double this Saturday in the French Championship Final against Castres in Paris. Shame for Sarries but they were outplayed and at least they can now look forward to the English Premiership Final at Twickers on Saturday against Northampton, who won the 1st leg of their Dream Double, by winning the 2nd tier European Amlin Cup beating Bath 30-16, also in Cardiff.
Cricket and just typical England, as they stuffed Sri Lanka in the 1st ODI (of 5) at the Oval to give us supporters hope that this new-look team, under new manager Peter Moores, would banish memories of their diabolical winter, but oh no, back to reality, as they themselves were stuffed in the 2nd ODI at Durham, losing by 157 runs (which is some going in a 50 over one-dayer!) and only scoring 99 in their innings, their 6th lowest ODI score ever. Let’s just hope they can get back to winning ways over the remaining 3 matches.
Golf and the Mac is back with a vengeance! Having given his fiancee, tennis star Caroline Wozniaki, the boot after the wedding invites had been sent out, Brit Rory McIlroy stormed back to form in the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth over the w/end. Trailing the leader by 8 shots after the 3rd Round, he came through with birdie after eagle and a 66 to win by 1 shot from Irishman Steve Lowry and complete his first win on the European Tour ever, so well done to him and sets himself up nicely for the forthcoming Open. Well done also to Brits Donald, Gallacher and Dyson as they came in equal 3rd, and equal 5th respèctively.
Tennis and the French Open started at the w/end, with favourites Rafa Nadal, Djokovic and Federer getting thru’ to the 2nd Round. Our Andy embarks on his quest on Tuesday but lets hope he doesn’t fall prey to early-round nerves, as World No 3 Wawrinka did, losing out to a Spanish qualifier!

Footie and what can I say, after Real Madrid came thru’ to win their 10th European Cup (La Decima) in Lisbon, after their 4-1 win against La Liga Champions Atletico Madrid. However, the scoreline did flatter Real, as with 92 minutes gone and only 3 minutes left of injury time, they were 1-0 down and on their way out, but, a Ramos header forced extra-time, when class really told, personified by a great header from Welshman Gareth Bale as he scored Real’s second and then 2 more, from Marcelo and, inevitably Ronaldo (with his 17th of this season’s CL campaign) produced the icing on the cake. Brill for Bale, as he now has a date of August 12 to put in his diary when Real will meet Sevilla in the European SuperCup, being played in his home city of Cardiff.
In England, congrats to Our ‘Arry as his QPR team performed a smash n’ grab 1-0 win at Wembley against Derby County in the Championship Play Off Final, with the winner coming in the 88th minute.You had to feel sorry for Steve McLaren and his Rams as they really deserved to win overall, but if you don’t take your chances, you don’t score goals, and unfortunately, goals win games! So, it’s back to the Premier for ‘Arry at the first time of asking and ₤130 odd million to add to his transfer fund, so no doubt he’s already thinking of ways to spend it or maybe, even transfer it to his dog’s bank account in Monaco!
Finally, the Transfer market frenzy has already started with the biggest deal already done and dusted with Chelsea netting a staggering ₤50 million from PSG for David Luiz but watch this space as more will be on their way!
Right, at last, here we go with my end of season Footie Awards but please note that they are not only not in any particular order but also are only my opinions and are not intended to upset anyone!

• Premier Team of The Year: Liverpool
• European Team of the Year: Atletico Madrid
• Premier Managers of the Year: Brendan Rogers (Liverpool)/Tony Pulis(Crystal Palace)
• European Manager of the Year: Diego Simeone (At Madrid)
• Luckiest Manager of the Year. Harry Redknapp (QPR)
• Coach (Driver) of the Year: Jose Mourinho for parking not one but two at Anfield!
• Premier Player of the Year: Luis Suarez (Liverpool)
• European Player of the Year: Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid)
• Premier Keeper of the Year: Petr Cech (Chelsea)
• European Keeper of the Year: Thibauld Courtoise (At. Madrid on loan from Chelsea!)
• Bargain of the Season: Aaron Ramsey (Arsenal)
• Premier Goal of the Season: Wayne Rooney
• European Goal of the Season: Gareth Bale (Real Madrid) for his winner against Barcelona in the Copa del Rey.
• Surprise Team of the Year: Manchester United for coming 7th and missing out on Europe.
• Houdini Escape Artists of the Year: Gus Poyet and Sunderland
• Biggest Waste of Money Award: The 7 Tottenham players bought for ₤100m to replace Bale!
• Worst Chairman: Daniel Levy (Tottenham) for spending that amount of money!
• The Julian Cobby Special Award: Arsene Wenger for being able to hold up some silverware, at last, after 9 too long years!
• Optimist of the Year: Jack Wilshere (Arsenal/England) for stating that England have every chance of winning the World Cup!
• Pugilist of the Year: Diego Simeone (Atletico Madrid) for his antics in the CL Final.
• The “Oh no, not you again!” Award: Joey Barton (QPR)
• Player that England will miss the most at the World Cup: John Terry (Chelsea)
• Quote of the Year: “Sometimes you want Obertan to open his legs and do something exciting!”Newcastle Utd Manager Alan Pardew;
• Journalist of the Year: Me, who else!

and finally, by special request from you know who,
The ‘Er Indoors Who must Be Obeyed!’

• Sportsman’s Bum of the Year: Jonny Wilkinson

On that note, that’s it for this week, don’t work too hard and if you’re on holiday, enjoy the sun!

Cricket

Ibiza C.C. vs London New Zealand (LNZ)C.C. 16/05 T20 match
Ibiza were asked to bat first by Chairman and Skipper Gerard Walsh of the London NZ visitors and were soon in some trouble at 36/3 in the 6th over. Then Skipper Graeme Cooper and Jolyon Swinburne (17) steadied the innings and put on 50 runs together. In fact, Graeme then opened up his shoulders and took control of the rest of the innings, scoring some robust boundaries and reaching his unbeaten century with a 6 off the last ball, thus allowing Ibiza to finish on a competitive 177/5 off 20 overs.
Among the LNZ bowlers, Gerard Walsh achieved 2/12 with “Panther” Harris, ex All Black Sam Harding and Jo Burke all contributing a wicket each.
The visitors then opened their batting confidently, with openers Sam Jeffries (24) and Chris Hamilton (31) putting on 50 runs together. Then several wickets fell steadily so that at 132/7 in the 16th over, Ibiza felt they would defend their total. But LNZ batsman Richard Brookes had other ideas and hit some rapid boundaries in his unbeaten 65 to see the visitors home by 3 wickets on the penultimate ball of the match in an exciting finish that could have ended in a win, loss or tie.
Of the Ibiza bowlers, Paddy Slater (2/14) and Jolyon Swinburne (3/30) were the most successful, with Graeme Cooper and Robin Parmenter obtaining a wicket each.
17/05 30 overs per side.
This time LNZ batted first and, like Ibiza the day before, soon found themselves losing wickets rapidly and at 42/5 after 10 overs, it appeared Ibiza were on top. But cricket is a strange game and can change quickly, as “Panther” Harrigan (76) and Sam Harding (119) showed by combining in a club record partnership of 187 runs that increased their score to 227 after 27 overs. It was already the second century in two games, which happens rarely in Ibiza cricket, and allowed the visitors to finish their innings on 251/7 off 30 overs, a required run rate of over 8 per over. The Ibiza bowlers tried hard to stem the flow of runs and Paddy Slater (3/39) with skipper Jeremy Parmenter (2/18, breaking the batting partnership mentioned) stood out, while Graeme Boe and Paul Partridge contributed a wicket apiece.
It was then Ibiza’s turn to bat and, with several regular players absent, it was a daunting target they faced. Martin Cooper score a rapid 26 before departing, but it was in fact all rounder Jolyon Swinburne who kept his head down and stayed at the crease. However, at 93/5 after 15 overs, it looked bad for the hosts, until Neill Tobitt (31) constructed an 83 run stand with Jolyon and, along with 42 extras from the visitors bowling wides and no balls (possibly affected by a late night at Pacha and the afternoon heat!), increased the score rapidly to 172/6 off 20 overs, back on track with the required run rate. This had tipped the match back in Ibiza’s favour, and Jolyon went on to score a well deserved 102, before falling with 2 runs required off the last over. Batsman Martin Makepeace struck the first ball of the last over well, assuming this was the winning hit, but was superbly held low down to the disbelief of most players! It was left to last man Stuart Mottram to face the next ball and he kept his nerve to flick it to the leg side boundary, thus winning the match for Ibiza by 1 wicket in the last over!
It is exceptional that 2 cricket matches over two days against such a friendly and sporting side as London New Zealand C.C. should produce two such exciting games that both included centuries (three in total), some great catches and fielding, and finishes in the last over, and the series being squared at one game all!
Many thanks to Chairman Gerard Walsh for organising this trip for the second year running and hopefully he and his team enjoyed it so much that they will visit us on an annual basis. We look forward to welcoming them back to Ibiza soon!

RugbySpy Ibiza 10’s

The weekend of June 6th-8th sees the return of the 2nd RugbySpy Ibiza 10’s tournament. The three-day event combines knockout 10’s rugby, live DJ sets and music performances from Happy Mondays and Indie Rock funk band Young Jack.
Held in the Can Misses football stadium just outside Ibiza Town, each game is fast-paced, with teams playing for 10 minutes each way. There will be stalls to buy food and drinks, including beer and sangria, plus paella, a BBQ and local produce. Highlights will be shown on the big screen and there will be plenty of music and video to keep the crowd entertained. After play finishes at about 9.30pm the music will continue and there’ll be opportunities for rugby fans to meet players like Tom Varndell, Christian Wade, Jack Cuthbert and Gavin Henson, have a beer and a chat. The ground will close at 11.45pm.
Sunday 8th is Finals day and when all the teams have finally done battle and one of them lifts the 2nd RugbySpy Ibiza 10’s trophy, the party really begins. As the sun begins to set there’ll be an opening set by up and coming UK band Young Jack and then when darkness falls, a performance by iconic UK band the Happy Mondays.
The event is also supporting military rehabilitation centre Headley Court as its official charity. A ‘Make a Pledge campaign’ aims to raise awareness and get people to pledge their time or a skill to help wounded service people undergoing rehabilitation at the centre, many of whom have suffered multiple amputations as a result of injuries sustained in Afghanistan. These injuries change people’s lives forever and recovery and rehabilitation can take years. It’s important that these brave people don’t ever feel unsupported and isolated which can happen when they’re no longer serving or with their units and don’t feel part of the team. The same feelings occur when professional rugby players are injured and have to face a potentially life changing situation alone.
There will also be two free ‘Come and Try’ rugby sessions for children between 6 and 12 years old, on Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. This was very successful last year. They will be taught the basics and every child will receive a free rugby ball. If you know your rugby, you might also get to meet some famous players, so bring a pen to collect autographs.
Tickets are £45 for the whole event, but there will be some cheaper daily tickets available for families to come and watch the day’s play after the ‘Come and Try’ sessions (Sunday tickets include Happy Mondays and are therefore more expensive). For more information on RugbySpy and to purchase tickets visit:
www.rugbyspy.com

F1 Monaco

We’ve recently seen the force that is Mercedes and going into Monaco it was all to play for. Tensions are rising and this has been escalated by Rosberg going off track, bringing out yellow flags and preventing Hamilton from providing a pole lap. In the interviews after and some popular opinion is that Rosberg did this intentionally, and perhaps the stewards thought there was more to it, as he was investigated by the FIA and subsequently cleared of any wrong doing.
To the race itself, Hamilton was unable to catch Rosberg who took his second consecutive pole and it seemed all but over when Hamilton got dirt in his eye and had to try and remove it on slow corners, thus enabling Ricciardo to close the gap substantially from 12s to just 0.4s in a great late challenge to the finish line. Vettel must be worrying with another DNF, having to retire lap 6 due to turbo issues and with Ricciardo (3rd) on the podium means he is fast dropping behind in the Championship Leader board. With 3 safety cars throughout the race there were a number of retirements including Perez and Maldonado who both retired in the first lap.
Behind the frontrunners were Alonso in 4th, Hulkenburg in 5th although he struggled to keep his place after feeling the pace of Magnusson who eventually dropped back after engine troubles to take 10th and then Button (finishing 6th) in the later stages of the race. Massa had a good race too moving up 11 places to take 7th and his teammate Bottas would have been in the points but was forced to retire in lap 56. Grosjean crossed the line 9th but gained a place post-race after Bianchi 9th was given two 5s stop-and-go penalties – one starting out of position and the second for serving it under the safety car. This was a breakthrough race for the Banbury based Marussia team scoring their first ever points in F1 and with Chilton finishing 14th it was cause for celebrations.
Caterham had a decent race with Ericsson finishing 11th and Kobayashi 13th however Sauber had a terrible day as both drivers (Guitierrez and Sutil) retired due to accidents and Torro Rosso joined the bad luck club with Vergne and Kvyat also retiring, both suffering exhaust problems.
Rosberg now leads the Championship on 122 with Hamilton 4 points behind. The rivalry that is between Hamilton and Rosberg is now being likened to that of Senna and Prost and with this in mind the rest of the season is likely to be fraught with more tension, the questioning of team orders and perhaps some emotional driving between the two. Personally, I can’t wait for Canada!