Category: Things I think

Carrying on with my occasional/more than occasional column for all those little tidbits that do not warrant their own blog post. I have called it ‘Things I think I think’. Today we have a bit of everything.

*The international cricketing summer has started today and it is raining in Cardiff. No huge surprise but there but I thing I think I think is that Sky’s cricket coverage might be the best coverage of any sport I watch. The pundits are allowed to have an opinion and genuinely discuss them. It isn’t forced and they all work terrifically well with one another. Just now Athers was saying how he thought having different captain’s in all forms of the game with Nasser and Lord Gower disagreeing. Worth watching and listening to unlike many pundits who all agree and don’t want to say anything controversial.

*The Apprentice last night. Not a great episode and I had no feeling for anyone who saw the boardroom but I do think that Leon is a tit. The show was about beauty therapies and he seemed to think that by being involve he was losing his masculinity, ‘what if my girlfriend saw me wearing make-up?’ he whaled. You are on a TV show where you’ll be filmed doing embarrassing things and looking like an idiot. Wearing make-up (which everyone in TV does) is not something to get your back up over.

*Last night on the radio we played some excellent tunes. When you can get Beats International Dub Be Good To Me and Jean Michel Jarre’s Oxygene IV in the same show then you know you are on to a good thing. The show certainly misses Will though. He is always so upbeat. He’ll be back next week.

*I resisted for so many years getting a posh phone but I love having the interweb at my fingertips even in bed. I asked my mum why I resisted for so long and she responded that it is because I am tight. Can’t really argue with that. However I am now fully a convert. Being addicted to the interweb like I am being online even when not sitting in front of my PC or laptop certainly gets a thumbs up from me.

*There are some reports out there linking Larry Brown with the Penn State Men’s Basketball job. Now that would be quite something. Imagine JoePa and Larry Brown on the same campus? I find it extremely unlikely that it’ll happen considering that Tim Curley seems to care little about Basketball but it is fun to dream.

*I saw this video on YouTube yesterday which confirms that Joel will be the driver of Dominator 2 this year. I know a lot of people aren’t a big fan of Joel’s but I think it showed in the 2009 season that when he wasn’t the driver the team did not do nearly as well. He is a fine driver and storm chaser in his own right so to carry on working with Reed and Chris is how it should be. The new series of StormChasers is set for UK TV in October on Discovery.

*The news that QPR are putting up Season Tickets by average of 40% says everything about the Premier League. I enjoyed it when we first got up there as it was fun to be in the big league but the novelty soon wears off. This season has been the one where I’ve had the least interest in football since I got into the sport what 20 odd years ago. The fact Pompey’s owners are not exactly seen in the best lights by certain people – i.e. me and the fact I’m not a fan of the manager either harms my love of both my club and the sport in general. The Ashes winter was without a doubt the highlight of my sporting year with football not really faring too well.

*Looking forward to Sunday. The Monaco GP is one of my favourites on the F1 calendar (with Canada and Brazil) so I’ll thoroughly enjoy that. Be interesting to see how the new rules help that race. The Indy 500 is also on the same day so I may well watch that as well.

*For those congratulating Jonathan Legard on winning a BAFTA and then using it against Martin Brundle need to grow up and that includes Charles Sale in the Daily Mail. BBC won the sport BAFTA at the National Television Awards for their coverage of last season’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix including race commentary from Jonathan Legard. Since them Legard has been scandalously removed from the commentary box. His replacements, Martin Brundle and David Coulthard, now do a rambling co-commentary with no feel for a crafted race narrative. said the columnist. Clearly he must be a friend of Legard’s as nearly every single person I speak to/read online says they prefer the Brundle/Coulthard partnership. I know I do as it is not faked and they don’t dumb anything down. The more they do the better they’ll get but without a doubt the best F1 commentary pair since Brundle joined Murray Walker in the box in 1997.

*Oh and a three-day weekend. I keep forgetting. Hopefully I won’t forget on Monday!

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Carrying on with my occasional/more than occasional column for all those little tidbits that do not warrant their own blog post. I have called it ‘Things I think I think’. Today we have a #SurvivalSunday special.

*I am gutted. Seriously gutted that Blackpool have gone down. I know it is a cliché but they have been a breath of fresh air for the league. They couldn’t defend for toffee and tried to overcome that legitimate deficiency by scoring goals. In all honesty their squad wasn’t good enough and I think that gives them even more credit for the way they played. They will be missed.

*Unlike Birmingham. Birmingham are a dull football team who thought they had done it all when they were gifted the Carling Cup by Arsenal. The new owner was said to be willing to put in £70million this summer but now they have been relegated I suspect that won’t happen (not that it was likely to happen anyway mind you). On paper with that chairman, Birmingham should walk the Championship at a canter but I just don’t see it.

*In this day and age how on Earth can players not know what is going on at other grounds? When Wolves scored their second it meant Birmingham had to score again but they didn’t seem to know this. They kept playing with no urgency like they were safe. Was bizzare.

*Wigan stayed up and in all honesty that disappointed me. I know this sounds bad but I don’t like the Wigan in the Premier League story one jot. They play in front of small crowds week in week out and wide open empty sections of stands. Every other Premier League town or city gets fully behind their club and the people of Wigan just don’t. I have visited the stadium and seen Pompey win 0-2 there with goals from Benjani and Glen Johnson so it holds good memories (I wasn’t there the year we stayed up thanks to the Matty T penalty and Benjani goal off his chest) but they just seem like a pointless club (Yes I’m an arrogant so and so…)

*Wolves had their worst 45 minutes of the season at the worst possible time but they just about did enough. I like Big Mick McCarthy so am happy they stayed up but boy were they lucky. They will be down there again next season just like Wigan will be.

*Was great to see my boy Michael Owen score again. He honestly still has it in him to be a top class Premier League striker. He’ll score 15-20 goals a season for a good Premier League club. Not sure who would be a good fit but a club like Villa with their creative players certainly wouldn’t be a bad one. Would he go to his childhood club Everton?

*Arsenal. Oh Arsenal, Arsenal, Arsenal. Talk about a season collapsing but this has been sad to see. Arsene Wenger needs to spend money this off season to make the move from playing great stuff but falling short to being winners. Heck if Michael Owen would go there he’d be a great addition. They are so close but the past two months has been painful to watch.

*Last but not least yet again Jeff and the boys have shown us that great TV can be had just from watching blokes watching TV. Soccer Saturday and Soccer Special are wonderful programmes and not just the in-game action but the discussion pre-match is first rate and a great prequel to the games. Soccer Saturday yet again the class of the Football watching TV.

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Carrying on with my occasional/more than occasional column for all those little tidbits that do not warrant their own blog post. I have called it ‘Things I think I think’. I suspect it somehow won’t have the impact of my previous piece but here is a Ken Clarke special.

*Firstly I forgot just how great it was to have my ramblings read by so many. It has been what two and a half years since I left my previous role as a Sports Editor to do what I do now. Since then I think apart from the odd piece over at betting.betfair.com I haven’t written anything that has been read by more than 100 people. Yesterday my blog on Twitter/Ken Clarke was read by just under 2,000 people. Funny thing is when I sat down to write the piece it wasn’t going to be in that format. Still it caused some debate and that is all a writer can ever want.

*Also I learned that despite what I thought, underage sex is not rape until it goes down to a 13 year-old. I did not know this and I wouldn’t be surprised if many others didn’t. One thing thing out of this whole Ken Clarke affair is that I think many of us learned that sex with a 14-15 year-old is classed as unlawful sex and not rape.

*Great for Ken Clarke that Melanie Phillips was on the Question Time panel last night. She thinks we should cut all overseas aid and let the rest of the World fend for themselves. What a fucking bitch. Just when I thought I couldn’t hate a Daily Mail columnist more she goes and says that. Will there ever be a Daily Mail columnist I like? (Martin Samuel excepted as he’s one of the better sports guys out there).

*I thought Ken Clarke was much better last night. This whole situation might well have developed just because Victoria Derbyshire got Ken Clarke tongue-tied in his BBC Radio 5live interview. Once again showing the power of a journalist/broadcaster to make an interview say things they did not mean or want.

*You know that rumour that Ken Clarke stormed out of The Daily Politics studio on Wednesday? Talk about hype. The video showed him getting up with his cup of tea and strolling out to do a one-on-one interview with Nick Robinson. Is that really storming out? Going to do an interview with the same company?

*Ken Clarke’s odds to be the next cabinet minister to leave his post have be wild in recent days but he is drifting – and now drifting quite fast. He’s sitting at between 7s and 8s depending on which bookie you go to and he was as short as 1/2 at one point on Wednesday. Chris Huhne is the runaway favourite again and if you can get Evens on him then you are doing well. Andrew Lansley is a very tempting price at 8s-10s. Very tempting indeed.

*Shami Chakrabarti was clearly the star of the show last night. Question Time needs more articulate people on the panel and quite honestly so does the House of Commons. On the panel and in Westminster so many words are exchanged just for political point scoring. Why can’t MPs in the main just say what they think and not tow the party line?

*Lastly that Melanie Phillips. Yeah what a fucking bitch. Seriously cut all overseas aid? What planet does she live on? Yes I know things aren’t perfect over here but the thing is there are billions of people in the world who have it so much worse and we should help. Humanity doesn’t end at Dover. Bitch.

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I have decided to add an occasional/more than occasional column for all those little tidbits that do not warrant their own blog post. I have called it ‘Things I think I think’. I hope you enjoy…

*Tripping over a paving slab in front of three women and watching them trying to stifle a laugh is slightly embarrassing.

*I really liked the Hungarian Eurovision Song

*The future of one of my my two favourite baseball Yankees looks bleak and it saddens me.

*When Edwin Van Der Sar quits this summer then Tomasz Kuszczak is not good enough to be his replacement.

*I love the fact that Paula Abdul is back with Simon Cowell on The X Factor.

*I do not love the fact that Simon Jones got the presenting gig on the same show. Dermot was clearly the guy. A mistake by Cowell.

*Also if it is true that Tulisa from N-Dubz is joining the UK Panel then it shows how little he cares about the UK version of the show and ITV in general. ITV need to work out what they are going to do.

*I miss the theme music from The Big Fight Live

*I’m very unhappy over the departure of most of the attractive girls in the chip shop in The Broadway. Only one seems to be left and they have been replaced by guys. They aren’t going to entice me is for a casual saveloy.

*Is Shoeburyness the arse end of nowhere? I went to Asda for three things on Thursday and they had none of them. I checked again today and still none of them. That’s pretty shocking.

*My fantasy baseball teams practically all stink.

*Kendrys Morales. Are you for real?

*I worry for Chris Huhne but if he’s done what they are saying (although they have failed to nail him) then his future is less #10 more Prisoner #398638.

*I bought an iPhone. A small piece of me hates myself.

*I went to a play on Friday evening. It wasn’t awful. From me that is a compliment.

*Michael McIntyre judging on Britain’s Got Talent is an oxymoron.

*Can Ray Wilkins love Chelsea any more than he clearly does?

*I feel so much for David Laws. Not so much Chris Huhne.

*I keep putting off washing my towels. I keep waiting for that sunny day so they’ll all dry quickly but it never comes.

*I’m hungry.

And to end remember that smiling at someone can make their day.

I hope you enjoyed this blog post. Please leave any comments or contact me directly via the E-Mail Me link on the Right Hand Nav. You can stay in touch with the blog following me on Twitter or by liking the blog on Facebook. Please share this content via the Social Media links below if you think anyone else would enjoy reading.