Category: Sports

To Withdean for Brighton v Norwich, without great hopes of winning. Unfortunately, we fail to turn up for the first half, and go in 0-2 down. The second half is much better, though, and we peg them back to 1-2 before they score a third and finish the game off in about the 80th minute.

A good day for England in the cricket, and the Ashes inch even closer. BBC sport has the details, in a story that includes the first non-US use of ‘storied’ (meaning lots of tales rather than lots of floors) I can remember seeing.

A pleasant evening in the Polish Bar by Holborn, as Poland beat Wales 1-0 to advance to the World Cup finals.

Hurrah!

Gazeta Wyborcza reports.

Edit: To advance to at least the play-offs for the World Cup Finals.

The complex equation, in Polish at 90 Minut.

Off to Wimbledon with my sister yesterday. Three hours queuing for ground passes, which on a warm day was just fine. Saw the Andrew Murray game on Henman Hill/Murray Field/Aorangi Terrace, and plenty of snatches of good live tennis – Mary Pierce beating Ivanovic, a moment or two of Grosjean’s game, a Czech mens doubles pairing battling a Polish duo, and Jiri Novak being beaten by his doubles partner Max Mirnyi.

The match that may well stick in my mind in future years is Jade Curtis, going down in a girls’ singles first round game. She’s only just 15, however, and showed a lot of talent once she got past what looked like some nerves in the first set. The thing that really impressed me, other than Curtis’s age, was her clear determination to win, and obvious irritation with herself when she didn’t. It’s a good attitude, and hopefully in a few years’ time, we’ll all be sitting on Murray Field/Curtis Curve/Aorangi Terrace.

And hence irresistible.

The end of the season in the Premiership is looking interesting. Three teams will, as always, be relegated out of the Premiership into the second division, confusingly called the Championship. But this year, for the first time, the four teams at the bottom are so close that no team has definitely been relegated. It all depends on their final games.

The four teams in jeopardy are Norwich, West Bromwich Albion, Southampton and Crystal Palace. Norwich are currently just outside the relegation zone, so they have, as the football commentators say, ‘their fate in their own hands’. If they win (away at Fulham), they send the other three teams down and stay up themselves. All the other three teams need a particular permutation of results elsewhere, with West Brom being the closest to the trapdoor.

All the last games will be played together on Sunday afternoon (coverage on the Internet at http://www.bbc.co.uk/fivelive), and are:

Fulham v Norwich
Southampton v Manchester United
Charlton Athletic v Crystal Palace
West Bromwich Albion v Portsmouth

To give you an idea of the different permutations, here’s the BBC clarifying what Southampton need to do to stay up:

“A win would relegate West Brom, but would be immaterial if Norwich win. If Norwich fail to win and Crystal Palace win, Southampton would need to win by the same margin as Palace win at Charlton. If Norwich fail to win, and Palace win, a Southampton victory by one goal less than Palace’s margin of victory would keep them up on the next criteria, goals scored. A draw would be enough if Norwich lose and Crystal Palace lose or draw and West Brom lose or draw.”

All the permutations in full at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/4526865.stm

Exeter performed well to win 0-2 at Carlisle, but results elsewhere didn’t go their way, and they ended up a point outside the play-off places.

The run in of the football season, and the game to watch tomorrow will be Carlisle United vs. Exeter City. Exeter need to win to have any chance of making the playoffs, but also need two of the three teams above them to fail to win. It might just happen.

It’s an exciting end to the season in this house, with Brighton being involved in a relegation struggle, and Tranmere Rovers almost certainly in the League One playoffs.