A rare sight was seen in the golfing world this week when Colin MontgomeryÂ’s normally sullen features had given way to a very, very broad smile. Defying all expectation, the studiously dissatisfied Scot has been given the captaincy of the European team for the next Ryder Cup. Jose Maria Olazabel had been the leading contender, but concerns over his long term health prospects have apparently adjourned the likelihood of his ascendency until 2012.
Colin Montgomerie has been called many things during his golfing career, Sourfaced Scotsman being just one of the nicer names he has picked up along his way. Now, ‘Monty’, has been named as the Ryder Cup European Captain, I’m sure the media were silently praying for a ‘personality like Monty’ to fill the role. Fact is that Monty has had bust-ups with just about anyone involved in the sport. But he is passionate about the game and wears his heart on his Pringle sleeve is a positive attribute in my book.
Cynical media types, unable to see beyond the apparent British malaise that seems to afflict all our sports people these days, will look at Andy Murray’s defeat to 14th seed, Fernando Verdasco, in the fourth round of the Australian Open and say to themselves ‘here we go again.’ This is a sentiment, time and time again rejected within these columns and this blip in Murray’s meteoric rise to Grand Slam contender, causes us no loss of faith in the Scot to eventually deliver the goods.
On the 1st of February 2009, most Americans will settle down to watch the Super Bowl XLIII Final, at Tampa Bay, Florida, between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Arizona Cardinals. It is proving to be a tough call between the two competing teams to just who is favourite and whom is the underdog. Bookies have the two teams close with the Arizona Cardinals (23/10) beginning to believe this might be just their year, however, when you have a defense like the Pittsburgh Steelers (3/7) you have every right to be confident about winning games.
To the dismay of rugby union betting fans, the Bath and England prop, Matt Stevens, has tested positive for a recreational drug and is likely to be banned from playing for two years. In that time he will miss the Lions tour of South Africa, his native country, and lose the opportunity to gain over twenty Rugby Union England caps. The substance, believed to be cocaine, is deemed by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to infringe each of the three criteria used to determine whether or not a drug should be on the banned list. These are that it is shown to be performance enhancing, that it goes against the spirit of sport and that it damages the health of the athlete. If any two of these are met then the substance is banned. On that basis, it is difficult to understand how smoking gets through the net. Perhaps itÂ’s because it is legal.
This coming weekend will provide much food for thought for horse racing betting fans, their eyes on the Cheltenham Festival, as key runners reveal their strengths or weaknesses in the Festival Trials Day at Cheltenham on Saturday. Top of the list at this meet is the 3m, Grade 2 Byrne Group Cleeve Hurdle in which Punchestowns will be the one to beat following the shock retirement of Inglis Drever. This Nicky Henderson trained horse won by eleven lengths at Ascot in December in the Grade 1 Long Walk Hurdle over 3m1f and, at even money, is a generous gift from the bookies. And donÂ’t worry about the weather – shrewd observers of his recent triumphs will have noted that Punchestown has an uncanny knack of delivering, whatever the going.
Yesterday, Ricky Hatton’s lawyer, Gareth Williams, announced that the up-coming bout between Ricky Hatton and Filipino southpaw, Manny Pacquiao, is off! Seemingly, Pacquiao, was demanding a 60 – 40 split of the fight purse in his favour. Hatton’s camp were adamant that the split should be 50 – 50, giving Pacquiao, the current WBC Lightweight Champion, a very nice earner worth around £8 million. But Pacquiao spurned the offer by insisting as WBC champ he takes the higher cut. A stalemate was met and depite Hatton’s camp offering a 52 – 48 split in Pacquiao’s favour, yesterday the talks collapsed and the fight is now off.
As we all heave a collective sigh of relief now the extended wall-to-wall coverage of the inauguration of Barack Obama is complete, we can forget about him and focus on who’s going to win the Australian Open or the start examining in detail the runners for the forthcoming Cheltenham Gold Cup, er . . . can’t we? Well, no, actually, we can’t – forget about him I mean. As if to demonstrate the huge diversity of betting opportunities on online betting sites, ethereal bookies have come up with a tempting and mouth-watering string of betting offers on Barack which will keep us in political betting for the duration of his tenure and beyond.
You don’t really need to look far to see the detrimental effects the credit crunch is having on sport within this country and beyond. The latest victim of the financial constraints is Olympic Hurdler, Andy Turner, who was amongst a 20% cut in the number of funded athletes by the UK Athletics. Turner is obviously dissapointed by the UK Athletics decision but truth of the matter is there is less money to go around and the UK Athletics were under pressure to cull under-performing athletes from the list.
Ronnie OÂ’Sullivan secured his fourth MasterÂ’s title last night, in a thrilling finale that saw the Rocket and defending champion, Marc Selby, neck and neck at 8-8, engage in a nail-biting battle for the final three frames. Such was the closeness and tension between the combatants that the next two frames had to be re-racked to release the deadlock. True to form, Ronnie went on to coolly take the match, but not without a fight from his near equal, Selby, in what is already being described as the best snooker final ever in the MasterÂ’s competition.
