As England are set to loose the second test to India and subsequently loose any hope of winning the 3 match series, is it right that we should blame their misery on poor conditions.  England had the first test all but won, after a brilliant innings from Kevin Pietersen, Alistair Cook and co. and a promising performance from their inexperienced attack, only to have the game called as a draw on account of rain, with India still a way of their target with just one wicket remaining.

Then in this second test at Trent Bridge, England were bowled out for 198 in their first innings, which were also played in poor conditions.  On the other hand of course, we could blame some less than average performances throughout this series from the England middle order or the occasional failure for the opening batsmen to lead by example and set a good score for the rest of the team to follow.  Or maybe, just maybe, India have outplayed the English from the first ball at Lords!?

It’s a sad day for any sports fan when one of the world’s greatest sporting events is tarnished by drugs and cheating. The Tour de France has always problems with doping but this year’s Tour, ironically billed as ‘The Clean Tour’ before it’s start, surely has to be one of the worst.

The Tour was still reeling after last year’s winner Floyd Landis failed a drugs test but the past few days have provided the world’s most famous cycling event with it’s toughest task yet. Riders are dropping like flies and not just from the lower reaches of the leaderboard, but the very top. One would hope that an event which truly pushes its competitors to their physical and mental limit would have a winner who would be victorious without the weight of being a drugs cheat on their conscience.

Race leader Michael Rasmussen was sacked by his team on Wednesday night after failing to verify his whereabouts when he went AWOL during a drugs test (Rio Ferdinand, anyone?) and Alexandre Vinokourov failed a doping test on Tuesday, with the whole Astana team subsequently pulling out of the Tour. Vinokourov’s performance was reminiscent of Landis’ in 2006, fantastic one day, appalling the next and as a result he always had his doubters.

The Tour resumes today without it’s fabled yellow jersey on show and cycling requires a doping revolution if it is to recover and the Tour de France is to become about the true quality of its competitors, rather than the drugs cheats.

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Whoever said golf was boring? The final stages of The Open at Carnoustie on Sunday evening provided one of the greatest spectacles golf, and surely sport, has ever seen.

This year’s tournament had it all. The perfect course, with the perfect setup and undoubtadely the perfect finish. Garcia had led for three days but he admitted himself he was feeling the pressure as he dropped three shots on the front-nine of his final round. Harrington on the other hand picked up three birdies on the front nine as well as one at 11 and a fantastic eagle 3 on the par-5 14th, giving him his shot at the Open title.  

Carnoustie may not be the most glamorous course on the Open rota but there is no doubt it provides some of the best drama. The spectacle that the Open provides cannot be matched by any of the three other majors and Harrington is a fitting champion - a gent (unlike Nick Faldo, who I expect is busy with a large slice of humble pie at the moment) and a fantastic player who has been on top of his game for a while now. We may have waited since 1999 for a European champion but boy was it worth it. Bring on Royal Birkdale!

As the first three-ball tee’d off at 06.30am this morning, the 136th Open Championship, got underway and it promises to be as exciting as the 135 that have preceeded it!

As I arrived at work this morning I opened the BBC’s Open leaderboard and it’s been evolving with every change in the wind at Carnoustie. The Open is the greatest golf competition in the world and it’s unpredictability adds to the intrigue. (As I typed that John Daly chipped in from 50 feet at the 11th for an eagle to give him the overall lead!)

Carnoustie is one of those magical links golf courses. The layout of the course itself provides a stern challenge with its traditional links layout - undulating fairways, deep rough and steep-sided bunkers! Scotland, as ever, provides an additional challenge - the weather! I’ve never been to Scotland but I’m pretty sure they don’t have a summer :-), with the wind howling and rain falling The Open promises to be a challenge to every golfer in the field, even Tiger Woods!

Tiger’s looking to secure a historic third successive Open title but anything can happen and my money is on a European taking the title. It might be 8 years since Paul Lawrie dramatically defeated Jean Van de Velde and Justin Leonard in 1999, but there’s a wealth of world class talent in Europe and that run has got to come to an end some day! British number one Luke Donald seems to have got off to a strong start but with 3 days play left, your guess is as good as mine!

I can’t believe how long the Tevez/Manchester United/West Ham/Sheffield United saga is dragging on! United and West Ham announced today that they have called in FIFA to try and sort out the situation. I can understand Alex Ferguson wanting to make sure that the transfer is all above board but West Ham should have known better. In my opinion they’re lucky to even still be in the Premier League…

This is the way I see it…Tevez made a vital contribution to The Hammers staying up and so they should have been penalised accordingly. The whole saga stinks! I feel sorry for Sheffield United who have been relegated and even though West Ham got a £5.5m fine they will probably make a healthy profit from the transfer to Man Utd. It looks like the transfer will eventually get wrapped up, Sheffield United will suffer the doom and gloom of the Championship, West Ham will battle out another season in the Premiership and United will march on towards the title.

Tevez could be the final jigsaw piece to United’s puzzle and they will look awesome next season. They’ve spent big already this summer on Nani, Anderson and Owen Hargreaves and with the likes of Rooney and Ronaldo already onboard, I can’t see anyone stopping them. Glory, glory Man United!

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Did you hear that Ann Summers launched a online bingo site - hmm strange I thought that she was into sex toys and things. I heard that they are going to be giving away free vibrators to everyone that signs up brilliant, I’m off to go and play a few games and then can just sit at home and enjoy myself.. there will be more than one way to hit the jackpot when playing….he he. You can read the boring version here

  I had a short break at work today while my boss went off to a meeting which gave me a bit of time to try my luck on the online casinos. It then dawned on me that I usually end up spending half my time searching for a good site only to be left with a minimal amount of time to play. So I took my mates advice and went to a casino review site http://www.grandscasinos.com/uk/ . I will admit I was very hesitant as I believed such sites were paid for reviews by off gambling portals.   Yet my first visit to GrandsCasinos proved this theory to be false. I was immediately hooked and wondered why I hadn’t visited sooner. I only had time to delve deep and play on a few of the casino sites they suggested but I took a sneak peak at some of the others they had to offer and I’m itching to get back to my computer. Anyway I don’t want to waste anymore of your time and I have to go but if you don’t trust me and want to waste your time searching the net for a decent site then go ahead and roll the dice. But if you want guaranteed satisfaction you now know where to go.

Know this has absolutely nothing to do with bingo, gambling but 2 things that touched me in the last 2 days which has got to be posted

Went to get a new passport yesterday and my photos were rejected cos I was smiling… what is the world coming to - you can;t even smile in your passport photo….that is RIDICULOUS

 Sky Media called me today - getting 3 months free TV, sport and broadband cos of their fuck up which left me without internet for 4 months… you call and call and bash your head against a brick wall and no one cares.. then once they sort it all out they give you a refund… confused!