Summer

It dosen't seem that long ago early in August that the football season kicked off. The last few months have flown by.

I was going to try and do a round-up of all the local football clubs but i've not had chance and with them all finishing at different times they kind of all been covered anyway with the exception of Shepshed Dynamo who I will try and get sorted for next week.

To be honest, after the events at the Britannia Stadium on Sunday, I have almost been trying to avoid football.
The Johnston Paint Trophy. Jesus wept.

Now the sun is shining and (most) of the cricket league's are two games old. My lack of Sky means I can't watch as much of the sport as I want, or any on the box for that matter which is downright stupid, so hopefully I will get around to see a few local matches.

Wasting time.

It has been a crazy old week. Twelve pages of sport is cool but don't expect that every week. Can't wait for a weekend of long lie-ins. I'm probably far less stressed than those who have done such a good job with the re-launch though.

Here's hoping Loughborough Dynamo do the business tomorrow and the same to Shifnal (who play leaders Atherstone). Could do with a nice easy backpage next week with the headline 'champions' complete with champagne pictures etc. Whatever happens though Dynamo have done a fantastic job to get where they are.
It doesn't seem long since the first game of the season on August 11 where they lost at home to Alvechurch.
Second (or maybe even third) might still be good enough for promotion but they face a long wait for confirmation from the FA's leagues committee and the Unibond League that nobody wants. It will be a deserved reward for a fantastic season.

May 3 is the LoughboroughCharity Cup final between them and Shepshed Dynamo. Hopefully it will be a league fixture as well next season.

One thing to get off my chest seeing as I have bored a few people in the office with it - Wednesday night's game between Barcalona and Manchester United.
Yeah i'm sure the Barca based papers will be critical of the visitors' negative style - but for someone's whose football is so hyped up I found Barca horrible to watch because of how easily they went down.
It was ridiculous to see so many of the world's most skilled players going down with a minimum of contact and wrecked the game as far as I was concerned, cancelling out the pretty (but lacking in end product passing).

What's the point in diving like that? They even made Ronaldo look like a (semi) balanced individual. They could probably take a better penalty though. :)

Summer's (kinda) here

I'm taking a break from the incessent writing of cricket previews.
There's still over a week to go before the season starts but already I seem to have been up to my eyeballs in different teams from a shed load of different leagues discussing their plans for the new season.
I think only one hasn't mentioned promotion this season so far so there are going to be a few who are disappointed but I guess fair play to them because if you don't have hope now then you never will.
So far Coalville and Long Eaton sides are done, just two sides to finish off for Nu News and while the majority of the Loughborough stuff is done, there's still some more to do.
The problem with the cricket season is that unlike with football you tend to get so much literature sent through as well which you end up reading. No doubt it will be great when things calm down and i'll go back to having less to do on a Thursday and Friday but at the minute I keep picking up Wisden to read something and then feeling the need to check up on Leicestershire's score rather than doing as much as I can before next week's chaotic 're-launch' week. This isn't keeping me from work though as I've been told I must update. :)

On Tuesday I saw a strange game between Loughborough Dynamo and Coventry Sphinx. Loughborough won 5-0 to set up tomorrow's trip to third placed Market Drayton with all of the goals coming in the first half. Strangely Coventry Sphinx were arguably the better side in that first half, two minutes into which their only goal keeper was carried off injured.
They looked a good side with a couple of very talented players and if they get a bit more commitment from their players (one of their numbers apparently rang up the manager to say he couldn't play hours before the game because he had tooth ache) and they dont' concentrate on the FA Vase so much, then they may well be right up there challenging for the Midland Alliance title next year.
Hopefully by that time Loughborough will be well established in the Unibond.

Air Ambulance

The charity match organised by Shepshed Dynamo on Sunday was a fantastic event and all in a good cause.
In the first few weeks after the game was mooted very little seemed to happen and to be honest I thought it wouldn't get off the ground.
The people behind the scenes at Dynamo however did a stunning job of organising it all and then got the weather to match. It's a shame the crowd was not quite as big as was hoped but those that stayed away missed out on seeing the likes of Muzzy Izzet (probably the youngest but first to be subbed off) back in action and the subtle genius that is Gerry Taggert.
Shame as well the rugby guys didn't turn up although apparently there were a few from the national media waiting for Martin Johnson to appear to ask him about the England managers job.
Once again cheers to those at Shepshed for the hours spent on the project. Secretary Dave Wheatley must have one impressive contacts book.

This week's Echo news section is pretty miserable really given how many of our local sides lost. Not least how many threw away leads. Still, wouldn't have minded witnessing Twelve 7 L'boro Royal Oak 10 in the Charnwood Sunday League. That's a goal every five minutes 20 seconds (ish).

Bank Hols

Bank Holiday's are made for football although this one was a fair bit colder than last year's.
Shepshed v Quorn at the Dovecote was a typical feisty local derby. Given Quorn's victory in the previous two games it looked beforehand that Shepshed might want to win it more and so it proved.

The Dovecote is a great ground to watch football in. Unlike a lot of local grounds you get a sense of history from the setting and you also get an atmosphere.
On Saturday the vocal Shepshed lot didn't endear themselves to everyone and they had to be told to tone down their language after half an hour which they did leading to chants of "he's here, he's there, we're not allowed to swear - Jamie Clarke".
I have no idea where you should draw the line as to what's acceptable to sing and what's not. One person at the game told me that he took his young nephew who was shocked by the language. When at certain matches I'm no angel around young kids myself and the mrs is ashamed to go to games with me. It made me think about my own conduct.
But what is certain is as long as a line isn't crossed, every club needs vocal and supportive fans creating an atmosphere.

Blogging is cool! says Honest Isaac!

So far I've not interviewed that many really famous people, England's Peter Moores probably being the only one, so it was good to have the experience of interviewing Sir Henry Cooper at Bar Sports in Loughborough.
At first I was told I would get 30 mins with the former champion and one of only a handful of men who can claim they have knocked down 'The Greatest' but somewhat predictably I was told on arrival that it would be five minutes.
As it was I manged to get 20 minutes after he had turned up fashionably late and it was fascinating to hear him speak.
It was quite unnerving interviewing him under a giant image of him that's permanently in the bar next to Bobby Moore, but he was a true gentleman and spoke warmly with others like the 95-year-old who had come to meet his hero.

Writing it all up nearly made working on a Bank Holiday worth while. I was laughed at when I said earliler in the week I was looking forward to a four day weekend.

Wednesday afternoon

Wednesday afternoon and virtually all finished.

While the news pages are still to be done the finishing touches to the sports are being done and after the busy few days it's pretty much on to next week's paper.

Last night Loughborough Dynamo moved level on points with Atherstone at the top of the Midland Alliance table with a 3-0 victory over Studley at the NSG.
For a while it looked like Dynamo would have ‘one of them nights’ as they missed chance after chance and they really could have had five before the break. A second just as the visitors were getting on top killed the game off and it was plain sailing from there.
Of course you're never meant to get carried away with these things and those at Dynamo certainly are not. You get the sense from talking at the people at the club that they half expect something drastic to happen but with each win I’m sure deep down they are getting more excited at the prospect.
Clearly the players are......given the broken windows in the dressing room caused by the celebrations after the Studley game.

Coalville Town v Loughborough Dynamo

Saturday saw me at Owen Street for the local derby between Coalville Town and Loughborough Dynamo.

It's been a while since I've watched a game down there and in truth a few previous games have been spent being a cheapskate and watching from the top of one the hills that hangs over the ground.
I'm from Coalville (ish), I covered their FA Cup run a few years ago and my Dad used to play for them when they were known as Ravenstone (and were far worse than they are now) so I felt quite at home there with the Snibstone Colliery providing a back-drop to the continuation of Dynamo's Midland Alliance title challenge.
There were over 200 there in the miserable conditions but both sides put in committed performances.
In the end Loughborough were too strong for the home side and ran out comfortable 3-0 winners. Dynamo are a good side and are equally capable of playing great football and of grinding out a win when they need to. The former was in evidence today, the first goal in particular was a fantastic passing move that must have contained about 12 passes before Kris Nurse finished for what is around his 40th goal of the season.
From watching them early in the season you can see how much Dynamo have matured since August and are now within three points of leaders Atherstone but with four games in hand.
If they can secure a promotion spot it will be great for local football if they can join Shepshed Dynamo and Quorn in the Unibond Division One South next season.

Shepshed must have secured their safety with the 2-0 win over Kidsgrove. After a miserable couple of years hopefully they can now concentrate on building for next season.

I read recently about how a sports journalist can fail to remain neutral if he covers a team for so long and that's probably right. There's so many great characters you meet in and around the clubs that you can't help but want success for the clubs for those people as much as anything. Yes - even Quorn!

Random stuff

Testing.........People my age are supposed to be computer literate but odds are this could end up anywhere.

Like most things to do with the Echo, three years after the original boom in interest, Loughborough's favourite news hotbed is getting its own set of blogs.

I deal with the sport for the Echo and its series of sister titles but to
my shame my participation in such sports has been miniscule at best since
leaving university. It's getting to the point where any family get together
can't pass without some comment on the rapidly expanding waistline of
someone who used to be likened to a stick insect. At 23 i'm embarrassed
myself at doing very little other than the odd five-a-side game now and
again.

It's not that I care about losing weight, because to be honest I couldn't
give a monkeys about that. I feel a bit of a charlatan writing about sports
but not doing enough. That doesn't stop most journalists as far as I know
but never mind.

The problem is I don't want to commit to something without being fit and
then there's the problem of getting fit in the first place. I used to go to
the gym when I was about 15/16 but it's just so damn boring sitting there
doing weights. I swear half of the people go there just to pose anyway and
while I'm not interested in that, you can't help but feel a little insecure
when some brick house is lifting twice as much as your puny arms without
breaking sweat.

I also used to go early morning swimming but due to circumstances I can't

do that anymore and if you go at any other time you end up smashing into

annoying little kids all the while. Everytime I go swimming I always feel
like eating a greasy fry-up straight after anyway.

My Dad always says 'go for a run' but I just find that boring as well. If I
was going to get something at the end of the run, like a pint or something,
then I would. Given how bad my time-keeping was I actually miss the daily
run for the school bus I had to undertake every morning with my mate (or at
the very least look as if I was running to try and catch it). My Dad is
52, plays football three times a week, enjoys running and makes me look
pathetic.



I brought my girlfriend an exercise bike two Christmases ago thinking it
would be one expensive white elephant. She has proved me wrong however and
has rode for at least a half an hour every single night since. I've though
about trying to do that for months but just can't be bothered. Now I've
lowered that to trying 10 minutes a night but it still took me a while to
get on the (very comfortable) saddle and only then did I manage it for the
first time on Tuesday because I was that annoyed (writing something like
this and trying not to swear is difficult) with listening to Leicester
City's latest disgrace. I managed 20 minutes the night after but tomorrow

I'm playing five-a-side knowing I'll be embarrassed, hopefully enough to
spur me on to better fitness come summer.