Kelly Holmes' double gold, honest interviews and mountainside cricket
1) Ronnie O’Sullivan attracted some attention this week with his comments about the depth of talent (or lack of) in snooker, so let’s enjoy some more honest interviews. Here’s Allen Iverson sharing his thoughts about “practice”; here’s Craig Bellamy offering thoughts on John Terry, and here’s John Terry giving his view on Robbie Savage. In Scotland, Jeremie Frimpong gave a wonderful interview following his red card in Celtic’s Betfred Cup win over Rangers; while Cristiano Ronaldo waxes lyrical about … how good he is.
2) Post-match interviews with football managers can be tedious and filled with cliches, but it turns out all you need to make them more interesting is a bit of backing music. Just check out Leonid Slutsky spitting fire and Scott Parker of the Streets.
3) On this day in 2004, the Athens Olympics began. Here’s Kelly Holmes winning the 800m … and here she is winning the 1500m! In Greece, kayaker Birgit Fischer became the first person to win medals in six different Olympics, and the first woman to win gold medals 24 years apart; here’s her story. And finally, here’s Carly Patterson’s floor routine; she became the first American to win all-around gymnastic gold in a Games with no boycotts.
4) Footballers play cricket!, James Milner and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain look like they could do a job at county level, and here’s Milner again, finding any excuse to have a knock. Joe Hart also has some solid technique, David Ospina has a bowling style all of his own, and the least said about Manchester United, the better.
5) There might be a few competent batsmen in that list, but few would be able to hold their own fielding at cover in mountainside cricket over in Pakistan.
6) Seventy-two years ago On Friday, Australia skittled England for 52 at the Oval. Here’s a documentary on Sir Don Bradman’s Invicibles, who lost no game of any type during their entire tour. Here’s footage of the first Test at Trent Bridge, and here’s the film of the Lord’s Test.
Our favourites from last week’s column
1) Roger Federer keeps ball boys and girls on their toes.
2) Don’t try this at home: it’s swimming with beer!
3) Amir Khan is floored by Breidis Prescott after just 30 seconds back in 2008.
4) And let’s hear it for the big guys of US sports.
Spotters’ badges: whobroughtoranges, AozRoon, germit, BlackCaeser.
