Looking back on a marvellous decade

Ok, so I warned you the blogging could be sporadic, and after a 10-week hiatus it's proved just that.

But here I am again, with a spare half-hour in an action-packed day at journalism's coal-face, attempting to entertain and educate in equal measure.

Happy New year to you all first and foremost, and although it's a little late, to kick-off the blog in 2010 I thought I'd look back on some of my fondest memories of the past decade.

I'll go with a top five and if I miss the obvious, feel free to correct me. All this is from memory, and avoiding chekckng Wikipedia to put facts right.

So here it is, my top five sporting moments of the Naughties, in no particular order...

1) Goran Ivanisevic wins Wimbledon in 2001. It was sport that brings a tear to the eye and I had just started out on my journalism career and had to watch it in the office on a small portable telly with the sound turned down.

Ivanisevic was one of tennis's great characters, and it's great losers. He may as well have been British he lost in that many semi-finals and finals. But after a rain-lashed fortnight the final against Pat Rafter spilled into Monday and the fans wearing their red and white Croatia shirts and their gold of Australia made it a colourful and memorable spectacle.

Ivanisevic getting down on his knees and praying in between match points just made the hair stand on end and when he finally clinched victory and fell to the floor in tears, a lifetime of sweat and toil just poured out of him. A fantastic moment.

2) Spain v Yugoslavia, Euro 2000 group game, Holland. "I've got a funny feeling we're going to be in for a cracker," said John Motson as this final group game kicked off. How right he was. Seven goals, end-to-end attacking and a dramatic late fightback from Spain that saw them eliminate the watching Bulgaria and progress themselves.

It was national football at its best and when Alfonso scored the winner in stoppage time, Motson screamed his name in delight at the perfect finish to a phenomenal 90 minutes.

3) Kelly Holmes, Athens Olympics, 2004. Just pips Usain Bolt in Beijing and Berlin and Great Britain's men's 4x100m relay team in Sydney, and again its like Ivanisevic in that her career before then had been plagued by injury and heartache.

Then she won the 800m Olympic final and a few days later her a late decision to take part in the 1,500m paid off as she defeated her long-time rival Maria Matulo to win the gold. The commentary from Steve Cram was another to put a lump in the throat. "Kelly Holmes, you are the double Olympic champion!"

4) Michael Phelps, 100m butterfly, Rome, 2009. One of the few I was fortunate enough to attend. The World Championships were dominated by swimmers in soon-to-be outlawed polyurethane suits who set 43 world records. Phelps, the greatest swimmer of all time, stuck to his basic speedo suit.

His great rival in the 100m butterfly was California-educated and controversial suit-wearing Milorad Cavic of Serbia, who set the blue touch paper by winning his semi-final in a quicker time and then telling the assembled media that he would beat Phelps in the final.

At 50m, the big-talking Serb led the final from Phelps, and did so with 25m to go. But the American dug into his reserves and in the space of three strokes he pipped Cavic to the line. When in that desperate full flow at the end Phelps looked like he was eating water as he bore down on Cavic.

When the race was won, Phelps turned to the packed stands at the Foro Italico and grabbed his vest, so proving his point that it's all about the swimmer and not the suit they are wearing.

5) Ernie Els wins the Open, Muirfield, 2002. If Colin Montgomerie had have found the fairway with his approach to the 72nd green at Winged Foot in 2006 and won the US Open, that would have made the top five, but as it was, the finest golf moment of the decade was Els' dramatic Open win at Muirfield.

The Big Easy led by two with five to play but as I followed his gallery over those closing holes, listening to John Inverdale jinx it by interviewing his family on my Open Golf radio, Ernie attempted to throw it away. He earned a reprieve by making birdie on the par five 17th and then he and Thomas Levet knocked out Steve Elkington and Stuart Appleby in the four-hole play-off.

Els though prevailed with a sumptuous bunker shot on the fifth extra hole, played with one foot in the bunker and his knee on the bank. I saw him hole his winning putt through the narrowest of gaps in the 10-deep gallery at the side of the green and then be embraced by a great show of sportsmanship from the graceful Frenchman.

So that's my top five, and there was plenty knocking on the door; Federer v Nadal at Wimbledon, Jonny Wilkinson's drop goal in Sydney and Europe's Ryder Cup win at the K Club.

Let me know what you think...

Open excitement

Having spoken to Yorkshire golfers Simon Dyson and Richard Finch over the past few days to find out how much they’re looking forward to the Open Championship next week, I find myself desperate for someone to ask me the same question.

Because I’m unbelievably excited.

I’ve been to Opens before, as a spectator from 2001 to 2006, but this will be my first as a working journalist.

I’m only doing a day or two to follow Finch and Dyson’s fortunes in the early rounds, and then I’m back there on the Saturday as a fan, but I find myself giddy with excitement.

Having missed last year’s dramatic finale at Carnoustie due to funding issues, it feels like I’ve been away for far too long.

I’m so excited I’m even enjoying the working build-up to the Open; talking to the golfers, writing the previews, planning the coverage, finding the quickest route from home.

It’ll be my first Open in the media tent as well. I was fortunate enough to cover the Ryder Cup at the K Club two years ago, and the goody bag was awesome.

Free document wallet, free tie, free baseball cap, even a free mouse mat that has followed me to the Yorkshire Post.

Wearing my media credentials around the house for two weeks after returning home from Ireland was perhaps a bit too much, but you get the picture.

I’ve covered a few other smaller scale European Tour events from the Celtic Manor Wales Open to the British Masters.

At Celtic Manor the media room is in the same main building as the players’ locker rooms, so members of the press and players waiting for their tee times can mingle in the same space.

I guess it’s like that at a lot of other Tour events, giving journalists instant access to the players.

I doubt it will be the same next week, nor for that matter in two years time when Celtic Manor hosts the 2010 Ryder Cup.

Can’t imagine Colin Montgomerie reacting too cheerily to a group of hacks as he unlaces his Footjoys, shortly after duck-hooking the ball into the water on the 18th to lose a half.

Next week will be the same, the players ushered in and out of press conferences.

No matter. It’s not going to diminish my enthusiasm for the week ahead.

There’s nothing like an Open Championship as a spectator.

Stalking up and down the undulating fairways, matching players like Ernie Els stride for stride on the back nine on a Sunday, paying over the odds for a burger and chips but going back to the same catering van day after day because it’s the Open Championship and eating bad food is part of the week. Well it is for me anyway.

The Open Championship is a special occassion, one of British sport’s crown jewels, whether you’re playing, working or spectating.

And I for one, cannot wait.

Fond farewell to World Matchplay

The decision to move the World Matchplay to Spain and end a 44-year association at Wentworth is a huge blow to English golf fans.

One of the country’s most popular tournaments has been revamped after losing HSBC as the sponsor after five years.

No other company came forward to bail it out - perhaps one of the biggest prize funds in golf putting off prospective sponsors - so England loses it’s richest tournament.

After a one-year break, the tournament will return to the European Tour schedule at the end of the 2009 season under the new benefactor of Volvo.

It has been a tournament on the decline for a number of years with a large contingent of the leading players from America not bothering to cross the pond, even for the vast sums of money on offer.

Tiger Woods only played in the tournament twice.

Jeff Maggert contested the event a couple of years ago, took a sound hammering from Retief Goosen in the first round and hopped on a flight later that day with $60,000 in his back pocket.

Not bad for half a day’s work, and yet the World Matchplay has consistently failed to attract the big names.
An entry system centred around the top four players in the majors became confusing when major winnners dropped out, leaving wildcards and former champions to get late invites to the tournament.

But despite this muddled strategy, the World Matchplay has always had a big named winner.

Ernie Els, who won what will be the final World Matchplay to be staged at Wentworth when he defeated Angel Cabrera last autumn, has made the championship his own in recent years.

It helps that he lives just a lob wedge away from the 14th hole on the Wentworth estate, but winning the tournament a record seven times is still a remarkable achievement.

Over the past 20 years the World Matchplay at Wentworth has been one of the biggest titles to win, it’s roll call of champions illustrating the high esteem in which it is regarded by players of this continent.

Seve Ballesteros, Nick Faldo, Ian Woosnam, Colin Montgomerie and Lee Westwood have all claimed one of the European Tour’s grandest honours.

They have honed their Ryder Cup skills in the fierce matchplay environment at Wentworth.
From personal memory, I enjoyed a wonderful afternoon strolling the magnificent Surrey course in 2003.

Thomas Bjorn was in the middle of a character-defining spell having two months earlier thrown away the chance to win the Open Championship.

I watched him defeat Mike Weir in an early round, the Canadian who had won the Masters at the start of the year, having no idea how to stop a European marching to yet another matchplay triumph.

Bjorn reached the final, scored a hole-in-one on the back nine, but lost out to great friend and Wentworth neighbour Els.

It was a memorable duel, one of many to be contested at Wentworth, and one that we will look back on fondly in years to come when the World Matchplay has established its new home in Spain.