The Sporting Hack

“What’s the score mate?” I enquire gruffly. “One up kid,” is the response. “Oh. Good...” is all I can mutter back. Instantly the back of my mind rages. “GOOD?! Don’t you mean “bloody hell, I’ve just raced to north Lincolnshire from Doncaster in twenty minutes flat to see sixth tier football, missed the opener and got soaked when running to the turnstile from a nearby sidestreet after hastily abandoning my trusty Skoda?!” I’m the last one to enter the ground and thankfully keep my thoughts to myself as I round the sorry looking programme seller who’s looking for one last customer. Having passed one of the finest footballing eateries known to man – where mushy peas are served by the cupful – I position myself halfway down the terrace. I step back under the corrugated iron roof to avoid the persistent rain, but can’t avoid the stares and the glares, the looks of the regulars. These looks range from the mild and placid, such as, “Who’s this new kid...

Three-goal Walcott: hitting headlines for the right reasons It’s likely that Match of the Day pundit Alan Hansen, an infamous stickler for the defensive aspect of football, will have spectacularly combusted at the state of the defending on show during this week’s League Cup action. Man-marking and tactics seemingly went out the window in one fell swoop in favour of a gung ho approach and a reckless abandon for any semblance of ‘structure’ – whatever that is. It is what was needed after the toxic opening fortnight to October 2012.  Just two weeks ago the tag of the beautiful game was nothing but ironic.  A farcical and frustrating downpour in Poland, which saw England’s World Cup qualifying game delayed by 20 hours, interspersed a racist riot in south-east Serbia and a drunken act of thuggery from a Leeds United fan. The fallout from the two serious offences listed on the charge sheet above still linger within touching distance, as does the wider is...

Silver service: Dons' Tony Miller Sheffield steel: a delighted Mark Aston Sheffield Eagles and Doncaster provided a major poke in the eye to the Rugby Football League with their respective play-off grand final victories in Warrington on Sunday. On the Co-Operative Championship’s day in the sun, the South Yorkshire pair provided a stark reminder of their prowess to the game’s governing body when Mark Aston and Tony Miller’s sides won 20-16 and 16-13 respectively against the highly fancied pair of Featherstone Rovers and Barrow Raiders.  While the suits at Red Hall insist on expanding the game beyond the heartland in to far flung places such as Gloucester and Oxford (both of whom will compete in the third tier next season), it has yet to make any further developments of the interest shown in this large and relatively untouched pocket of Yorkshire. The souvenir matchday magazine from Sunday – which highlighted the impending World Cup, to be...

Doncaster: Champions at last.   Doncaster RLFC 16 v 13 Barrow Raiders Co-Operative Championship 1 Grand Final Halliwell Jones Stadium, Warrington Doncaster registered their second grand final win in five years, but did so for the first ever time as League Leaders - rubber stamping their name in the history books as Champions after withstanding a late scare at Warrington’s Halliwell Jones Stadium. Just weeks after finishing the regular season in 1 st place, the Rugby Football League had dramatically denied the south Yorkshire side the title of Champions. Tony Miller’s men emphatically avenged that call from the governing body as well as the narrow defeat inflicted by the same opponents at the Keepmoat Stadium a fortnight ago in a semi-final qualifier. A try from Man of the Match Craig Fawcett proved to be decisive in the driving rain as he crossed on the hour to edge out the Cumbrian side in an nervy, yet entertaining, finale to the season. Without the ...

A juggling act: where should Morgan bat? Following England’s Twenty 20 World Cup defeat to the West Indies in Pallekele on Thursday, the calls for Eoin Morgan to be promoted back up the batting order have been unanimous and justified – he scored an impressive quickfire 71 runs from just 36 balls. The Dubliner, in the absence of Kevin Pietersen, is now seen as England’s lynchpin but could not do enough to save the Three Lions in the first game of the 'Super Eight’s' against Darren Sammy’s men. Positioned at five, he was faced with the task of helping acquire in excess of 120 runs for victory from just ten overs. Stuart Broad’s side have not started well at all in this Sri Lankan tournament and their record in the very first over of each game emphasises as much - 0/1, 2/1 and 0/2 have been recorded against Afghanistan, India and the Windies respectively. Sky Sports pundit Paul Collingwood, who led England to their first ever T20 title in 2010, agreed that the ...