I had an orgy this weekend. Wait, there was no sex involved?

Bank Holidays are a fabulous British invention. I say British, even though those unfortunate enough to reside north of Hadrian's wall miss out on these fantastic events. All that happens really is everyone gets an extra day off, although why we have Monday as opposed to Friday off baffles me. Anyway, these great occasions not only provide the perfect opportunity to overpopulate motorways, but are suitable times to hold music festivals such as Reading & Leeds and Creamfields. I rather enjoyed Elbow's performance at Reading and if the weather had been slightly better, I'd have been seriously gutted to miss out on going. But as it goes, there was plenty to keep me occupied whilst not being fortunate enough to be trudging through fields of mud this weekend, in the form of a sporting orgy.

Athletics

My first port of call was the World Athletics Championships in the Korean city of Daegu, which is disappointingly being broadcast by Channel 4 with The Gadget Show's Ortis Deley struggling in his role as main presenter. Luckily, Michael Johnson and Iwan Thomas offer some respite from the fiddly gadget reviewer's dulcet tones with frequent expert insight and analysis - not least offering a balanced, critical view on Oscar Pistorius' involvement in the able-bodied competition.

Johnson noted that Pistorius' prosthetics allow an exemption from fatigue in the lower leg muscles, which is a serious problem for able-bodied athletes who struggle to maintain optimal dorsiflexion in the latter stages of a race. The controversial debate unfortunately drew attention away from one of GB's Loughborough-based athletes, Martyn Rooney, who was one of the men in the historic race alongside the Blade Runner. Shades fanatic Rooney ran well to get into the semis but never looked in serious contention for a final place this year.

One thing Rooney did well to avoid was a red flag. A main talking point of the championships so far has been the false-start rule, that has claimed many victims already - not least the fastest man ever to walk the planet, Usain Bolt. The charismatic chicken nuggets addict left onlookers around the world stunned when he jumped the gun in a race that was quite literally his to lose. British runners Dwain Chambers and Christine Ohuruogu also fell foul of the one-strike-and-you're-out rule that has received much criticism this weekend.

My views on the rule are mixed. Whilst I am a firm believer that trying to second-guess the gun is cheating, I sympathise with athletes who are anticipating the biggest race of their life, and have to deal with crowd noises when tensely waiting for the sound of the gun. After all, we've all been premature when highly aroused, haven't we? (Yes, I did just say that). My biggest concern with the rule is that TV schedules and sponsors should not have any influence - the fairest system must be found, but one that doesn't allow for the frustrating persistent false starts that we used to get. I can't see a better alternative to the current rule, even though it means we occasionally miss out on seeing the best athletes in the world do what they do best.

Cricket
Saturday also saw me flicking onto T20 finals day at Edgbaston, where my local Lancashire crashed out in the first game of the day. Both semis went to a super over decider in a rain-interrupted day that eventually saw Leicestershire Foxes ease their financial woes with a fantastic victory in the shortest version of the game. The victory was also a fitting end to veteran Paul Nixon's county career.

Rugby
Martin Johnson's England finished preparation for next month's world cup in New Zealand with a comfortable 20-9 victory over Ireland in the stunning Aviva Stadium in Dublin. The victory will give the squad a morale boost before heading down under, something that cannot be said for the Irish side, who suffered 4 straight defeats in their preparation. My hunch is that neither side will be serious contenders for the world title, but England always seem to defy the odds when it matters most so don't rule them out. Maybe those prima donna footballers that wear the three lions could learn something from our egg chasers.

In Rugby league, Wigan Warriors won their first silverware of the year in the Challenge Cup final at Wembley on Saturday afternoon. With all the other sport going on, I only found this out later in the day but I was made up for my friend, Paul - a big Warriors fan.

Formula 1
The best motorsport competition on the planet returned this weekend with another entertaining Grand Prix at Belgian circuit Spa that saw Sebastian Vettel tighten his grip on the title. Although Ferrari look as though they are closing the gap on Red Bull, this was yet another disappointing result for the black horse. Meanwhile, the naïve Lewis Hamilton failed to finish after a collision with Kobayashi that saw him crash through an advertising board on lap 13. The 2008 champion later apologized via his Twitter account, quite rightly stating that his team deserved better. Jenson Button's 3rd place was anything but disappointing, with the Brit once again proving his superiority in difficult, changeable conditions and offered consolation to the McLaren team.

Button wasted no time celebrating his performance by appearing on a typically rainy Bank Holiday Monday in Manchester, in an event that saw a bumper crowd witness his F1 car scream down Deansgate.

Football
It shows what a packed weekend it's been that I am only just getting to my real passion - football. Although I would love to avoid it, I must mention that my beloved Bolton's shocking display at Anfield on Saturday Evening was demoralising. I credit The Reds for their stellar performance, but they really should have put 6 past us. Rarely have I seen a Premier League behave like they'd never seen a football before, but that's exactly how it seemed, with not one of our players able to hold their head high as they left the pitch. At least we've got an easy game next to raise morale.. oh wait, we've got United. Great!

The convincing victory and decent start have sparked a few whispers that this might be Liverpool's year to win a first league title since the introduction of the back-pass rule. They have a strong midfield and a good mix of options up front, but I retain my stance that their defence is too leaky to mount a serious title challenge.

My Fantasy Football saviours

Serious title contenders are abundant at the other end of the ship canal in Manchester though, with both Manc sides laying down markers on a goal-rich Sunday afternoon. I don't know which was more impressive, Manchester City's 5-1 demolition of Spurs at the Lane, or Fergie's boys' 8-2 thumping of Arsenal (which incidentally rescued my week on Fantasy Football, as Rooney and Young supplied 61 of my 89 points this week). Either way, the afternoon left no doubt that the serious power this season lies in the North-West and not in North London.


I apologise for the length of this post but as this is probably going to be my last entry, I wanted to go out with a bang.

Cheers for reading, and as ever, feel free to leave comments to discuss any of the above,
Craig