Gair Rhydd

Armstong: still the greatest

AS gair rhydd goes to press with this Freshers’ edition, we’ve yet to see, whether Roger Federer will win the US Open for a 6th successive year; whether Luca Badoer will remain the most experienced F1 driver never to score a point, when he takes to the wheel of the Ferrari; how England will fair in the fifth test at The Oval and whether Manchester City’s summer spending spree has led to the kind of form required to topple their arch rivals at Old Trafford in the Premier League. So an account of England’s draw with The Netherlands last night is hardly going to be topical reading.

Time then, for a moment’s reflection. It will not have escaped the attention of any sports fan, that this summer we were supposed to be blessed with witnessing the return of not one but two sporting greats, who both won the pinnacle of their chosen profession a record seven times.

The Word On...

... how the 2009 tour put the Lions back on track

WHEN ANY touring side heads to the Southern Hemisphere expectations are often fairly low and, when the 2009 British and Irish Lions tour to South Africa began this summer, those expectations were no different. The Lions were, after all, heading to South Africa – the home of the world champions. With the disappointment and failure of the tours in 2001 and 2005 further adding to the ever- growing doubts of critics, questions were constantly being raised over The Lions’ ability to survive in the professional era.

However, come July 4 – after securing a 28-9 victory over the Springboks (an equal best score over South Africa in Lions’ History) – those critics were well and truly silenced.

Burning desire

AFTER SECURING promotion to the Premier League on Monday, Burnley’s fans may have had time to celebrate but the backroom staff at the club are unlikely to have been afforded such luxuries.

Under manager Owen Coyle they have had an unbelievable season, beating the likes of Fulham, Tottenham and Arsenal in the League Cup.

Lions in limbo?

IN A week where Newcastle United sunk in a quagmire of their own delusion, guided by the untrained amateur hands of Alan Shearer, rugby’s last institution of amateurism departs for the harshest rugby climate on the planet. The continued success of the Lions tradition undoubtedly rests in the hands of Paul O’Connell and his men.

If we look beyond the fond nostalgia for tours past and the rugby elite’s gloating self-satisfaction with the values that the tour represents, there is the pessimistic voice of reason that breathes doubt into one of rugby’s proudest traditions.

The word on...

Newcastle's fall from grace as Premier League relegation sinks in

WHERE DID it all go wrong? That is the sole question that Newcastle fans have no doubt asked themselves over the past week, following their relegation from the Premier League.

The 1-0 loss to Aston Villa signalled the end of five seasons’ worth of disappointment for Black and White fans, initiated by the sacking of Sir Bobby Robson after he was sacked for finishing 5th and failing to qualify for the Champions League. After the season Newcastle have just had, how the Geordie fans could only dream of such ‘failure’.

The Leed-ing example

FORGET THE final day of the Premier League season, for many of the country’s football fans the Football League playoff finals were the main attraction this weekend.

Coming into the weekend, six teams all harboured ambitions of promotion to a higher level, but Leeds United’s fans will have made the long trip back from Millwall disappointed.

Cricket doesn't pay

WHAT ON earth is the world coming to? Andrew Flintoff’s drunken pedalo antics were bad enough, but now an ex-England international has been sent to prison for another, much more serious, form of pedalling… pedalling drugs.

Last week Chris Lewis, or ‘The prat without the hat’ as he was labelled by The Sun, was ruled to have smuggled roughly £140,000 of dissolved cocaine, concealed in tins of fruit, into the UK from the West Indies.

The Word On...

...whether the Premier League title was won... or lost

MANCHESTER UNITED’S draw at Old Trafford against old adversaries Arsenal saw them crowned Premier League champions for 2008/09, equalling Liverpool’s 18 league title victories.

Sir Alex Ferguson’s men were favourites to win the title for much of the season, dominating since Christmas and boasting a squad that could rival some of their greatest ever sides.

Law crowned court queens

WHAT a year it has been for the two Cardiff Law Netball squads after both law teams secured their places in the premiership division of the IMG league and Law A finished as winners of both the league and the IMG cup.

After the graduation of several key players last summer, the squads were faced with the challenge of finding new players and forming new teams that would be able to pose a genuine threat to the competition and to follow on from the success of previous years. Following the successful recruitment of new players and some solid training sessions throughout the autumn term, both Law A and Law B were able to qualify for the premiership division of the league, where they would face strong opposition from teams such as Cardiff A and Economics A. Law A sailed through the league undefeated, finishing with a goal difference of 98, 88 more than the team in second place. Law B, being the only ‘B’ team in the premiership, finished a respectable fifth, demonstrating that they certainly deserved their place in this group.

Brain over Brawn

FORMER F1 world championship runner-up Rubens Barrichello has threatened to quit the sport over a row with his team Brawn GP. The veteran Brazilian is concerned that the team is giving favourable treatment to his team-mate, current championship leader Jenson Button.

This is not the first time that suggestions of favouritism have annoyed Barrichello. When he was at Ferrari in the early 2000s, also under the stewardship of Brawn GP’s technical director Ross Brawn, he was at the centre of a ‘team orders’ row, which eventually caused him to leave the Italian team.