Bryant proves he is still King of the court in All-Star clash

The biggest event in the basketball calendar took place at the weekend in Los Angeles as the stars of the NBA took to the Staples Centre in an impressive spectacle culminating in the 60th East v West All-Stars clash. Kobe Bryant led the Western Conference to a 148-143 victory as well as picking up the Most Valuable Player trophy for the 4th time.

The All-Star game ended a weekend of intrigue and entertainment including seeing L.A. Clippers power forward Blake Griffin giving an impressive aerial display, jumping over a car to lift the slam-dunk contest trophy.

Video of Griffin and his dunks

The battle for Conference supremacy between Bryant and LeBron James was obvious in the All-Star game with Bryant and the West dominating the first half securing a 12-point lead going into the second. The final quarter saw James really make his impact resulting in the East coming within 5 points of an inspired comeback.

The Lakers guard and Miami Heat forward brought Showtime back to the court with Bryant scoring 37 points with 14 rebounds. James put away 29 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists, being only the second player in NBA history to achieve a triple-double (a score in double-digits in three statistical categories) in an All-Star game.

Kobe Bryant proved at 32-years old he could still steal the spotlight from the up and coming stars of the court with his steals and drives alongside double, reverse and fast-break dunks marking his dominance in the world of basketball and he joined Bob Pettit as the only player to achieve a fourth All-Star MVP title.

Full-time match report AC Milan v Tottenham Hotspur

Tottenham Hotspur have come away victorious at a wet San Siro tonight in their last-16 first-leg Champions League clash with Serie A leaders AC Milan.

The Italians got off to a shaky start when a Bale-less Spurs were presented with two attacking opportunities within the first minute and Milan’s stalwart Nesta was lucky to get away with a handball in the box.

A determined start from the North London side continued with Crouch and Van der Vaart combining with Pienarr and Lennon out wide to provide early opportunities for Redknapp’s team with their defence allowing few chances for AC Milan to break through.

The second half saw the Italians come to life but it was Van der Vaart for Spurs who provided the first scoring opportunity in the 3rd minute with a chip only inches away from target.

Gomes first real test came in the 49th minute as he made an incredible save from a Yepes header which should have seen Milan take the lead.

Yepes struck in the air for a second time 10 minutes later forcing a reflex super-save from the Spurs keeper.

It was a 79th minute counter-attack sparked by Aaron Lennon which provided Peter Crouch with the opportunity to sink a priceless away goal putting Tottenham 1-0 up from which AC Milan could see no way back despite a last gasp effort from Ibrahimovic whose goal was disallowed in the last minute of injury time.

Girls can catch – but will they ever be truly equal in the world of sport?

With the recent ‘sexism-scandal’ surrounding Sky sports presenters Andy Gray and Richard Keys, as a female sports fan, player, coach and aspiring journalist it begs the question whether I will ever be able to truly compete in a world dominated by men, especially if these are the opinions held by those at the front of one of the most popular sports networks.

I’m not going to join in with the discussion of whether or not they should have been sacked but I do believe they should have known better to be having what I have read people describe as ‘laddish banter’ anywhere near a microphone, switched off or not – and whether ‘laddish banter’ or not, there surely is no place for it with those who front a channel which is at the forefront of sports broadcasting, as women are still fighting to break into this world.

For me, the off-side rule is something I have known ever since I was a little girl being taken to MacDiarmid Park by my dad and brother. However, for pretty much all of my closest female friends it was, and probably still is, something they don’t and will never know. Now, is there actually anything wrong with this? I don’t necessarily think so. The fact is that society encourages girls to wear pink, play with dolls and like shopping and make-up. Boys are brought up in blue, with toy cars and kicking a football about. That is just the way it is.

It so happened that I was brought up in pink, playing with dolls but also joined in with my brother and his friends on the football pitch, climbing trees and stealing his remote control cars. My dad took me to the football and the rugby but my mum also took me shopping and introduced me to make-up. I was happy to have the best of both worlds, but for many other girls the idea of running about getting sweaty with a football or even watching people running about getting sweaty with a football was and is their idea of hell – and they certainly have no desire to ever know the off-side rule.

Where the real trouble lies is not within these stereotypes (which are often true) but for the girls that are actually involved in sport and have aspirations to be part of this male-dominated world – those who go against these typecasts formed by society. There are a lot of issues which I don’t want to get in to too deeply; the lack of opportunity for women, lack of coverage in the media and women not being taken as seriously as men. The trouble is the handful of women who are involved in sport are being labelled with the majority of women who are not and don’t ever want to be, and that is what needs to change.

Now, I’m not someone who believes that women should be able to compete alongside men in football, rugby, tennis and golf. Physiologically I am not blind to the fact that this is simply impossible. Men are stronger than women, can run faster than women and our bodies are simply made differently. Women now receive the same prize money in Wimbledon than men but don’t play the same amount of games…why? Because they physically can’t. So should the prize-money have been equalised? That’s a debate for another day.

Despite these physiological differences, however, there definitely is an issue with the representation of women in sport. Football, rugby, golf, netball, basketball…all sports in which women play to a high level yet no TV station is prepared to put any coverage their way. The media and sport are so inextricably linked in society today that if a main stream channel like the BBC was to produce a well-made programme surrounding women’s football, I thoroughly believe that people would watch it and in turn it would be a fantastic starting point in giving female athletes the recognition they deserve – not alongside men trying to compete against or with them but on their own merit.

And what about coaches and officials? I am desperate to see the first ever female football manager (and in truth, I have dreams and aspirations that one day that might be me!). The trouble again here is that if a female assistant referee working at a premiership game causes men who are well-known faces of Sky football to be caught up in such a sexism scandal, is the door for others ever really going to be open? Referees have a hard enough time as it is, but a female referee would have to prove themselves even more, constantly being judged on their decisions alongside their gender. That would be enough to put anyone off.

It’s a harsh reality of the world we live in and I don’t think the gender stereotypes between men and women that exist will ever be eradicated. I’m not even trying to deny that there is an element of truth in many of them. Perhaps however, if there were more women in sport across the board it would go a long way towards it being more accepted by men, showing we can belong in their world.

Overall, there’s always going to be stereotypes and the reason they exist is because a lot of the time they are true – most girls don’t know the off-side rule. But give us a chance guys – don’t tag us all with the same brush, because believe it or not, some girls can catch. The question of whether this will ever be truly recognised in the world of sport is yet to be answered.
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I now pronounce you batman and robin…the REAL reason women are putting off marriage

Wife.  

Mrs. Wilson, the wife. 

 I have been married for 18 months now and I still find it hard to come to terms with that word, ‘wife’. 

 Now don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t change it for the world.  I love being married.  To be honest, not much has changed.  I haven’t suddenly become tidy and a great cook or befriended the ironing board whilst watching period dramas. 

 I still leave my clothes on the floor, go out on a Saturday night and iron as I go as well as finding ‘The Only Way Is Essex’ my guilty viewing pleasure.  I don’t shop for clothes in Marks and Spencer and I still don’t have a filing system for bank statements.

 Becoming a ‘wife’ nowadays, to me, is simply about sharing the rest of my life with the man I love – but there is definitely something very wrong with that word, or at least the perception of that word, ‘wife’.

The trouble is that being a ‘wife’ makes me sound much older than I actually am.  It brings up connotations of old women taking on the role of looking after their husband, making babies, being the perfect Nigella Lawson cook and Anthea Turner housewife.

I married at 23, my husband just one year older, making us both almost ten years younger than the national trend.  According to recent statistics the average age for those getting hitched is now 34.8 for men, and women are tying the knot, on average at 32.3.

 Perhaps, if I was on trend and a 32 year old wife I wouldn’t mind the word so much.  People would expect it, they wouldn’t be surprised at me being a wife at that age – it would be normal.

 “Married?  But you’re so young!”

“Miss Wilson…oh sorry, Mrs. Wilson, how can I help?”

“You’re a wife?!  How scary is that?!”

 Common phrases I have heard over the past year and a half.  Now, maybe I should take all that as a compliment that I look so fresh-faced and young that people simply think I am just out of school so there is no way I could be married.  Unfortunately I know that’s not the case – it’s been a long time since I was ever I.D.’d and I was recently stopped on the street to take part in a survey for women over the age of 28.

 On starting my post-grad this year, I was met with the same kind of surprise and questioning – the idea of being the same age as most of my class-mates, doing a post-grad and being married just didn’t seem to compute.  Surely I was too young?  And as a wife, should I not be at home cooking for my husband or looking after the kids? (There are no kids by the way.) 

It all seemed quite recent that my single friends were all panicking about being alone forever and never being able to find good husband material.  They have now all suddenly become ‘smug singletons’ who are totally on trend and have all the time in the world to settle down to wifely duties.

In fact, when looking at my ten closest female friends, I am the only one who has taken the plunge and they all still freak out about the fact that I am a ‘wife’. 

But why have things changed so much?  My parents were married at 20 years old and I know their parents were married at 18.  That was ‘normal’ back then yet suddenly I feel so abnormal.  Suddenly I’m the weirdo; I’m the odd-one-out, the person bucking the trend and to be honest, also one of those people who freaks out at the fact that I am a ‘wife’.

Obviously society has changed, women are going out to work, putting their careers first, playing the field a bit more and there is simply less pressure to get married young.  Society is more accepting of co-habiting without marriage, having children before marriage and having children much later in life.  In fact, the average age of giving birth is 30 years old nowadays with the age of men becoming fathers for the first time averaging at 32.

 However, as much as all that is true, I think the word ‘wife’ also has a lot to do with it.  There are a record amount of people co-habiting, which suggests that they are definitely not scared of the commitment part – it’s got to be that word.  Perhaps if there was a new word for it, these trends would start reversing and people wouldn’t look at me like I have a third eye at every mention of me being ‘one of those’. 

 The thesaurus offers up these synonyms:   bride, companion, consort, helpmate, mate, monogamist, other half, partner, roommate, and spouse.  But to be honest none of these quite paint the whole picture of a married couple.  I can just imagine it now:

  “I’d like you to meet my monogamist…” somehow, I don’t think it will catch on.

The word partner gives a few good synonyms including:  side-kick and ally, although again I’m not sure it encapsulates fully the meaning of the word ‘wife’,  more like a superhero which as much as that appeals to me, I don’t think “I now pronounce you Batman and Robin” will really take off. 

What about nicknames? ‘Wifey’ ‘Boo’ ‘Shorty’?  Unfortunately unless you are a ‘gangster’ rapper (Nelly’s new song mentions all of these words in reference to his wife) I just don’t think you would quite pull it off.

I hope that in 10 years I will be more accustomed to the ‘w’ word and won’t cringe every time I hear it. Perhaps by then I will be ready to face that ironing board, will have cooked a few good roast dinners and may in fact quite like watching Emmerdale.  Until then, however, my side-kick and I will continue searching for a new word to describe the happily married life of a couple of twenty-somethings to encourage even more twenty-somethings to buck the trend.

Liverpool lose out after rollercoaster clash with Spurs

There was a bit of a goal-fest in the Premiership this weekend with an average of 4 goals per game.  Results included:

 Aston Villa 2  v  4  Arsenal

Bolton 2  v  2  Blackpool

Everton 1  v  4  West Brom

West Ham 3  v  1  Wigan

Wolves 3  v  2  Sunderland

And of course the 7 – 1 smashing that Manchester United served over Blackburn.

But the game of the weekend for me, was not that of the Man United show in which Berbatov claimed a more than impressive 5 goals and almost just as noticeably, Rooney failed to make a mark on the scoreboard, but the rollercoaster ride of a game that saw Spurs claim victory over Liverpool with an injury-time winner from Lennon.

As someone who has always positioned myself as a ‘neutral’ when it comes to the English Premiership, I was on the edge of my seat watching the Sunday clash at White Hart Lane.

Liverpool edged the lead at half time and could (and maybe should have) clinched victory a number of times…but then the same could have been said for Spurs.  A missed penalty, a belter of a Bale shot headed off the Liverpool goal line, penalty claims at both ends of the pitch, Torres looking more and more on form but failing to convert any of his chances, great crosses, skillful passing and high-energy plays made the game fantastically entertaining and it was impossible to call which way the result would go and a draw seemed likely at the 90-minute point.

However, the fighting spirit that we have come to know and love about Tottenham this season prevailed as they secured victory in one of the last plays of the game.

The game was frantic yet entertaining, intense but skillful and the ups and downs made it one of the best clashes of the season so far.

As Manchester United now edge the top-spot with 31 points, Chelsea and Arsenal are close behind on 29 with Man City securing 4th place on 26 points.  Tottenham’s win over Liverpool now see them only 6 points from the summit in 5th place on 26 points.

As talk over Harry Redknapp potentially being the perfect man to manage the England team and his own claims over Spurs being real title contenders, Spurs have become the team to watch both in the Premiership and in Europe this year.

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