Sports: Match Point

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Camden New Journal - MATCH POINT by STEVE BARNETT
Published: 24 July 2008

Mis-hits, bore draws, an athletics hero for our time

SPORTS fans were treated to a series of lowlights and low blows this week – here is my pick of the action worth missing:
On Friday Danny Williams defended his British heavyweight crown against John McDermott. Despite trying to have more points deducted than Luton Town, Williams managed to somehow retain his title.
I guess having weighed in at almost 19 stone it would have taken a brave man to tell him that he can’t have his belt back.
Meanwhile, two days into the second test at Headingley, cricket fans had their fingers crossed that England could put in the performance of a lifetime against South Africa.
It wasn’t so they could win or anything silly like that. It was so they could fight back and steal a draw. They didn’t. They lost. With a day to go. Setting the visitors a mighty nine runs to win.
It was bad enough that, after five days and more than 30 hours’ play in the first test, the game was allowed to end in a draw.
Surely there could be some kind of wicket shoot-out at the end to settle matters?
In athletics, the world was introduced to a runner so poor that he lives in the crumbling stadium where he trains.
No, it wasn’t controversial sprinter Dwain Chambers sulking after losing his High Court appeal against an Olympic ban.
It was Cambodian marathon runner Hem Bunting who has been selected against the odds to compete in Beijing. It just goes to prove that outside the courts there are true heroes lighting up the Olympic torch instead of disgraced drug cheats.
Finally, some quick-fire footy questions.
How long will it be before Liverpool do a United and complain that their new grey away kit makes it hard to pick out team-mates from the crowd?
And if Statler and Waldorf from the Muppets (otherwise known as Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini) really want to do some good for the game of football, why don’t they retire?

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