Birthday 2012 Sport

I now turn to what was a mixed sporting weekend. The Highlight was the radio commentary followed by extended highlights in the evening of Sunderland’s hard fought 1-0 win against Liverpool at home. Liverpool aware they had an important derby with Everton midweek kept Gerrard and Carroll on the bench. There was not much good football in the first half and the goal had a strong element of good fortune. Frazer Campbell hit the post and the ball rebounded off the keeper to Nicklas Bentner who side footed into the net. His reaction was excellent and skilful. Liverpool then through their kitchen sink but Sunderland held out. Sunderland whose impressive recent run had made them the form had halted with a draw and two defeats from the previous three games are not firmly in the top third of the table and rivalling Newcastle for the top team in the North East although there remains a gap of 7 points to make up. They are now joined by Everton who they meet in the FA Cup on Saturday. Newcastle could have widened the gap on their visit to the Gunners on Monday night which was shown live on Monday and in 3D.

Hatem Ben Arthur bought for five million is a talented midfield player but with tendencies to be caught in possession as he tries to make that extra touch. He has an amazing left foot which enables him to shoot with force at tight angles and it was such a run which achieved the first goal at the Emirates to stun the home crowd in the fourteenth minute. It was only sixty seconds later that Van Persee took a pass from Theo Walcott and the score was 1.1.

Newcastle then fought a rearguard battle for the greater part of the rest of the game although they also had opportunities, although significantly less than the home side. It looked as if there was to be a point from the draw as goalkeeper Tom Krul performed great athleticism to push a looping ball which looked as if was about to slip under the bar into the net away and out of danger. However a super fast move saw Vermaelen get the winner in extra time. The three points mean that Arsenal is now jockeying with North London Rivals Spurs for the third position in the table when not long ago the gap was 12 points and three points clear of Chelsea outside the top four for the first time in yonks with the consequence Chelsea has have parted company with yet another manager and for whom the reputed to have paid £15 million to prize him way from his previous club.

Sky also showed the visit of Warrington to Leeds last Friday and the game lived up to the billing as the clash of the season so far despite a slippery ball in the wet. It was Warrington who made the greater number of mistakes especially at the end. Leeds looked as if they were going to take the game with a 12.0 lead before Warrington respond to take the score to 12.12 at the interval. They lost 26.18.

I missed England’s 24 22 win in the International Rugby Union against France in Paris which reported to have been an excellent and exciting win which augurs well for the future after a mixed fortunes start with the loss to a rampant Wales at Twickenham. Having lived close to the ground in the sixties before it was developed it is one of my regrets not have ever visited. England could still finish alongside Wales in terms of total points if they win against Ireland on Saturday but I anticipate Wales will win against France in Cardiff to rightly take the honours with five wins from five matches. They are some 38 points better than England whatever happens this weekend.

I also missed on the Olympic swimming Trials which were held at the new stadium and were open to public with some 2000 present of the 17000 who will be present for the Games. It was amazing to see the out best ever twice Gold Medal Winner Rebecca Ardlington ultra nervous as she stormed to win the 400 and 800 freestyle events and therefore has the prospect of another two wins which if she achieved would make the greatest of the great British swimmers. As a result of the trials 38 swimmers have been named for the team with a second opportunity for others to join them later. Reports suggests that a number of the established swimmers were given a close run by a the next generations, some of whom may be given the opportunity to experience what for everyone concerned will be the opportunity of their lifetime.

Ayrton Senna

Sky had added a new sports channel dedicated to Formula 1 racing and which in advance of the new season is showing wall to wall programmes on the shirt of the sport, covering seasons, famous races and drivers and the cars. It was therefore fitting that to mark the event Sky is also showing the midsummer 2011 documentary film on the life of Ayrton Senna the Brazilian racing driver who was killed on track in May 1994 aged 34 years. This is a film which merits being seen by all sports fans and indeed by those who may not be interested in motor racing or professional sports.

Senna was open about the fact that he came from a privileged background with his Italian background parents owning land and factories and resulted in establishing a genuine concern for the less fortunate, especially the education of children which continues to this day through his sister.

At the age of 21 he came to England to race in Go Karts which had been his love from an early age and has become the standards way for young drivers to learn their art. His stay was short lived because of pressure to work in the family business. Before returning home he was offered a contract to race Formula 3 cars and won the Formula Ford Championships in 1982 and then won the Formula championships in 1983. In 1984 he tested for a Formula 1 drive with a number of teams and commenced with a comparatively new team of Toleman and he amazed everyone coming second in the Monte Carol Grand Prix because of his skill in wet weather conditions having commenced 13th on the grid. He achieved two podium finishes and came 13th in the driving table at the end of the season. It was a performance bringing him to attention of major teams.

It is important that this is in the era before the use of technical wizardry both in the preparation and running of cars and in communication between the driver and the team regarding vehicle performance, race positioning and tactics. It was the skill of the driver in learning and driving the car which won races.

He moved to Lotus for the 1985 season and again in wet conditions he won his first race in The Portuguese Grand Prix, the second race of the season. He won again in Belgium also in the wet and this was followed by finishing 4th in the table a position is also held the following season with 55 points improving to third with 57 points the following season. He had become a recognised top rank driver but not yet in the frame for the world championship.

With the approval of World Champion Alain Prost he moved to the second car for McLaren Team but the good relationship was short lived and quickly developed into one of the fiercest rivalries there has been in motor sport. They won between them all but one of the sixteen races in 1988 with Ayrton winning his first World Championship, just. The rivalry commenced when Prost accused Senna of forcing him out of the lead as they approached the first corner at the start of a race.

Relations became strained to breaking point the following season when Senna needed to win a race for the championship and the cars touched and Prost crashed. Senna was forced into an escape lane but was able to continue and win the race. However Prost immediately complained to the Race Stewards after the incident and this led to the disqualification of Senna. There was a bad odour about the decision because was known to have a close relationship with the then head of Formula 1 Race who was also a Frenchman. Prost joined Ferrari for the following season.

There was a further confrontation towards the end of the following season also at the Japanese Grand Prix which was the location of the first clash. What happened is that Senna arranged with the race official that should he finish in pole position they would change the pole position because the nature of the track gave advantage to the second vehicle. The president intervened reversing the decision so Senna had charged holding the preferred line with Prost refusing to give way again crashing and was so incensed that he considered giving up racing. The outcome is that Senna won and took the championship and then again the following year, the year in which he also won the Brazilian race this turning him into the famous Brazilian of the decade and a legend since his premature death.

The problems commenced in 1992 because his car was outclassed by the new electronics used by the Williams Team result in a fourth position in the championship. Because of the reactions to the growing use of electronics the governing body made changes in 1994 after the cars had been redesigned. The impact was that they became unstable and Senna was one of several drivers who forecast there would be disasters.

His team mate Barrichello suffered a broken nose and arm after crashing in to the barrier. The Austrian driver Roland Rozenberger in his first season was killed outright after crashing into a concrete wall at maximum speed. It was then Senna turn to be involved in a major accident and there was devastating bad luck because he was uninjured except that the right suspension frame was sent stabbing back into the cockpit with a piece penetrating his helmet and causing fatal skull fracture.

Given the acclaim he had received in Brazil the death shocked the nation who saw in their young hero hope that the country would rise from its political problems and the poverty. There was three days of national morning. Some three million people descended on his home town for the funeral the largest recorded group of assembled mourners in recent times. Among the pall bearers were Alain Prost and Britain’s Damon Hill. For the next race the first two positions were empty painted with the Brazilian and Austrian Flag. Legal preceding followed the accident for years with McLaren investigated re possible manslaughter the more positive impact is that major changes were made to the cars and to the tracks to reduce the possibility of further fatalities.

Sienna was a devout catholic reading the Bible and able to quote from it and his beliefs led to development an extraordinary concern for the welfare of children in his homeland and to devoting the greater part of his personal fortune to their education and general help. When he first became famous is donated to those requested his help and personal appearance but he decided something more substantial was required any by the time of his death he had established what became the Instituto Ayrton Senna and managed by his sister with the advice of Bernie Eccleston Frank William Alain Prost and Gerhard Berger investing some $80 million in various ventures and which has led to the education over 100000 children. His spirit and endeavour therefore lives on in his homeland.