Earlier to day as 14.50 I reported that I had brought in the two good tomatoes plants and enjoyed a cuppa soup with crackers. Switching channels after watching the start of the Singapore Grand Prix which while not boring because of some incidents is nevertheless a procession as forecast with Hamilton keeping out of trouble from the start and Button managing to gain their position behind Vettel who he is chasing hard in order to free Hamilton at the front. Schimacher goes into the back of another car raising questions about reactions due to age and their have been other shunts with varying consequences. However I missed the moment when Hamilton was forced to retire because of gearbox failure. This let in World Champion Vettel who moves to second position in the Driver’s Championship table with 165 points to close the gap on World Champion Alonso with 194 points. Hamilton drops to fourth staying on 142 whereas he would have consolidated his position in second place had he won. Jenson Button therefore came second in the race and is now 6th in the championship.
I was interested by the performance of Spanish sounding Paul Di Resta who drives for the Force India Mercedes team and who claimed fourth spot in the race and is now 11th in the table in his first season. Although he lives in Monaco he was born in Scotland with his step father a former profession footballer. He is a cousin of the Franchitti racing driver families. He managed to finish 6th in the Singapore race last season his first full season then aged 25 years and 13th in the driver championship with 27 points. His 10 points fourth place gives him 44 points this and 11th position. With six races to go and 150 points max there is everything to play for in the individual championship race as there is in the constructors with Mclaren 37 points behind Red Bull, a gap which would have closed considerable if Hamilton’s car had not failed.
There was a good orchestrated show of solidarity between Man U and Liverpool clubs at the first home game at Anfield since the publication of the Truth report on the unlawful killing of 96 spectators at Hillsborough and where Man U supporters have taunted Liverpool fans and their City in the past. Sir Bobby Charlton presented former Liverpool player with a bouquet of 96 red flowers while the two captains released 96 red balloons and two stands marked out the word Truth and Justice along the their whole length. As for the game I did not see the first two goals just after the second half started with Gerrard on 46 minutes and Rafael 61. There was great fuss when first Shelvey was red carded for a foul on Johnny Evans who played for Sunderland on loan when I last attended matches on a regular basis and then Glen Johnson fouled Da Silva to give Man U a penalty in the 80th minute but there was a long delay because of injury to Kagawa and then Van Persie won the game for the visitors. This places the new Liverpool Manager under great pressure with 3 defeats and two draws from their five games and in the relegation zone at the bottom of the table. However Liverpool did play well which in my view underlines their problems
Listened to Newcastle’s home game against Norwich on headphones while watching closing stages of the motor racing and the football and the starts of England’s 20 20 game against India. Newcastle did not start well as they have throughout the season so far but a reported brilliant pass for Ben Arta found Demba Ba who scored a great goal. There were countless chances after that include an undisputed penalty which Cisse hit over the bar raising questions of why the player who scored 14 goals some of them wonder games has lost confidence. Whereas from the highlights of the Sunderland at West Ham game Sunderland a draw was a fair result given the chances falling to both sides, Newcastle dominated until the latter stages when Norwich senses they had the chance to get a draw I also watch the last minutes of the fist half of the Man City game against Arsenal just in time to see a great header from Lescott to a corner kick beat the man standing by the post to give City a 1.0 in the 38 minute. I was also delighted to learn that QPR opened the scoring at White Heart Lane with a goal from Bobby Zomora when deep inside the penalty box however they lost in the end as Spurs scored twice to take the points. Pity.
England won the toss put India in to bat before the best crowd to-date in the competition. India made 170 for 4 an average of 8.5 in their innings. Then woe is me England seemed to lose all inhibition and were dismissed for 80, having been 60 for 9 at one point, The less said about this game the better.
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