More or less ...

A weekly feature on this site will be a round out of incidents that I feel we either need more or less of in sports (not specifically South Africa). They'll be the moments that put a lump in your throat or get you out of your chair with rage. I must admit I'm a tad old school when it comes to these things so I'm sure there will be plenty of debate about what I deem a "bad", but that's half the fun of sport isn't it - my horrendous tackle on Smitty, is the NZ commentators bit of harmless argy bargy. Let the debate begin...

More: Let me just say right off the bat that I'm a huge Roger Federer fan, I think if there where more sports stars out there like RF the world would be a better place (maybe a tad over the top there) but the quality of tennis that Federer and Nadal produced on Sunday was simply unbelievable. At 2 sets to love up 5-2 in the tie break, Nadal must have thought game, set and match but Federer pulled through to produce a match that will long live in the memory by fighting back to take not only the 3rd but the 4th set before finally surrendering in the 9-7 in the longest ever mens final, at times I sat with my jaw literally wide open at these two. (see the 4th set tie break below.) Long may the Fed vs Rafa rivalry continue.

The humility shown by both of them in the post match interview just further enhanced the reputation of both of these men. In an age where sports stars are hitting the headlines more and more for late night drinking, sex scandals, diving and generally doing whatever they can to make sports a profession you wouldn't want your kids to take up, Roger and Rafa are two players I would be proud to be related too. They went at each other tooth and nail for 4 hours and 48 minutes and yet at the end remained true to the spirit of sport.

Nadal: "I must congratulate Roger, he's still the No1, he's still the best, and he's won five times here."
Federer: "I tried everything, but Rafa's a deserving champion, he's the worst opponent on the best court. It's a pity I couldn't win it, but I'll be back next year."

Just have a gander at this:



Less: This happened a few weeks ago and I considered not posting it, but the sheer magnitude of what unfolded made me upset enough to dig through the archives and relive the moment. All I can say is Paul Collingwood you should be ashamed of yourself and every England cricket player standing on that field should hold their head in shame, it was a disgusting moment that leaves a sour taste in every ones mouth in my opinion the Kiwi dressing room had every reason to be as angry as they where. The Pommie press rightly lambasted Collingwood. Here are a few choice extracts:

"Oh, the folly of Capt Colly!" was the Daily Mail's headline. The paper said the incident was the worst involving an England captain since Mike Gatting argued with Pakistani umpire Shakoor Rana 21 years ago."Paul Collingwood's reputation may be sullied forever," it added.The Guardian compared the incident with the furore involving former captain Michael Atherton over alleged ball-tampering 14 years ago.Atherton himself wrote in the Times that England lost "a good deal of self-respect" over the incident but praised Collingwood's "outstanding" honesty and contrition in apologising."Cricket became a contact sport here yesterday [Wednesday] as England's win-at-all-costs attitude saw them beaten off the last ball by New Zealand in a game soured by the run-out of Grant Elliott at a crucial stage," wrote former England bowler Derek Pringle in the Daily Telegraph.

Justice was eventually done when the Kiwis won off a last ball overthrow - karma as they say is a b*tch.

For those who haven't seen it here is the video of the run out and the aftermath.