Virgin hope for Turkish take-off

Posted on May 5, 2011 by Tom Wright

Glock will get the updates for Turkey

Virgin Racing hope that “significant” upgrades to their car will make them more competitive at this weekend’s Turkish Grand Prix.

The team – based inRotherham– has endured a difficult start to the season. Although they have suffered only one retirement they have been more than three seconds off the pace.

John Booth, Virgin’s team principal, said the planned changes represented a “new direction” and expected they would allow them to challenge nearest rivals Team Lotus.

“By our own admission it’s been a difficult start to the year. But we actually started doing something about that when we realised back in testing that we had not met our targets,” he said.

“We’ve been working hard behind the scenes since the middle of February and this weekend sees the culmination of all those efforts when we will be able to see just how much we can progress now.”

Timo Glock will be given the new package inIstanbulbut team-mate Jerome d’Ambrosio will have to wait until the next race inSpain.

Virgin joined the F1 grid last year but despite twenty-two races they are yet to score a world championship point.

They finished bottom of last year’s standings and famously designed a car without a fuel tank large enough to complete a Grand Prix.

Racist fans, Red Bull and Sharapova’s slump: The sports round-up

Posted on April 4, 2011 by Alex Evans

Football

Manchester United roared back from a two-goal deficit at Upton Park to overturn West Ham 4-2 on Saturday, but the Hammers are looking into a more serious problem than dodgy defending: racist abuse aimed at the families of their players.

The club is investigating a report that the families of players Victor Obinna and Frederic Piquionne were racially abused during the game on Saturday.

David Sullivan, a chairman at West Ham, said the club are reviewing CCTV footage and speaking to witnesses, and said he would be “appalled” if the comments proved to be true.

“It is particularly sad that the families of our players were so treated,” he said.

A relative of Obinna reportedly confronted spectators about the abuse after he had been watching the game from an executive box.

“I believe all human beings are equal. We are all born with different physical attributes,” said Sullivan.

“We will be monitoring CCTV, interviewing stewards and taking strong action against offenders if these allegations are proved to be correct.”

Formula 1

Red Bull have denied rumours that they’re lining up a move for former World Champion Lewis Hamilton in the future.

Horner said: “If he wanted to drive for Red Bull, you couldn’t ignore a driver of his calibre.

“But I understand he has a multi-year contract with McLaren and I envisage that he’ll be there for a while yet”.

Hamilton’s future at Mclaren has been the subject of much speculation recently after his complaints about the team’s new car not keeping pace with the Red Bulls.

But Hamilton is contracted until 2012 and it would be a bold decision to leave the team who nurtured his talent from an early age.

Red Bull have Sunday’s race winner Sebastian Vettel on contract until 2014, but Mark Webber is only on a yearly rolling contract, and Red Bull have been hesitant to commit to his future.

Horner later added: “Lewis is a wonderfully gifted driver. He’s obviously happy at McLaren. We’re very happy with the driver line-up we have.

Tennis

Victoria Azarenka won the Sony Ericsson open in Miami for the second time, outdoing Maria Sharapova in a speedy battle.

She won the 1hour 46 minute match 6-1, 6-4 after winning Sharapova’s first six service games and holding off a late fight-back from the Russian former Wimbledon champion.

The Belarusian will see her ranking jump from eight to sixth as her latest win takes her tally of WTA titles to six.

Sharapova made 43 unforced errors during the match and has not won a title since last May,.

She rued the defeat, saying: “It’s obviously very disappointing given the other finals here as well but she was definitely the better player today and she has had a great tournament”.

She was outplayed for much of the game, but will keep her place in the top ten.

Azarenka said: “I played really well in the first set but Maria is a great fighter and I had to really hang in there at the end.

“I think I had the right tactics. She likes to swing big, and when she has time it’s really heavy. I tried to take time away.

“I changed my mentality a little bit. I am enjoying myself so much on the court.

Rotherham’s play-off ambitions suffer a blow

Posted on April 4, 2011 by Adam Shergold

ROTHERHAM UNITED 0 MORECAMBE 1

When Rotherham United pummelled Port Vale 5-0 on New Year’s Day to move to within four points of runaway leaders Chesterfield, they looked dead certs to earn promotion back to League One.

Fast-forward three months and now even the play-offs look an outside chance as the Millers were left to rue a hatful of missed chances in a 1-0 home defeat by lowly Morecambe.

Caretaker manager Andy Liddell was left furious after a second home defeat in five days left his side in tenth, albeit just two points off the play-off berths. More pertinently, they now lie seven points off the automatic promotion places, their target at the season’s start, after a run of just one win in eight games.

“It wasn’t a good enough performance,” said Liddell, who is in temporary charge following the departure of Ronnie Moore two weeks ago.

“We lacked tempo, quality and confidence which was surprising because all the staff here have worked hard trying to build the confidence up. We had a few half chances but overall we just weren’t good enough today.

“Nobody has tried more than we have to motivate the players and build their confidence. The players now have to take responsibility for their own performance and they will.”

Rotherham’s best chance arrived inside the first minute, when Johnny Mullins saw his header cleared off the line by Niall Cowperthwaite, but thereafter they were listless going forward.

22-goal top scorer Adam Le Fondre had a subdued afternoon but should have done better when drilling wide on his left foot from Ryan Taylor’s knock-down in the second-half.

Morecambe, who essentially secured their Football League status with this result, should have taken the lead on 11 minutes when a hopeful long ball by Will Haining landed perfectly for Phil Jevons, who saw his effort blocked by the legs of Rotherham goalkeeper Andy Warrington.

They lacked the pace and technical ability of Rotherham but were seldom troubled and eventually delivered a sucker punch. With eight minutes remaining, Jimmy Spencer’s curling finish from the edge of the penalty area beat Warrington and found the top corner.

Morecambe substitute Danny Carlton could have added a second goal moments later, but fired into the side-netting with Warrington off his line.

Despite this setback, Liddell refused to concede that automatic promotion was beyond his team, though he admitted it would be an uphill struggle.

“It is seven points but it isn’t mathematically impossible,” he said. “The players are making it very hard for themselves and I have told them that. Automatic promotion is a fantastic feeling and some of the players and staff have had it before, but at the moment we are making it hard.”

The Millers will hope to reignite their promotion push at Cheltenham Town next Saturday.

Rotherham United: Andy Warrington, Dale Tonge, Nick Fenton, Johnny Mullins, Tom Newey, Marcus Marshall, Danny Harrison (Jason Taylor 85’), Mark Bradley (Omar Daley 58’), Nicky Law, Adam Le Fondre, Ryan Taylor (Liam Henderson 72’)
Substitutes not used: Jamie Annerson, Luke Ashworth, Stephen Brogan, Jamie Green

Morecambe: Barry Roche, Andy Holdsworth, Garry Hunter, Phil Jevons (Danny Carlton 69’), Jimmy Spencer, Chris McCready, Stewart Drummond, Kevan Hurst, Andy Parrish, Niall Cowperthwaite (Neil Wainwright 76’), Will Haining
Substitutes not used: Jim Bentley, Chris Wraighte, Joe Anyon, Zac Aley

Attendance: 3,661

Showroom to host Sheffield Adventure Film Festival

Posted on February 28, 2011 by Michael Taylor

The Showroom cinema is hosting the Sheffield Adventure Film Festival (ShAFF) from the 4-6 March 2011, which is showing an outstanding and eclectic range of films.

ShAFF 2011 @ the Showroom cinema, Sheffield

If you appreciate adventure and the outdoors, you are sure to find something on offer to amaze you at ShAFF 2011. This three-day film festival provides jaw-dropping action of freestyle snowsports, mountain biking, parcour running, base-jumping, wing-suit flying, whitewater kayaking, plus board and wind-surfing.

But the event is more than just films. You can find Andy Kirkpatrick, who describes himself as Hull’s second best climber, giving a talk and reading from his latest book Cold Wars. There is also the Arc’teryx Adventure Shot Photography Competition and the Jagged Globe ShAFF Shorts VideoCompetition Awards to name but a few items held over a packed schedule.

You will find plenty to keep you occupied in-between events – with a second hand kit stall, book signings, live music and ShAFF beer available at Sheffield’s Showroom, the biggest independent cinema outside of London.

Stunning landscapes, beautiful story-telling, inspiring feats of endeavour and heart stopping action – ShAFF has it all. Now in its sixth year, every person who attends the festival each year have said they would come back and recommend it to a friend.

Skateboarding to Journalism

It is not all about daredevil action films, though. Skateistan tells the story of Afghanistan‘s first, co-educational, skateboarding school. “It started from a very simple idea and it’s grown to something quite special,” said Sharna Nolan in the film about the school.

With separate teaching days for male and female students, as well as classes for the disabled, it is one of very few recreational spaces for girls and young women in Kabul. Students are also taught English, theatre, art, journalism, environmental health and multimedia skills. Classroom output includes magazines, posters, theatre productions, photos and videos.

Back in Sheffield this weekend there is a bouldering competition organised by Climbing Works at their Little London Road location, and Grenoside Woods is the setting for Steve Peat’s Mini Downhill race on Saturday 5 March. The event in in aid of the Greno Woods appeal, which is in the process of raising a million pounds to secure the future of the woods. Freecaster TV will be covering the event and footage will be available for budding film makers competition to chop a short minute and a half compilation, which will be judged and shown during the festival.

Matt Heason has organised the event, and this year the quality and breadth of films is quite beautiful and well worth a look. From its humble origins to showing the best of the UKʼs adventure films to sell-out audiences, the Sheffield Adventure Film Festival has developed into one of the UKʼs biggest and best adventure film festivals in its own right.

You can follow the event updates at Twitter, and you can also check out ShAFF for full information and schedule of events.

Weston Park Museum’s sporting new exhibition

Posted on February 28, 2011 by Emma McHale

Sports Lab: The science behind the medals poster on the Weston Park Museum

Weston Park Museum recently opened a new exhibition of sporting memorabilia and sporting activities called the Sports Lab: The science behind the medals.

The Sports Lab may be an exhibition, but it is not your typical exhibition.

It covers not only popular British sports such as swimming, but also less popular sports such as the bob skeleton. It also encourages improved movement, noise, concentration and brain power from adults and children.

The exhibition chronicles the events of the 1991 World Student Games, which was held in Sheffield. The displays of swimming competitions includes old-fashioned swimming costumes that you can try on, which are similar to the ones used in the 1932 Olympics. Some of the swimming memorabilia displayed were of the 1931 to 1932 trophies for breaststroke and backstroke.

The exhibition also includes displays of footballs used in different areas from the leather ball of 1910 to the more recent 2010 football. The bob skeleton section gives you a visual view of the bob skeleton descending the track in La Plagne in France, from 2008′s World Champion Kristan Bromley’s point of view.

There are also sections for dancing and cycling. The dancing section is called Dance Star. The activity is divided in to two parts: the moving parts and the static parts. It involves the three participants competing on three dance floors to see how much force each person can exert during the dancing, and then how still the person can be during the static parts of the activity.

The cycling section includes a visual cycling trial by Olympic medallist Chris Hoy around the Weston Park, as a person cycles on the bicycle in the exhibition. These activities were very popular among children during the half-term break, with a crowd constantly surrounding the section.

There were also segments for reaction time and designing an athlete. The reaction time segment involved the participants tapping the lights on a board in the fastest time possible. This was called beat the clock and is more commonly known as the batak light board reaction test. The design an athlete segment involved the participant designing the perfect athlete on a computer program.

The Sports Lab at the Weston Park Museum is open until 10^th November 2011 and entrance is free.

Coaches instructed to ‘suit up’ for success

Posted on February 21, 2011 by Ruth Etherington

The study reccomends tracksuits to train in

Sports coaches who wear suits on match days and tracksuits on training days are more likely to get the best out of their teams, according to new research.

Sports scientists at the University of Portsmouth studied the effect a coach’s appearance had on the players’ impressions of their competence.
Dr Richard Thelwell said: “We have found that the clothing that coaches wear can have a direct effect on the players’ perceptions of the coach’s ability.’

The study, published in the International Journal of Sport Psychology found that those that dressed in suits were seen as strategic, wheras tracksuits gave an impression of motivational skills.

Dr Thelwell suggested a combination of the two styles was ideal for success, saying ”Players look to their coach to provide technical skills, to motivate them and to lead them.A coach in a suit suggests strategic prowess which is obviously ideal for a match. However, when wearing sporting attire, they were perceived to be more technically competent than those in a suit.”

Penalty shoot-out ends Steelers’ winning run

Posted on February 14, 2011 by Sarah Yifan

Nottingham Panthers ended Sheffield Steelers’ run of 11 consecutive victories, after the Steelers lost the penalty shoot-out during Saturday’s match at the Sheffield Arena.

The teams were competitive throughout a fierce match, but both failed to score until the last 33 seconds of the first period. The Steelers broke the deadlock, when Joey Talbot scored.

The Panthers exerted more pressure during the second-period and, despite his best efforts, back-up ‘keeper Geoff Woolhouse failed to prevent Billy Ryan’s equaliser just five minutes after the second period commenced. The score did not remain level for long, though, as Jeff Legue scored for the Steelers just two minutes before the second period ended.

The Sheffield club gained further control of the game, when the third period started. The club’s player/coach Ben Simon scored again just 14 seconds after the period started, to give Steelers a 3-1 lead.

An inspired fight-back

Nottingham Panthers, however, showed good morale to get themselves back into the game. They grabbed a second goal after 41 minutes through Rob Bellamy. The Steelers then lost their two goal lead nine minutes later, when Panthers’ David-Alexandre Beauregard grabbed the chance to make the score 3-3.

With the scores still level, the game entered a five-minute overtime. No one scored, though, which resulted in the penalty shootout.

Talbot was the only Sheffield Steelers player who converted a penalty during the shoot-out, with Nottingham Panthers emerging as 4-3 winners after goals from Danny Meyers and Ryan.

The manager’s view

Player/coach Simon praised his opponents after the match. “Nottingham played a better game tonight than they did last Friday, the moved the puck out of their zone a lot quicker which meant it was harder for us to go and hunt them down and put pressure on them,” he said.

“When we went 3-1 up I was hoping we would have enough but they hit back early and credit to them, they are a good team. These last two games could have been tricky but as a team we came through well.”

The fans’ view

The match promised to be an exciting encounter due to previous encounters that saw fights between the two sides. More than 4000 thousand people attended the game, with Alliott Smith predicting that it would be a tight and close game.

Sheffield Steelers supporters also expressed their disappointment at losing a two-goal lead. Steelers fan Steven Oldale fan said: “We feel kind of shameful for the loss, but it was a good game. There is always a winning team, in this case Nottingham.” he said.

Sheffield Steelers are still on top of the league, despite the loss, ahead of their next match against Cardiff Devils on Sunday. Simon feels that this will be a tough match, due to the several Cardiff players returning from injury.