Ibiza Sun - Sports News

Sports News

JEZZA’S SPORTS REPORT
Hi, Sports fans, and sorry, but this week"s report is short, sharp and to the point; no waffling, honest, guv! Mainly because I have a seriously busy week this week, so no hanging about.
Golf first this week, and all hail Englishman Justin Rose, who won his first Major, the US Open at Merion, Pennsylvania, by 2 shots with a 1 over par score, to become the first Englishman since Tony Jacklin in 1972 to win this Championship and also the first Englishman since Nick Faldo in 1996 to win any Major. However, one has to feel sorry for my tip, leftie Phil Mickelson, who came in joint 2nd on 3 over par, thereby becoming runner-up for the 6th time at this Open. Well done, Justin, and congrats.
Rugby Union and firstly on to the Lions down under, who made it 5 wins out of 5 on their tour as they not only hammered a New South Wales/Queensland team by 69 points midweek, they then faced their hardest match to date, NSW Waratahs and then dismantled them 47-17 . With only ACT Brumbles on Tuesday before this Saturday"s First Test, let"s hope there are no further injuries. Elsewhere, England played Argentina in the 2nd and final Testof their tour and came away blowing the Pumas away to win the Series 2-0; Wales suffered without their Lions stars as they were beaten for the first time ever by Japan in Tokyo, 23-8, whilst Scotland made a fist of it but eventually lost 30-17 against South Africa in Nelspruit, to lose the 2 Test Series 2-0 and finally, the All Blacks stuffed France 30-0 in their 500th Test match.
On to Cricket, and in the current ICC Champions Trophy being held in Blighty, although England lost in their 2nd group match against Sri Linka, they made it to the Semi Finals with a rain-delayed 10 run win over New Zealand over the weekend; they will now face either tournament favourites India, already qualified with 3 group wins from 3, or South Africa, as the Windies and Pakistan are already flown home.
Tennis and with Wimbledon just over the horizon, two of the big guns were getting in to the groove. Firstly, “Our Andy” Murray, freshly back from injury, won a rain-delayed Aegon Championship at Queens by beating Marion Cilic over 3 sets, his 3rd Final win at this tournament, while the Fed Xpress was warming up over in Halle, Switzerland, his home tournament, where he beat Mikhail Youshny, to claim his 6th home title. The other 2 of the Big 4, Djokovic and Nadal, were taking a break after their recent fantastic French Open Semi Final slugfest so Wimbledon could be a stunner this year but who would bet against a Federer/Djokovic Final. Good news also for our women, as Elena Baltacha reached the Final of the Aegon Nottingham Tournament by hammering 4th seed Italian Nastassa Burnett 6-0,6-4 and having already beaten the No 1 and 5 seeds, stands a fair chance of her first title for many a day as she takes on Slovenian Tadeja Majeric.
Moving on to Footie, as one does, and just to keep you fans in the know if you"re on holiday on our fair isle (and don"t want to pay the extortionate prices of the UK National Press Dailies and Sundays) Pellegrini has now officially become Manchester City"s manager and is already promising next season"s League Title and Champions League Double next season (silly man!); the Special One has settled in to the Bridge; David Moyes likewise at OT; none of the “rumoured” mega-transfers regarding Suarez, Bale, Ronaldo, Rooney, Felaini, Baines et al have materialised; Spain have reached the Final of the Under 21 European Championships in Israel where they play Italy on Monday night, after my deadline. Their senior team, current World and European Champions, are in the Confederations Cup (for those of you not in the know, this is a mini World Cup involving each winner of the 8 World Football Federations) where they took on Uruguay winning 2-1 in their first game.
And , finally on footie, after my comments last week, some of my readers have informed me that Danny Wellbeck was at the Ocean BC in San Antonio last week, Frank Lampard was at Buccanero"s in Cala de Bou (sorry, Frank, but what a place to take your betrothed!), Stevie G arrived at the w/end and numerous other footie players, too many to mention, were seen around and about; I even had one reader tell me that Mata and Torres were seen in Cala Llonga, but I don"t believe it as (a) as I hadn"t heard this from the Old Rockers in the Far East (who, let"s face it, know everything that there is to know on that side of the island!) and (b) both are currently in Brazil in Spain"s squad for the Confederations Cup!
Finally, now that it"s official, I cannot finish this report without giving a huge “well done” and pat on the back to a friend of mine and long term Ibiza resident Derek Talbot from Cala Jondal, who has just been awarded an MBE in the Queens Birthday Honours list, for his services to GB sport and Badminton, in particular, over the years. Derek becomes only the 3rd member of this exclusive set living on the island and thoroughly deserves his award as not only was he one of Britain"s best ever “all-rounders” and represented GB in the Olympic Badminton team in 1972, winning Gold in the Mixed Doubles with Gillian Gilks but he also won Silver at the 1977 World Championships, and represented England at the Commonwealth Games between 1970 and 1978, winning 4 Golds, a Silver and 2 Bronze. After retiring from a sport that he had graced for many a year, he put pen to paper and wrote a best-selling book, Badminton to the Top, ran a successful racquets shop and then moved to Ibiza, where he now runs a world renowned hoemopathic centre, giving advice and treatment to, amongst others, royalty and the “hoy-polloy”. Well done, Derek and congratulations on a well-deserved award.
See, sports fans, you didn"t know that I mixed with such illustrious people, didya?
That"s it for this week, until next, enjoy!........Jezza

LOCAL CRICKET
IBIZA C.C. vs CROSSBATS C.C. (Twickenham)
14/06/13 35 overs per side
Ibiza chose to bat first and openers Martin "Scoops" Cooper and Sam "Easyjet" Feasey wasted no time in scoring runs rapidly. In fact they managed to forge a very solid opening partnership of 174 runs in 23 overs, before Martin Cooper retired on 100 not out. Sam Feasey continued with Graham "Bowie" Boe (28 not out), before retiring himself on 90 not out, allowing other members of the team a bat. So we were treated to the unusual sight of Paul "Pabs" Ambrose" scoring 23 runs, including several boundaries, before missing a straight ball and falling lbw. Paul was joined at the crease by visitor Julian "ManU4ever" Parmenter, who is Chairman Jeremy Parmenter"s nephew and has played several times for Ibiza in the past, and managed to score 23 not out before retiring. Ibiza"s fixtures secretary Martin "Shaggy" Makepeace ended the innings with a few well struck boundaries and the hosts finished on 304 for 1 after 35 overs.
Crossbats C.C. used 8 different bowlers who manfully tried to stem the flow of runs, and only Richard Sones contributed to the wicket taking column. In their defence, it must be said that it was their first visit to Ibiza, so the night-time temptations available proved too difficult to avoid, with many of their players getting very little rest before the game.
The visitors then batted and started brightly, with openers Graham "Oz" Winch (42) and Skipper Alistair "Arse" Wright (26) hitting some classy boundaries to score at over 7 runs per over, so that after 10 overs Crossbats were on 71 for 1, Graham Winch having mis-hit a full toss to get caught off part-time Ibiza all rounder Paul Ambrose. However, their team-mates were not as aggressive and the flow of runs slowed down, while wickets fell regularly, with Ibiza Skipper Graeme "Gman" Cooper using all his players to bowl, bar the wicket-keeper. Indeed, we witnessed another extraordinary sight, that of scorer and occasional sports/quiz writer Dave "Twinkle toes" (or "Disco") Reynolds not only changing into whites, complete with a suave Panama hat, to field, but also bowling one of the longest overs this writer can remember from an Ibiza player! Indeed, had a sharp catch been taken at the beginning of Dave"s over, he would have taken his first wicket for Ibiza C.C.! This honour was reserved for visitor Steve Carter (1/10), who contributed one wicket along with Graeme Cooper (1/2), Julian Parmenter (1/2), Sam Feasey (2 for 6) , and Paul Ambrose completing his active participation in the match with an unexpected 3 for 30. As it turned out, the target set by Ibiza was far too high for Crossbats, who finally subsided to 123 all out in 27 overs, the hosts winning by 181 runs.

15/06/13 T20 match, 20 overs per side.
Ibiza batting first scored 195 for 3 wickets (Martin Cooper 57, Joe Swinburne 50 not out, Jim Harvey 51 not out, Jeremy Parmenter 29)
Crossbats bowling: Alistair Wright 2 for 30.
Crossbats batting: 108 for 3 wickets (Steve Carter 34, James Wilson 31 not out, Rupert Barnes 27)
Ibiza bowling : Jim Harvey 2 for 17.
Ibiza win by 87 runs.
As ever, many thanks to Crossbats C.C. and especially Captain Alistair Wright for making the effort to visit Ibiza for the first time, and for bringing such a diverse group of players with such nick-names as "Arse", "Strokey", or "Mumes". They also took the trouble to bake a special cake for Ibiza C.C., and managed to bring it intact to present to the club! We hope to see you all again soon for another spell of cricket, beer and banter!
As for Ibiza, that is the last touring side until September, so well done to all players for producing an impressive run of results ,including the Balearic Cup win in May, after the opening losses in April, with the fixtures scorecard reading as follows: played 13, won 10, lost 2, tied 1.
Thats it for now,
Yours RPHood