Spain 1-0 England

Watched this today. Despite the massive amount of Spanish simulation going on and a ref making some dodgy decisions, we were definitely outplayed at the end of the day and the result was fair.

It's good we got this far and this, along with the Euro 2022 win, will do wonders for the women's game in England.

Paralympics 2012

I managed to get tickets to the first athletics session of these games. A great experience and I'm glad I went.

The games have concluded apart from the (probably boring) closing ceremony tonight. We've done a spectacular job in hosting both sets of Games and hopefully the Paralympics will change attitudes towards disabled people. Because they're not really disabled, they've just got a bigger health problem than most people do.

Rio's going to have difficulty topping this.

More Belarus news

They've lost one of their gold medals..

12 thoughts on London 2012

Now that the first bit of London 2012 has concluded, the following are 12 of my thoughts on the whole games and their legacy.

1. I have heard "Chariots of Fire" enough for one lifetime now.
2. The opening ceremony was baffling, but spectacular. However, can we please find a way to make the athletes parade shorter in future?
3. TfL's travel advice worked too well and arguably damaged the British economy as a result. At least there weren't any major problems.
4. Would like to go and visit the Olympic Park at some point - hopefully they'll keep it open for a bit so we can see where it all happened.
5. I notice that a lot of the British winners weren't singing the national anthem. Naughty, naughty... ;-) Also, the Russian female rhythmic gymnastics team are a contender for most enthusiastic rendering of a national anthem - they sung that tune with gusto.
6. So much for stiff upper lip - a lot of our winners cried.
7. Watching the fencing confirmed my preference for the epee form of the weapon; the other disciplines had each point over too quickly.
8. I imagine that Ben Anslie, Bradley Wiggins and Victoria Pendleton (at least) will get knighted. Jess Ennis might have to wait until 2016.
9. The English problem with penalties continues - even when the other nationalities of the UK are in the team...
10. Closing ceremony was mostly rubbish - went on far too long and reminded me that many of our best musicians are dead or retired. Eric Idle was good though.
11. I doubt we'll get as many medals in the warm and humid climate of Rio as we did in our climate (the weather was good, wasn't it?)
12. BBC's red button service has been very good - it allowed you to avoid all the montages and clips. Something like this for the Commonwealth Games, please?

Let the Games begin

So, after over seven years and nine billion pounds, it's here. Now, let's hope all our preparation goes to plan.