Month: March 2012

Manchester came across tough opposition in the form of local rivals Salford as they looked to continue their fine league form. With Manchester sitting on top of the table and Salford rooted to the bottom, a spectator could be forgiven for expecting an easy victory for the talented Manchester side. However, Salford produced a resolute performance to keep Manchester on their toes right up to the final whistle.
It was a clear and cool afternoon at the Armitage Centre as the teams stepped out to commence play. The home side started the brighter, passing the ball quickly and confidently. Manchester’s captain Olivia Thackray was quick to impose herself on the game, playing an inviting ball through to winger Nat Robinson, whose teasing cross was initially spilled by the Salford keeper before being eventually cleared. Manchester continued to grow into the game, as Chloe Tomlinson beat the offside trap on the right flank to play in another testing cross, Robinson firing just wide at the back post. Thackray continued to weave play together in the centre of the park, winning a free-kick around twenty-five yards from goal. Her floated effort from the set play was clutched gratefully by Salford’s number one. Manchester’s early dominance resulted in a breakthrough after around ten minutes. Thackray broke free in midfield and split the Salford defence with a well executed through ball. Nat Robinson bore down on goal and Salford’s keeper could only palm her well struck effort into the bottom left corner.
Following the opening goal, Manchester continued to exert control. The midfield trio of Thackray, Robinson and Tomlinson was causing problems for the Salford defence, while lone striker Jess Casey used her aerial ability and close control to spearhead Manchester’s attacks. Good footwork from Chloe Tomlinson carved out another opportunity but her low effort from the corner of the eighteen yard box was saved comfortably. Another chance fell to Thackray but her strike was just wide to the right of Salford’s goal. It was on the half hour mark that Manchester made their continued ascendancy count, as a missed header in the Salford defence fell fortuitously for Casey. The Manchester striker powered through, and was justly awarded a penalty for a shirt tug from the opposing centre-back. Nat Robinson stepped up to take the spot kick, hoping to net her second of the game. She gave the keeper no chance, firing low into the left corner; Manchester had doubled their advantage and looked in unstoppable form.
Salford mustered their first clear cut chances towards the end of the first half. A sliced effort forced the first save from Manchester keeper Beth Evans, who then had to be alert to pounce on the rebound. Just a few minutes later, Salford earned the first corner of the match. The floated cross required a combination of Manchester’s centre-back partnership Kirsten Morris and Francesca Self to clear. The whistle blew for half time, with Manchester having displayed both attacking prowess and defensive capability to earn a 2-0 lead. However, though Salford were yet to really threaten, the tie was far from won.
Manchester created the first opening of the second half, though Thackray’s shot was claimed easily by Salford’s keeper. Tenacious work from Lucy Spring in midfield earned another free-kick in a dangerous position but once again Salford’s goalie was equal to it. Despite these early opportunities, Salford had emerged for the second forty-five as a much more determined force and began working the ball in a way that they hadn’t previously. A cross from the left broke through Manchester’s resilient backline and resulted in a free header glanced over the bar. Salford really should have scored, but their confidence had received a much-needed boost. Almost immediately, another trying cross required a header from Morris to clear. Salford’s increasingly attacking mentality opened the game up, and Manchester responded with attacks of their own. A poor goal-kick from Salford’s newly-introduced substitute goalkeeper allowed Tomlinson to play in yet another cross, Casey cutting back to Thackray whose effort grazed the crossbar as it went over.
With twenty minutes of the second half played, another goal felt imminent; and it also seemed that it could be a crucial one. It was Salford who claimed it, closing the deficit in scrappy style. The taxing wing play of Salford’s team was again involved, as Beth Evans couldn’t quite grasp a deep cross from the right flank. The ball squirmed free and Francesca Self was forced to clear a goalbound strike off the line, only to see a Salford striker to prod the rebound home. Suddenly, Manchester’s lead seemed precarious and Salford looked to seize on the momentum they had generated.
Playing to their strengths, Salford continued to pepper the Manchester area with high crosses and long balls, but Morris and Self, combined with full-backs Jeanie Gordon and Grace Whitaker proved a resilient backline. Midfielder Lucy Spring never shirked a tackle, providing an effective shield to the defence. Despite increasing pressure, Salford were limited to a single clear chance; keeper Evans pulling off a fantastic reaction stop to thwart a shot seemingly destined for the top left corner. Manchester introduced a trio of fresh faces late in the second half; Chloe Mapp, Simone Wan and Laura Gilroy. Their energy helped to rejuvenate the seemingly dilapidated Manchester attack, Wan in particular unlucky to connect with a tantalising ball across the six yard box from Mapp. As Salford pressed for an equalizer in the tense closing minutes, the final chance fell in fact to Thackray. A quick counter attack left the talented midfielder in space, though she dragged her shot agonizingly wide of the right post.
The final whistle blew and Manchester had won; despite a gritty display from Salford, Manchester’s class had edged them the encounter. Manchester will now look with increasing optimism towards securing the league title.

What is most apparent about John Amaechi on first meeting is his great height. It is hard to imagine how the towering 6 foot 10 former NBA basketball player, who now works as a psychologist and political activist, could be apprehensive about ‘coming out’ in the sporting world, despite the industry being so riddled with taboos. Amaechi emerges in full basketball attire and welcomes me into his office at the Amaechi Basketball Centre in Manchester, a non profit organisation which he helped to set up in order to provide basketball activities to all ages.
Homophobia in professional sport is an issue which is constantly receiving media attention, so it seems relevant to speak to a man who has had firsthand experience of being a gay professional sportsman. Since revealing his sexuality in his 2007 memoir ‘Man in the Middle’, following his retirement, Amaechi has become a role model for homosexuals in the sporting world.
Although openly gay to his friends, family and teammates, the thought of going public with his sexuality remained a daunting prospect.
Amaechi isn’t alone is his reluctance to publicly identify himself as gay. Over the past few decades there have only been a few examples of gay athletes, particularly where football is concerned. Justin Fashanu, who in 1998 tragically committed suicide, remains the only publicly gay football player in Premier League history. With estimates of dozens more gay players, it begs the question: why are footballers so reluctant to ‘come out’?
‘There are very few work places where you can get away with homophobic abuse and not get fired. Whereas football is one of the few places where it seems like it is standard.’
It is, then, down to the support of the governing bodies. Openly gay athletes such as ex Welsh rugby captain Gareth Thomas and English cricketer Stephan Davies have benefitted from the support of the Welsh Rugby Union and the ECB. But many journalists have expressed the view that, at least where football is concerned, Fashanu, the first gay footballer in Premier League, will remain the last.
The FA has been accused of doing the bare minimum when it comes to tackling the issue of homophobia in football. ‘They’re very good at rhetoric and posters, there needs to be a genuine feeling that they want to make a change,’ Amaechi says. ‘They’re doing the bare minimum that they can get away with.’
‘It is an issue of performance, if what you’re trying to do is create teams where everyone on your team no matter their religion, colour, race can play their very best you, need to create an atmosphere that allows that to happen. A homophobic atmosphere is not one.’
On February 2nd the FA announced that all their Premier League clubs had signed up to the Government’s Charter for Action against Homophobia, in an effort to tackle the problem within sport. But just how effective can a piece of paper be in solving the age-old issue of homophobia?
‘There shouldn’t need to be a charter, that’s just how you should behave towards people,’ Amaechi says.
And does the introduction of a charter only increase the difficulty in finding a solution to the problem of homophobia by adopting a hierarchical approach to bigotry? It is the wrong approach, according to Amaechi.
‘The FA has been hacking away at the same head of a monster, with little success.’
‘You have to tackle all the problems at once, whether it’s racism, sexism, anti-Semitism or homophobia’.
In February the FA launched a new initiative called Opening Doors and Joining In, which aims to promote the adoption of a ‘So what?’ attitude in regard to homosexuality in football.
But while there is doubt surrounding the sincerity of the initiative, it is only through campaigns such as this, which consciously address the issue of homophobia, that any solution to the problem can be found.
‘It’s far more likely if the League and the Association look like they’re serious about making the environment better. If they do that, then yes, they’ll get players that come out. And yes, most teammates will think it’s no big deal.’
English publicist Max Clifford, who is said to have represented two gay Premier League football stars in the last five years, has warned major footballers against ‘coming out’. The issue, then, is not just the fans and the threat of homophobic abuse screamed from the stands, but how being homosexual affects the market value of a sportsperson.
‘The main worry is what it is going to be like every other day in practice. Is your coach going to look down his nose? You have to worry about whether you’ll get another contract.’ Amaechi says.
The benefits of these recent initiatives by the FA are yet to be seen.
Will any footballers be following in the footsteps of Justin Fashanu any time soon? ‘Soon?’ He says with a raised eyebrow. ‘I don’t know about soon.’ But sitting in his office at the Amaechi Basketball Centre, surrounded by young basketball players who will perhaps one day follow in his footsteps, it is hard to be pessimistic about the tolerance of homophobia in sport.

How did you get into cheerleading?
Well throughout first and second year at University I always wanted to do cheerleading but none of my friends wanted to. They played other sports like Rugby League and Netball, which are apparently ‘real sports’ compared to cheerleading something I will always challenge them on! Anyway then last year I went to Texas in my year in Industry and wanted to join over there but I couldn’t as wasn’t an official student because I was working at the labs. So when I came back to England I didn’t want to miss my last student opportunity to finally become a cheerleader so made sure I signed up during Fresher’s week!

What is it like being part of the Manchester Squad?
It’s very social and such nice people are in the squad; they were really welcoming and are always on the lookout for the next great cheerleader so get down to training! We do take training seriously as its three 2 hour sessions every week, so we put the work in and train a lot more than many of the other sports teams at the Uni.

What do you focus on in each training session?
In each session we warm up for 20 minutes which usually involves a jog and then we fully stretch mainly focusing on the legs for the flexible jumps and wrists for the stunts and lifting. For the last few months we have been practicing a routine over and over as we were preparing for a tournament in Loughborough where there were 15 University in our pool. To train for that the weekly sessions were split into two, in first half we practiced the ‘stunts,’ so these include the lifts and moves in the air and then the second half we looked at the dance sections.

What was it like competing in your first tournament in Loughborough?
It was very exciting and competitive but not in a bitchy way as portrayed in films like ‘Bring it on,’ etc. Everyone was cheering teams on and a lot of the uni’s brought their second teams to maximise the support. It was cool seeing all the different costumes that the other teams had on; some had amazing glitter and big hair. We kept it very professional and didn’t over do it too much, more about our performance than what we look like!

What components make up the Manchester Cheerleading outfit?
Well we all have the same white trainers which were designed for us, and of course they have the purple and proud insole, and then we have to wear white socks with those. We have our short under layer which is called ‘spankies,’ then a skirt which is very short but this is because we have to be able to move freely during jumps and moves. The upper part of the outfit is a high polo neck and then during competition we have to wear a very high pony tail with a purple bow. We definitely have the most purple and proud sports outfit at Uni!

If I decided to come down to a session what cheerleading moves would you teach me?
Ok, well it’s important to know the basics. We would first look at your stance and you would want to be in a ‘clean’ standing position so this means that you have your arms by your side and legs together. This would be whenever you aren’t doing a move; everything needs to be very neat for performance. Then I would show you a ‘high clap,’ so this is used in the chants- lock your hands in a clap position near your mouth with elbows tight together. There is also the high ‘V,’ where you raise your arms above your head at full extension, there is then a low ‘V’ which is it reversed. And if you’re feeling confident then we could have a go at a few jumps so a ‘toe touch’ which is legs out at full extension.

Stereotypically Cheerleaders and their sport are not always cast in a positive light, what is your opinion on this?
I know some people view it as a ‘joke’ sport but it shouldn’t be seen like this. You really need to be fit and have core strength to be able to perform because we have to be able lift the girls and also perform in the air. There are a lot of technical elements to the sport which are very difficult to learn and it combines dance, strength, athleticism, style and gymnastic elements- it’s tough! We had quite a few boys who started at the beginning but had to drop out as they couldn’t keep up the pace.ha. Also I know there’s the whole ‘stupid cheerleader’ image but we are all clever girls at the universities of Manchester; I mean I study bio-chemistry and hope to go into dentistry after. We need to get rid of these silly stereotypes!

Watch out for the Purple and Proud Cheerleaders who will be bringing their cheer to next month’s Christie Cup…

Linford Christie famously burst onto the scene in the early 1990’s, capturing the imagination of the nation with his 100m gold medal win at the 1992 Seoul Olympics that announced him as one of the world’s premier athletes. Christie seemed destined to go onto dominate sprinting, and establish himself as one of Brtiain’s leading lights in the world of athletics.A series of unfortunate events throughout the latter half of the decade saw his reputation shredded and ultimately, leave his legacy as one of controversy.

A routine drugs test in 1999 after a meeting in Dortmund found Christie to have nearly 100 times the usual amount of Nandrolone in his system, and despite being exonerated due to a variety of doubts over the intent to take stimulants, the decision was overturned, and Christie was handed a 2 year ban, as well as having his Olympic accreditation revoked by the British Olympic Association, a punishment which still stands for this summer’s games. A series of legal disputes with journalist John McVicar and comedian Nick Hancock after their comments about the sprinter did little to restore Christie’s tarnished reputation, and kept his name in the headlines for the wrong reasons. Controversy always seemed to plague Christie even long after the fall out from the drugs ban, for instance in 2004, under rather humorous circumstances, a sculpture erected in appreciation of the sprinter named ‘The B of the Bang’ was deemed as ‘unsafe’ and forced to be dismantled.

An appearance on the ITV reality show ‘I’m a Celebrity: Get Me Out of Here’ brought Christie back into the public spotlight, but once again, his public image suffered a hammer blow after he was found guilty of causing a serious road accident after driving on the wrong side of the road, narrowly avoiding a jail term. This summer’s Olympic games in London will see Christie take on a mentor role for the British team, a decision that has been greeted with some scepticism amongst some within the Team GB camp. Ultimately however, whilst he will be remembered for his various controversies, at his peak, Linford Christie rightfully will go down as one of Britain’s greatest ever athletes, a feat acknowledged by the awarding of an OBE.

Reputations are an irksome concept; you spend years developing one only for it to be shattered in one single moment of misjudgement. Mohammad Amir, the richly-talented Pakistan seamer, was undoubtedly destined for a glorious career but instead has had his reputation torn apart after being convicted of spot-fixing.

Amir has been expelled from cricket for five years but re-constructing his broken reputation will take years of hard graft. Amir, is certainly not alone in making mistakes. Professional sport is synonymous with pressure and is what makes spectators flock to stadia; Billie Jean King once declared that ‘pressure is a privilege’ but a myriad of sportsmen and women react differently when the spotlight is blinding them. In these situations a psychologist would suggest that our natural instincts take over and as professional sportsman are elite athletes the skill they execute is normally accurate.

However, as with the majority of theories, there are exceptions. Wayne Rooney, during a Euro 2012 qualifier against Montenegro last year- lashed out belligerently at defender Miodrag Dzudovic- earning himself a dismissal and a deserved three game ban, reduced, incredibly, to two on appeal. England required a solitary point from that match to guarantee qualification and were cruising at 2-0 in the Podgorican cauldron of atmosphere and intimidation when Rooney saw red, illustrating the fact that pressure is permanent in professional sport.

It would not be unfair to argue that as professional athletes are continually pressurised-and are paid handsomely to deal with it-they should be able to cope. The behaviour of members of the England Rugby World Cup squad in New Zealand highlighted an inability to handle the overwhelming expectations of a nation.

Mike Tindall, captain at the time, was allegedly seen kissing a woman while inebriated in a Queenstown bar-weeks after his wedding with the Queen’s grand daughter, Zara Philips. Tindall was consequently fined £25,000 and was kicked out of the RFU. Chris Ashton and James Haskell were both warned about their conduct and fined £5,000 following unsuitable comments made to a female hotel worker in Dunedin. Furthermore, Manu Tuilagi was cautioned by police after jumping off a ferry and swimming to shore shortly after England were defeated by France at the quarter final stage; the Leicester centre was punished with a £3,000 fine.

A World Cup tournament is naturally very draining and achieving the balance right between training hard and relaxing is paramount, but the aforementioned players failed to realise their every move is scrutinised when representing their country. When things are going well on the pitch you earn a bit of leeway off it, fans and the media are generally more accepting but having under-performed considerably in the tournament, England returned home with a reputation of beer-swigging, social junkies rather than devout professionals.

It was British Boxing’s turn last month to have its opportunity to shoot itself in the foot with an embarrassing catalogue of incidents. The ever-controversial Derek Chisora was clearly on a mission to disgrace himself and leave another of our governing bodies, the Britsh Boxing Board of Control, very red-faced. The Zimbabwean-born heavyweight petulantly slapped his opponent, Vitali Klitschko, at the weigh-in, and spat water in the face of his brother Wladimir, before the fight. Only Chisora himself will know why he acted in that fashion but I am inclined to believe that the overpowering pressure of the occasion engulfed him. To his credit, he performed admirably in the ring and could have salvaged his reputation. However, he instead opted to become embroiled in a ludicrous war of words with retired British heavyweight, David Haye, at the post-fight press conference which escalated into mayhem with both men brawling absurdly. Chisora has paid the price with an indefinite ban from the sport being handed to him by the World Boxing Council.

On July 6th 2005 Jacques Rogge announced in front of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Singapore that “the Games of the XXXth Olympiad in 2012 are awarded to the city of…London”. Six-and-a-half years of preparation and diligence and a figure in the region of £5-9 billion has been invested; attempting to make London a creditable host of one of the biggest, if not the biggest, sporting events in the world.

However, is all this planning being tarnished by the actions of a minority of our British sportsmen, our so-called “role models”? Do other nations view the British with a degree of disdain? We must hope that our reputation remains very much positive, despite recent events and that the impression London gives the Games and the people of the world is very much a lasting one: for all the right reasons.