Sport magazine 327

Issue 327 | October 18 2013

The Thinker

Contents Issue 327, October 18 2013 Radar 07 The game changers The people whose innovative brilliance changed their sport

08 Six Stickers Tracking down the players who you couldn’t get for your Merlin album almost 20 years ago. As you do

10

The future of fitness What’s coming our way, to be showcased at The Gadget Show... plus, what’s been and gone

o this coming week Features

18

Petr Cech Our exclusive interview and shoot with the Chelsea stopper reveals he’s not your average footballer

27 CrossFit crazy Fitness facts and fiction: we sift the truth about the exercise revolution that’s sweeping the world

34 Jimmy White The snooker legend takes us for a ride in the back of his car, and talks Tony Meo and the Rolling Stones

18 Cover image: James Lincoln. This page: Tony Duffy/Allsport, Mike Cooper/Allsport

07

38 James Doyle

34

56

The young jockey with one of the hottest jobs in racing talks to us ahead of British Champions Day

Extra Time 50 Kit The new Derrick Rose trainers.

Warning: you may not be able to jump quite like him

52 Grooming Our friendly barber picks his favourite products

get ready for your

WINTER SPORTS SEASON 22 STORES NATIONWIDE WWW.SNOWANDROCK.COM

54 Style Why you need never worry again about clothes shopping...

56 Entertainment NOW OPEN AT SELFRIDGES

Tom Hanks stars as Captain Phillips, plus: Morrissey! Arnie! Some baby gorillas! What can go wrong? | October 18 2013 | 05

Radar

p08 – Tracking down Philippe Albert to complete your sticker album

p10 – We get all minimalist and arty with football club badges

Game chanGers The Fosbury flop

The Cruyff turn

The switch-hit

The big winger

Until the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, most high-jumpers used the straddle technique or a scissor to clear the bar.

Enter 21-year-old Dick Fosbury (above), who had been developing his unique approach for several years.

He curved the end of his run-up, launching himself backwards over the bar, head first, and setting a new Olympic record. Within a few years, every elite-level high-jumper was using his technique, and the event had changed forever.

You have to do something pretty crazy on a football pitch for it to be named after you – and this move deserves its place in history alongside the Panenka penalty and the Vinnie Jones crotchgrab. It came to global attention at the 1974 World Cup; facing Swedish right back Gunnar Olsson, the Dutchman feinted to pass inside, but instead pivoted around the ball and scampered off in the opposite direction. Olsson is still out there somewhere, trying to work out where he went.

Ignore Jack Wilshere – England are lucky to have Kevin Pietersen. That was never clearer than in an ODI against New Zealand in 2008. Facing medium-pacer Scott Styris, the right-handed KP had the speed of thought and movement to change stance and grip, effectively becoming a left-hander to batter the ball through the off (on?) side for six. Some wanted it banned, but the MCC’s dusty rulebook for once held no objections, and the switch-hit was born.

“He’s a freak, and the sooner he goes away the better,” Will Carling said after Jonah Lomu rampaged his way to four tries in the 1995 World Cup semi final, and fellow victims everywhere – or Jonah’s witnesses, if you will – no doubt agreed. Men of Lomu’s ilk (6ft 5ins and 19 stone) weren’t meant to be wingers, but a 100m time of 10.8s made him quicker than most – and 37 tries in 63 games made him a star.

Thus began a trend of weighty wingers that still rings true today. | October 18 2013 | 07

Tony Duffy/Allsport, Allsport UK/Allsport, Tom Shaw/Getty Images, Vincent Amalvy/AFP/Getty Images

F

orty-five years ago this weekend, Dick Fosbury changed his sport forever by clearing the high-jump bar backwards.

With a nod to Fosbury (above) then, we’ve picked out three more revolutionary sporting moments, opting for those widely imitated and recent enough that their origins have not been lost in the mists of time (like the first cricketer to bowl overarm).

Disagree? Let us know @sportmaguk.

Radar

Hot wheels

unfinished A business

eminiscent of the original top-down Grand Theft Auto, except with fewer Molotov cocktails, the official F1 Challenge app is right in the slipstream of the console release of F1 2013, which was released a fortnight ago.

We say right in the slipstream, but a more apt analogy might be that the brand new app has already been lapped – featuring as it does all the cars and drivers from the 2012 season. The plus side of that tardiness is the challenge mode, with more than 90 scenarios taken from the 2012 season to play your way through. We’ve checked, and

R

rising star in the growing ‘attempt something nuts and then write about it’ genre, Adam CarrollSmith’s first book, Chasing Sachin, saw him trying to bowl a ball against Indian cricketing demi-god Sachin Tendulkar. In his second, the newly released Six Stickers, Carroll-Smith tries to track down the six players missing from his Merlin Premier League 96 sticker album, from the 1995-96 season. But where

08 | October 18 2013 |

thankfully it’s not just 90 rounds of ‘Can you catch Sebastian Vettel?’

The controls are intuitive; a lot easier than an actual F1 car, anyway.

You simply touch the screen to steer, and tap it to activate your KERS boost. There are loads of other game modes, including time trials, duels, Grands Prix and ‘chase the ace’, which actually isn’t a million miles away from that ‘Can you catch Vettel’ thing we mentioned above.

It’s exciting, engrossing fun – basically the opposite of actually watching F1 this season.

Out now on iTunes store for iPad and iPhone, £1.99

most people would have a quick look on eBay and then move on with their lives, the author instead decided to track down the missing six and photograph them in their current state. We’d be lying if we said it taught us anything profound (other than that Philippe Albert has put on a few pounds), but it’s an amusing and diverting journey into nostalgia.

We might even dig out our own sticker album.

Six Stickers (Pitch), £14.99, out now

Radar

Fit future

T

he world has changed a lot since the days when cutting-edge exercise meant running around wearing a bin bag.

Below, we’ve highlighted some fitness trends both new and old – from the medicine ball and the first pedometer on the right, to smartphone apps such as MapMyRun and guilt-assuaging video game accessory Playstation Move on the left.

There’s plenty more to come, of course – the rise of wearable technology such as fitness trackers, smartwatches and Google Goggles has undoubted applications for both the world of exercise and the world of dressing yourself up like Inspector Gadget.

Explore the latest developments for yourself at Gadget Show Live @ Christmas, from November 1-3 at Earls Court. gadgetshowlive.net

Strip down B

oil your football club down to its essence, and what have you got?

If you’re a Man City fan, it’s probably a wad of cash and a chip on your shoulder; or, if you’re a West Ham supporter, it’s a creased and faded photo of Bobby Moore that you won’t stop waving in everyone’s face. Quarterly independent football magazine Spiel have taken a slightly more direct approach with this selection of limited-edition prints produced in conjunction with Well Made Studio. They offer a stripped-down, minimalist take on the classic badges of Premier League clubs – and, with only 100 of each being produced, they’re a classy way of showing your allegiances.

A3 prints, £25 plus postage from spielmagazine.com/shop

10 | October 18 2013 |

A

lthough at first glance it might seem like a bunch of women fighting in a school gym, cult hit sport roller derby actually involves two teams of five skating around a track and getting points for lapping their opponents.

One of the fastest and most frenetic of sports, it has taken the USA by storm. It can be brutal – blocking is permitted (and positively encouraged), and an eccentric

subculture has built up in and around the female-dominated world of roller derby. Naturally, of course, it has its own TV series: Roller Derby Till I Die delves into the lives of the women who play in the UKs major league – many with interesting stories and nicknames such as Ruby Rehab and Grievous Bodily Charm.

Roller Derby Till I Die starts Friday 9pm on Extreme Sports Channel, Sky 419, Virgin Media 527

Rob Western 2013

Roller girls

Radar Editor’s letter Bowing out: Tendulkar will play his final Test at the Wankhede Stadium www.sport-magazine.co.uk @sportmaguk facebook.com/sportmagazine

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Commercial

Farewell to the master It is fitting that Sachin Tendulkar will say his goodbyes to cricket at the ground he calls home

F Acting editor Tony Hodson @tonyhodson1

in the glory of a seamless qualification.

Elsewhere this week, I read with satisfaction the news that Sachin Tendulkar has been granted his wish to bow out of Test cricket at his home ground in Mumbai. His 200th and final Test, against the West Indies at the Wankhede Stadium in mid-November, will represent the dying embers of a career that has burned staggeringly brightly since his debut, at the age of 16, all the way back in November 1989.

To put that into perspective, Tendulkar first stepped foot on a Test cricket pitch six days after the Berlin Wall started coming down. Margaret Thatcher was the Prime Minister, All Around The World by Lisa Stansfield was the UK number one (something I’m sure the Little Master would know), and Daniel Day-Lewis was delivering an Oscar-winning turn in My Left Foot. Some things really do never change.

Longevity is a great quality for any sportsperson to have, but remaining physically sound beyond 40 is largely irrelevant if your form doesn’t endure alongside fitness.

No one could convincingly argue that the retiring Tendulkar is anywhere near the player he was at his very best, true – but his Test average is still way in excess of 50, and there is every chance he will leave the game with more than 16,000 runs in his favourite form of the game.

Tendulkar has always been, and will remain, one of the wonders of the sporting world. He has curiously split opinion outside his native India (maybe because he is so universally revered there); as a teenager watching more cricket than was healthy for me, for example, I was always more captivated by the glorious talents of Brian Lara.

Is it because we never saw the best of Tendulkar here in England, a colleague asked me recently. And then we looked up his record here: 1,575 Test runs at an average of 54.31, with four centuries. Yeah, this kid was pretty special.

So Laura Robson has parted ways with Miles Maclagan, her coach of four months who was never officially called her coach. The off-season is now upon her, of course, but Robson could do with firming up her plans for 2014 sooner rather than later. Could harnessing her undeniably huge talent be a job for Judy Murray? Time, as ever, will tell.

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irst things first: our press deadlines being what they are, the magazine was out of the door before England’s huge World Cup qualifier against Poland kicked off on Tuesday. Here’s hoping you read this basking

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Radar Opinion

It’s like this…

Bill Borrows

Flats on Friday

A

@billborrows

@davidflatman

David Lyttleton

the now-sadly-former number one-ranked golfer in the world.

Even respected left-wing commentators Nick Faldo and Gary Player have suggested that the distaff side could well be to blame for this dramatic fall from grace. Or perhaps Rory Mac is JBC FAW (Just Being Crap For A While – see Leeds United, Oasis, etc).

For whatever personal reasons, Tiger Woods has been reluctant to get involved. However, the general thrust of the argument seems to be that McIlroy has lost his mojo. And, yet again, a woman is to blame.

“Typical,” many ladies might shrug, reading this while absent-mindedly grazing across and indeed through their partner’s iPad while he gendertypically fixes the guttering during a grade two Saffir-Simpson hurricane. “I suppose it’s all our fault. Again.” Maybe…

George Best, Dennis Rodman, Gavin Henson, Frank Worthington, Boris Becker, James Hunt, Barry Sheene and Danny Cipriani. Just saying.

I could go on, but the word count is kicking in. How about, in a dramatic break with tradition, we permit a man to have the last word. This man: Bill Shankly.

He was once asked: “Did you actually take your wife to watch a game at Rochdale on your wedding anniversary?”

“Of course I didn’t,” he answered, shocked and speaking for all men. “It was her birthday. Would I have got married in the football season? [Pause] Anyway, it was Rochdale reserves.”

lot of the comment and opinion surrounding English national sports teams seems to be somewhat repetitive. In one or two sports, we show the way to the rest of the world – but, as a rule, major tournaments or qualification periods see our lack of tangible success lamented time after time. We have an enormous population, we have plenty of money, yet we still so rarely seem to cut it. I think this is largely down to bottle.

Not players’ bottle, but that of the men and women running the system from the inside. Football and rugby are often compared as entities and, as a rule, these comparisons are either a bit of fun or a bit irrelevant and lazy. Of course a footballer runs further and earns more, of course a rugby player hits harder and is more respectful of the referee. These things may never change. There is, though, a more pertinent comparison of the two great games, and it’s to do with permission.

When Stuart Lancaster took over the England rugby team a couple of years ago, he started by dropping a handful of the country’s best players. He then proceeded to select a load of kids. Talented, tough kids – without question – but sporting adolescents nonetheless. He didn’t do this to make a point. He did this because he had, after a strong, clear brief from the upper echelons of the governing body, been given permission to do what he felt would get the job done and what would, ultimately, benefit English rugby in the long term. He was told to win the World Cup in 2015, and to set England up to compete in World Cups time after time, so legacy was and is part of the remit.

He was then given permission to do it his way, and ensured that it was safe to do so.

Compare this situation with that of Roy Hodgson.

Sure, he has introduced Andros Townsend and Rickie Lambert but, on the whole, he’s rolling out the usual suspects. Steven Gerrard is a sporting icon in this country, as is Frank Lampard. Their consistency and leadership have seen them rightly achieve legendary status, but they have never played well together for England. Yet still they are selected together, and I wonder why.

Football managers are not given time. They are not given permission to do things their way – not really.

Hodgson’s job would probably end should we not qualify for the World Cup, and this is nothing to do with fans or the press. If the men in suits truly believe they have the man to make England the force we seem to believe we ought to be, then they must have the bottle to tell him and us that his job is safe. For a long time. As it stands, he would be irresponsible to revolutionise his squad or approach because he would get the sack two games in.

Football managers are not given permission to fail, or to explore. Offering this permission takes vision and bottle, and represents one way in which The Great Game can indeed learn from little old rugby.

Always the woman’s fault

A

llow me to state that this is in no way an antediluvian sexist rant – although it will inevitably be perceived to be such by certain members of the sisterhood who, let’s face it, and seeing as they are women, should not be reading this magazine in the first place.

The second half of the above paragraph is just one example of the misogynistic kind of attitude that exists in the almost entirely male-dominated world of sport.

The dinosaurs will say patronising things such as: “Jessica Ennis has done well.” Well, obviously.

“And so had Paula Radcliffe before she voided her bowels at the side of the road in a very public fashion.” Apologies if you are drinking a chocolate milkshake at this point.

But these are the kind of attitudes that have stopped rounders, hopscotch and that weird game with a tennis ball in a pair of tights becoming Olympic sports. Totally unacceptable.

This mindset has produced the kind of oppressive patriarchal environment where it is thought routinely acceptable to find goalkeepers in women’s football so side-splittingly inept that it is hard to believe Steve Martin did not play one when he was still funny (All of Me, 1984).

It should, therefore, come as no surprise to learn that Caroline Wozniacki – the golden-haired, long-limbed Danish tennis star – is suddenly being blamed for the dramatic slump in form of her perhaps now-sadly-former boyfriend Rory McIlroy,

14 | October 18 2013 |

Frozen in time

16 | October 18 2013 |

A flash storm in London this week meant all trains were cancelled, but the hardy Sport team would not be denied. Here’s the subeditor, for instance, making the best of his way in, only to be hit with a double congestion charge as he careered into town. Not really: this is the traditional Pacu Jawi cattle race in Batusangkar, Indonesia, held to celebrate the end of the harvest. Competitors hold on to just the tails of their bulls and ride aboard a wooden plank. Make this an Olympic sport, please. | 17

Robertus Pudyanto/Getty Images

Beating the traffic

Petr Cech

An education In an exclusive interview with Sport on the eve of his 300th Premier League appearance, Petr Cech looks back on a childhood spent behind the Iron Curtain, reects on the modern art of goalkeeping and explains why he’s learning yet another new language k

Photography: James Lincoln

| October 18 2013 | 19

Petr Cech

A

rainy Thursday afternoon in Surrey, and Sport has travelled south to meet Petr Cech. It is two days after Chelsea have returned from Bucharest, where a 4-0 Champions League victory over the Romanian champions Steaua went some way to mitigating a surprise home defeat by Basel a fortnight earlier.

The club is 10 games into its second spell under Jose Mourinho, and conversation inevitably turns to the Portuguese manager whose personality, although perhaps slightly tempered, dominates now as it did upon his first arrival nine years ago.

“You don’t change your philosophy of football,” says Cech. “You just improve or modify it a little.

There are some things he does in a slightly different way now, but you wouldn’t see a big difference.

He has the same appetite for winning, the same attitude towards training and the same attention to detail when preparing for games. Being Jose, you see in every detail that he wants to win.”

Cech is one of three players still at Chelsea who featured for Mourinho in his first game in charge at the club – a 1-0 win over Manchester United, at Stamford Bridge on August 15 2004. It wouldn’t take any great student of the game to be able to name John Terry and Frank Lampard as the other two, but the game carries particular resonance for Cech – as a 22-year-old newly arrived from Rennes in the summer, it was his first game for the club too.

“There was a lot of pressure, because everybody expected Carlo Cudicini to play,” he recalls now.

“I remember coming out for the warm-up, and you see there is a huge reception for Carlo. Everyone is singing his name, and then the line-ups come out and I think the supporters were like: ‘Who is that guy?’ I knew I had to really deliver if I really wanted to keep my place, but it was a game in which we were tactically very strong; they didn’t have many chances and we won 1-0. That was the best start for me.

“For me also, it was important that Jose picked me ahead of Carlo for that game, gave me that chance.

I had a fantastic time when he was here first time; 20 | October 18 2013 |

I’ve been here ever since, and now he’s back he’s picked me again, which is great. Hopefully we’ll have the same success we had first time round, if not better.”

Music man

We are speaking to Cech at the plush Woodlands Park Hotel in Surrey, a short drive from Chelsea’s training ground in Cobham. He arrives in relaxed mood, happy to chat as he changes into the suit he will wear for our exclusive photoshoot. He notes the Rolling Stones playing in the background, and laughs as he recounts an anecdote from the previous day.

“So I went for a scan with Juan Mata, and the guy in there asked me if I would like to listen to some music while he was doing it,” he says. “I asked if he had any Queen, but he must have misheard because instead he played Cream. I said: ‘No, Queen.’

He seemed to know who I meant, but I don’t know what he thought I said because the next minute he is putting something on I have never heard in my life.

I had no idea what it was. It was terrible.”

In between shots, the 31-year-old talks of the enjoyment he gets from his role as occasional drummer for a band in his native Czech Republic.

He played his first festival this summer – “I was much more nervous than for any football match” – but now wants to learn the piano so as to gain an even greater understanding of music.

“I love discovering new things, learning new things, trying new things,” he explains. “It keeps

my brain working. I don’t like wasting time, so when I have even two or three minutes I would rather do something with it.

“This is why I’m learning Spanish now, for example. You’re staying in a hotel, waiting for a team meeting or whatever, but I’m not a big fan of watching DVDs or movies, or playing games.

Instead, I will get the pads out and practise my drumming, or learn some new Spanish vocabulary.

It keeps my brain working, and my head relaxed.”

Cech’s passion for education, for developing himself as an individual, mirrors his passion for sport. To what extent has he been shaped, we ask, by having grown up in Communist Czechoslovakia in the 1980s?

“The system was wrong for many people, and obviously there were a lot of limits on what people could do, but as a child you don’t have any idea about that,” he says. “So, for me, being a child then was brilliant. There wasn’t much to do – no computers or anything like that – but the state invested heavily in education and sport. I was good in school, so I never had any problems there, and I spent most of the rest of my time outside, playing sports with friends.

Actually, you would look a bit odd if you weren’t part of some club, whether that be an artistic club, or gymnastics, football, athletics, ice hockey, whatever.

It was a lot of fun. I was really like a sports kid; as long as I could play everything – football, ice hockey, basketball, athletics – then I was happy.” k

“I love discovering and trying new things, and don’t like wasting time”

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Petr Cech

Julian Finney/Getty Images, Adrian Dennis/AFP/Getty Images

Keeping cool Chelsea fans can thank the prohibitive cost of buying ice hockey kit for the fact their now legendary goalkeeper pursued a career in football at all, but it is no surprise that Cech has approached his chosen art with the same hunger for learning that has characterised his life away from the sport. He speaks in reverent tones of the personality and influence of Peter Schmeichel, and the consistency over a long career of Gianluigi Buffon, but he is unequivocal when we ask him which goalkeeper he most studied as a young professional.

“I remember when Ajax started playing with Edwin van der Sar basically as a libero,” he says.

“Everyone was like: ‘Wow, they are playing like this with their goalkeeper!’ But then you realise that this was the way forward – a goalkeeper shouldn’t just be in the goal to catch the ball when it comes to him.

He is an extra player, he can see things from the back, he can pass the ball.

“Players don’t just kick the ball for the sake of it, so why should a goalkeeper? You always want to find the solution that enables you to retain the ball, and you always need to know how to control the space behind the defenders. I was about 13 when Van der Sar started playing like that for Ajax, and I saw that this was the way. So as a goalkeeper now, you work more with your feet to make sure that, when you receive a back pass, you have no problem; you can control, you can dribble, you can pass with both feet.

He was the perfect example that goalkeepers are not only there to use their hands, but that is how he was brought up at Ajax. Now you see all goalkeepers try to develop like this, but it is important they do.”

On the subject of goalkeepers, and with a World Cup but around the corner, we ask Cech about the early-season travails of England number one Joe Hart. His answer does not disappoint.

“The problem is that when Joe Hart has a great game, you see all the headlines asking if he is the best keeper in the world,” says Cech. “Then Manchester City concede a few goals and suddenly he is not good enough. Everybody makes mistakes, but because he is so much under the spotlight –

22 | October 18 2013 |

keepers, and I think the problem is definitely with the way they are raised here. In England, I think you kick the ball at a keeper, and as long as he catches it nobody really cares how. Everywhere I was, whether in the Czech Republic or France, you are taught certain ways in which you can catch the ball better; techniques to help you move faster; ways to improve your overall co-ordination. But here in England, I think the system has been to keep shooting at the keeper and hope he learns how to catch. This is not the way it should be, but it is something that comes from the history of the national team. Gordon Banks played I don’t know how long, then Peter Shilton played for 20 years, then David Seaman for many years, and now Joe Hart. You basically always have one keeper and don’t care about the rest.”

Triple century really, the only one for the moment you can pick in your national team – everyone in the country is always watching him. Instead of always thinking of him as the best or the worst, people should just be happy that you have a goalkeeper who can play for the national team for the next 10 years.

“Against Bayern Munich [in the Champions League], people can point and say maybe he should have saved this shot or stopped that one – but the Man City defence is making a lot of mistakes at the moment, and in that game he made three or four saves that could easily have been goals.

When the team doesn’t help you, it cannot all be on your shoulders.”

He may be a fully paid-up member of the goalkeepers’ union, but Cech retains strong views on why so few English goalkeepers currently ply their trade in the Premier League.

“I always hear people ask why English keepers don’t get more chances, why there are so many foreign goalkeepers in the Premier League, but that is not the right question to ask,” he says.

“The question is what foreign keepers are doing better that gets them picked ahead of English

Even in a career as stellar as his, 2013 has been quite a year for Cech – who, at 31, remains a goalkeeper in his prime. In March, he reached a century of caps for the Czech Republic, appropriately keeping a clean sheet as his team won 3-0 in Armenia. In May, he was once more in goal for Chelsea as they beat Benfica to claim the Europa League – thus completing what is effectively a full house of trophies at club level. In August, at Old Trafford, Cech registered his 200th clean sheet in a Chelsea shirt. And this weekend, at home to Cardiff, he looks set to make his 300th appearance in the Premier League. He will become the 103rd player to reach that milestone, and it is one he does not take lightly.

“I look back and see a kid playing on the streets in the Czech Republic,” he says. “And now I see myself reaching all these landmarks. I have more than 200 clean sheets for Chelsea, now 300 Premier League games. If you are the goalkeeper, you either play or you don’t, so this is something I am really proud of because it means I have kept my place for all the time I’ve been able to play. Playing for one of the biggest clubs in the world, with all this pressure and so many great players, you really need to work hard to keep your place. I am very proud of that.” k

Petr Cech

“I think it’s important when you have a strong core to the team, players who have seen everything” He should also be proud of a CV that features three Premier League titles, four FA Cups, two League Cups, the aforementioned Europa League and a Champions League win that owed much to his heroics between the sticks in the face of a Bayern Munich barrage two seasons ago. Honours have not been in short supply at Chelsea throughout the Roman Abramovich era, but neither have managers.

Cech has played under no fewer than nine in nine full seasons at the club – in times of turmoil, he accepts the role he and other senior professionals have played in keeping the successes coming.

“I think it’s important when you have a strong core to the team, players who have seen everything,” he says. “Every new manager has his ideas about how to play, who to pick, what he wants to do. The overall environment changes, but as a senior player you can help the other players adapt. If you have so many things going on, but players there who know how to deal with the difficult situations and help others do the same, then that is priceless. Sometimes people say that senior players are very difficult to manage, but I think it is the opposite. If you have a manager who knows how to do it, then it becomes very easy.”

Regardless of the rumours surrounding the involvement of player power in Mourinho’s first exit from the club, Cech clearly believes his manager is up to the task on that score. Expectation is as high as ever at Stamford Bridge, even if the early signs are 24 | October 18 2013 |

that this year’s Premier League could prove more competitive than any to have gone before it. So, what does the man between the posts think the team can achieve this season?

“Anything,” comes a decisive response. “We haven’t won the Premier League for three years in a row, so I think it would be great to get that back. And to grow up as a team; we have some young players, some new players who have never won the league, so it would be a great step forward for them to come and accomplish that. We know how sweet it is to win the European Cup, too, so if we could go far in that and really challenge for the title, then that would be great.

“Any trophy counts, though. I really like playing in the FA Cup, it’s a great competition, and a lot of people underestimate the League Cup – everyone knows where it stands in the order of things, but it is still a trophy in your hands and the first one you can win in the season. If you have a trophy in mid-February, then it can give you a great boost for the rest of the season.”

For Cech, for Chelsea, every trophy is winnable.

It is a culture that has been instilled at the club ever since Mourinho took charge first time round, and one that has developed among the senior players who remain from that spell. But, we have to ask, did the then 22-year-old Petr Cech have any idea what he was signing up to when he agreed to join Chelsea all those years ago?

“No, not at all,” he laughs. “It was a big discovery for me, certainly in terms of the media pressure.

At Sparta Prague, I was used to all eyes being on the club; this is when I learned to play with the pressure – people asking how is it possible when you don’t win.

But then you go to Chelsea, this brand under the global spotlight – particularly with the arrival of Mr Abramovich – and the media attention was absolutely huge. It was a big surprise, but for me the main part was always the football. As long as you are playing, you get to learn about the pressure as you go.

“What helped me most was that I signed in January, but stayed at Rennes for the rest of that season.

I learned English at school, but it was not really good; I had learned German more than English, and then in France spoke only French. I knew I had six months to prepare before coming to England – so I started watching movies in English, and learning the vocabulary and all the grammar, so when I arrived in England I was much more confident in the language.

And I watched Chelsea games regularly, so I got to know the players, who they were and how they played.

When I came into the squad, I knew what to expect.

“It was good for me – and it’s all worked out pretty well, hasn’t it?”

Tony Hodson @tonyhodson1 Visit www.facebook.com/PetrCech.official.

With thanks to Woodlands Park Hotel, Surrey

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CrossFit

t has been accused of being CrossFit is the new fitness craze tha it, and surviving rather well ing do le op pe the ets me ort Sp er. kill a

Christopher Nolan, © CrossFit, Inc. 2013

R

ich Froning and Samantha Briggs are officially the fittest man and woman on earth. They won the right to such lofty titles at the CrossFit Games in California this summer – an annual event best described as the Olympic Games of exercising.

More than 25,000 spectators flocked to the University of California’s StubHub Center in July, to watch 47 men and 45 women lift, press, sprint, swim, row and burpee their way through four days of challenges – including one with the intriguing title of Naughty Nancy. The ultimate aim?

To find ’the Fittest on Earth’.

“It’s obviously a nice title to have,” says Yorkshire-born Briggs (pictured, right), who took a break from a career as a firefighter to train for the Games.

“And we have proved we’re the fittest CrossFitters. But whether you can say we’re the fittest on earth, I don’t know.”

Froning is more comfortable with the ’fittest on earth’ label, having won his third title in a row this year – an achievement that in the CrossFit world marks him out as something of a legend. He has amassed more than

100,000 followers on Twitter, and one of his main competitors famously has “What’s Rich doing?” scrawled across the wall of his garage gym to keep himself motivated.

He might be thought of as some kind of superhuman, but Froning insists he rarely feels like one. “I’m sore every single day of my life,” he says with a wry smile. “If I get up in the middle of the night to pee or something like that, literally everything hurts and it’s like: ’Oh man, how’s tomorrow gonna feel?’”

BuRpee Boom

CrossFit has exploded in popularity across the US since its founder, ’Coach’ Greg Glassman started uploading his notoriously tough interval workouts to the website, CrossFit.com, in 2001. And now the rest of the world is following, with more than 7,400 official CrossFit affiliates popping up worldwide, including 259 in the UK. Officially described as “constantly varied, functional movements performed at relatively high intensity”, in plain English CrossFit can be explained as a mishmash of Olympic

lifting, gymnastics and bodyweight exercises designed to create a versatile athlete.

“You can outlift a runner and you can outrun a lifter,” is how Froning defines a typical CrossFit follower.

“Instead of being the best at something and the worst at something else, you’re good across all domains at a bunch of skills. As long as its multijoint and you’re moving your body through space, it’s CrossFit.” CrossFit’s rapid explosion in popularity (and profits – the company’s reported revenue in 2012 was $50m) has led to an inevitable backlash.

“Can CrossFit Kill You?” asked the New York Post last month, while The Huffington Post published an article titled “CrossFit’s Dirty Little Secret”.

In the latter, Eric Robertson, assistant professor of physical therapy at Regis University in Denver, Colorado, accuses the regime of pushing people so hard that many end up with rhabdomyolysis.

‘Rhabdo’ is a condition that occurs when muscle cells break down, leaking all sorts of nasties into the bloodstream – including the protein myoglobin, which can cause kidney failure. >

Saturday CrossFit invitational 2013: team Usa v team World | tempelhoF airport, Berlin | British eUrosport 1 6pm

| October 18 2013 | 27

CrossFit

“the leaD-up to gameS time, i can be in the gym 10 hourS a Day”

Sweat ScareS

Flora Heathcote joined In2 CrossFit in Clapham (in2crossfit.com) in June 2012. She says a trial visit “made me want to run home and never go back”, but she signed up, determined to improve her fitness levels. “It goes from being terrifying to completely addictive,” explains Heathcote, who is now a five-times-a-week CrossFitter.

“You improve so fast and get a lot of individual attention from a coach, which is very motivating,” she says of the Clapham box (the CrossFit term for their typically stripped-down gyms), where classes are kept small, with at least one coach for every 10 members.

They also run two levels of programmes: one for beginners and one for those at a more advanced stage. “It’s something that varies massively from gym to gym, though,” says Heathcote. “It’s the gym’s and the coach’s responsibility to make sure people are training safely.”

She also believes the rhabdo scaremongering has been overplayed: “Unfortunately it’s those things that get the headlines, but the image of everyone in a CrossFit workout throwing up mid-session and getting 28 | October 18 2013 |

high-fived for it – that’s changing.

Gyms are growing up a bit. You’ve got to make sure you come out of the workout and are able to train again the next day – there’s no point doing yourself damage trying to get in an extra five push-ups or pull-ups.”

collateral Damage

Both Briggs and Froning now run their own boxes – hers in Manchester (trainmanchester.co.uk) and his in Tennessee (crossfitmayhem.com).

It makes sense, considering neither takes a day off from training in a normal week, and both do multiple sessions a day. “In the lead-up to games time, I can be in the gym for up to 10 hours a day,” says Froning.

For the world’s fittest, damage to body parts is an inevitable consequence of what they do, although rhabdo isn’t something either have suffered.

Froning blames his most serious injury – a broken ankle last November – on what he calls his own stupidity: “I came off a rope and there was extra rope laying on the ground that I hit with my foot, twisted my ankle and broke it.

For about eight weeks it wasn’t right.

I mean, I still worked out every day, but it wasn’t how I like to work out…”

Briggs’ longest layoff came from a fractured kneecap in 2012 – an injury that prevented her from following up on her fourth place at the 2011 CrossFit Games. “I’d hurt it Olympic lifting, landing the split jerk,” she says.

“But, like a typical CrossFitter, I tried to ignore it and train through the pain.

It got so bad that I was finding it hard to walk or sit without it hurting. But then we finally discovered why – I’d broken my right kneecap.

“I was out for about six months, but although I couldn’t do any lifting in that time, I did start working with a gymnastics coach on my ring work and rope climbs, so an area I was weaker in became one of my stronger aspects.

Now I have to ensure my movements are as efficient as possible, so as not to put extra pressure through my knee.” >

Shaping up: Froning takes on the legless rope climb (top); CrossFitters compete at Row 1 & 2

© CrossFit, Inc. 2013

Robertson’s fears are nothing new.

As early as 2005, The New York Times ran a feature titled “Getting Fit, Even if it Kills You”, in which Crossfit founder Glassman was quoted as saying: “It can kill you. I’ve always been completely honest about that.”

The problem, says freelance writer and CrossFit devotee Lucy Fry (lucyfry. co.uk) is that CrossFit is growing too fast for its own good. “People can do a weekend-long course and open a ’box’ with virtually no coaching expertise,” she says. “Other coaches are brilliant.

But the average exerciser doesn’t really know what to look for, and that’s where injury can occur.

“People should ask questions of their coaches, about how they programme workouts and the method behind the workout that day. If your coach doesn’t answer properly, get out of there.”

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CrossFit

THE WORKOUTS The workouts at the CrossFit Games change every year, and athletes don’t find out what they will be until the week of the competition.

This year’s frankly insane challenges included:

Day 1

The Pool 10 rounds: swim 25 yards (22.86m), three bar muscle-ups, swim 25 yards Row 1 and Row 2 Row 21,097m. Row 1 is timed at 2,000m checkpoint. Row 2 is timed for entire 21,097m

Day 2

a REligiOUS ExpERiEncE

Briggs is clearly no stranger to pain, then. In fact, as we speak on the phone, she explains: “I’m currently being tattooed. So if I go quiet for a second, it’s just because it’s a painful spot.”

Being able to push through that pain barrier – as Froning admits he does when he drags his aching body into his garage gym three times a day – is useful, if not necessary for a top-level CrossFitter who is faced with four gruelling days of competition at the CrossFit Games.

Froning’s motivation to keep pushing comes from his faith. The 26-year-old turned to Christianity after his first visit to the Games in 2010 (when he finished second, having led for much of the competition). He now competes with Bible verses written on his shoes.

Why? “To put everything in perspective when I start feeling sorry for myself.

Those verses are down there to switch my way of thinking.”

For Briggs, who took up CrossFit in 2009 to get stronger for competing in triathlons, little motivation is needed.

“I just love training,” she says, but does admit the Games almost pushed her too far. “On the Saturday morning [the 30 | October 18 2013 |

third day], we had to be up really early for our athletes’ briefing, and I was like: ‘I’m so tired, I actually don’t want to play any more. I’m done.’ We were in the stadium until 9pm that day. I was very drained, but at that point you tell yourself there’s one day left, you’ve just got to get through this last day.”

Froning, too, says the Games were “terrible – one of the most mentally draining experiences”. But both plan to return for the 2014 event. “It is addictive – a bit like tattoos,” says Briggs. “When you’re in pain, you’re thinking: ‘Why am I doing this?’ But after the feeling’s gone, you’re like: ‘Yeah, it’s worth it.’ And you want to go again.”

Briggs’ sentiment is echoed by the CrossFitters creating pools of sweat in boxes around the world, their aspirations chiefly aimed at being the fittest they’ve ever been rather than the fittest on earth. For most, the pain is outweighed by the results. While that continues to be the case, the CrossFit craze looks set to survive for a few more rounds yet.

Sarah Shephard @sarahsportmag

Rich Froning is proud to be a Team BSN athlete. Check out exclusive videos and content at bsn-supplements.com

Day 3

Naughty Nancy Four rounds: run 600m up around the outside of the sloping lawn surrounding the StubHub stadium, 25 overhead squats Clean & Jerk Ladder One clean and jerk every 90 seconds, with progressively heavier barbells 2007 1,000m row; five rounds of 25 pull-ups, seven push jerks

Day 4

Sprint Chipper 21 medicine ball GHD (glute-ham developer) sit-ups, 15 snatch, nine wall-burpees The Cinco 1 Three rounds: five deadlifts, five weighted one-legged squats (left leg), five weighted one-legged squats (right), then 80-foot handstand walk The Cinco 2 Three rounds: five muscle-ups, five deficit handstand push-ups, then 90-foot overhead walking lunge For full details, go to: games.crossfit.com/workouts/the-games

© CrossFit, Inc. 2013

“WHEn yOU’RE in pain, yOU’RE THinKing: ‘WHy ami DOing THiS?’”

Burden Run Run 2.1 miles, flip the pig (a loadable metal frame, pictured right, that can be flipped like a tyre) 100 yards, 600-yard log carry, drag the Iditarod (like a dog sled) 66 yards Zigzag Sprint Four rounds: 50-yard sprint with four obstacles (like a ski slalom) Legless 27 thrusters, four legless rope climbs; 21 thrusters, three legless rope climbs; 15 thrusters, two legless rope climbs; nine thrusters, one legless rope climb

Billy Morgan was riding really strongly and I knew the jumps really well.”

That’s not really the kind of trick you can risk in a competition, is it?

“You could try it, but if you don’t land on your feet it’s game over.”

How do you train when you can’t practise on snow?

“We do a lot of strength and conditioning and gym work to build up the strength we need to better our chances of landing. We also do a lot of trampolining and reduced-risk environment stuff. Trampolining is quite good because the more time you spend in the air, the more you get used to being in the air in general. I believe that spending a lot of time on a trampoline is where being in the air becomes second nature, so you can apply it a lot better to being on a snowboard – and it’s less risky.”

So is the board strapped to your feet when you’re on the trampoline, or are you just jumping up and down?

“You can sometimes strap foam boards to your feet, but I tend to find you can do the same rotations-ish without the snowboard – so you can get the feeling for it, and then take it to the snow when you’re ready.”

British slopestyle snowboarder Billy Morgan was ranked number two in the world last season, and has his sights set on the winter Olympics. Sport sloped in for a quick chat with the 24-year-old

What is slopestyle, exactly?

“Snowboard slopestyle is normally a course that consists of three jumps and four rail features: jumps being take-off, flying through the air, landing on your feet doing the best trick possible; and rails are where you’re trying to do the best tricks and get to the bottom without falling over.”

It’s making its Olympic debut in Sochi next year – you must be delighted?

“Yeah, absolutely. It’s amazing that they’ve integrated – it’s going to be spectacular for people to watch.

Everybody saw halfpipe and boardercross at the last Olympics, so adding something else into the mix will be great.”

Have you secured your place already?

“I’ve actually qualified now. We went through four World Cup events to get as high up the world rankings as

possible, so when Sochi comes around it’s the top 30 that go through. I think, unless something drastically goes wrong, I should be in.”

Have you been over to Sochi yet?

“They did a trial event for all the snowboarding disciplines, but the slopestyle got cancelled because of a lack of snow. I don’t think they’ve finished the groundworks, so the slopestyle guys didn’t get over to see the event, but everybody who went over for the halfpipe said it was amazing. It’ll be really good when it comes around.”

What’s your signature trick?

“I guess I’m known for doing the first triple rodeo, but I haven’t done that since and it’s quite a hard trick [basically, it consists of three backflips while going over a jump]. It was at the end of a long session in America, so I

It must be quite strange riding in the middle of a city?

“Yeah, it is always quite weird – especially last year, when it was next to the massive Battersea Power Station. It’s pretty epic, really, what they construct there – a real snow jump in the middle of London is extraordinary.”

Can you see anything at the top?

“It kind of shakes around a bit – you’re up high enough to look around and see pretty epic stuff, but normally you’re pretty focused on what you’ve got to do. You don’t have enough time to chill at the top or check out the view.”

Amit Katwala @amitkatwala Freeze, the UK’s biggest winter sports festival, takes place on Clapham Common from November 27-December 1. For tickets, visit www.freezefestival.com | October 18 2013 | 33

Pierre-Philippe Marcou/AFP/Getty Images

SmaShing jumping

You’ve got the Freeze Festival in London coming up. You won there last year – how was that?

“That was amazing. It was the first time I was allowed to enter a World Cup event because I had the right points, and I looked at the list of riders and it was ridiculous – all people I looked up to in snowboarding. It was a home crowd, which got me all stoked, and I just rode as well as I could that day.”

Jimmy White

Right on cue S

port is running breathlessly down a corridor in Westfield shopping centre in Stratford, in search of Jimmy White.

The roguish southpaw snooker genius, people’s champion and six-time World Championship runner-up is, infamously, a tricky man to pin down.

The ghostwriter of his autobiography, Rosemary Kingsland, tells a tale of chasing him into a pub only to realise he had, it seems, escaped through the back door.

White is in Westfield doing some filming for This Morning, talking about testicular cancer, which he survived after an operation in 1995. We are due to interview him afterwards, and we come armed with a crucial weapon: Jimmy’s feted ‘147’ number (a mobile number with 147 in), which is the key to calling him. The wind is somewhat taken out of our sails before leaving by our columnist Bill Borrows – himself blown out by the Whirlwind on three occasions in the past. “Calling that 147 special helpline mobile number you’ve been given won’t help,” advises Borrows. “He’s got about 147 of them.”

Still, we’re optimistic on meeting White. That’s until a friendly ITV producer informs us that, despite arriving early, we’ve missed him by mere seconds. “He’s just gone to that Costa Coffee shop.

I think he said your interview was on the phone.”

Hearing this, and foreseeing a swerve shot from the great man, Sport pelts it in that direction, calling the ‘147’ number as we go. No answer.

And no White, inside or out the coffee shop. In a desperate move, we leg it to the nearest exit and run into a car park, looking around desperately.

A sleek-looking black car is humming in front of us.

Blacked-out windows. It could be for anyone.

Is Philip Schofield in there, post his This Morning shift? “Is this car for Jimmy White?” we ask the driver. Suddenly, the back door opens and a cheery, familiar face pops out. It’s not someone who’s worked with Gordon the Gopher. “Are you from Sport?” says Jimmy White, scooching over to make room. “Hop in then mate – we can do this while we drive.”

Clean-up kids “It was so many years ago. I was 14 or 15. I just remember being in a black cab,” says White, recalling the days when he and Tony Meo would pocket oodles of cash in challenge matches against local snooker hall champs. “We’d get picked up at the club in Tooting and then – there was no internet in them days – we’d literally put a pin in a map and go to a place. We’d get to the local snooker club, then this guy would go in and say: ‘I’ve got two boys here who will play anybody.’

“Now if you’d go to a club, they’d always have a good local player in the area who used to beat everybody else. So these people who he’d beaten would back that player against us – and we would clean up. Great experiences, great characters – but a lot of travelling in a black taxi.”

Any scrapes with people unwilling to pay up?

“We had a few close shaves where people, like, realised we were just far too good for anybody and they didn’t want to pay. But that wasn’t down to us [to collect], that was down to the backer,” says White, diplomatically.

“I’d like to have prepared better for some of those World Championships” 34 | October 18 2013 |

Alongside his attacking verve with a snooker cue and everyman charm, however, the off-baize scrapes and stories that colour White are why he is to this day irresistibly popular with fans.

Conclusive proof that snooker can be rock and roll comes in the tales of him playing an astounding level of snooker at Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood’s house, in boozy matches against his good friend Ronnie O’Sullivan.

“We’d all had a few Guinnesses,” he says. “Me and Ronnie [O’Sullivan] played 10 frames and I think there was seven centuries. But it was good, because Ronnie Wood and Keith Richards were watching, but then everything got competitive between them as well. So they would start trying to outdo each other playing the guitars. Me and O’Sullivan had just as much fun watching them play as they did watching us on the table. Yeah. That was a good night.”

Too many ‘good nights’ are what is often considered the reason why – despite a host of titles, a maximum 147 at the Crucible and many more career highs – many believe White never quite fulfilled his prodigious potential. “Obviously I’d like to have prepared better for some of those World Championships,” he says evenly when asked the hoary old question of whether he has any regrets.

“Been a bit more focused. But I’m a realist – that’s gone. I’m still on the tour, I’m still playing. When you get to my age, one day you’re good and one day you’re bad, so you’ve got to keep practising – but the love of the game is massively still there.”

Old rivals Another reason for White’s serial finals demise was that his best years coincided with the most successful player in snooker history. The relentless Stephen Hendry bested White in four of his six final appearances, so it seems a trifle cruel to point out that the Scot is newly retired, and for the first time eligible to play in the World Seniors Championship – in which White is competing this weekend. Great news, or is White sick of the sight of him?

“Listen, he’s a great ambassador for the sport,” says White, choosing his words but delivering them with some genuine warmth. “I get on with him. I play him in a lot of the Snooker Legends [exhibition] tournaments. He’s sort of semi-retired now, but obviously he’ll be one of the hardest to beat because he was such a great player.” >

Mike Cooper/Allsport

Jimmy White talks snooker hall hustles, the Rolling Stones and the toughest player he ever faced

Sam Tomkins

Credit

Two years ago, Wigan won silverware on their first visit to Wembley in 13 years.

This weekend, they’re back this weekend,

| 35

Jimmy White

REX/Robert Hallam

“People like to watch players take a gamble.

The fans take it with you” “Knowing Hendry, he will be practising as we speak,” adds White of his old foe. Same old, same old for the Scot, then. But what of White? Even at 51, the Londoner confirms he can still play with the attacking flair of his youth. “I still go for my shots,” he says.

“Occasionally I weigh up the percentages a little more, but people like to watch players take a gamble.

The fans take the gamble with you. When the commentators say: ‘Well, he’s going to play safe now,’ and then you go for one – people experience that with you. So you get a lot of support from that.”

Does he ever find the public affection intrusive?

“No, because the majority of the people who come up to me are genuine fans,” he says. “I’ve not been on the radar as much the past couple of years; not been on TV so much. I’ve really enjoyed that, because I have less people [who semi-recognise me] coming up to me and going: ‘I think you was on Emmerdale, right?’ No! It’s nice to just have snooker fans coming up to me. They’re great.”

36 | October 18 2013 |

White, along with O’Sullivan and the deceased Alex Higgins, make up the holy trinity of popular snooker players: mercurial, vulnerable virtuosos who have battled their demons away from the table. White, however, sees subtle differences in their playing styles. “Ronnie is an instinctive player,” he explains.

“You couldn’t teach what he’s got – and it’s the same with me; I wasn’t really taught [snooker]. People like to see any sport made easy, and when I was playing at my peak I made it look easy. Higgins was great for the big one-off shots, but O’Sullivan… he’s different.

It’s mesmerising how good he can be.”

Golden Nugget Despite being in awe of O’Sullivan’s abilities, White picks another player as the one it gave him most satisfaction to beat. “Steve Davis,” he says simply.

“Because for me, when you beat Steve Davis when he was at his best, you felt like you’d been in a war.

You had to fight for every ball. And he was the

tactician of the snooker world. O’Sullivan is the best player I’ve ever seen, but Steve Davis was the hardest for me to beat. I’ve beaten O’Sullivan before and felt nothing – but whenever I’ve beaten Davis, I’ve always felt like I’d been in a match. So Davis was the man for me.”

It seems appropriate to be driving through the streets of London while talking to White, a workingclass Tooting lad with the capital coursing through his veins. Talk turns, just before we’re due to be dropped off in Waterloo, to his ‘Whirlwind’ nickname, and to the other snooker nicknames he enjoys.

“Hurricane Higgins, Rocket O’Sullivan, Tony Drago – he’s the Tornado,” he lists. ‘The Outlaw’ Joe Swail, we suggest. “Yeah, that’s a good one. Nice fella, too,” says White brightly. “And ‘The Nugget’ for Davis.

I nicknamed him that – in the paper.” White then pulls a final surprise, recalling that he didn’t always answer to his blustery sobriquet.

“Back in the snooker halls, they used to call me Snowy,” he says wistfully as he looks out of the window. Sport puts on the dunce’s hat and asks why.

“Well, I’m Jimmy White, I suppose mate,” he says, turning to us with a lopsided grin. He certainly is – and it’s a pleasure to finally catch up with him.

Alex Reid @otheralexreid

<credit> Jimmy White will play in the 888casino World Seniors Championship on Oct 19 and 20 in Portsmouth, alongside legends Steve Davis, Dennis Taylor and Cliff Thorburn. See www.worldsnooker.com/tickets or watch it on Sky Sports

” NO I T AT SYAL P“ , ” n”oi tYalN tS OyS P “a“l .“Pc“”n,I “tPnle aym Snitaatrioen t ”n,E“rPeL tA up YSmToACTyIO nwoN S TS “:””f,D 3P “oS Ns“PO k“”rY,adE“P “m BeS .d nn d y3na n”aratapndd m ero“ect se ig em ear srere”ahtafreo rker gaism te d reardt tarasd i e”m evaerilkesbo .e f kSaonm“y.Cnooim t apr uotper roECnytenrotaSin fm o seknrtaInm ce.d“aSrdtO“d Nd nn eY rn”eat asing eder“rer ”aare registered trademarks of Sony Corporation. “make.believe” is a trademark of the same company. BEYOND: Two mni atr et n Er et u p mo C y no S 3102 © l ™sl S uouls™ ©2013 Sony Computer Entertainment Europe. Published by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe. Developed by Quantic Dream. “BEYOND: Two Souls” is a trademark or a registered trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe. All rights rese.rd ved.

M O R F RE O EMSKHRTE HK EA M A K E R SF O F

THE MOST CINEMATIC VIDEOGAME EVER RELEASED METRO

DIGITAL SPY GAMESPOT

LEAD AN EXTRAORDINARY LIFE TOUT UWTONNOW OW

T ONLY SY AYLSPOONNATPLAYSTATION PSLYNA3YOSNTOAI TION 3

9/10

in the pink AheAd of hiS firSt ChAmpionS dAy AS retAined joCkey in the iConiC frAnkel ColourS, jAmeS doyle lookS bACk on An inCredible yeAr

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top anyone in the street and ask them to name the most famous colours in racing, and the chances are they will talk to you about Frankel. Green, with a pink sash, white arms and pink cap: the colours representing the renowned owner Prince Khalid Abdullah; the colours worn by jockey Tom Queally in each of the 14 races he sat aboard the great horse; and, perhaps most importantly, the colours that will forever be associated with nothing but glorious victory.

“If there is an element of pressure, then I haven’t really felt it,” says an impressively becalmed James Doyle, who in August was named as the new retained rider to Abdullah – a high-profile job that hasn’t existed since current champion jockey Richard Hughes went freelance in 2007. “Obviously you have to raise your game, but I don’t think pressure has really come into it.”

Doyle is no stranger to the iconic colours.

As stable jockey to trainer Roger Charlton, he sported them on numerous occasions before his elevation to his new role – most notably when driving the high-class Cityscape to victory in the prestigious Dubai Duty Free in March 2012. Doyle’s ability to have his horse in the right place in such a high-profile race was even more evident, given that it was his very first ride in a top-level Group 1 race.

38 | October 18 2013 |

James Doyle

“I loved Cityscape,” he smiles in recollection of what remains his biggest win in racing. “I went out to do some work on him a couple of weeks before the race. He was in great form, and I remember thinking he had a huge chance. He was a very solid horse, always ran his race, and that night in Dubai he really showed what he was made of.”

As did his jockey, who now finds himself riding regularly for some of the biggest names in racing. Sir Michael Stoute, John Gosden and Lady Cecil all feature on the roster of trainers employed by the prince, although it was Doyle’s displays aboard a horse trained by his old boss Charlton that reportedly caught the eye of his new employer.

“Al Kazeem has been fantastic for me,” says Doyle of a horse that started the season with three Group 1 wins, his two-length beating of Declaration of War in the Coral-Eclipse at Sandown the standout performance. “He has improved all season, is very consistent, and I was very proud of the race he ran in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe [in which he finished sixth, behind superstar filly Treve] the other Sunday. We had that wide berth in stall 18, the slow pace didn’t really suit us, and I could have done without Thierry Jarnet [on Treve] trying to nick my position early on. It was a very tough race, but it was a great experience and I loved it.”

Doyle’s war: with Al Kazeem (top); riding the same horse to win the Coral-Eclipse from Declaration of War at Sandown in July (above)

And so to British Champions Day, the showpiece climax of the flat racing season on domestic shores, which takes place at Ascot this weekend. Frankel is long since retired, of course, and there will be no Cityscape – aboard whom Doyle finished second in the one-mile Queen Elizabeth II Stakes last year – either. Abdullah has only one horse entered, in fact: the three-yearold filly Hot Snap, trained by Lady Cecil, who runs in the Fillies’ and Mares’ Stakes.

“She’s in fantastic order,” Doyle reveals.

“I sat on her last week and was very pleased with the way she worked. She ran a very good race at the Curragh the last day and was a bit unlucky in the Nassau Stakes at Goodwood before that. She has solid form in the book, though, having beaten Sky Lantern [the subsequent 1000 Guineas winner] earlier in the season. She should have a great chance on Champions Day.” In two years of British Champions Day, the heroics of Frankel have ensured the famous pink and green silks of his owner have never been far away from the winner’s enclosure.

Should they be there again this weekend, it will be 25-year-old Doyle wearing them.

Tony Hodson @tonyhodson1

Turn the page for our preview of British Champions Day, with tips included for free

| 39

Alan Crowhurst/Getty Images, Charlie Crowhurst/Getty Images for Ascot Racecourse

“Al KAzeem hAs been fAntAstic for me. he is so consistent”

7 Days OUR PICK OF THE ACTION FROM THE SPORTING WEEK AHEAD

OCT 18-OCT 24 HIGHLIGHTS » Football: Premier League » p42 » Football: Champions League » p44 » Boxing: Carl Frampton v Jeremy Parodi » p46 » Tennis: WTA Championships » p46 » Rugby Union: Heineken Cup » p48

SATURdAy HoRSe RACing | QiPCo BRiTiSH CHAmPionS dAy | ASCoT | CHAnneL 4 1.30Pm

prove a surprise winner of the Fillies' and Mares' Stakes for wily trainer Andre Fabre. Perhaps the most

in its admittedly short three-year history. Frankel may

intriguing story on the day, however, comes in the

be gone, but plenty of intrigue remains in a six-race

one-mile Queen Elizabeth II Stakes. The £1m race

card featuring no fewer than three Group 1 races.

could feature the fourth and final racetrack meeting of

On the forecast soft ground he so loves, Cirrus Des

two star three-year-olds: Dawn Approach, who is set

Aigles should start favourite to reclaim the Champion

to be retired after the race, and Toronado, who trainer

Stakes crown he lost last year. He's not as good as he

Richard Hannon says will stay in training next year.

was, however, and the high-class but fragile Godolphin

Dawn Approach leads the contest 2-1 after three

Twelve months ago this weekend, more than 30,000

representative Farhh looks a real danger on his return

meetings, although Toronado won their last encounter

racegoers congregated at Ascot to bid farewell to

from yet another injury.

at Glorious Goodwood at the end of July (above).

the greatest racehorse of our times. On the day,

Elsewhere on the card, the Queen's filly Estimate

Both have disappointed in runs since, so neither is

Frankel did not disappoint, holding off the sustained

can maintain her unbeaten record at Ascot in the Long

guaranteed to cross the line first, but their rivalry has

challenge of the admirable Cirrus Des Aigles to win

Distance Cup; in-form sprinter Maarek looks a good

provided one of the more compelling narratives of the

the Champion Stakes and retire undefeated, 14 wins

bet to retain the Sprint Stakes he won on the track 12

first flat season after Frankel. It would be appropriate

from 14, a legend of the age.

months ago; and the French-trained Galvaun could

if they signed off with a race worthy of their class.

40 | October 18 2013 |

Download the free Sport iPad app from the Apple Newsstand

Alan Crowhurst/Getty Images

End of the affair

A year on, and British Champions Day will have to do without its mighty standard-bearer for the first time

7 Days

Premier League

Saturday Chelsea v Cardiff stamford Bridge | 3pm

Liverpool’s in-form strikeforce head to Newcastle, while two of the bottom three go head to head.

Is it too early to call it a relegation six-pointer?

Saturday newCastle v liverpool | st James’ park | Bt sport 1 12.45pm

We have no idea what to make of the shambles at Cardiff right now, but don’t expect Chelsea to show sympathy. Jose Mourinho’s men are slowly starting to equal the sum of their expensive parts, as the impressive introduction of Willian (pictured) and Juan Mata’s reintroduction have seen them net six in their past three. The Bluebirds’ sole away win so far came in west London, against Fulham. Then again, the Blues haven’t lost at home.

Saturday arsenal v norwiCh emirates stadium | 3pm

It’s the clash of the headline-makers at St James’

has been outstanding to watch. With Victor Moses

Lord knows what they’ve been

tomorrow lunchtime, as the two sides that have

enjoying a new lease of life out wide, and Steven Gerrard

smoking at the Emirates (any ideas,

dominated the back pages more than most bid to

having seemingly developed an understanding with

Jack?), but Arsenal are now

recreate the classic encounters that you’ve probably

Jordan Henderson and Lucas, it’s hard to know how to

unbeaten in 11. Norwich, meanwhile,

had to rewatch hundreds of times this week already.

stop this Liverpool side.

showed some promise against

Forget Stan Collymore and Robbie Fowler – there are two

For Newcastle, the game against Everton a few weeks

Chelsea before succumbing to

new men carving their name into Liverpool folklore, and

ago sums up their season so far, as they went from the

two late blows, but they look a team

it’s the SaS outfit that Newcastle have to find a way to

shambolic to the sublime in the space of 90 minutes.

low on confidence and even lower

silence if they’re going to take three points here.

Loic Remy is their man to watch after five goals in three

on creating scoring chances.

games, but the truth is we don’t know what to expect

International breaks have been

while his faithful sidekick Gnasher has returned from his

from Alan Pardew’s side. A 4-3 defeat, topped off with

known to turn form books upside

ban to great effect, chipping in with three in two games to

a last-minute winner that leaves the Magpies’ manager

down – and that’s about the best

ignite a deadly partnership. Their movement and fluidity

slumped over the hoardings? You never know.

news we can give the Canaries.

Daniel Sturridge now has six goals in seven games,

42 | October 18 2013 |

Saturday manCHeSter united v SoutHampton old trafford | 3pm

Saturday Stoke v WeSt Brom Britannia Stadium | 3pm

Saturday SWanSea v Sunderland liBerty Stadium | 3pm

Everton hit five past Hull the last

Next week marks 17 years since Man

Hand on heart, how many of you

After an erratic-at-best Paolo Di

time these sides met at Goodison

Utd’s 6-3 defeat to the Saints. We

can recall the feeble 0-0 draw

Canio cameo, Gus Poyet (pictured)

Park, in 2010, but Steve Bruce’s

don’t expect the same outcome

these two played out in March?

has arrived to save the side sinking

outfit come into this game unbeaten

here, but defeat at home to West

Well, it’s a new season. And, after a

fastest. There were, though, signs of

in four. Everton’s unbeaten start to

Brom and escaping from a goal

slow start, the Baggies have found

improvement for Sunderland last

the season was ended by Man City

down to Sunderland are not what

their shooting boots with seven

time out, when Man Utd had to

before the international break,

the doctor ordered after that derby

goals in four unbeaten games.

battle hard to take all three points.

but Romelu Lukaku (pictured)

defeat. There is good news for

Latest Premier League whizkid

Swansea have suffered back-to-

continued his scoring run with a

United: Marouane Fellaini is ready

Saido Berahino is their danger man.

back defeats to form sides Arsenal

brace for Belgium. Stopping him

to return, and Robin Van Persie

His form, along with the class of

and Southampton, while managing

– along with Ross Barkley and the

(pictured) – who hasn’t scored for

Morgan Amalfitano (pictured),

to look like world-beaters in Europe.

returning Steven Pienaar (off the

United since the opening day – hit

means the Baggies should continue

They always carry a threat with new

bench, presumably) – is a big ask.

a hat-trick for Holland last week.

that run here. Cue another 0-0, then.

Spain debutant Michu, however.

Saturday WeSt Ham v man City | upton park Sky SportS 1 5.30pm

Sunday aSton Villa v tottenHam | Villa park Sky SportS 1 4pm

monday CryStal palaCe v fulHam | SelHurSt park Sky SportS 1 8pm

Premier League tabLe P

W D

Pts

L

F

A

1

Arsenal

7

5

1

1

14

8

16

2

Liverpool

7

5

1

1

11

5

16

3

Chelsea

7

4

2

1

10

4

14

4

Southampton 7

4

2

1

7

2

14

5

Man City

7

4

1

2

17

8

13

6

Tottenham

7

4

1

2

6

5

13 12

7

Everton

7

3

3

1

10

9

8

Hull

7

3

2

2

6

7

11

9

Man Utd

7

3

1

3

10

9

10

10 Aston Villa

7

3

1

3

9

8

10

11 Newcastle

7

3

1

3

9

12

10

12 West Brom

7

2

3

2

7

6

9

13 West Ham

7

2

2

3

7

5

8

14 Cardiff

7

2

2

3

7

9

8

Tough one to call, this, especially

After that embarrassing 3-0

That playoff final victory is starting

15 Swansea

7

2

1

4

8

11

7

after West Ham’s 3-0 win at

drubbing by West Ham at the Lane,

to seem a long time ago for Palace,

16 Stoke

7

2

1

4

4

7

7

7

2

1

4

5

9

7

Tottenham. A sparkling goal from

Tottenham will be relieved to be

who have just three points from

17 Fulham

Ravel Morrison (above) inspired that

back on their travels – especially at

seven games. Fulham, though,

18 Norwich

7

2

1

4

5

9

7

result, but the Hammers have still

Villa Park, a ground they haven’t lost

lie 17th and represent Palace’s

19 Crystal Palace 7

1

0

6

5

13

3

0

1

6

5

16

1

failed to score in four out of seven

at since 2008 and where they won

first serious ‘should win’ since

20 Sunderland

7

(the worst record in the league). The

4-0 in the League Cup a few weeks

Sunderland left Selhurst Park with

Citizens, though, have yet to win on

ago. Jermain Defoe bagged twice

nothing. Both sides have struggled

the road this season – at Aston Villa,

that night, which will encourage

for goals – Darren Bent and Dwight

Stoke and Cardiff – and are missing

Robert Soldado – the Spaniard has

Gayle (above) lead the respective

captain Vincent Kompany through

yet to score a Spurs goal from open

teams’ charts with two apiece.

131

Townsend accounting for 26 (0 goals).

injury. West Ham to win, then. Or

play. The form of Andros Townsend

Fulham have not won away since the

Individually, Olivier Giroud leads the

City to break their duck. Or a draw.

(pictured) will surely help his cause.

opening day, against Sunderland.

charts, with 27 efforts and four goals

Tottenham have the most shots in the Premier League this season, with Andros

Download the free Sport iPad app from the Apple Newsstand | 43

All pictures Getty Images

Saturday eVerton v Hull GoodiSon park | 3pm

7 Days Champions League TUESDAY GROUP F: ARsenAl v DORtmUnD | emiRAtes stADiUm | itV 7.45Pm

German guile You could read this as the story of two teams who

Emerick-Aubameyang to replace Mario Gotze. Both

starlet has scored five this season, and netted in his

have recovered from having their hearts ripped out.

sides have lost just one league game this season, and

side’s 3-0 win over bottom side Marseille (zero points)

The last time Dortmund visited the Emirates – in the

Dortmund’s limp defeat to Napoli in their opening

in their previous group game. They should, however,

Champions League group stage two seasons ago – it

group game was as out of character as Jurgen Klopp’s

be buoyed by the return of Sven Bender, who missed

finished 2-1 to Arsenal. That was thanks to a Robin van

furious rant at the fourth official during that game.

Germany’s recent World Cup qualifiers against Ireland

Persie double for the home side and a late consolation

As a result, Dortmund currently sit third in the

and Sweden.

goal from Shinji Kagawa. Both are, of course, now at

group, on three points, alongside Napoli – the Italians

Manchester United. And, while van Persie’s departure

having lost here in the previous round of games. And,

themselves. Theo Walcott and Santi Cazorla are still

was the latest in a long line of painful departures from

as a result of his Neapolitan fury, Klopp will watch this

out, but Lukas Podolski might make a return after

north London, for Dortmund, the sale of Kagawa

game from the stands. He might even enjoy it, given

two months nursing a hamstring injury. If he doesn’t,

signalled the start of a promising young German side

the vibrant, attacking nature of both sides. That said,

young German winger Serge Gnabry could be given

being broken up and shipped out (mostly to Munich).

Dortmund’s stable of young German talent is a little

his chance. It’s a battle between two technically gifted

depleted at present – Ilkay Gundogan has been out

teams full of diminutive but clever midfielders, skilled

years of hurt soothed with one £42.5m bandage in the

since August with a back problem, while Marco Reus

on the counter-attack and given bite by the respective

shape of Mesut Ozil; Dortmund’s with astute

and Nuri Sahin will miss out with ankle injuries. Reus is

goalscoring talents of Robert Lewandowski and, yes,

purchases such as Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Pierre

the biggest loss of those three – the spiky-haired

Aaron Ramsey. It’s been a funny season.

Two years later, and the scars are healing – Arsenal’s

44 | October 18 2013 |

The Gunners are a bit short on ammunition

‘S’ is for slip-up

TUESDAY GROUP E: SchalkE 04 v chElSEa | VEltinS-aREna, GElSEnkiRchEn Sky SPORtS 2 7.45PM

WEDNESDAY GROUP d: cSka MOScOW v ManchEStER city | aREna khiMki Sky SPORtS 2 5PM

Can Samuel score?

To Russia, with gloves

After Shakhtar, Sunderland and Southampton,

The last time these sides met, Chelsea were still

It’s evident, after their humbling at the hands of

David Moyes’ next challengers are Real Sociedad

coming to terms with Jose Mourinho’s sudden

Bayern Munich, that if City are going to get out

and Stoke. The Spanish side are still pointless in the

departure. They still managed a 0-0 draw in

of the group stages at the third attempt, CSKA

competition, and haven’t won at all since they beat

Germany, having won the reverse tie 2-0. This time,

Moscow will be their main rivals. Both have

Lyon 2-0 in the second leg of their qualifier (and 4-0

they’re coming to terms with the Special One not

conceded three to Bayern, and both have three

on aggregate). Defeat for La Real, who also sit 15th

being quite so special. And a shock defeat to Basel

points after beating Viktoria Plzen. The Citizens face

in La Liga after eight games, would be terminal for

in their opening game means this is a crunch match

an early kick-off on Wednesday in their first ever trip

their chances of getting out of the group.

for the Blues’ chances of topping the group – where

to Russia. That win over Czech side Plzen in their

Schalke currently sit, on six points.

opening group game was, however, only their

United top the group on four points, with goals scored separating them from Shakhtar, but another

Chelsea haven’t lost since that Swiss slip, though,

second win on the road in this competition in seven

home loss is unthinkable after their defeat to West

and thumped Steaua Bucharest 4-0. Kevin-Prince

attempts. If they are to make it three from eight,

Brom. Belgian/English/Kosovan (pick one)

Boateng is unlikely to recover from a knee injury in

they will do so without the injured Vincent

wunderkind Adnan Januzaj could be granted a first

time for the Germans, but Klaas-Jan Huntelaar could

Kompany, so Joleon Lescott could make his first

Champions League start after his brace against

return – the Dutch striker has been out since August.

Champions League appearance of the season.

Sunderland, while former Arsenal youngster Carlos

Chelsea will probably be missing Fernando Torres, so

CSKA are on a dreadful run of form. They have

Vela is likely to lead the line for the Basque side.

it will likely be Samuel Eto’o spurning their chances.

won just one of their past six games – that win over Plzen, which was played in St Petersburg because of inclement weather in the Russian capital – and don’t

THE BEST OF THE REST

boast the strong home European record you expect from eastern European sides, having won just one of

Milan and Barcelona always offer

the Catalans predictably flying in

The other standout tie is Serie A

their past four Champions League home games.

something interesting – this will

La Liga. Also in Group H, Celtic

champions Juventus against Real

CSKA’s Ivorian striker Seydou Doumbia has four

be their seventh meeting in three

play Ajax (Tuesday, Sky Sports 3,

Madrid (Wednesday, Sky Sports

goals in six games domestically, and could return

seasons (Tuesday, Sky Sports 4,

7.45pm) with both sides really

4, 7.45pm), with the Spanish side

from a hip injury. Their Japanese international

7.45pm), but it comes with the

needing a win to keep slender

having scored just the 10 goals in

Keisuke Honda has, meanwhile, netted four times

Italians struggling in Serie A and

hopes of qualification alive.

their two group games so far.

himself from midfield this season.

Download the free Sport iPad app from the Apple Newsstand | 45

Adrian Dennis/AFP/Getty Images, John Peters/Man Utd via Getty Images, Michael Steele/Getty Images, Christof Stache/AFP/Getty Images

WEDNESDAY GROUP a: ManchEStER UnitEd v REal SOciEdad | Old tRaffORd Sky SPORtS 2 7.45PM

7 Days Saturday Boxing | Carl Frampton v Jeremy parodi | odyssey arena, BelFast | Boxnation 7pm

tueSday > tennis | Wta Championships | sinan erdem dome, istanBul | British eurosport 2 3pm

All played out?

The oldest women’s tennis number one in history is already guaranteed to finish the year in possession of the top spot in the rankings, but Serena Williams is not quite ready to call it Christmas just yet.

First there’s the matter of the WTA Championships in Istanbul – a tournament to which only the top eight women in the world are invited. With world number three Maria Sharapova nursing a shoulder injury, the top four qualifiers include former number one Victoria Azarenka, Agnieszka Radwanska and Li Na alongside Williams. The 2011 Wimbledon and WTA Championships winner Petra Kvitova also makes the cut, along with Sara Errani and Jelena Jankovic – the latter having started the year ranked outside the top 20. Germany’s Angelique Kerber snapped up the eighth and final spot last weekend, when she won her first

Young guns

WTA title of the season in Linz, Austria.

Three times a winner and twice a runner-up at the season-ending championships, Williams has had a bumper 12 months on the court, winning her 10th title of the year in China this month. For a player once accused of fulfilling only the very minimum playing requirements, she has been impressively devoted to the tournament treadmill this season.

Shane McGuigan – son of Barry and trainer

because of that old myth that lifting weights

Although Azarenka can lay claim to having a 2-2 record

of unbeaten super-bantamweight Carl

will make you slow. It couldn’t be further from

against Williams this season (it’s still 3-13 overall, mind), the

Frampton – on his explosive young fighter’s

the truth. Adapting that into Carl’s training

world number one’s challengers go to Istanbul clinging on to

world title eliminator in Belfast on Saturday

regimes has changed his whole game. He’s

one hope – that Williams has played herself out.

using his feet a lot more, he’s much more Sparring challenges “Carl has done over 120

explosive, he punches harder – and he fights

rounds of sparring in preparation for this.

at four pounds lighter than he used to when

Each sparring partner has been way bigger

he was an amateur.”

than him. We can’t get any of the small guys to come back because Carl is just so ferocious

A caveman diet “It’s simple: if it doesn’t fly,

in sparring. Every time I ring somebody up

if it doesn’t run, if you can’t pick it off the

around his weight division about sparring,

tree or gather it – then just don’t eat it.

the phone line just goes ‘beeeeep’.”

It eliminates thought, so it’s probably the easiest diet to stick to when you’re on the

Opponent Jeremy Parodi “He’s lost only one

road. Some people can’t get their head

of 37 fights, but we can’t actually find that

around eating vegetables and a steak in the

much footage of him. We’ve got two fights

morning, but you would never feed a lion a

of his recorded, and he looks similar in both:

chocolate chip cookie – so why would we

hands up high, a typical European style.

feed one to Carl?”

He likes to take the centre of the ring and aggressively push fighters back. That kind of

Youth and experience “Some people [in

suits us. It looks like it’s going to be a really

boxing] are put off by my age: the fact that

entertaining fight.”

I’m not even 25 and I’m training Carl. It’s that out there shouting at Rocky at 70 years of

boxing is that you dictate the pace, and Carl

age because he’s got all the wisdom – but

does that naturally. He’ll slow it down and

that’s where my dad comes into play. He’s the

pick it up whenever he wants to. Because he

mentor. I try to bring the new science into it

is so heavy-handed, Carl likes to push guys

and Dad brings the old knowledge. We gel

back in all of his fights. I give it two or three

off each other well, and I think it’s working

rounds and Parodi is going to be on the

great for Carl.”

©LisaByrne. Lintao Zhang/Getty Images

stereotype of the old Rocky scene: Mickey Frampton attack “What’s important in

back foot – so that will be uncharted territory for him.”

Frampton v Parodi is live and exclusive on BoxNation (Sky Ch.437/Virgin Ch.546) from 7pm

Modern world A lot of people tend to neglect

on Saturday October 19. Subscribe online at

strength and conditioning training in boxing,

www.boxnation.com

46 | October 18 2013 |

Download the free Sport iPad app from the Apple Newsstand

‘Anyone who listens to Drive on a regular basis, like I do, will know Adrian can make you laugh out loud or shout at your radio in despair…’

Jamie Carragher

O

utspoken talkSPORT host Adrian Durham vents his explosive opinions on the biggest debates in football history, at the same time revealing some amazing facts and hitherto unknown stories about the beautiful game.

Here’s a book that challenges some of football’s most widely accepted wisdom. Was Sir Alf Ramsey really any good as a manager? Why doesn’t anybody ask the obvious question about Gary Lineker? Did Italy really deserve all their four World Cups?

Who called a top-flight professional footballer ‘a bottler’?

Whether it’s the myth of the Arsenal ‘Invincibles’, the true worth of David Beckham, or Jose Mourinho’s supposed brilliance as a manager, Durham has a view. Just because everyone else agrees that Pele is the greatest footballer who ever lived doesn’t mean that Durham will agree – what’s more, he’s ready to unveil a medley of intriguing reasons as to why he’s right.

Lively comment, scintillating debate, outrageous assumptions, passion for the game – it’s all here in a book that football fans will love to read and want to argue about.

Out now, published by Simon & Schuster in hardback, priced £16.99

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Didn’t they do well?

Ahead of the second round of Heineken Cup pool games, we rate the English sides’ opening exploits and look at the challenges ahead GOOD WEEK Gloucester

Exeter

Saracens

The Cherry and Whites will

They might have slacked off

It was a lot closer than most

be flying after a hard-fought

in the final 30 minutes, but

expected in the end, but

win against Perpignan, where

Exeter’s opening 50-minute

Saracens took four points

their power up front was

salvo against Cardiff will have

from Connacht and that’s all

supplemented superbly by

their opponents running

that matters. They will be

their flair out wide. Billy

scared. Their quick recycling

concerned about how they

Twelvetrees (making the

will cause problems for any

let the Irish province back

tackle, left) impressed again;

side, and Glasgow will not be

into the game, but this pool

in a wide-open pool, the visit

looking forward to hosting

gets serious when Toulouse

to Thomond is huge.

them this weekend.

come to Wembley tonight.

This week: Munster (a),

This week: Glasgow (a),

This week: Toulouse (h),

Saturday, SS2, 6pm

Sunday, 2pm

Friday, SS1, 7.45pm

Leicester

Northampton

Harlequins

Owen Williams’ late penalty,

They picked Castres’ scrum

Never say never, but Quins

which allowed Leicester to

and lineout apart, but the

are surely all but out of this

leave Ravenhill with a losing

Saints didn’t quite have the

year’s running after defeat at

bonus point last weekend,

cutting edge in France.

home to the Scarlets (left).

means it’s not all bad news.

A losing bonus point softens

Their defence wasn’t good

But the Tigers have to keep

the blow, but a home win

enough, while their tries

up with the Ulstermen now,

against the Ospreys is now an

were reliant on a bit of luck.

starting with a big five-point

absolute must. As such, Dylan

Clermont, hurting after defeat

victory at home to Treviso

Hartley and his power pack

in Paris, will be in no mood to

tonight.

will need to be on top form.

make things any easier.

This week: Treviso (h),

This week: Ospreys (h),

This week: Clermont (a),

Friday, SS1, 8pm

Sunday, SS1, 12.45pm

Sunday, SS2, 3pm

BAD WEEK

SUNDAY MotoGP | tissot AustrAliAn GrAnd Prix | PhiliP islAnd | BBC two 6AM, rePeAted 12.45PM

Marking time An Australian island provides the

could see an end to Lorenzo’s

setting for the next round of a

mathematical hopes of overhauling

MotoGP championship that’s

his young rival.

Ben Hoskins/Getty Images, Mohd Rasfan/AFP/Getty Images

threatened to go a bit Lord of the

If Marquez can pick up a sixth

Flies at times. Championship

victory of the season down under,

leader Marc Marquez picked up

Lorenzo will need to finish second

a penalty point for pinging into

to keep his slender title hopes alive.

Dani Pedrosa in Aragon; and, last

Dani Pedrosa (on 244 points) took

weekend in Malaysia, he made

a storming victory in Malaysa, and

contact with closest rival Jorge

is the only other still in contention.

Lorenzo in their battle for second.

Whoever wins the race will

The younger Spaniard came out

become the first new victor in

on top, not for the first time this

Australia since 2006 – Casey

season, leaving him 43 points

Stoner has won each of his past six

ahead of Lorenzo and in reach of

home races, but he is of course

the MotoGP championship in his

now retired. Marquez, just 24, has

debut season. The well-liked Philip

proved a worthy replacement at

Island circuit traditionally ends the

Honda. Don’t be surprised if the

season – and, although there are

crowd are on their feet on Sunday,

two races left to follow this year, it

to salute a new world champion.

48 | October 18 2013 |

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Extra timE

P56 arnie accuses Sly of hitting like a vegetarian in Escape Plan

Making the most of your time and money

Kit

Kicks from a rose adidas D rose 4 trainers

Forget trophies, records and money – you’ve only really made it as a sports star once you have your own clothing line.

Derrick Rose, then, has made it.

The Chicago Bulls star has his very own logo embellishing his line of adidas gear – and these trainers are the latest item with the D Rose decoration. Available in either the Bulls’ home or away colours, the trainers are loaded with top tech to aid your game, and they’re split into two distinct designs to reflect Rose’s life on and off the court: tough materials at the back reflect his play, while a sleek, clean look on the front represent a relaxed personality. And the laces? They’re just laces. Nice ones, though. £120 | adidas.co.uk/d_rose

away

50 | October 18 2013 |

Home

Download the free Sport iPad app from the Apple Newsstand

1. Proraso Pre- and Post-Shave Cream Contains eucalyptus oil and menthol, and serves to awaken the senses, soften the beard and assist razor glide. Also reduces irritation. £10 for 100ml | carterandbond.com

2. Baxter of California Clay Pomade

BarBEr ShoP SExTuPlET

We asked Chris Ward, guv’nor at Huckle the Barber in Shoreditch, to pick out a few of his favoured products

3. agua de Colonia Barberia by alvarez Gomez

Firm hold, matte finish defines styles.

Infused with natural clay and beeswax ingredients. Gives your hair versatility. £18 for 120ml | nivenandjoshua.com

Bergamot, lemon, bitter orange and ginger top notes, with a heart of cedar and sandalwood and a tinge of white musk. £40 for 150ml | carterandbond.com

4. layrite original Deluxe Pomade

Developed to replace the wax that greasers would use in the SoCal rockabilly scene. Holds like a wax, washes out like a gel. High shine. £18 for 113g | pomade-shop.eu

5. Baxter of California oil-Free Moisturiser Vitamins A, D and E and herbal extracts defend against cell damage and free radicals. Shine-free matte finish. £20 for 60ml | carterandbond.com

6. Kevin Murphy NIGhT.rIDEr Matte Paste

Tough hold, rough matte texture for short or choppy looks. Gives you a little time to work your look, then sets. £20, 100g | kevin murphystore.com

3 5

4

2

1

6

52 | October 18 2013 |

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Photography: Jim Lincoln

ET

Grooming

ET

Style

opEn ThE Trunk

Having a stylist who hand-picks a trunk full of clothes specifically for you is a luxury few of us can afford – or so we thought

The Chapar

If, like Sport, your mother dresses you funny, there is a solution. Register with The Chapar – a personal styling service for men – and complete a ‘style profile’: what you like, whether you want to change up for a style or colour scheme different from your usual, whether you are looking for an outfit for a particular occasion, and whether you’d like to invest in some classic wardrobe staples.

A dedicated stylist then chooses a selection of clothes tailored for you.

You receive your trunk via courier to your home or workplace, and decide what you want to keep.

The Chapar collects the trunk containing the clothes you don’t want, and you pay for what you do. It’s that simple. We’ve picked three of our favourite recommendations below. Boom – you need never go shopping again. thechapar.com

John Smedley Marcus Sweater

Made from extra-fine New Zealand Merino wool, this easy-fit pullover has a rib hem and turnback cuffs. Comes in no fewer than 12 alternative colours, including ‘soot’ and ‘concord grape’. Nope, we don’t know either. £130 | johnsmedley.com 54 | October 18 2013 |

Grenson Brogues

An update to the vintage Grenson brogue, the light, supple leather makes these bad boys versatile enough for a sophisticated or more casual look. Made by some of the finest shoe craftsmen in the business. £180 | grenson.co.uk

Lubiam 1911 Cotton Blazer

Single-breasted, three-button, soft-tailored Bob cotton blazer by the Italian heritage brand famous for its attention to detail and quality. This pale blue number from Lubiam is nothing short of a slim-fitting classic. £340 | lubiam.it Download the free Sport iPad app from the Apple Newsstand

iPad edition on Newsstand now

Et

Entertainment

GrEAt ESCAPES

Tom Hanks shoots for another Oscar as a prisoner of Somali pirates, while Arnie and Sly are a pair of geriatric jailbirds

Film

Film

Escape Plan

After a few lean years (film-quality wise, rather than physically), Tom Hanks finally gets his teeth into a role in this paredback action-thriller. Directed by Paul ‘The Bourne Ultimatum’ Greengrass, Captain Phillips recounts the real-life hijacking of an unarmed US container ship by Somali pirates in 2009. Hanks plays the titular skipper, a former Boston cab driver keeping calm among the creeping tension and doing his utmost to save his crew. Yet this is no tale of a brave

Exhibition

Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2013

Baby gorillas, leaping frogs and a crocodile about to crunch a turtle in this always smileinducing, thought-provoking annual treat at London’s Natural History Museum. We particularly like this shot of a lion reflecting that big, clawed paws are useful for many things – but not for holding umbrellas.

Opens today 56 | October 18 2013 |

American underdog and his vicious captors. It emerges that Somali pirate captain Muse (Barkhad Abdi) has more in common with his American equivalent than you might imagine, as the US Navy get involved and both find themselves up against powers beyond their control.

As usual, Greengrass walks a perfect tightrope between political intrigue and tense, claustrophobic action – but it’s the performances of Hanks and Abdi that raise this vessel to new heights.

Out today

Book

Autobiography Morrissey

If you saw a line of pale, gloomy gentlemen queuing outside Waterstones this past week, it’s likely they were waiting for this: the highly-anticipated autobiog from the ex-Smiths frontman and indie-pop godfather. Our prediction is as follows. Will: give precious little away. Won’t: express his desire to do a techno album with Mike Joyce.

Out now

Music

Shulamith Polica

Film

Indie-pop with dance/R&B stylings gel perfectly in this second album from Minneapolis five-piece Polica. Singer Channy Leaneagh’s languid, drawnout vocals are mesmerising on Tiff, which also offers a perfect example of how these disparate elements come together over a hypnotic beat. Will have you tapping your feet for weeks.

Out Monday

Prince Avalanche

Two men, slowly painting traffic lines on a desolate road. The 10-word sell on this US indie comedy-drama may not paint a terrific picture, but low-key chuckles maestro Paul Rudd and Emile Hirsch hit all the right spots here as mismatched road workers. They share booze and physical blows, yet eventually bond over their tedious task.

Out today

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2013 Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. © 2013 Summit Entertainment, LLC

Captain Phillips

Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger (here played by their own dads) are trapped in an inescapable, futuristic jail together. The former is a prison designer who’s been doublecrossed, the latter is a long-time con who Sly needs in order to implement an exit strategy.

You can guess the plot: sadistic wardens, aged action stars socking one another and some eye-catching set-pieces. Yet it’s Arnie – who was always a defter hand at self-deprecating comedy than Sly – who steals the scenes.

He injects grey, grizzled Swan Rottmayer – no, really – with plenty of charismatic muscle.

Geriaction at its best.

Out today

Shot taken with the Nokia Lumia 1020.

i l

Actuall size.

A i

41 megapixels puts you pitch-side.

Meet the Nokia Lumia 1020. windowsphone.co.uk | #reinvented

64GB Exclusive

Reinvented around you.

41 megapixel sensor takes maximum 38 megapixel image. Apps from the Windows Phone Store. Availability may vary.

the unique featuReS Shot & cleaR

Okay, we’ve all been here.

You’ve set up the perfect shot and suddenly, just as you’re taking the picture, you get photo-bombed (or someone innocently walks into the frame).

With the innovative Shot & Clear feature, though, all is not lost. It captures the background before anyone enters the shot, and blends it with the picture you want to take, eliminating any unwanted people or objects.

Dual RecoRDing/cameRa

This is the ultimate selfie – you can put yourself in the picture as well as behind the camera. Dual recording and camera lets you activate front and rear cameras simultaneously, so you can record yourself and your subject at the same time.

This fun feature works with both camera and video camera, using picture-in-picture technology to put your face in anything you’re shooting.

tRacking zoom

Focus in on your favourite subject without losing track of it in the bigger picture. The G2’s tracking zoom lets you create unique videos with a picture-in-picture frame that highlights your subject’s movements, while keeping the rest of the scene in view. This feature zooms in on the subject you’ve selected and tracks their actions in a separate pane overlapping the background video.

zoom to tRack

G2’s zoom to track feature makes watching videos more interactive and fun by letting you selectively zoom in on a subject. Just select the subject and you can track it through the whole video. It’s like getting behind the camera to direct the film even after the video has been recorded.

| 07

Advertising Feature

Sharper, Clearer, Bigger, Brighter the g2’s display wil knock you out with its crystal-clear images and video… you’ve never seen anything this good

T

he 5.2-inch full HD IPS display on the G2 gives you a superior visual experience with true-to-nature colours, sharp text, high-definition details and cinema-like 16.9 aspect ratio.

Its rich, 423 pixels-per-inch resolution shows every detail, and its display gives bright whites and more accurate, lifelike colour representation without ever straining your eyes.

So whether you’re watching a football match in full HD, viewing a portrait set against a clear blue sky, or shopping for clothes and want to see exact colours, you’ll get an authentic view of whatever you’re looking at.

The 13MP camera captures sharper imagery thanks to its breakthrough optical image stabilisation (OIS) technology. OIS stabilises the focus, meaning it’s great for action or sport shots, or low-light situations.

Multi points autofocus hones in on multiple faces or moving objects, while Super-Resolution lets you zoom in closer without losing quality to ensure detailed images with eight times the normal zoom.

Plus, graphics are silky smooth so that video and games are much easier to see. Thanks to the Snapdragon 800 2.26 Ghz quad-core processor, you can browse the web faster than ever, and juggle multiple apps with zero lag time. No matter what you want to use your device for, you’ll find the G2 a much more seamless experience than you’ve ever had before. By dividing tasks efficiently between its four cores, the G2 can easily run multiple functions at once, delivering up to 50 per cent faster and better graphics performance.

In short, pictures and video have never looked better.

06 | October 18 2013 |

â&#x20AC;&#x153;This is the best smartphone in the world right now.â&#x20AC;? Sept 2013 Equipped with the latest cutting edge technology, the new LG G2 is a true powerhouse smartphone that delivers greater speed in a sophisticated, slim line design. With a unique rear key button that not only allows you to control the phone in its most intuitive way, plus a near zero bezel and a full HD IPS display that allows you to consume media better than ever before, the G2 demonstrates premium design sophistication at its very best.

Also available in white.

Visit lg.com/uk/G2

LG G2 Sport FP 232x300.indd 1

14/10/2013 16:19

et

Gadgets

there’s onLy one way to beat them

Get round the back. That’s right – the LG G2 has rear controls and features such as dual recording. So you can tape yourself rapping – and the crowd’s reaction

LG G2

There are a lot of similarities between what you’re reading right now and the LG G2. If you flip this magazine round, you’ll get a (if we may) top-quality sport magazine. And, if you turn the G2 on its axis, you’ll see unique rear controls. Okay, so maybe not that similar. The G2 is LG’s attempt, however, to muscle in on the Samsung/Apple duopoly at the top of the smartphone game.

And it’s a fine effort. For, as well as top-of-the range internal and external hardware, it features clever software features such as KnockON, which lets you wake up your phone with a tap of the screen, or SlideAside, which lets you peek at one app while using another – so you can check your text messages while watching a film, for example. A similar idea is the Dual Recording function, which activates front and rear cameras so you can capture your own reaction as well as the events you’re aiming at. £49 on £35/month contract | three.co.uk

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04 | October 18 2013 |

The LG G2: LearninG from you expand your senses, enrich your understanding and enhance your daily life with the new device designed to fit your needs perfectly…

he LG G2 has been designed with you in mind. Yes, you. You’re the inspiration for it – and the more you interact with it, the more you’ll enjoy it.

When you speak, it listens. When you touch, it responds. When you ask, it answers. It senses your gestures, understands your voice and gives you access to unprecedented levels of organisation and information to make your life easier. It’s also packed with features that give you more control over your world, for a heightened user experience.

The phone is such a crucial part of all our lives now that we can’t imagine how we ever lived without it – but the G2 takes that feeling to a whole new level.

Now you’ll never be able to think of what life with a ‘normal’ smartphone was like. Superior hardware, an instinctive and unique design, and a suite of intuitive features make it a must-have phone for everyone.

Its sleek, ergonomic design means it’s a lot more comfortable to use. One of the key aspects of the G2, making it different from anything else around, is a refined rear key that puts much more control emphasis on the back of the phone.

Not to mention the step-designed battery that enables maximum storage and efficiency compared to traditional Li-Lon batteries. The added GRAM chipset saves battery life with 20 per cent less power consumption.

T

There are so many great features on the G2. Here are just a few to whet your appetite:

Knockon

All you have to do bring your phone to life is give it a simple tap. No more picking up and pressing the power button as it sits on your desk.

Guestmode

Perfect for parents, this lets you control what apps and features can be used by other people on your phone. (No more £45 bills for games from the app store... not that we speak from experience OR ANYTHING)

Plug &Pop

As soon as you plug in earphones or a USB cable, the phone will show you a list of icons you may be about to use.

Slideaside

Check your calendar while emailing with one swipe. Pause a film to send a text without closing the window. SlideAside makes it easy to juggle multiple apps and functions simultaneously.

QSlide

This brings a PC-like experience to your G2, so you can view three overlaid windows at once on your screen – and you can adjust their size and transparency.

Quickremote

Convert your G2 into a programmable remote for all your infrared devices – and use it on almost any home entertainment system. Just turn on QuickRemote and the device you want to control, and G2 will quickly search for a signal and set up a connection. Operate your TV, stereo, DVD player, set-top box... you’re in control. | 03

Advertising Feature

02 | October 18 2013 |

With a near zero bezel and full HD IPS display, the G2 allows you to consume media better than ever before.

Experience the G2 at your local Three store today.

Visit lg.com/uk/G2

LG G2 Sport CoverWrap 232x300.indd 1

15/10/2013 14:40