Callum Grant Loves Cricket - Howzat...???

Hello, my name is Callum Grant. I chose the Sports Journalism Elective because I have a passion for sport, especially cricket and golf.

My favourite sports are cricket and golf; I also like rugby and table tennis. My passion is cricket and when I am older I would like to be a professional cricketer for Scotland and Yorkshire CCC (County Cricket Club).

My favourite cricketer is Joe Root. The best memory I have of him is when he scored 200 not out v Sri Lanka. He came on at a tricky time the score was 74-3 after 18.3 overs. He put on 47 with Ian bell to get the score to 120-4. He then batted with Moeen Ali and together they put on 209-5. He batted for 500 minutes and faced 298 balls hitting 13 fours. For the next day and a half Joe Root took apart the Sri Lankan bowling attack and finished 200 not out.

Joe Root, 'can you limbo under this..??'

Another great innings from Joe Root was the 134 he scored against Australia. England at that stage were 43-3, Joe Root walked out to the wicket with the full weight of England expectations on his shoulders. He was dropped on 0 by Brad Haddin (the Australian wicketkeeper). He joined Gary Ballance and put on 153 to take England to 196-4. Ben Stokes then came to the wicket and scored a valuable 52. The pair put on 84 and took the score to 280-6. Root was finally bowled out for an impressive 134 runs off of 166 balls. He batted for 247 minutes and won England the test match.

My next favourite cricketer is Ricky Ponting. My favourite memory of Ricky Ponting is from the 2005 Ashes series, he faced 274 balls and after 411 minutes of bowling attacks he scored 156 runs. His wicket was lost with 4 overs to go in the match, his innings saved a game England thought they had won comfortably and earned Australia the win.

The great Ricky Ponting who bowed out of Test Cricket against England this Summer

When it comes to golf my favourite player is definitely Rory McIlory. I like Rory’s style especially how he attacks the pins and greens and is always looking for a low score. 

 

My favourite rugby player is stand off/full back Stuart Hogg. I love seeing Stuart Hogg running and beating defenders, making them look silly.

The sight of Stuart Hogg scares oppositions, no one likes looking silly do they?

 

One of my most vivid sporting memories is a game I played for the Stenhousemuir Under 11’s Cricket Club. I scored 39 runs with my partner and I took 1 wicket. I was captain for that season and as captain I only lost 1 game which was in the semi-final (we lost to Polock Cricket Club)

 

Another memorable sporting moment for me was when Andy Murray won Wimbledon in 2013. I was camping at the time and my cousin and I were sat in the car listening to Andy Murray winning Wimbledon on the radio. On that day Andy’s back and forehand cross-court was pristine and the fore-hand down the line was great.

 

I can’t wait to start writing about all my favourite sports and reporting on all the interesting sporting events LHS are involved in.

by Callum Grant

 

 

 

 

Is Ronaldo this Generations Greatest Player..??

Cristiano Ronaldo won his 3^rd ballon d’or this year cementing his place as one of the world’s greatest footballer’s, and potentially the best of all time. 

Born on the 5^th of February 1985 in Madeira Portugal, Cristiano Ronaldo has played for Sporting Lisbon, Manchester United and is currently at Real Madrid.  In 2003 Manchester United paid 12 million pound to sign him when he was only 18 years old, showing incredible faith in the talents of such a young player.  Since his Manchester United move he has gone on to break many records and scored some incredible goals. With Real Madrid he has broken the record for the most hat-tricks in the la liga, scoring 23 in total more than any other player in the league’s history.

Is Ronaldo the greatest player of all-time..??

Before he played for great teams like Manchester United, Real Madrid and Sporting Lisbon he played for Madeira as a child, the local team in the town where he grew up. When he was 12 he moved 600 miles to Lisbon to play for Sporting Lisbon’s youth team and some of his team mates made fun of his Madeiran accent.

Real Madrid signed him for a record breaking £80million transfer from Manchester United but that record was recently broken when the same team paid £85 million for Gareth Bale.

 

When Ronaldo was at Manchester United he had a strong relationship with former boss Sir Alex Ferguson. Ferguson said in an interview that ‘Ronaldo is the greatest player I ever worked with’ praise indeed from a manager who has worked with players such as Beckham, Scholes, Giggs and Cantona.

 

Sir Alex described Ronaldo as the best he's ever worked with

When Ronaldo was at Manchester United he won the Premier League Title, the Champions League , Community Shield, FA Cup, Club World Cup, as well as individual awards the ballon d’or, golden boot, and pfa player of the year.

At Real Madrid he has won the La Liga, the Copa del Rey, and recently added 'la decima' Real Madrid's tenth European Cup success. 

Ronaldo has won everything there is to win but the only thing is missing is success at International level with Portugal.  The only blip on the superstar’s record is perhaps the 2004 European Championship Finals where Portugal lost one nil to Greece in the final - made even more disappointing due to the fact the tournament was held in Portugal, Ronaldo’s home country

Ronaldo recently turned 30 years old, still at the peak of his career who knows how many more ballon d'or's this incredible player could potentially win.





by Jamie Forrester

 

Evan's Heroics Can't Save Larbert U-13's

Earlier this week, Larbert High School’s U-13 football squad were in for a challenge as they were facing the dominate Graham High school who were sitting comfortably at the top of the table. Larbert played a strong squad but were missing key players and had to bring in reserves. Larbert were always going to struggle but with Larbert’s goal keeper Evan Taylor on scintillating form they managed to keep themselves in the game. In the end Graham showed why they are a performance school winning 6-0 keeping them comfortably at the top of the table.

The game started brightly with Graham creating many chances but some great early saves from Evan Taylor denied the performance school from scoring early on.

 It wasn’t long before Graham struck the net for the first time when they scored a standard 6 yard tap-in into the bottom left hand corner, un-saveable for Evan Taylor.

Graham bagged a few more goals before the half making it 4-0 at half time.

Graham make it 2-0 after a well taken penalty.  It was a tough night for the U-13's despite heroics from Evan Taylor

The Larbert midfield in the second half had clearly given themselves a shake, beginning to cope with the pace of the Graham High attack. The hard work and team work of Larbert was starting to come into play and the boys were creating more chances than the first half.

 

Graham took this as a warning and stepped up their game again scoring 2 more goals, which the keeper couldn’t prevent. Evan Taylor was on top of his game and if it wasn’t for him the score could have been a lot greater for Graham.

 

So at the end of the match Graham had earned 3 points, showing their dominance and why they are a performance school.

Despite the fact of conciding 6 goals we’ve given the man of the match to Larbert’s keeper Evan Taylor for pulling of some great saves and denying Graham time and time again.

 

 

 

by Cammy Dick

Thierry Henry, Arsenal's All-Time Great Gunner

Thierry Henry’s incredible career began in the Paris suburb of Les Ulis. Thierry was born in August 1977 in Les Ulis; the son of immigrant parents from French oversees regions in the Caribbean Thierry bonded with other children in the neighbourhood through football. 

His abilities as a youngster were impressive enough to earn him a spot on CO Les Ulis youth club as a 7-year-old. A 15 year old Henry joined formidable French club Monaco FC in 1992 and was granted a first team place after only one season with the club.  Henry would stay with the French club for seven years and was an integral part of the squad that won the 1996-1997 ‘Ligue 1’ title.

A young Thierry Henry plying his trade at Monaco 

In 1999 Thierry Henry decided to leave Monaco and join defending Italian Champions Juventus. He had a disappointing season on the wing, not his preferred position, and didn’t reach the heights of his Monaco performances. After only one with Monaco season Henry joined Arsenal for £11 million in 1999 where he would go onto become a club cult hero and Arsenal’s all-time top goal scorer.

It was at Arsenal that Henry made his name as a world class player. Despite the club struggling in the Premier League when he arrived Henry quickly emerged as an incredible player for Arsenal and became the club’s top goal-scorer for almost every season. Under long time mentor and former Monaco coach Arsene Wenger, Henry became a prolific striker and Arsenal’s all time goal scorer with 228 goals in all competitions.

 

Thierry Henry is firmly established as an Arsenal legend

The Frenchman won two League Titles and three F.A cups with the Gunners and was runner-up for the FIFA World Player of the Year twice. Henry spent his final two seasons with Arsenal as club captain leading them to the UEFA Champions League Final where they were narrowly beaten 2-1 by European heavyweights Barcelona.

 

In June 2007 after eight years at Arsenal Henry transferred to Barcelona for a fee of £24 million. In 2009 he was an integral part of the club’s historic treble when they won La Liga, the Copa Del Ray and the UEFA Champions League. He returned to Arsenal on loan for two months in 2012.  In 2013 Henry went to MLS club New York Red Bulls and won the MLS Supporters shield.

 

Henry enjoyed incredible success with the French national team also, winning the 1998 FIFA World Cup UEFA, Euro 2000 Championships and 2003 FIFA confederations Cup. He retired from International football in 2010 World Cup.

 

1 World Cup and 1 European Championship, not a bad return for an Intenatioanl career

Henry married English model Nicole Merry in 2003 and had a daughter with her, but they divorced in 2007. Henry was also one of the top commercially marketed footballers ever ranked ninth in the world in 2006.

Thierry Henry is now retired and working for Sky Sports. Perhaps in the future he may make a return as Arsenal manager.

 

 

 

by Mitchell Wallace

 

Lionel Messi, World Football's Golden Boy

Lionel Messi, La Liga all time top-goal scorer, has secured his place as one of the all time world great’s.  His is one of, if not the very best, ever to play the game.

Is Lionel Messi the greatest player of all time..??

At the age of thirteen a young Lionel Messi moved from his home town club, Rosario Argentina, to the famous Barcelona FC. At a young age Messi had to get nightly growth hormone injections to make him grow. It was a few 100 dollars a month so it was hard for Lionel’ family to pay for it, however the club helped Messi’s family pay for the injections. 

Messi scored his first goal for Barcelona in May 2005 against Albacete.  In one of his first ever interviews Messi said his favourite player was the Brazilian Ronaldo, he was his hero because he was the best forward he has seen, he was so fast and could score from nothing.

Messi has won lots of silverwear and broken many records such as the most goals scored in Europe, and the most goals scored in a season.  He has won four ballon`dors in his career and has been a phenomenal player ever since the day he joined Barcelona at the early age of 13. This year Messi has already scored 8 goals in 6 appearances with two assists in the Champion’s League qualifiers helping Barcelona qualify with ease from the group stages.

Leo Messi, full name Luis Lionel Messi, was born on June 24^th 1987. His family are quoted as saying Messi was ‘born a talent and grew into a superstar’. On December 14th 2000 Barcelona's Sporting Director Carles Reach held a meeting with the 13 year old Messi and his father Jorge.  Interestingly the contract signed between the young Messi and Carles the Sporting Director was signed on a napkin as there was no paper to hand.  No one knew at the time that this napkin would turn out to be one of the most important sporting documents in sporting history.

Lionel Messi's remarkable Barcelona career started with a signed napkin

Messi competes against Cristiano Ronaldo nearly every year not only for domestic and European titles but also for individual honours, they are the two giants in world football today. Some people think Ronaldo is the best player in the world and others think it’s Messi, if I was to choose I would say Messi is the all-time player but for 2014-2015 I would say it has to be Ronaldo. Some of the stats for this year are…

Ronaldo                              Messi

36 goals                             37 goals

14 assists                          18 assists

33 appearances                 33 appearances

In one of the most lucrative leagues in the world, the Spanish la liga, giants Barcelona and Real Madrid are almost neck and neck in the table. Real Madrid are currently on 54 points and Barcelona on 53 points and both played the same amount of games. This year will be tough to decide who will win but with Messi playing a big part in Barcelona’s success they could possibly slip past real Madrid and be the league winners for the 23rd time in Barcelona’s history.

Last year in the World Cup Messi admitted he did not earn the golden ball award, despite the Argentinian superstar winning the award for the most outstanding player of the tournament.   Argentinian  legend Maradona was critical of Messi during the World Cup saying, ‘Messi, I would give him heaven if possible but it is not right when someone wins something he shouldn’t have won just because of some marketing plan’.

Messi is an outstanding player and at only 27 he can becme even better as the years’ progress. There are still many more trophies to win and records to break for Lionel Messi. 

by Alan McLagan

Alexis Sanchez has the Power

After a fantastic world cup playing for the Chilean national side Arsenal completed the signing of the summer sining Alexis Sanchez for £30million from Barcelona. 

Despite having won five trophies in his three seasons at the Nou Camp, having joined from Udinese in 2011, Sanchez often found himself out of the team for big games. He admitted that he found it difficult playing in the classic Barcelona style, his obvious energy and pace didn’t fit with the patient ‘tika-taka’ Barcelona passing game.

Alexis Sanchez, the most influential and successful signing of the summer

Sanchez is proving to be one of the best signings of the summer. He is Arsenal's Duracell battery who is currently powering them through the Champions League stages and into the Premiership’s top four. One of his team mates Oxlade Chamberlin commented that “he is non-stop and his desire to win the ball is unbelievable”.  In October Sanchez was voted Premiership player of the month. 

On the 19^th of December 1988 in Tocopilla Chile, Sanchez was born. It all started with Cobreloa based in Calma in north Chile. After a season he moved to Santiagho based Colo-Colo, where he won the Chilean Primera Division in 2007. His performances were suitably impressive for Italian side Udinese to make a move for the player where he spent three seasons. 

Barcelona came in for the player and after struggling to hold down a regular starting position he then moved onto play for arsenal. Alexis is quoted as saying that “from an early age I liked football and I started with my friends in the neighbourhood, before we even had grass pitches there were only dirt pitches.”

When he played with Corbela he received only £45 a month even when he got into the first team his wages remained low. Udinese who payed £1.7 million for the 17 year old promptly loaned him out for seasons in Chile and Argentina where he was on Championship winning sides with again Colo-Colo in Chilie and River Plate in Argentina. 

Alexi Sanchez is Arsenal's 'Duracell Battery'

Having made his international debut at the age of 18, on his debut Alexis played alongside Marcelo Salas; Chile’s all time record goal scorer in September 2007, and a hero of Alexis Sanchez. It was a tough decision for him to leave Barcelona last summer with offers from Liverpool and Arsenal. With Liverpool often struggling to get into the Champions League whereas Arsenal have been in the champions league 16 times every season since the competition’s conception, perhaps the decision was made easier.

It was clear last season that arsenal had to back up their main striker Olivier Giroud. Wenger believes that Sanchez will benefit by stepping out of Messi’s shadow. Sanchez’s ambition, hunger, and physical toughness have already impressed. “I came here to win the league the Champions league and much more” he quoted. Sanchez is proving to be one of the best of his generation.  Let’s hope he continues to improve and can inspire Arsenal to something special in the coming years. 

by Jack Donaldson

Eden Hazard, World Class

Chelsea forward Eden Hazard was quoted during an interview with FourFourTwo magazine “I love to use the nutmeg but I mustn’t use it in training, there would be a fight.” Even against the collection of great players at Chelsea Hazard has to be careful to reign in his talents, he's that good.  Put simply, 'Eden Hazard, World Class'.

Hazard won the 2011 PFA young player of the year award back in 2011, again his response to winning such an award was typical of the player, “It's good but it's not enough, I want to achieve perfection”  

Back in hazards early days he felt like he was born to play. His parents Corinne and Thierry both grew up as footballers so it was natural he would inherit the game they loved.  Eden was born in La Louviere and grew up in Braine le Comte, France. In 1995 when Eden was just 4 years old, his football career began when he went down to the Royal Stade Branois youth club.  He played with the youth club for 8 years until his 12th birthday.

Eden Hazard celebrates another goal for Chelsea, it's second nature for a player of his ability.

He then entered the Tubize football academy where he spent 2 years. In 2005, a 14 year old Eden Hazard was offered the perfect opportunity when Lillie scouts visited the academy. Eden grabbed the chance with both hands bagging a place with the great French club he moved there to begin his professional career.

In 2009 Hazard was invited to play for the Belgium national Under 17 & Under 19 squads where he earned 26 caps and bagged 10 goals in just one year.

Three years later Hazard moved to big spenders Chelsea and made an immediate impact on his debut. He made his competitive debut for the blues in a Community Shield match against Man City in August 2012. Chelsea won 2-0 that day and Hazard provided a goal with a great assist showing Chelsea fans what they could expect to see from the player in the coming seasons.

After impressing early on at the club Hazard ‘s energy and high octane performances for Chelsea have led some to describe him as Chelsea’s ‘duracel battery’ powering the midfield and lifting the team when they are flat.  There is no doubting his worth for the Chelsea team, he has been by far their most influencial player this season.

Hazard's scoring record for Belgium is equally as impressive.

In the 2013, Hazard was one of the 23 man shortlist nominated for the Ballon D’or, and it's a matter of time surely before Hazard bags adds this award to his Young Player of the Year Award.

In 2014 Jose Mourinho ,after Chelsea’s 5-3 defeat to Tottenham, stated;

“People are in love with football in this country, people must be in love with Eden Hazard. The way, match after match, he’s being punished by opponents and he’s not being protected by referees, maybe one day we won’t have Eden  Hazard. It’s one, two, three, four, five, 10 aggressive fouls against him. They kick and kick and kick and the kid resists. He’s a very honest guy in the way he plays, but that’s another problem.”

So, Hazard has had some great successes and as his manager says he is a simply excellent player. But there is still much to do for Eden Hazard, in his own words 'I want to achieve perfection'.

Eden Hazard, world class.

by Cammy Dick