Sky and ESPN announce TV fixtures

Sky Sports and ESPN have announced their first set of live Premiership televised fixtures for the 2011/12 season.

Newcastle United and Arsenal will be involved in the first televised fixture of the season, to be shown on ESPN at 5.30pm on Saturday 13 August.  I bet the broadcaster will be hoping for another memorable battle between these sides.  Last season's corresponding fixture finished in a 4-4 draw.  A day later, last year's top two will be involved in a double bill on Ford Super Sunday.  Chelsea visit FA Cup finalists Stoke City at 1.30pm on August 14, followed by defending champions Manchester United's trip to the Hawthorns to face West Brom at 4pm.  Twenty-four hours later, Manchester City begin their quest for Premiership glory against newboys Swansea City in the first Monday Night Football of the campaign at 8pm.

The following weekend sees Arsenal v Liverpool and Manchester United v Tottenham on Sky Sports, with the following fixtures all confirmed until the end of November.

13 AUG 11	Newcastle United v Arsenal	17:30
14 AUG 11	Stoke City v Chelsea	13:30
14 AUG 11	West Bromwich Albion v Manchester United	16:00
15 AUG 11	Manchester City v Swansea City	20:00
20 AUG 11	Arsenal v Liverpool	12:45
20 AUG 11	Chelsea v West Bromwich Albion	17:30
21 AUG 11	Bolton Wanderers v Manchester City	16:00
22 AUG 11	Manchester United v Tottenham Hotspur	20:00
27 AUG 11	Aston Villa v Wolverhampton Wanderers	12:05
27 AUG 11	Liverpool v Bolton Wanderers	17:30
28 AUG 11	Tottenham Hotspur v Manchester City	13:30
28 AUG 11	Manchester United v Arsenal	16:00
10 SEP 11	Bolton Wanderers v Manchester United	17:30
11 SEP 11	Norwich City v West Bromwich Albion	13:30
11 SEP 11	Fulham v Blackburn Rovers	16:00
12 SEP 11	Queens Park Rangers v Newcastle United	20:00
17 SEP 11	Blackburn Rovers v Arsenal	12:45
18 SEP 11	Tottenham Hotspur v Liverpool	13:30
18 SEP 11	Manchester United v Chelsea	16:00
24 SEP 11	Manchester City v Everton	12:45
24 SEP 11	Stoke City v Manchester United	17:30
25 SEP 11	Queens Park Rangers v Aston Villa	16:00
26 SEP 11	Norwich City v Sunderland	20:00
01 OCT 11	Everton v Liverpool	12:45
02 OCT 11	Bolton Wanderers v Chelsea	13:30
02 OCT 11	Tottenham Hotspur v Arsenal	16:00
15 OCT 11	Liverpool v Manchester United	12:45
15 OCT 11	Chelsea v Everton	17:30
16 OCT 11	Manchester City v Aston Villa	13:30
16 OCT 11	Newcastle United v Tottenham Hotspur	16:00
22 OCT 11	Wolverhampton Wanderers v Swansea City	12:45
22 OCT 11	Liverpool Norwich City	17:30
23 OCT 11	Manchester United v Manchester City	13:30
23 OCT 11	Queens Park Rangers v Chelsea	16:00
29 OCT 11	Chelsea v Arsenal	12:45
29 OCT 11	West Bromwich Albion v Liverpool	17:30
30 OCT 11	Tottenham Hotspur v Queens Park Rangers	16:00
31 OCT 11	Stoke City v Newcastle United	20:00
05 NOV 11	Newcastle United v Everton	12:45
05 NOV 11	Queens Park Rangers v Manchester City	17:30
06 NOV 11	Wolverhampton Wanderers v Wigan Athletic	13:30
06 NOV 11	Fulham v Tottenham Hotspur	16:00
19 NOV 11	Norwich City v Arsenal	12:45
19 NOV 11	Swansea City v Manchester United	17:30
20 NOV 11	Chelsea v Liverpool	16:00
21 NOV 11	Tottenham Hotspur v Aston Villa	20:00
26 NOV 11	Arsenal v Fulham	17:30
27 NOV 11	Swansea City v Aston Villa	13:30
27 NOV 11	Liverpool v Manchester City	16:00
28 NOV 11	Stoke City v Blackburn Rovers	20:00

US MotoGP 2011: Stoner surges clear

CASEY Stoner increased his lead at the top of the MotoGP standings to 20 points last night, with victory in the United States Grand Prix.  The Repsol Honda rider, 25, took his fifth win from ten outings in 2011, to move further clear of his only title rival of the championship, defending champion Jorge Lorenzo.

     On an absolutely gorgeous day in California, the Laguna Seca played host to the final event before the summer break.  Lorenzo, suffering from a big practice crash which meant he could barely walk, started on pole position.  He made the most of it, by making a belting start and leading the three Honda’s of Dani Pedrosa, Stoner and Andrea Dovizioso into the Andretti bend.

     As Lorenzo zoomed into the distance, others were finding the tight and twisty circuit harder to cope with.  Britain’s Cal Crutchlow lasted only four laps, before suffering another expensive accident on his Tech-Speed Yamaha bike.  After a promising start to his rookie season, Crutchlow has now only scored two points in his last five outings.  Moments later, American wildcard Ben Bostrom retired with a brake problem and Marco Simoncelli made his customary exit.  The Italian slid off on the way upto the undulating Corkscrew bend, to record his fourth crash already of an error-prone season. 

MEMORABLE: Stoner's passes deserved his glory

     Back at the front and as in the German Grand Prix a week earlier, Lorenzo, Pedrosa and Stoner had managed to gap the rest of the chasing pack.  At half-distance, Stoner decided to make his move on Pedrosa, forcing his team-mate to concede position or crash at the Corkscrew.  Sensibly, Dani chose the latter and as his fitness levels dropped off, so did his pace and it meant no repeat of his Sachensring success seven days earlier.  Casey, who was worried about his lack of race pace going into the event, hunted Lorenzo down successfully and bravely passed him on the outside of the start-finish straight with just six laps to run.  Lorenzo left minimal space and the Australian was lucky not to end up in the back of the Yamaha’s exhaust. 

     After that, Stoner cruised away into the distance, to win by nearly five seconds.  Lorenzo’s ride to second was heroic and keeps him right in the thick of the title battle, with eight races still to run this season.  Pedrosa held onto third, whilst home hero Ben Spies recovered from a bad start to pip Dovizioso for fourth.  Sixth and seventh for the Ducati’s of Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden was the best they could hope for, although Alvaro Bautista’s Suzuki had a chance of beating both Italian bikes, if he hadn’t chucked his bike into the dirt.

     Brno is the next event in three weeks time and for Stoner, it is the perfect response to some increased Lorenzo pressure.  The second half of this MotoGP season promises to be spellbinding!  

2011 British Grand Prix - Flying Fernando charges to British glory

DROUGHT: Ended today by a brilliant Alonso drive at Silverstone

QUICKER pace around the pitstops enabled Fernando Alonso and Ferrari to end their victory drought today.  The double world champion took his first win since last year’s Korean Grand Prix at Silverstone, benefiting from changes to the blowing off-air gases within the exhaust systems on the cars and upgrades on his Ferrari.  However, Sebastian Vettel still finished second to extend his championship lead to 80 points over his nearest challengers.

     The Formula One paddock arrived at Silverstone to greet the new pits and paddock complex.  ‘The Wing’ certainly was the perfect new modern facility for the home of British motorsport and with the typical British summer weather; everyone was greeted to changeable conditions all weekend.  Friday’s practice sessions were a washout, and both qualifying and the race were affected by brief rain showers. 

LEAD: Red Bull led the early stages, but they didn't win this time

     The damp circuit around the old start-finish straight meant that all the drivers took no risks and started on intermediate tyres.  Pole sitter Mark Webber lost his lead immediately with a poor getaway and this allowed runaway championship leader Vettel to blast into an immediate lead.  In the early stages, Lewis Hamilton wowed the home crowd with some smooth passes which saw him jump up from a disappointing tenth on the grid into fifth place by the end of the second lap.  The track began to rapidly dry out and with Michael Schumacher setting fastest sector times on dry tyres, the intermediates soon wore out and everyone pitted.  Schumacher didn’t help himself by losing his nosecone against Kamur Kobayashi’s Sauber at Brooklands, which resulted in a ten second stop-go penalty.

     At this stage of the grand prix, Vettel has things under control and the McLaren’s seemed to have more pace than the Ferrari’s.  Jenson Button, who had been at sea on intermediate tyres, pulled off an unbelievable overtake on Felipe Massa around the outside of Stowe corner.  A lap later, Hamilton achieved a similar and braver pass on Alonso into Copse to take third place.  However, Alonso’s pace picked up and he stayed out longer whilst others pitted.  He was helped by two poor Red Bull pitstops which allowed the Spaniard to jump into the lead.  Vettel was delayed by a KERS issue and a problem on the rear jack at his second stop, which relegated him to third behind Hamilton.

     For the next phase of the Grand Prix, Alonso showed searing pace and opened up an 11 second cushion over Hamilton, who did everything he could to hold off a much quicker Vettel.  However, Sebastian used the undercut, by pitting a lap earlier to regain second place.  Button would have been right in the mix too, but his left front mechanic dropped the wheel gun at his final stop.  His chief mechanic waved him away, but the wheel was clearly loose as he left the pits.  Wisely, Jenson stopped on the grass; bitterly disappointed to miss out on a podium attempt again at his home Grand Prix at the 12^th attempt of asking.  McLaren’s race began to unravel as Hamilton was told that he had to seriously conserve fuel in the final stage of the race to get to the chequered flag.  He had little alternative but to cede position to Webber, and it sent the race into two thrilling battles in the closing stages.

     Webber zeroed in on Vettel and ignored team instructions on four separate occasions to ‘maintain the gap!’  He attacked Vettel all the way to the finish and afterwards, his body language at being told over the radio to play second fiddle to his team-mate by Christian Horner spoke volumes.  A few seconds later, Massa went around the outside of Hamilton into the final Club corner and contact was made, damaging the McLaren’s front wing.  However, Lewis kept the inside line into Vale and as Felipe got a snap of oversteer out of the final corner, it allowed Hamilton the chance to keep his fourth place finish in a dramatic conclusion.  However, it was Alonso who took the top prize; his second British GP success (he won in 2006 for Renault) and his 27^th win of all-time, putting him level with Sir Jackie Stewart in the list.

     Behind the first five, Nico Rosberg and Sergio Perez had a race long tussle, with Rosberg coming out on top for sixth place.  Perez did extremely well, as he only made two pitstops and only just beat the pitlane exit at the start of the race after spinning off on the way to the grid.  Nick Heidfeld did well to finish eighth on a dire weekend for Renault, where the cars were miles off the pace.  Schumacher recovered to ninth and Jaime Alguesuari continued his revival with a third consecutive points scoring finish.  For Paul di Resta, it was another race of missed opportunities.  Having started sixth, he looked good for seventh before a mix-up over tyres at his pitstop and a clash with Sebastian Buemi damaged his front wing and eliminated the Toro Rosso driver.  The Scot finished 15^th. 

     For the first time this season, Red Bull were beaten on the day by a far superior package, rather than mistakes and strategy and although the championship battle is all over bar the shouting, everyone has seen today that Ferrari and Fernando Alonso now have a race winning package for the rest of the season.  The Scuderia will be hoping to continue their revival at the Nurburgring in a fortnight’s time.

Atlantis blasts off for last time

THE American space shuttle programme which has been running for 30 years has had its last flight takeoff.  Atlantis blasted into the sky from its base at Cape Canaveral in Florida on Friday afternoon.  This will be the 135^th mission, which has seen the reusable spacecraft go through periods of triumph and tragedy.  Sadly, the programme won’t be remembered very fondly with space experts, nor American astronauts. 

Below are ten random facts about the space shuttle and ten moments from its 30-year timeline.

FACTS

• 1.       Five space shuttles were built.  Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Endeavour and Atlantis.  Endeavour was the most recent spacecraft to be built, in 1992.
• 2.       The oldest astronaut to fly in the space shuttle programme is John Glenn.  He was part of a Discovery flight in 1998 at 77 years old. 
• 3.       The space shuttle has spent 1,320 days in space.
• 4.       Despite initial plans that there would be 50 shuttle flights a year, it turned into only five/six regular flights per year, yet the programme still cost £120billion.
• 5.       In just under nine minutes, the shuttle goes from 0mph to 17,500mph.
• 6.       Before the final Atlantis flight, the space shuttle has travelled almost 537million miles.
• 7.       In 1983, Sally Ride became the first US woman in space on a Challenger space shuttle mission.
• 8.       The most number of flights that a single astronaut has carried out on the space shuttle flight is seven.
• 9.       All of the space shuttle launches have taken place at the Kennedy Space Centre at Cape Canaveral in Florida.
• 10.   In its 30 year history, the space shuttle has been grounded for nearly five years altogether, due to the Challenger and Columbia disasters.

SIGNIFICANT MOMENTS IN THE HISTORY OF THE SPACE SHUTTLE

1981: Columbia becomes the first spacecraft to make a mission successful.  It is a two day launch on April 11, 1981 and starts a new era for space exploration.

1983: Challenger’s first flight carries the first black astronaut in space, Gulon Bluford and the first American woman in space, Sally Ride.

1986: Space shuttle Challenger exploded just 73 seconds into a mandatory flight on January 28, 1986.  All seven astronauts were killed, included teacher Christa McAuliffe, who was chosen as the first US citizen into space.  The shuttle was grounded until September 1988.

1988: The space shuttle is relaunched with Discovery.

1990: Quite possibly the best year in the history of the space shuttle, with the launch of Jupiter probe Galileo and the launch also of the Hubble Space Telescope.

1992: The replacement for Challenger, Endeavour makes its first flight.

1995: The ‘Space Race’ as it was affectionally known is officially over, as space shuttle Atlantis makes a famous docking with the Russian space station, Mir.

1999: Eileen Collins, who became the first female pilot in 1995, becomes the first ever female shuttle commander.

2003: Space shuttles are grounded for two years after Columbia was blown apart into the skyline on re-entry.  All seven crew members were killed.

2011: Discovery, Endeavour and now, Atlantis make their final flights as the space shuttle is put into retirement.

  

Pam hangs up her earrings

AFTER 25 years playing Pat Evans, or ‘Fat Pat,’ as she is referred to by Janine Malloy, Pam St. Clement has decided to leave EastEnders.  She had decided not to renew her contract, paving the way for a dramatic Christmas storyline exit on the BBC1 soap.  Pam, 69, is thought to have made the decision following the departure of some her closest friends from Albert Square, such as Barbara Windsor.  It is also thought that she wants to go and travel the world with more time on her hands.

     Pam St. Clement first appeared in Albert Square in 1986 and for the last 25 years, fans have been treated to 25 years of dodgy choices in men and also, in those famous earrings she wears.  She is the second longest serving character in the show currently, only behind Adam Woodyatt, who plays unpopular chip shop owner Ian Beale. 

LEAVING: Pam St. Clement is hanging up her earrings

     Pam’s character will be famously known for the on-off relationship she had with car dealer Frank Butcher, played by the amazing and sorely missed Mike Reid.  They got married on the show in 1989 and were happily married until 1992, when financial problems set into their marriage.  On Christmas Eve that year, Pat ran down a teenage girl outside The Queen Vic and was found over the drink-drive limit.  She was sentenced to six months in jail.  Frank and Pat’s marriage eventually crumbled when he left in 1994 and two years later, Pat married car dealer Roy Evans.  However, she couldn’t keep her hands off Frank and in 2000; they rekindled their romance whilst on holiday in Spain.  Peggy eventually found out and revealed all to the Square during the 2000 Bonfire Night celebrations.  Although Roy kicked her out, they reunited until his death in 2002 from a heart attack.

     Since then, Pat has had flings with several men, including Patrick Truman (Rudolph Walker).  In recent years, her character has faded out of the limelight, although her fraught relationship in recent times with Janine Malloy (Charlie Brooks) has always been interesting to watch. 

     On her departure, she said this on the BBC website; “I have enjoyed 25 and a half wonderful years in EastEnders, creating the character of Pat but I feel it’s time to hang up her earrings.  Leaving the EastEnders ‘family’ will be akin to bereavement.  However, I’m looking forward to the other work and life opportunities that I will have the time to pursue.”

     Pat Evans will be sorely missed by her fans in EastEnders and hopefully, she will get a brilliant exit that befits the character.  Another piece of Albert Square history will this Christmas be consigned to the history books.