tag:scoreboard.seatwaveblogs.com,2008://7 2008-01-22T18:08:09Z Behind the scenes of the world of sport. Sport fans unite... the game ain't over 'til the referee sings. Movable Type 3.36 tag:scoreboard.seatwaveblogs.com,2008://7.2188 2008-01-22T15:42:52Z 2008-01-22T18:08:09Z

As one of the surprise teams to watch in this year’s Heineken Cup, London Irish have secured themselves a quarter-final spot against Perpignon. Catch them live in the Guinness Premiership as they take on front-runners, Leicester Tigers at the...

sportsmad As one of the surprise teams to watch in this year’s Heineken Cup, London Irish have secured themselves a quarter-final spot against Perpignon. Catch them live in the Guinness Premiership as they take on front-runners, Leicester Tigers at the Madejski Stadium. We’ve got five pairs of tickets to give away. Simply answer the question below and we’ll pick the first five, correct answers. To enter our competition, please answer the following question. Which London Irish player scored a hat trick in the Heineken Cup game against the Newport Gwent Dragons? Email the answer to Seatwave at competition@seatwave.com Please use the reference London Irish as your email subject. Don't forget to leave your full name, contact number and address. Competition closes Friday, 1st February and winners will be notified by Monday, 4th February. ]]> Terms and conditions This competition is not open to employees of Seatwave. This competition will close on feb 1st . The winner will be notified email. Prizes are non refundable. Seatwave and its representatives, reserve the right to substitute an equivalent prize should the prize stated be unavailable. ]]> tag:scoreboard.seatwaveblogs.com,2008://7.2158 2008-01-11T18:11:48Z 2008-01-14T11:31:07Z

Ladbrokes PDC Darts Championship Alexandra Palace Sat 22nd December 2007 Review by Chris Todd The humongous cavern that is Alexandra Palace has held many events in the past but this years PDC Ladbrokes Championship is the first to be held...

sportsmad Ladbrokes PDC Darts Championship Alexandra Palace Sat 22nd December 2007 Review by Chris Todd The humongous cavern that is Alexandra Palace has held many events in the past but this years PDC Ladbrokes Championship is the first to be held there and is a perfect home for the rowdy rabble that are fans of darts. Ally Pally is hit or miss, normally miss. Bands always struggle with the acoustics there and bands normally sound quiet and hollow with very few bands able to master what must be a difficult place to fill musically, darts on the other hand is a totally different kettle of fish. As you may have read previously on this here site, disillusionment with football has had myself and many others rejecting the sub-human over-paid thugs who are a bit handy with one foot or their head (not for usual head things though like using common sense or reading obviously) and turning to the hallowed turf of the ‘oche’ and reaping the benefits of it. ]]> Being just before Christmas ensures a massive party atmosphere reverberates throughout the venue and it could be anything going on onstage as we are sat at the back therefore the view sucks, although they do kindly put up huge video screens just to see how ugly the people on stage are. Being at the back however does allow a fascinating view of the type of people who are watching the darts; you have your old school darts types probably lamenting the loss of chicken in a basket from the menu who all seem to have managed to get seats at the front, lots of groups of ‘lads’, bovine knuckle draggy kind of guys you would normally cross the road to avoid but tonight are my bessht mates, lots of lovely orange ladies, a smattering of skinny jeaned students sat next to doc martin bovver boys (You would NEVER get that anywhere apart from at darts), most bizarrely, men dressed up as bananas, spiderman or cowboys but most odd is there is a group of people who are all obviously pilled up, they’re swaying, gurning, probably wondering when the music is gonna start….of all the places to get pilled up you chose here? After each set however, there is indeed music; a dodgy trance cover of the Braveheart theme tune which everyone gets up to caterwaul along to. Talking of cats, the sound of 4000 drunk people singing “dud u dud u duu duudu duu duu dooo” is rather reminiscent of the sound a bag full of kittens would make when they realise they’re on their way to a watery death after being abandoned at Christmas. The matches on this night were Roland Scholten v Mervyn King, Phil Taylor v Mark Walsh, Wayne Mardle vJamie Caven but I don’t think anyone cared and I certainly don’t remember the last one, I do however recall befriending the aforementioned man dressed as a banana and I also befriended a fellow Northerner whose name I can't remember. She did however, decide we were best mates when she discovered we were both from the North, she then proceeded to scare a man who dared to be a Southerner. He ran away when she put her fists up and demanded a fight…you can take the girl out of Hull, eh? Whatever, Northern stereotypes aside, darts is a fantastic night out and highly recommended. tag:scoreboard.seatwaveblogs.com,2008://7.2142 2008-01-08T12:45:20Z 2008-01-08T13:04:04Z

Review by Bob Meijer A Football match on new year’s day, now that’s a first for me. I was lucky enough to get some decent tickets to go and see Arsenal play West Ham United at the Emirates- the...

sportsmad Review by Bob Meijer A Football match on new year’s day, now that’s a first for me. I was lucky enough to get some decent tickets to go and see Arsenal play West Ham United at the Emirates- the day after.. I was worried that the alcohol remained in my blood stream might cause a bit of glitch in getting there in time for kick-off but fortunately I was able to get up just in time for the rough journey on the (strangely quiet) tube to the Emirates. It was such good timing, and my mate is a massive football nut from Amsterdam, and I hadn’t really had a chance to go and see an Arsenal match with him before. When I presented him with a ticket to go and see the best playing team in England on new year’s day, his hung-over face turned into what seemed a kid on Christmas Eve. We arrived just in time for the kick-off, managed to get a drink (coke.. ugh) and sat down. Now these were seats, right in the middle of the pitch, so we had a perfect view on Cesc and Emmanuel, who were without a doubt the best ones on the pitch. Being Dutch as we are we were hoping for van Persie to make an appearance but we also knew was injured, we settled for these lot. And van Persie was hardly missed, to be fair, West Ham probably crossed the midfield three or four times, and were actually quite effective. Nevertheless the second minute goal by Eduardo depressed West Ham and Adebayor’s odd goal half way through the match blew all hopes. We left 5 minutes before the end, as we’re used in the Amsterdam Arena, to beat traffic, but we weren’t the only ones. My mate had to catch his flight back to Amsterdam soon and I was home within 15 minutes, and he made his plane in time too. Brilliant hung-over day at the Emirates, timing was perfect, we won and are back on top of the league. What a new year’s day! Buy and sell your Football tickets now! ]]> tag:scoreboard.seatwaveblogs.com,2007://7.2120 2007-12-23T22:21:41Z 2007-12-23T22:31:51Z

By Christopher Todd There is something rotten afoot in the world of football. For many years now there has been a slow and expensive transformation from it being the sport of the working man to what it is now,...

sportsmad By Christopher Todd There is something rotten afoot in the world of football. For many years now there has been a slow and expensive transformation from it being the sport of the working man to what it is now, a commodity, no longer a sport but a global money making form of entertainment. Since Euro ’96, the world has woken up to the obscene amount of money which can be made out of football and are all taking their piece of the pie. The influx of foreign players who moved to the Premiership in the aftermath of ’Euro 96 has improved the quality and entertainment aspect of the premier league but to the detriment to the English team, the recent failure to qualify for Euro 08 holds testament to this. ]]> NOTE: The reviewer's opinions are not necessarily those of Seatwave. Maybe you disagree... or maybe you think Chris has hit the sporty nail on the head. Wax lyrical in our comments section. Get your darts tickets on Seatwave. Get your football tickets on Seatwave. Don't miss the 2008 World Darts Championship!]]> tag:scoreboard.seatwaveblogs.com,2007://7.1475 2007-10-22T13:40:51Z 2007-10-22T16:05:15Z

Joe Calzaghe Vs Mikkel Kessler Joe Calzaghe, ‘The pride of Wales’, is set to take on the current Super Middleweight World Boxing Champion , Mikkel Kessler in his biggest fight to date, at Cardiff’s Millenium Stadium. Calzaghe, as the...

sportsmad Joe Calzaghe Vs Mikkel Kessler Joe Calzaghe, ‘The pride of Wales’, is set to take on the current Super Middleweight World Boxing Champion , Mikkel Kessler in his biggest fight to date, at Cardiff’s Millenium Stadium. Calzaghe, as the current WBO and the former IBF Super Middleweight World Champion, will look to his home crowd for inspiration and is bound to keep the undefeated Danish boxer on his toes. As the current longest reigning title holder in any weight class in boxing (recently passing the ten year mark), Calzaghe has got a lot to lose if defeated by Kessler. This is the most anticipated fight of the year this side of the Atlantic. The pressure is well and truly ON. November 3rd 2007 is the date, Millennium Stadium in Cardiff is the place and guess what - we have two tickets up for grabs! You could be in Cardiff to witness some serious boxing in the ring. All you need to do is answer the following question: Is Joe Calzaghe: A) Irish B) Welsh C) Scottish All you need to do for a chance to win is email the answer to us at competition@seatwave.com Don't forget to leave your phone number and address! Good Luck! If you don't want to leave it up to luck, then get your tickets here and now. This fight is not to be missed! Go to http://www.seatwave.com/joe-calzaghe-vs-mikkel-kessler-tickets/season for more info on tickets. ]]> Terms and conditions This competition is not open to employees of Seatwave. Entries close at 2pm 29th October 2007. The winner will be notified by telephone and email. Prizes are non refundable. Seatwave and its representatives, reserve the right to substitute an equivalent prize should the prize stated be unavailable.]]> tag:scoreboard.seatwaveblogs.com,2007://7.1450 2007-10-17T11:02:05Z 2007-10-17T15:10:26Z

Wales vs. Australia IRB Rugby World Cup Cardiff, 15 September 2007 Review by Nick Howard After contemplating going to this game for months, luckily I was able to buy my tickets through Seatwave after a last minute decision to go....

sportsmad Wales vs. Australia IRB Rugby World Cup Cardiff, 15 September 2007 Review by Nick Howard After contemplating going to this game for months, luckily I was able to buy my tickets through Seatwave after a last minute decision to go. The same could not be said for accommodation and the closest we were able to find was an hour away in Bath. So game day we got into Cardiff before lunch to have a look around and pick up some essential match paraphernalia before the game. And after a quick pint at one of the local pubs, we waded our way through the sea of Red and Gold towards Millennium stadium for the 2pm kickoff. We made it to our seats just before the players entered the ground for the national anthems. ]]> So the game started with Australia kicking off with a mighty kick down the ground into Welsh territory. Australia then swamped the Welshmen who subsequently conceded a penalty. A sterling penalty kick, pardon the pun, by the captain followed giving first blood to the Wallabies. Tries by Giteau (converted) , Mortlock and Latham (converted) in the 16th, 30th and 40th minutes respectively plus a drop goal from Barnes in the 23rd minute, put Australia in a commanding position leading Wales 25-3 at half time. The only score for Wales in the first half was from Stephen Jones who kicked a penalty in the 7th minute. The second half was a considerably different scenario with Australia only scoring another 7 points to Wales’ 17. The Welsh points came from 2 converted tries from Jonathon Thomas in the 45th and Shane Williams in the 76th plus a penalty kick from Hook in the 54th. Australia’s only points for the half points came from a converted Latham try in the 60th minute. The first half was a fantastic show from the Wallabies and it was shame they lost their focus in the second half, and were lucky they didn’t concede. Anyway, all in all it was a great game and great day after leaving the stadium having watched the victorious Aussies. tag:scoreboard.seatwaveblogs.com,2007://7.1053 2007-07-16T10:06:43Z 2007-07-16T10:36:22Z

Saturday night aimed to be a historic night at the O2 as it was the venue's first attempt to host the sweet science and Amir Khan’s first real professional opponent. Neither disappointed as there were several good performances in the...

sportsmad Saturday night aimed to be a historic night at the O2 as it was the venue's first attempt to host the sweet science and Amir Khan’s first real professional opponent. Neither disappointed as there were several good performances in the new venue and Khan came back from his first professional knock-down to stop Willie Limond before the bell of the 8th. Early in the evening, Kevin Mitchell the “Dagenham Destroyer” lived up to his name and floor Russian Alexander Hrluev with a vicious uppercut in the secondary round. Hrulev was still reeling from a first round knockdown that was reminiscent of Hatton’s KO blow to Jose Luis Castillo last week. Clearly outclassing his opponent, Mitchell now 24-0 with 17 KO’s will be one to watch in the Super-Featherweight division. ]]> O2 could be heard gasping in sympathy. The evening ended with Matt Skelton retaining his commonwealth heavyweight championship against Michael Sprott in a fight so terrible I’ll stop here. - Joe Cohen]]> tag:scoreboard.seatwaveblogs.com,2007://7.996 2007-06-28T11:23:05Z 2007-06-28T11:28:44Z

Ok, a bit harsh perhaps, but since the football season finished end of May - what has there been to get your teeth into? Cricket? Nah, Eng vs West Indies was embarrasingly easy and even when the Windies had a...

Rob Mather http:''scoreboard.seatwaveblogs.com Ok, a bit harsh perhaps, but since the football season finished end of May - what has there been to get your teeth into? Cricket? Nah, Eng vs West Indies was embarrasingly easy and even when the Windies had a couple of good sessions here and there, they still cocked it all up. Golf? US Open was quite good, Cabrera is always there or thereabouts this past 12 months and eventually held on to win. Woods' run of never winning from behind continues. Tennis? You've got to be joking. The Nadal/Federer French final was awful - Federer didn't even turn up and Nadal won easily. And what will happen at Wimbledon? It'll be a Federer/Nadal final with Federer winning easily. It's utterly predictable! As for the women's title? If Serena Williams gave a toss, she'd win at a canter, but she doesn't so it's more open. I still fancy her to win it though. The only sporting thing to get excited about in the last month is Lewis Hamilton winning a couple of races. The Euro U21 football tournement was utterly unwatchable - literally no goals or anything of note, except for a predictable England penalty defeat hey-ho. Bring on July for more non action. Bit like the World Cup last year I guess. tag:scoreboard.seatwaveblogs.com,2007://7.985 2007-06-25T15:25:58Z 2007-06-25T15:46:43Z

THE TIGER, UNTAMED AND HUMAN By Craig Evans The game of golf has seen many great players, names such as Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Ben Hogan, all great players but unfortunately I was too young to truly appreciate their...

sportsmad THE TIGER, UNTAMED AND HUMAN By Craig Evans The game of golf has seen many great players, names such as Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Ben Hogan, all great players but unfortunately I was too young to truly appreciate their greatness. Then the world of golf received a bolt of lightning to the heart when a young man named Tiger Woods entered the professional golfing arena in 1996. Since that time he has won 12 major titles and continues to break records and chase down all records that were achieved by the many greats of the past. ]]> Who will you support at this year's Open? _Post your views and messges in the coments section. You could always head down there in person... get your tickets here.]]> tag:scoreboard.seatwaveblogs.com,2007://7.918 2007-06-13T09:51:00Z 2007-06-13T10:16:28Z

Bob and Weave Celebrity Boxing Friday 8th June, 2007 Review By Gabriel Rolph It wasn’t a good night for the Brits at the Bob & Weave Celebrity boxing, in fact for a couple our boys it was, in fact “goodnight”!...

sportsmad Bob and Weave Celebrity Boxing Friday 8th June, 2007 Review By Gabriel Rolph It wasn’t a good night for the Brits at the Bob & Weave Celebrity boxing, in fact for a couple our boys it was, in fact “goodnight”! Friday night saw this year's Bob & Weave Celebrity Boxing night take place at the Old Billingsgate Fish Market on the Thames. Amongst the quaffing of many a beverage and scoffing of some fine New Zealand lamb, there was some pretty exciting/shocking (**delete where appropriate**) boxing... ]]> Old Billingsgate Market is quite a venue. Located on the Thames between London Bridge and Tower Bridge, the Grade 2 listed building has been given the refurbish treatment by Richard Rogers. The result is a stunning structure and perfect venue for posh dos like this. Bob & Weave Celebrity Boxing - the run-down. Cricket and rugby legends from England go up against their Kiwi counterparts, doing their bit for charity. The charity in question, Sparks the children’s medical research charity. So, a big thumbs up to those taking part and behind the scenes, as this is a massive undertaking and it’s not often that celebs are willing to give up their time in order to take a beating! In between the celeb action, there’s some kick-boxing in the form of pros, Karen Lynch (NZ Champion) v Nicole Carter (UK star). The first match up of the night saw ex-All Black, Eric Rush take on Adam Hollioake, who by the looks of things hasn’t left the gym since leaving test cricket! This ended up being the most evenly matched fight of the night, both men acquitting themselves well, with Rush just shading a points decision. So, 1-0 to the Kiwis. The next fight on paper looked like a cracker. Another ex-All Black, Frank Bunce against Chris Sheasby, the big ex-England back row and man mountain. In actual fact Sheasby was waaaaay too slow for Bunce, who promptly put him on his arse in round 2… 2-0 to the Kiwis and things were not looking good for England. Now, I consider myself an armchair fan of boxing, but what I saw next left me a little shaken… and it wasn’t just because of the volume of red wine (which was excellent btw) that I’d consumed. You could actually see it in ex-Kiwi cricketer, Andrew Penn’s eyes as he walked to the ring that he wasn’t the most confident of chaps. It was probably because of the size of his opponent. David “Syd” Lawrence only had a handful of games for England as a cricketer before shattering his knee, but, looking at him entering the ring, you would not have thought that he was once a purveyor of the gentlemen’s game. In short, the guy is huge… and he was pumped up… and Andrew Penn knew it. Syd went to work. At one point just before he finally hit the canvas, I swear Penn was being already out cold and just being held up by a barrage of punches. It all looked pretty straight forward, Penn took a pasting, England were back in the tie. However, the ref called Syd for one punch too many after the fight had been stopped and awarded the fight to the unconscious Penn… oh, the controversy!! The call stood and England were looking at an embarrassing whitewash. And so to the main event. England rowing’s golden boy James Cracknell against Kerry Walmsley, the Kiwi cricketer. Surely, Crackers would do us all proud, after all, he’s got the physique, the stamina, the reach…. Er, nope. He hit the canvas in round one too. Let’s just say, for the sake of his TV career I hope the left side of his face is ok, because he took quite a right hand from Walmsley! Were you there? Did you enjoy the 'flesh pounding 'fun'? Post your reviews and messages to the contestants in the comment section. For more reviews by the Seatwave staff, check out our HQ blog.]]> tag:scoreboard.seatwaveblogs.com,2007://7.811 2007-05-29T08:34:48Z 2007-05-29T08:50:12Z

So Derby will be in the Premiership - good for them as they are really a Premiership club and this marks the 1st time in ages that 3 of the biggest Championship clubs got promoted, rather than nonsense like Wigan,...

Rob Mather http:''scoreboard.seatwaveblogs.com So Derby will be in the Premiership - good for them as they are really a Premiership club and this marks the 1st time in ages that 3 of the biggest Championship clubs got promoted, rather than nonsense like Wigan, Reading and Watford who have no fans, no history and no chance to stay there for 5 years. Who else also laughed at Liverpool for losing to Milan? I did, but I don't get all these 'Liverpool played well' reports.. I thought they were feeble (Milan weren't much better) and hardly created anything bar their goal and some long range efforts that weren't really chances! Even better was Liverpool fans mugging fellow scoucers before the game for tickets - only them would do that!! Last Friday I was at Lords for the 1st test between England and the windies. It was a glorious day full of sunshine - I got horribly sunburnt - and loads of runs! http://www.seatwave.com for getting me the tickets! ]]> tag:scoreboard.seatwaveblogs.com,2007://7.766 2007-05-15T11:58:58Z 2007-05-15T12:09:31Z

So the premiership is finally over and it's mostly all predictable, the top 2 were obvious, and Sheff Utd going down was harsh but not all unpredictable at the start of the season. Spurs ended up 5th, same as last...

Rob Mather http:''scoreboard.seatwaveblogs.com So the premiership is finally over and it's mostly all predictable, the top 2 were obvious, and Sheff Utd going down was harsh but not all unpredictable at the start of the season. Spurs ended up 5th, same as last season but whereas last season it was seen as a failure, this season it's seen as a triumph. Here's my views on all the clubs: 1st: Man Utd - easily the best team I saw this season when they dismantled us at the Lane. 2nd: Chelsea - big name signings all failed and is Boularouz the worst ever defender? 3rd: Liverpool - always never going to threaten and lost 10 games! 4th: Arsenal - 3 years ago never lost a game, now they end up 20 points off the leaders - a staggering decline 5th: Spurs - shows how bad the Premiership was if we came 5th 6th: Everton - always hard to beat and is Arteta one of the most underated midfielders around? 7th: Bolton - we're challenging for 4th but badly fell away, Lee as manager will be a disaster 8th: Reading - excellent 1st season but will have 1st season syndrome and struggle in 07/08 9th: Portsmouth - great start but fell away when Kanu stopped scoring 10th: Blackburn - McCarthy did brilliantly but without him they would of struggled 11th: Villa - O'Neil has done well turning a struggling club into one with young promise 12th: Boro - false position in the end and without Viduka it could of been even worse 13th: Newcastle - they had awful injuries to be fair and will be top 8 next season with big Sam 14th: Man City - 10 home goals all season is utterly pathetic! Pearce had to go. 15th: West Ham - were mostly awful but amazing last 6 weeks kept them up 16th: Fulham - couldn't win away and will struggle to win at home too next season! 17th: Wigan - amazing win at Bramall Lane but will go down next season for sure 18th: Sheff Utd - unlucky in the end but showed no ambition to beat the better teams and that's cost them 19th: Charlton - Les Reed - no more is to be said 20th: Watford - losing King was massive for them but at the end of the day - not good enough tag:scoreboard.seatwaveblogs.com,2007://7.738 2007-05-04T09:35:11Z 2007-05-04T09:39:53Z

Here is lots of proof that Bob Willis is the greatest man alive today: Willis on the England set-up Willis on Steve Harmison Willis on birth certificates Willis on Freddie Flintoff's batting Willis on England's bowling attack Willis on rats...

Rob Mather http:''scoreboard.seatwaveblogs.com Willis on the England set-up Willis on Steve Harmison Willis on birth certificates Willis on Freddie Flintoff's batting Willis on England's bowling attack Willis on rats and mice Willis on 14 a side games Willis on Michael Vaughan ]]> tag:scoreboard.seatwaveblogs.com,2007://7.713 2007-04-30T15:33:54Z 2007-04-30T15:44:32Z

So the main story of the last week or so is the people's champions march to UEFA Cup qualification obviously. Spurs, the legends, got a 3-2 at Boro which means if we win our next 3 games - Charlton, Man...

Rob Mather http:''scoreboard.seatwaveblogs.com So the main story of the last week or so is the people's champions march to UEFA Cup qualification obviously. Spurs, the legends, got a 3-2 at Boro which means if we win our next 3 games - Charlton, Man City and Blackburn - we finish 5th. The same position as last season. To be honest, to finish 5th this season is a disgrace to the whole of the Premiership as our league form generally as been poor! Still, sod the rest, let's finish 5th and then laugh out loud that our crap team is the 5th best in England. Regarding the title race, I think Big Sam's legacy is that he sodded up Chelsea's quadruple challenge in 2007 and good for him! That might also lose Mourinho his job. Last weekend was a weekend that decides league titles. Now let the Phil Neville conspiracies begin! Thank God the cricket world cup farce is all over - what an anti-climax: crap games, crap weather, no spectators, no contests - Aussies walk over everyone. What great fun! Still at least got the snooker world championships - and it's still wide open, no Aussie in sight. tag:scoreboard.seatwaveblogs.com,2007://7.670 2007-04-18T09:03:26Z 2007-04-18T09:05:11Z

All this overaction that Vaughan must go, Fletcher must go, etc etc - basically I say we must KEEP Vaughan as captain in both formats. Yes he hasn't scored a run at all, but he had no competative cricket at...

Rob Mather http:''scoreboard.seatwaveblogs.com All this overaction that Vaughan must go, Fletcher must go, etc etc - basically I say we must KEEP Vaughan as captain in both formats. Yes he hasn't scored a run at all, but he had no competative cricket at all before the tournament. Therefore he should never have been picked to play at all, and this disaster probably wouldn't of happened to the extent that it has! As for Fletcher, from when we won the Ashes in 2005 we have gone backwards and he hasn't stemmed the flow or shown any logic in his team selections for this winter's debacle. We were poor in the tests and dreadful in the one dayers against Sri Lanka and his tactics are from 1975! He must go, but we must keep Vaughan as one day captain. Duel captain's for both forms of cricket never works. You don't see Ricky Ponting or Stephen Fleming only captaining the test sides!!