Happy New Year - and 10,000 Views!

First proper post of the new year! And happy New Year to you all!

While I was away enjoying the sunny beaches of the Coromandel and California, I mean the East Coast Bays (Hawke and Poverty Bays and the East Cape), a milestone was reached for this blog - 10,000 viewers. Thank you all for reading my blog in its first few months since inception!

By the way, Gisborne has some absolutely stunning beaches -  probably the most underrated in New Zealand which is awesome as it means less people on the beach. Definitely a place I would consider retiring to or remote working from when the time comes.

Anyway, while I was away I did managed to stay in tune with the world of sport. In fact, the weather in the Coromandel on the 4th of January was quite average so I just had a lazy one at the backpackers, lying on the couch watching the Outback, Rose and Fiesta Bowls all in succession with the odd nap.

I have got to admit I hadn't watch that much college football until that afternoon and those 3 games were definitely a good place to start.

Only the Rose Bowl didn't go into overtime but that was still an entertaining game nevertheless - a touchdown shootout won by Oregon (just) over Wisconsin. LaMichael James heads into the NFL draft as a very good running back prospect further down the draft - might suit the likes of the Vikings and Steelers with their stars Adrian Peterson and Rashard Mendenhall out for the forseeable future. His opposite number, Montie Ball was just as good although he will stay at Wisconsin for his senior year.

College football has a brilliant way of deciding games in overtime - start the teams 20 yards from each other's end zones and it really comes down to whoever fails to score last. Michigan State just won the Outback Bowl because Georgia couldn't nail their field goal and Oklahoma State won their first BCS bowl (Fiesta Bowl) because Stanford's kicker missed his field goal in overtime - as well as the winning field goal at the end of the regular period.

Shame Stanford lost meaning Andrew Luck will not graduate a winner. But that shouldn't negate the impact he has had on college football and on Stanford's once-maligned football programme. Luck looks the goods to be a star quarterback in the NFL with a passing game and intelligence to match the very best in the game. It remains to be seen where he'll go - if he goes to Indy, when will his time come to replace another great of the game?

So well done to all the colleges who have won the bowls so far.. Still a few more to go including the National Championship game between LSU and Alabama - if anyone is watching that apart from the Deep South.

Meanwhile in milder-than-usual England, Premier League teams played 4 rounds over Christmas and New Years. This period has always been a favourite for all Premier League fans and has always been a critical one for the teams - and it looks like there were quite a few critical results at the top and bottom of the Premier League.

The biggest winners would have to be Sunderland who are now 10th ever since Martin O'Neill took over thanks to some big wins including one over Manchester City - not really surprising to be honest, I always thought they were a mid table team who just needed a few results to go their way and be up there. Sunderland now can have aspirations of European football next season - who would have thought after the start they had.

The biggest losers? Probably QPR who started out just outside the top 10 but find themselves right in the thick of what looks set to be another tight relegation battle especially with Bolton, Blackburn and Wigan now starting to find their form. It remains to be seen if Warnock can get the best out of his talented but mercurial team - I think they could still stay up but they'll need to get results soon and against the teams below them.




The Premier League takes a break now for FA Cup fixtures - something all fans and players look forward to at this time of the year. Liverpool look to continue their only other realistic quest for silverware this season when they kick off the 4th round against Oldham on Friday night - and hope not to add to the list of historic David v Goliath upsets everyone keeps an eye out for in the FA Cup!

Anyway, stay tuned for my preview of the NFL playoffs!