SHANGAI SURPRISE?

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton won the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai and heads to the seasonal finale in Brazil with a seven-point advantage over Felipe Massa, his sole challenger for the world title. Hamilton dominated the Shanghai race while title rival Felipe Massa was handed second place by team-mate Kimi Raikkonen. Massa had run third for most of the event, unable to keep with Hamilton or Raikkonen. With a maximum of 10 points available, the 23-year-old Englishman will be a strong favourite to become the youngest champion in F1 history at Interlagos. Hamilton's margin is large enough that he only needs to finish 5^th or higher to take the championship. "This is another step towards the championship, my dream and the team's dream," said Hamilton. Sunday’s victory earned Lewis a memorable treble - pole position (his seventh of the year), fastest lap (1m36.325) and a 14.9s winning margin over Felipe.

Fernando Alonso finished fourth, unable to keep with the front runners but well clear of the rest of the pack. BMW’s, Nick Heidfeld took fifth after McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen suffered a puncture with 20 laps to go. Toyota's Timo Glock and Renault's Nelson Piquet took the final points positions in seventh and eighth.

With one round remaining, Lewis leads the drivers’ championship with 94 points; Felipe lies second with 87; Heikki is seventh on 51. In the constructors’ championship, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes remains second with 145 points; Ferrari leads with 156 points.

At a post race interview Lewis Hamilton said "Everything just went right this weekend: our car has been simply phenomenal, I made one of my best-ever starts and had perfect balance during the race. I owe so much of that to the guys in the team - both at the track and back home; they did an amazing job so a big thanks to them. I’ve got a seven-point lead in the world championship, but that doesn’t allow me to take anything for granted. It might be another step towards my dream but we’ve still got to stay calm and keep our heads. I just hope we can pull through."

Team manager Ron Dennis said "No-one will be surprised to hear me describe today’s Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team performance as a tremendous one, because that’s exactly what it was. In difficult circumstances we never allowed our focus to waver, and we paced ourselves carefully throughout. Lewis did a truly fabulous job, as did our entire team. Our race strategy was extremely solid too, but the key message from China that we take forward to Brazil is that we qualified extremely well despite the fact that our cars were fuelled longer than those of our principal opposition, which clearly demonstrates the inherent pace of our car. Heikki’s first stint was compromised by the fitting of a set of mismatched tyres, which caused his car to understeer. After his first stop, a punctured tyre then forced an unscheduled pitstop before an air pressure problem with his engine caused us to retire him in order to avoid risking an engine failure."

Last race of the 2008 season November 2 – Brazil, Interlagos – start time TBC

Brands Hatch is not included on the provisional 2009 World Superbike championship calendar. The Kent race track has hosted Superbikes since 1993 but owners MotorSport Vision said event promoters FG Sport were making unreasonable fee demands. "They wanted over twice what we paid in 2008, which is odd given the economic crisis," said MSV's Jonathan Palmer. "The increase is equivalent to an extra £15 on the price of a race day ticket. We think that's unacceptable to fans." Palmer described the decision as a big loss to the championship and to fans, but insisted he had done all he could. Although there will not be a race at Brands Hatch GP fans can still catch the action at Donington on June 28th.

SPAIN took a big step forward after defeating BELGIUM 1-2 in its group qualifying game for the 2012 World Cup. It was a fabulous game to witness as both sides displayed skill & determination to go out & search for the win. It was Spain that managed to grab
the victory towards the end of the match & remain the undisputed leader of its Group.
The only bad news for Spain & Liverpool FC is the injury to Fernando Torres mid 1st half which may have put in danger his Champions League return appearance to Atletico de Madrid. Belgium has a fine young side, with class act players that organize themselves well & remain concentrated all game. They should be proud as they showed us all that the future is bright for them. In fact they started off well in the 6th min going ahead with a header/goal by SONCK. The rest off the game saw them attack well & create many dangerous chances on goal that could have tipped the balance if luck was smiling down on them. However, Spain is definitely a class act. The European Champions took the blows & kept to their football philosophy of touch football that paid off. INIESTA did magic in a one on one goalkeeper duel that saw Spain equalize in the 35th min. A brilliant goal! It was then a case of Spain with the ball & Belgium on the counter
all the 2^nd half, until when everyone thought it would be a draw, Dani Guiza (who just came on) put in a brilliant pass into the penalty area. Where DAVID VILLA headed the winner. It was a mortal blow to the heart of the Belgium side as it showed the stuff Spain is made off: Champion material. Fair result & great display from Belgium.

It was FERNANDO TORRES’ dream as well as, Atletico de Madrid fans & Football Lovers in general to see the return of the prodigal son to the "Vicente Calderon" Stadium in Madrid for the Atletico de Madrid V’s Liverpool in Champions League clash but it wasn’t to be. That dream went horribly wrong when Fernando Torres was injured during Spain’s World Cup qualifier match against Belgium. He was taken off midway through the 1^st half with a muscle strain that will keep him off the field for 10 days at least.
Big blow for Torres, who was "dying" to return "home" with the colours of Liverpool. Maybe it will finally be good luck for Atletico seeing as Liverpool won’t play with their main goalscorer!

French magazine "France Football" has named its 30 candidates in the running for the prestigious "Golden Ball Award" that heralds the "Best Player in the World" prize.
Spain has the most players nominated, 7 of the 30 potential winners are Spaniards. The winner will be announced on December 2^nd  with Cristiano Ronaldo of Manchester United the hot favourite along with Lionel Messi of FC Barcelona.

Here is the full list of the 30 players with their respective Clubs:

ADEBAYOR (Arsenal) AGÜERO (Atlético de Madrid)

ARSHAVIN (Zénith St Petersburg) BALLACK (Chelsea)

BENZEMA (Lyon) BUFFON (Juventus)

CASILLAS (Spain, Real Madrid) CRISTIANO RONALDO (Portugal, Manchester United) DROGBA (Chelsea) ETO'O (FC Barcelona)

CESC (Spain, Arsenal) FERNANDO TORRES (Spain, Liverpool)

GERRARD (Liverpool) IBRAHIMOVIC (Inter Milán)
KAKA (Milán AC) LAMPARD (Chelsea)

MESSI (FC Barcelona) PEPE (Real Madrid)

RIBÉRY (Bayern Munich) ROONEY (Manchester United)
SENNA (Spain, Villarreal) SERGIO RAMOS (Spain, Real Madrid)
TONI (Bayern Munich) VAN DER SAAR (Manchester United)

VAN DER VAART (Real Madrid) VAN NISTELROOY (Real Madrid)

VIDIC (Manchester United) VILLA (Spain, Valencia)

XAVI (Spain, FC Barcelona) ZHIRKOV (CSKA Moscow)

Brazil beat Spain on penalties in the Indoor Football World Championship Final held in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). The game was a tough affair of strategy, discipline & few chances. The game finished after extra time with a 2-2 result that took the match into the penalties. The two time World & defending Champions Spain missed twice - Torras
& Marcelo - to give the 2008 title to Brazil. The end result was 2-2 (4-3 penalties) = 6-5
Great game by Spain & congratulations to Brazil

SFS was thinking about Spain´s World Cup Group qualifier against Belgium & thiking that Spain has a very talented side. However, if one thinks about good sides, the BRAZIL 1970 World Cup Team & Champions, is probably the Best 11 players in any National Team in History.
SFS is a Universal Football & Sports fanatic, such teams have a place here along with anything that is Spanish, as has been said, Sport is a Global. Talent like the 1970 Brazil side deserves to be remembered at anytime & for any reason at all. That is, the Brazil 1970 side were so talented, balanced & unique that anytime is a good time & now is the time & the place. The members (not in order): Carlos Alberto, Felix, Rivelino, Piazza,
Jairzinho, Brito, Pele, Tostao, Clodoaldo, Marcos Antonio & Gerson

TOURE & PEPE WITH SECRET CLUB ADMIRER´S IN ITALY

From Italy - "Tuttosport"- comes the news & rumours about JUVENTUS’ admiration & interest in the FC BARCELONA midfield "powerhouse" YAYA TOURE.
The Ivory Coast player is sitting on the bench lately & is frustrated with the situation. It´s speculated that he may find the Juventus option a possible solution. The figures said to be waved by the Italian Club is 3.8M€ for the player & 10M€ for Barça. SFS feels that Toure will however stay put, the season is long & he knows his in a World class Club.

Staying in Italy, rumours are hot that INTER MILAN Coach Mourinho wants REAL MADRID defender PEPE to move over to his part of the world. However, young Pepe, as Toure knows above, knows exactly where he’s at & SFS is almost sure that this will remain what it is: a rumour!

THE WORST FC BARCELONA LINE-UP EVER?

Barcelona based Sports daily "Sport" called onto its readers to vote for what they consider the worst ever possible team line-up ever for FC BARCELONA.

This is what they thought….
Rustu; Déhu; Christanval; Bogarde; Okunowo; Rochemback; Eskurza;
Ciric; Amunike & Maxi Lopez.

What do you think?

Great weekend of Spanish Football with Round 7 providing plenty of goals.

ATLETICO DE MADRID 1 - 2 to REAL MADRID in an intense "derby" that had it all: goals, red cards, action & last minute miracles.
A goal in the 1^st min by VAN NISTELROOY was magic. That rocked Atletico who were lucky that the referee disallowed 3 more goals. Their bad luck continued when Perea was given a Red Card (harshly) for "hitting" Sneijder, that left Atletico with 10 men. The referee then gave a Red Card (harshly) to Van Nistelrooy for a hard tackle that brought the equilibrium back to both sides. Overall bad referee performance overall in this game!

The 2^nd half was wild, exciting with both sides looking for the win. Then in the 90^th min Atletico was awarded a free kick which SIMAO scored to equalize, to later see in the 96th min Real awarded a penalty which HIGUAIN scored to give Real victory.

VALENCIA CF continues its merry way & remains the classification leader after beating NUMANCIA 4-0. DAVID VILLA scored twice (3min & 88min) to take his personal tally to 8 goals from 7 games. Along with Villa, MATA scored in the 72th min & VICENTE.

REAL BETIS finally won, to ease their early season worries, in a big way beating MALLORCA 3-0. Betis scored early by rocking Mallorca with a st min goal by DAMIA. Those were following by PAVONE in the 44^th min & EMAMA in the 84^th min. Three
very valuable points for Betis.

REAL SPORTING battled a stiff OSASUNA under new coach, Camacho to pull out their second win with a 2-1 result. CARMELO scored first in the 14^th min to put Sporting ahead. EZQUERRO later equalized in the 14^th min, BILIC put in the winner for Sporting in the 40^th min. The 2^nd half was an open affair with chances but no goals. Osasuna remain last on the league ladder!

FC BARCELONA keep climbing positions & joins Real Madrid on points with its tight 0-1 victory over ATHLETIC DE BILBAO. Barça kept on the bench Pujoy, Messi, Xavi ...for rest & battled tooth & nail with a messy Bilbao that frustrated play. It wasn’t until the 2^nd half when HENRY controlled & placed a magical ball into SAMUEL ETO´O´s path which he hammered into the net in the 63^rd min. That was enough, as Athletic tried hard to equalize but failed in their envedour

ALMERIA are a very organized, disciplined & class side that at home complicate the plans of any visiting team. Their match against SEVILLA was no exception as SEVILLA fought it out with its hard battled 0-1 victory. The winning goal came in the 52th min thanks to ADRIANO. From then on, it was an end to end game with chances for both sides, the balance went Sevilla´s way.

El Cid’s Northern League results for this week are as follows: Sabres hosted Javea Green Quartz and following some close games the result was 5 points each, with equal shots for each team! Scimitars travelled to Calpe Egrets and came away with 2 points to Calpe’s 8 points. Swords also played away at Calpe, but against their Flamingos squad. Unfortunately it was not Swords day and lost the full 10 points.  The game between Scimitars and Sabres finally got played after two rained off matches. The Scimitars had a good result gaining 4 points, but the overall winners were Sabres taking 6 points.

All League match fixtures and results can be found on our club website (www.elcidbowlsclub.com) which is now completely up to date. Keep an eye also on the “Club News” page on the website for last minute changes to any scheduled match.

Please note that due to the recent bad weather the bowling green maintenance has been rescheduled for the week commencing 3rd November. Therefore the green will be unavailable from the afternoon of 3rd November until Sunday 9th November.

Remember that the first round of Club Championship games must be played by 7th November, so please ensure you have booked your games well in advance.

New members are always welcome and training sessions can be arranged for new bowlers, please contact El Cid Bowls Club on 96 640 4364.

Have a good week of bowling!