Sport round up!

It has been a very busy week in the world of sport, with Colin Montgomerie choosing his 3 wild cards for his European Ryder Cup team, 3 members of the Pakistan cricket team being accused of match fixing, the start of the US open in Tennis and much, much more.

Firstly, I will start with the Challenge Cup final in Rugby League, which happened last Saturday. It was said to be one of the most anticipated finals in recent years, with an estimated 80,000 tickets having been sold for the match at Wembley. The match pitted Leeds Rhinos and Warrington Wolves together, but it was by no means an even match. The Wolves eased themselves to victory, eventually winning 30-6 after being 14-0 in the lead at half time. Chris Hicks scored the first Cup final hat-trick since the Leeds wing Leroy Rivett ran in four tries in the last final at the old Wembley, in 1999. Ryan Atkins collected a couple against the club that rejected him as a boy, and at the other end Richie Mathers saved three tries with last-ditch tackles that helped the Wolves on their way to victory.

We have seen perhaps the biggest story of the year unveil before our eyes, when the News of the World reported that 3 members of the Pakistan cricket team were involved in a match fixing scandal, where they would deliberately bowl no-balls. The facts are that in the first three Tests of this series, Mohammed Amir bowled three no-balls in 105 overs. In the Lord’s Test he bowled 28 overs with four no-balls. Surely this proves that the players are in a bit of a mess? It has definitely caused controversy in the world of cricket, with almost every important figure in the cricketing world having their say of the matter. Andrew Strauss and Ricky Ponting, the England and Australia captains respectively, both believe that they should get lifetime bans if found guilty.

Elsewhere in Sport, the Belgian Grand Prix saw Englishman Lewis Hamilton finish in 1st place, with Red Bull's Mark Webber finishing in a close second place, after starting 6th on the grid. The result's of this grand prix mean that both Hamilton and Webber are 1st and 2nd respectively in the overall leaderboard. In Football, we saw the passing of the infamous Transfer Deadline Day. The biggest coup of the transfer window was arguably Tottenham Hotspur's purchase of Dutch winger Rafael van der Vaart with only minutes left in the transfer window. It was seen to be quite a steal as well, with the London based club getting the world cup finalist for a mere £8 million! Manchester City and Robinho also parted ways after a difficult two years between the pair. Robinho has joined AC Milan on a £23 million deal, with it being reported that City will gain a profit of £10 million on the £32 million they paid for him in August 2008, due to wages and bonuses'.

The US Open, after 6 days of play so far, has seen the likes of Roger Federer, Rafa Nadal and Andy Murray all progressing to the 3rd round. However, ninth seed Andy Roddick saw his hopes of claiming a second US Open title end early with defeat by Janko Tipsarevic. Wimbledon finalist Tomas Berdych was another to suffer a surprise defeat as he lost to France's Michael Llodra.

Finally, in golf, we saw Colin Montgomerie pick his 3 wildcards for his Ryder Cup team next month. Padraig Harrington, Eduardo Molinari and Luke Donald all made the cut, with world number 9 Paul Casey missing out. This was a shock to most fans, but most believe if it wasn't for Molinari's hat-trick of birdies to win the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles, then he would've been in the squad. It will be interesting to see whether this European side will be able to regain the Ryder Cup this year.