Hearts V Spurs - 1st Leg Europa League Play-off

So I was at Tynecastle to watch Heart of Midlothian take on the might of Tottenham Hotspurs, it was billed laughably as the battle of Britain but what it brought in to stark contrast was the difference between the English Premier League and the Scottish Premier League, by the league standards these teams are of equal standing. They are not the best teams in their league but have aspirations to go further and for the last few years have been best of the rest after the 2 or 3 clubs that are going to win there respective leagues.

And while there is a slim history to the two clubs with the World Championship being played between the clubs in 1901/1902 and the long association of Dave MacKay with both clubs there is actually nothing to link these two clubs in anyway. As a Hearts fan I have no doubts that we are not brilliant, we are barely better than the rest of the clubs outside the Old Firm in Scotland and will have a fight to secure third place but the winner of that position will be the team that makes the fewest mistakes and Hearts have a big enough and good enough squad to get third but nit much more than that. We came in to the game tonight as underdogs but the eternal optimist in me thought well if they have a bad night and we have a great game we might be able to sneak a draw get them worried and sneak a freak result in London (I must be allowed these wild fantasies at times). However what happened was that the whole of Britain was shown the gulf in class between English football and Scottish Football.

Hearts actually played quite well over the whole night, yes there were questions of unfit defenders and wingers being picked and they could have been at fault in the first half but in the second half for 15 minutes we dominated Spurs and actually created a few chances and while they were 3 up and cruising and we got that window we showed we were capable of making the chances. However Spurs were sublime on the night, they cruised the game and while it ended 5-0 it could have been 10 and we would have had no complaints, they sliced our defence open at will and gave Marion Kello our star keeper no chance with all 5 goals. None of the goals were stunning strikes but they were expertly taken from a multitude of players that would get bored in the SPL as it would be far to easy for them. The first touch, the passing and the finishing was of a level that I have never seen at Tynecastle even from the George Burley team that won their first 8 games convincingly or from any of the other teams that have visited Tynecastle in recent years.

Even when Barcelona came in a pre-season friendly and played in front of 58,000 at Murrayfield the level of skill was not on display that evening. Now I do not think Spurs showed a level of skill that will bring a Premiership title back to White Hart Lane but they showed enough that they will go far in the Europa League and will be challenging fro the Champions League places again this year. Hearts were shown how to play the game, one touch passing great control, press when they have the ball and move when your team has the ball and you don't. I do think that if Hearts play against the rest of the SPL as they did for 15 minutes tonight they will cruise to third and may be in a position to challenge Rangers and Celtic but really they will have to up their game from teh start fo the season.

All in all it was a privilege to watch Spurs demolish the team I love and I was proud of the support at the end standing defiant knowing that the better team came and showed us what football is all about. Yet we were still singing and asking what they would do when we win 6-0 in London, realistically I know that the tie is dead and I hope that the players that make the trip to London enjoy the experience and make the most of it and when Spurs bring out the 19's team I just hope we can match that team

Water of Leith first sixteen

I got to skip this week as my skip was on holiday. After a first end which I burnt we ended up 4 down and then we managed to get ourselves a head it came down to the last end.

We were a head with 3 ends to go and lost a big end to go behind with 2 ends to go. Lying a single shot I managed to draw a brilliant shot to get a 2 so we were level going into the final end.

My front end who had been fantastic all night decided that the last end was to much for them and had the worst end of the night. So playing the last end with my 2 bowls to go o was 4 shots down and boom I managed to draw an almost perfect shot so we managed to win by 1 shot.

The club lost 4-1 so while good that I won not good for the club, we are yet to win as a club this season.

Pairs 1st round

I played the first round of the club pairs with my long term partner Derek, we came up against past winners Tam and Sammy, we played really well with a start turn by Derek.

We managed to win by 14 shots and did not need to play the last end, so onwards to the next round.

Championship

Played my second round tour this morning and I made it difficult for myself. I was well behind to begin with and had to come back with some good bowls to win the game but I managed to.

I am now in the third round and play Colin Anderson by early June there are no easy games from here.

Championship

I am through the first round when I beat Brian Telford 21-13. I played quite well but Brian stated that he was terrible that day but still I am through which is the main thing. Play the second round on Sunday the 22nd of May against Tony Caird, see how that goes.

Test

So I can part from my phone soo wondering if I should post small updates from my life.

I am back bowling outdoors so could start posting updates on that, would anyone want to hear about that?

We wil have to see how I get on with that as I am loving the swype technology on my phone and could get used to this will just have to proof read my posts.

Semi Final

As an update to my recent application for the Scottish Slimmer's Slimmer of the year award in association with the News of the World, I have been selected as a Semi-Finalist and have been invited to an event in Glasgow in a couple of weeks. It is all very exciting and in being selected it has made me consider what it actually means if I was to win anything in this competition, my competitive nature makes me want to win it all.

So what am I being rewarded for, losing weight encouraging and inspiring others to make a change to their lifestyle and improve their health. This is the ethos behind the award and it is all very well, but I look at where I had to be to actually want to make that change. I was sitting at 21 stone or 295lbs in weight I was unhealthy and to perfectly honest disgusted with myself and well done to me for deciding that I needed to make a change, however whose fault was It I was there? Well that would be mine, I am man enough to accept that I was the person that ate and drank myself into the state I was in. So what am I being rewarded for if I win? Well getting myself into a state where I was putting myself at risk and then deciding that I needed to change.

What I have achieved is as surprising to me as it is to anybody else, I have turned my life around this year starting with the changes to my diet and health regime and I applaud myself with everybody else, however what about the people that did not make the mistakes I made to get myself in to the state I was in? I suppose it is human nature that we are in a position in society where we reward those people that make the changes in their lives, even though 9 out of 10 times it is their own fault. I applaud everybody that chooses to change their lifestyle and make a change to their lives for the better however the true winners are the people that do not need to be in a state to make that change and to them with envy I applaud them even more.