2010 Mar 16 Talking Balls: Patriots, Stars and Subsitutes
Tickets are now on sale for the Sanyuan Foods China Open 2010. That’s snooker for the uninitiated. Tickets are priced at RMB 20-2,010 and available by clicking here. To have a look at the schedules and find out when you might see Ronnie O’Sullivan click here.
There’s been more fall-out from the Winter Olympics. Gold medal winner Zhou Yang has come under fire for thanking her parents when everyone knows that you should thank your country above all. To remind her of this was State Sports General Administration deputy director Yu Zaiqing who said “Thanking your parents is not a problem, but should thank the country first. Must put the country first, don’t just thank your parents and that’s it.”
One man who took this on board was rally driver Han Han. The speedster who also blogs offered up the following introduction at the Mohe Rally press conference, “First of all, I'd like to thank my country, the party and the committee! Right, who else, right, my parents...”
Liu Xiang came in seventh at the World Indoor Championships in Doha. In his first event since he came a cropper in the Olympics in 2008 Liu clocked 7.65 seconds over 60 metres.
Stephon Marbury has been confirmed to play in the upcoming CBA All-Star game. Tickets for the spectacular can be got from here.
In more basketball news there was a bit of fisticuffs at the recent game between Beijing and Liaoning. Mr Brown of Beijing Ducks got called for a technical foul on Liaoning’s Nigerian player. Brown then thought this a good time to hit the African in the head (pictured above). As a result Beijing lost and are no out of the finals.
Yet more basketball news, in a way. The internet is ablaze with speculation as to what nationality Yao Ming’s impending daughter will be. Yao’s wife, Ye Li is now in the States so the thinking is that the child will be born there. My money is on a quick relocation to basketball powerhouses Slovenia before the due date.
Football news and what’s a week without scandal? No week at all. This week it’s the turn of the referees. Four refs have been “helping police” including “gold whistle” Lu Jun. Good, that’s what I say.
More soccer, and this time it’s a Socceroo. Joel Griffiths is apparently frustrated that he is not getting a fair shot from Australia coach Pim Verbeek. See his comments here then see Goal.com’s positive news for Griffiths here. Really though, if he wanted to go to the World Cup he might set his sights on a better club side.
ZZ/HJ Watch: Neither Zheng Zhi or Hao Junmin got to play this weekend. The Schalke man was an unused sub in their win over Stuttgart. ZZ did not even make the bench for Celtic.
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Talking Balls: Frustrated Ding, Crazy Wei and Left-out Ross
Local hero Ding Junhui fell at the final hurdle in the 2010 Sanyuan Foods China Open. Mark Williams beat Ding 10-6 after coming from behind to win his first ranking title since 2006. The home crowd were understandably disappointed – their shouts of "Ding, kill him! Finish him!" had no effect on the outcome.
Talking Balls: AWOL Aussies, Skipper Kidnaps and Giant Kids
Beijing Guoan are not even playing at the moment, but are still managing to be controversial. This time the controversy stretches all the way to Australia and guess who’s at the center of it? None other than Beijing’s former hardman/nutcase/sensation, Joel Griffiths. As mentioned in a previous Talking Balls it was understood that he was fated to return to the Newcastle Jets after Guoan refused to meet the Australian team’s valuation. But now Griffiths has gone AWOL from the A-League club. He skipped his first training session highlighting that he had an agreement that Beijing only had to offer AUD 350,000 to secure his services for next season. The Chinese champions did that on New Year’s Eve but the Jets said that deal was contingent on Griffiths finishing the A-League season and that deal ended on December 16. Read more here and here. If Griffiths is to play for Guoan in next season’s Asian Champions’ League then he needs to be registered before January 11. Wait and see.
Talking Balls: News, New Seasons Starting & The New Yao Ming?
Spring has sprung and with it the hibernation of Beijing’s sports scene begins to end. We’ll tell you all about what you have to look forward to over the coming months. But first, the sports news of the week.
Talking Balls: A Tennis Champ, A Racist Chump & Lots of Sports News
Happy New Year! That’s for the last one, not the upcoming one. Our gift to you includes links to the first two “Who’s Hot and Who’s Not In Chinese Sport” columns of the year from China Daily. It’s the same as ever, apart from the fact they no longer separate out the "Who's Hot" from the “Who’s Not.” How will we know which sports stars are worthy of our ire if we have to read all the way through?
Anyway, here are the first and second. The latest features Top Gear racist Jeremy Clarkson offending another nation.Talking Balls: Teams, Memes & Pipe Dreams
Happy Black Friday. Take a break from online shopping (or for non-Americans, from finding out what Black Friday is) and give thanks for the week in Chinese sport.
On this big Thanksgiving weekend, let’s start with football – in what else but the American sense? The Beijing Guardians are going all the way to Shanghai to protect our fair city from a beating in the Founder’s Bowl. The game takes place on November 27. Let’s boo the Shanghai Nighthawks from afar and hope that Beijing win this debut showdown.
