With Trinity term about to begin, Cherwell Sport turns its attention to the upcoming cricket season. Last season’s dominance for the Blues in Varsity matches, spectacularly capped by Sam Agarwal’s triple century in the four-day fixture, should provide grounds for optimism in the University arena. The real life-blood of cricket in Oxford however is the College Cricket League and Cuppers competition, which we will focus on here.

The College Cricket League is set to begin in 1st Week and looks to be as hard to predict as ever. Last season’s league was slightly affected by rain, but with a warm summer in the offing the teams will hope that consistency and quality will be more fairly rewarded. The 1st Division last year was a two-horse race between Balliol and Keble which finished in a dead heat, some 44 points in front of the chasing pack. These two teams will be looking ahead to more dominance, although newly promoted St. John’s and Somerville will provide stiff competition and the likes of St. Catz, Univ, and New will always offer a challenge to any opponent.

The lower divisions were fiercely contested last season, with a much smaller gap separating the teams in the top half of both leagues. The 2nd Division thrived, with St. John’s, Somerville and Exeter contributing to a nail-biting finish which would have been all the more thrilling had Pembroke not run out of time to play their ninth and final fixture. As it is the teams dropping down from the 1st Division, Brasenose and Merton, will face a tough fight for promotion as Exeter, Pembroke and Jesus will all be looking to finish in the top two. That is not to mention Trinity College, who as last year’s beaten Cupper’s finalists are my pick to finish first as they bid to follow St. John’s up to the 1st Division. No doubt the match of the season in this league will be the Jesus/Exeter fixture as an age-old College rivalry coincides with both sides’ realistic chances for promotion.

The 3rd tier of College cricket was more interrupted last year than the other two divisions, as a mixture of weather and the inability to consistently get full sides to turnout for regular matches lessened the competitive edge of many contests. Nevertheless Lady Margaret Hall look to be the team to beat this time around, having gone unbeaten in their four games last year and missing out on promotion only because Oriel and Magdalen got through more games. Linacre should also challenge for the title along with former 2nd Division sides Teddy Hall and Wadham, who failed to win a game in last year’s competition.

The Cuppers competition begins in 2nd Week, with the 1st Division teams looking to redeem themselves after two 2nd Division colleges, St. John’s and Trinity, competed in the final last year. Victory for St. John’s capped a successful season for the team, who also gained promotion and look well placed to mount a serious defence of their Cuppers title. The competition should see some all-round quality cricket played, as the colleges will have the freedom to select their full complement of Blues and ‘Tics players, something not allowed in League fixtures. This could potentially alter the prospects of some of the lower ranked teams; not least in the case of Lady Margaret Hall, whose star batsman Matt Winter is a mainstay of the Blues middle order and over the winter gained a place in the MCCU squad. Elsewhere last year’s 2nd Division whipping boys Wadham will be hoping that the availability of Jack Kelleher will boost their chances in Cuppers if not the league. The competition will be stiff however as 1st Division stalwarts Worcester and Balliol can also call on University players for their cup fixtures.

With an action-packed season in store for all the teams involved, cricket at Oxford seems to be in rude health. Although the ultimate victors in all levels of competition remain a mystery, what is incontestable is the tension, excitement, and passion that will accompany quality cricket across the university. Keep up with all the twists and turns with Cherwell Sport.

Pat Jennings is widely recognised as one of the best British goalkeepers ever to have played. Born in Northern Ireland in 1945 Jennings went on to play nearly 600 games for Tottenham, over 300 games for Arsenal and earned a then world record 119 caps whilst playing for Northern Ireland.

Football wasn’t Jennings’ principal sport whilst he was growing up. Raised as a Catholic in Northern Ireland his school played only Gaelic football and other Gaelic sports. Jennings told me that he “never dreamt about professional football as a career…I left school on my fifteenth birthday…I went to work in one of the local linen factories from eight in the morning until six”.

Jennings unlikely career in professional football developed from his love of goalkeeping when he played football with his school mates, “We went to a field close to where we lived and  took a couple of stones out of the ditch or put down a couple of coats [for posts]…the goalkeeper always had the most to do.” Jennings was clearly a very good goalkeeper as a young boy and he played for his local under 19s team – Shamrock Rovers – when aged 11. This is an absolutely phenomenal feat for a goalkeeper, where height is often very important and Jennings told me “I couldn’t reach the crossbar” whilst playing in this team with people close to twice his age.

Despite his clearly noticeable ability from a young age Jennings continued working in the linen factory and then a timber yard. He had essentially stopped playing football when aged 17 the team his brother played for – Newry United – lost their goalkeeper when he went to England to look for work. Jennings said “I wasn’t all that keen” on playing for Newry United but he went along to a few training sessions anyway.

Three months later he and the team won the Irish Junior Cup and in the next year he was put forward for the Irish National Youth Team by the chairman of his club. Jennings was subsequently picked for the Northern Irish National Youth Team. The Northern Irish team qualified for the UEFA European Under-18 Championship in 1963 to be hosted in England. Jennings and Northern Ireland went on a run to the final, “At 17 I’d never been any further south than Dublin or any further north than Belfast…to finish up playing in the final at Wembley…I couldn’t believe it. England beat us on the night at Wembley 4-0. The England team we were playing against were all playing in the first division.”

Things moved quickly for Jennings after this as Watford bought him from Newry and took him over to England. A year later, in 1964 Tottenham then purchased him and it was in this thirteen year stint at Tottenham that Jennings made his name as one of the best British goalkeepers ever. He won the 1973 Football Writers’ Association footballer of the year award and then in 1976 he was the first goalkeeper ever to win the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) player of the year.

Jennings played 1098 first class games in his career and made his Northern Ireland debut on the same day as George Best. A player he told me was the best player he had ever seen because as Jennings said “He did everything a yard quicker than everyone else.”

Unlike George Best Pat Jennings did represent Northern Ireland in a World Cup; in fact he managed to qualify for two. After four previous attempts at qualification with Northern Ireland Jennings made it to the 1982 tournament and then later the 1986 tournament as well. This is something that Jennings had wanted to achieve his whole playing career, “I had been trying [to qualify for a World Cup] from 1964…around 1982 you’re thinking you’re not going to make it…you always live in hope”.

Jennings’ last ever match was in the 1986 World Cup on his 41^st birthday against Brazil. Jennings told me that “playing against them [Brazil] was just a dream for my last match.”

Tottenham still employ Jennings as a coach where he works with their academy two days a week. Jennings has been involved with professional football for over fifty years now and when I asked him what the biggest change had been he simply said “money”. He told me “I would’ve played football for nothing had someone paid my keep.”

Jennings also believes there has been a significant change in the culture in football clubs, “After matches and that we had get togethers, players would have a drink and then maybe go to a local pub. That was just the done thing in those days.” Not only does Jennings see a change in the players’ culture but he also thinks that clubs are putting more and more pressure on the young players as well as managers. Jennings told me about the boys he works with at Tottenham, “Some of the young keepers think they shouldn’t make mistakes. The man who doesn’t make mistakes, he hasn’t been born yet. It’s the one that makes the fewest mistakes that are the best goalkeepers.” Moreover with managers Jennings commented that “The old managers got four or five years at a club when they came in. They had an opportunity to come in and set up a youth policy at a club. Whereas now they work from three to four games.”

Clearly football has changed significantly since Pat Jennings played but he believes the players aren’t that different as he told me “I could’ve played [in the modern game] no bother.” With such an impressive career it’s hard to disagree.

Nick Diaz is well known in the world or mixed martial arts (MMA) and is a particularly entertaining figure within the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). Diaz holds a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt under Cesar Gracie, a member of the Gracie family, the founding fathers of the UFC, and the most recognisable name in jiu-jitsu. He is a former Strikeforce Welterweight Champion, former WEC Welterweight Champion, and a former IFC Welterweight Champion; a pretty impressive record for a thirty year old that started out as a boxer. Although a renowned trash talker, with controversy and attention seeming to follow his every move, Diaz has the skills to back it up, and that is why he is this week’s sporting rock star.

Born in Stockton, California, the mixed martial artist had a career spanning 11 years since his first professional fight in 2001 just after his 18^th birthday. It didn’t take him long to progress in the sport, however, becoming IFC Welterweight Champion in 2002 after his second professional fight. His younger brother, Nate, is also a professional mixed martial artist, ranked 6^th in the official UFC lightweight rankings. Athleticism clearly runs in the family. Both siblings have taken part in professional triathlons, and Nick is rumoured to complete a triathlon every weekend for fun. Supreme fitness and natural talent are two reasons why the brothers are both admired and envied when it comes to MMA.

Nick’s way with words has attracted attention throughout his prolific career, and his most infamous quotes prove very useful in demonstrating why he is such a controversial figure, and successful trash talker.

First up, Diaz never hides his passion for the use of marijuana, and regularly defends it publicly. The fighter can be found smoking (what looks like weed) on YouTube during an outing on his bike, and has tested positive for the drug after a visit to the octagon during a professional fight!

“For the record, right now, I think someone needed to come out and say it: I think smoking pot is good for mixed martial artists. It’s a new day and age, this it, uh, the year… f*** year is it? I don’t know, because I’ve been training and smoking pot like I should, instead of paying attention to other bulls***, which I don’t do”

When asked by a reporter whether his use of marijuana had affected his fighting, Diaz replied: “Actually, on the contrary, my fight career has gotten in the way of my marijuana smoking”.

The press and media often have a tough time when trying to get an interview with Diaz, due both to his well known dislike of public attention, as well as his more than frequent use of expletives in any situation:

“See if people are gonna hate just cause I say the word mother*****, then f*** them, I don’t have time to worry about marketing and s***. In my last fight my hair looked like s*** cause all I did was train…”

When pushed by a reporter to comment on potential future fights, Nick replied: “I feel that you instigate fights quite a bit… I mean that’s your job but, where I come from, people like that get slapped”.

His disregard for what people think of him is well known too. His ‘do what I want’ attitude, however, has gained him as many fans as it has lost him:

“If people can’t handle watching me or they can’t handle the intensity of my life or they can’t handle me cussing saying f*** this and f***, then you know, I think people really need to become a little more mature, kinda grow up a little bit…”

Nick can be respectful to some though, but mainly towards those that he admires and his fellow Stockton ‘homies’:

“If you’re not on my team, then F*** YOU, cause if you’re not with us, then you’re against us”

Perhaps the most famous words to leave the lips of Diaz were spoken following a defeat to KJ Noons in 2007. Noons asked the crowd whether Diaz deserved a rematch, to which his hometown posse of Hawaiians booed. This prompted Diaz to utter the now immortal words:

“Don’t be scared homie!”

(YouTube it)

The ring immediately broke into a brawl, and the Diaz brothers left displaying their trademark middle fingers to the crowd. The brothers were also involved in the infamous ‘Nashville Brawl’ with Mayhem Miller, both receiving fines.

Nick’s antics outside the octagon only distract from what was an amazing martial arts career. He retired after a decision loss to Carlos Condit at UFC 143 in February 2012, and then returned to fight Georges St-Pierre at UFC 158 in 2013. After losing this battle, he hung up his gloves for real and has not since returned to the octagon after many attempts at asking. His latest activity in the world of mixed martial arts was to launch his own promotion called WAR MMA. The first event took place on June 22, 2013 in Stockton, California, of all places.

Aside from the angry outbursts of humiliated Arsenal fans, the post-match furore from Arsenal’s trip to Chelsea on Saturday 22^nd March centred largely on the sending off of Arsenal’s Kieran Gibbs, fifteen minutes into the game.

Arsenal were two, soon to be three, nil down to their London rivals when Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain made a dive that team-mate and goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny might have been proud of, had his palming of the oncoming ball by the goal-line not forced referee Andre Mariner to blow for a penalty.  

Mistaking the identity of the handballing villain, however, Mariner showed Kieran Gibbs the subsequent red card instead of Oxlade-Chamberlain – despite the latter repeatedly telling Mariner that it was him.

In terms of the match the mix-up barely mattered. Arsenal were well on their way to being stuffed before being reduced to ten men, and had Oxlade-Chamberlain gone off instead of Gibbs the result would hardly have been any different.

More than anything, the false dismissal once again questioned the referee’s capacity to observe and judge key events of the game, as well as reopening the barely sealed can of worms entitled ‘technology in football’.

With no ill-feeling directed towards Andre, he and his colleagues are prone to messing things up every now and then.

It’s extremely easy to sit in the stands at a football match, or on our sofas at home, and disagree with everything a referee is doing, telling him that he’s an idiot and should have gone to Specsavers, while we watch the game with the sincere opinion that we would control the game better than the man in the middle.

We frequently assume, as Pat Nevin suggested shortly after the incident, that the ref is bereft of mental capacities expected of any adult, let alone a referee: “I feel quite sorry for the referee, who didn’t see it. But Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was telling him it was him. Use a bit of common sense, surely?”

However, Graham Poll, ever the public’s insightful eye into the mysterious mental processes of football’s officials, was quick to defend Mariner’s actions. “You can’t reverse a decision based on what a player says to you. If we’re at 1-1 in the semi-final of the World Cup, Wayne Rooney gets involved in a heated debate or violent confrontation with an opponent, and the referee says ‘I’m sending you off’ – the left back might come over and say ‘No it was me ref’, because he wants to keep Wayne on, as he might score the winning goal in the World Cup final.”

“You have to go on what you’ve seen, what you believe you’ve seen, unless there’s evidence to the contrary. The only evidence you can get is from one of your other officials, or from video.”

Refereeing demands empirical evidence: an official cannot simply take another player’s word for it, and so must rely on what he believes he’s seen. It is easy to forget that, thanks to Sky and co., we have an unobstructed view of the action and can replay it as many times as we like – when you’ve got what really happened replayed and zoomed in on in your front room, it isn’t hard to make referees appear as though they ‘don’t know what they’re doing’.

There is a view among some fans, players and managers who believe (to borrow the words of Everton boss Roberto Martinez) that ‘errors, misjudgements and mistakes’ are merely ‘part of football, and you need to accept it because that is what makes football what it is’. Yet in the modern game, a referee’s decision makes the difference between gaining or losing millions of pounds, as well as between ecstasy or deep sorrow.

Whatever one’s opinion is on the increase in investment in the game, it must be accepted that vast amounts of money are now ‘part of football’ and are responsible for making the Barclays Premier League ‘what it is’. Sky has not only given us the technology to rewind and pause live action – they have also contributed to the vast wealth available to Premier League clubs. As a result, the demands on the limited visual capabilities of the human referee are greater than ever before.

The FA maintained its commitment to empirical-based evidence by allowing Mariner to referee a Premier League game the following weekend. But until they extend this commitment to the introduction of video-technology to assist with refereeing decisions, officials will continue to be seen as idiots lacking in common sense, as the 21^st century, Sky+-ready eyes of the spectator remain vastly superior to the eyes by which the game is actually officiated.