At the beginning of the year we left behind a decade sprinkled with a selection of memorable sporting intrigue, images and icons. Roll on then to a new year, and a new decade that promises to be every bit as good, if not better, than the last. One thing is for certain: you’ll be able to keep track of the big sports stories of the year on ‘Extra Time.’  Oxide Radio’s successful sports show is back and this term it promises to once again bring the major sports stories to Oxford’s airwaves.

January sees a comprehensive look ahead to this year’s Six Nations Tournament, which is sure to witness both scintillating rugby and raise plenty of stirring questions. How will Martin Johnson’s England cope after a poor set of performances in the Autumn Internationals?  Can Ireland carry on from where they left off last year and consolidate their status as the number one side in the Northern Hemisphere? We’ll also be shifting our attention to the other side of the globe, where we’ll be talking Australian Open Tennis and assessing Andy Murray’s prospects of winning that elusive first Grand Slam Title.

On to February where ‘Extra Time’ will have a very special show dedicated to Super Bowl XLIV. As well as the glitz and the glammer we’ll be assessing the two teams who’ll be competing to win the Vince Lombardi Trophy and those much coveted Super Bowl rings.

‘Extra Time’ will also be covering the wide range of Varsity matches taking place, from women’s netball and lacrosse to men’s ice hockey., looking ahead to  tennis and basketball.

Rowing will very much be in the spotlight as we enter into March. From the Torpids college rowing regatta to, of course, the big one, the University Boat Race, we’ll be assessing how preparations are going and hearing from all the important people involved. The Varsity Boxing and Football are also sure to be featured as we round off what looks like being another eventful sporting term.

So, whether it’s a bit of sporting controversy, diversity or entertainment that you’re looking for as you wake up on a Saturday morning, then ‘Extra Time’ is the place where you’ll be able to hear it all.

‘Extra Time’ on Oxide Radio is broadcast on Saturday mornings from 11am-12pm. Listen live at www.oxideradio.co.uk/listen.html

Any university-level sport demands huge effort and commitment from its aspiring Blues, but few seem to strain the mind and body as brutally as Oxford’s Amateur Boxing Club. Training sessions here are gruelling; the warm-ups alone leave honed athletes exhausted and depleted, weeding out the weaklings before gloves, pads and punchbags are even sighted- a punishing sport necessitates a punishing regimen, and the long practices can be endured only by the fittest competitors.

One particular fresher survived two weeks before succumbing to the physical and mental pressures that boxing inexorably imposes: ‘The track-running, skipping and circuit work are tough enough; getting into the ring with some of the best here is, at best, a frightening idea.’ Countless others come and go, attracted by boxing’s promise of glory and but repelled by its steep and arduous road to success.

Visions of Rocky celebrating atop Philadelphian steps are distant day-dreams. The reality is bruising 2-hour stints at Iffley Road. Technique is emphasised religiously by OUABC’s coaches and the majority of a session comprises pain-staking work on the details and intricacies of certain punches, blocks and stances. Speaking of pain, that isn’t entirely lacking either: blood has been shed in the heat of intra-squad sparring, where natural aggression and adrenaline flow in controlled measures.

Would-be boxers arrive at OUABC with all ranges of experience, from the seasoned internationals to the eager novices.  It’s easy to imagine that Oxford might be more likely to produce Ali the rhetorician than Ali the champion,  but the standard here is high, and competition for places in the Varsity match is fierce. Last year’s humiliating defeat to the Light Blues will be used as material for motivation: after all, no other varsity sport presents a more literal opportunity to dominate and hurt the rival Tabs. Passions run strong in all of the Oxbridge fixtures, though it is hard to believe that any other clash becomes as intensely personal as this. The Boat Race might well be ferocious, but on the water fists do not meet faces.

Founded in 1881, OUABC is the oldest student-run boxing club in the country, boasting a prestigious heritage. For one thing, it holds the longest consecutive streak of Varsity victories among any Oxford sports club (racking up an astounding tally of 16 straight wins before a close loss in 2002). Since 2004, women’s boxing has been a half-blue sport, encouraging even greater participation across the university.

Boxing is not a sport merely for brutes and gym-warriors; David Haye’s recent defeat of 7ft 2” Russian Nikolai Valuev underscored that point emphatically, and at the world’s highest level too. It might have dropped into sports cliche, but Ali’s famous ‘Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee’ maxim is still held up as the golden aim. Grace and extraordinary balance are as crucial as strength and  power; it is certainly no coincidence that boxing has inspired some of the finest and most subtle sports journalism of the last century.

Left, left, right. Left, right, left. Right, right, left. Repeat. The goal of perfect form and technical accuracy in every punch is chased relentlessly, considered by the club to be the key to victory in Varsity and beyond: the sheer will to win in the ring should take care of the rest.

There are a lot of ways to score a brilliant goal. You can dribble your way past half the side; beat the keeper from inside your own half; curl the perfect free-kick in from 35 yards. These are all practised by millions of hopeful dreamers worldwide everyday. Everyone knows what they would like to be able to do if only they could.

But there is another way to score a great goal. Not only to score one which others could never execute; but to do what others could not even imagine.
Watch a video of Diego Maradona’s second goal against England in 1986. It is quite possibly the best goal ever scored in a football match; a fusion of pace, dribbling ability, fearlessness and a brilliant finish. You wonder, “how on earth did he do that?” Every footballer across the world harbours dreams of waltzing so magisterially through the opposition.

Now watch Dennis Bergkamp’s goal against Newcastle in 2002. Spectacular, but surely even the most one-eyed Arsenal supporter could not argue that Maradona’s tour de force was inferior. It inspires a subtly different reaction. It is not merely ‘how did he do that?’ The more discerning question is: ‘how did he think of that?’

Footballing superstars can dazzle with their dexterity on the ball; their speed; their apparent immunity to pressure.

Something altogether rarer is to astonish with their imagination. It takes a special player to execute what everyone is dreaming of. Bergkamp could succeed in what no-one else was dreaming.

In fact, he relatively lacked two of those three attributes of the greats of the game. His pace was pedestrian set against the likes of Thierry Henry. And his tally of red cards proved he could be wound up by less-skilled opponents.
In this sense he was very human: he could not be relied upon to win his side a crucial game – though he did so on countless occasions – as he could not even be relied upon to be on the pitch. But he was otherworldly in his vision, his comprehension of angles and intricacies and complete understanding of the range of creative possibilities the footballing field provides. They say sport is all in the mind: for Bergkamp it was too, but in a very different sense. 

When Imran Khan sits, he does so regally: this is a man who inspires awe in every room he walks into. Indubitably, he is one of the all-time greatest cricketers – rated the third best bowler ever by the ICC rankings. Cricket gave him his legendary status, of that there can be no denying. Yet could it be that his true legacy is not to a sport he served so brilliantly but to a country he loves even more dearly?

As a cricketer he captained Pakistan with distinction for a decade. This ultimate warrior-king had a presence so powerful it is scarcely believable, a product not just of his all-round cricketing brilliance but his bounding self-confidence (or outright arrogance, in the view of many). To this is added his searing intellectual abilities – a fearsome combination which helped him unify that most enigmatic of cricketing beasts, Pakistan. A nation of rich diversity, a fusion of misty industrial cities and passionate tribesman in areas of immense barrenness, this has traditionally been mirrored in their cricket side.

Throughout their cricket-playing history, they have been volatile to the point of caricature; brilliant but fickle to the point of tedious cliché. Imran – or, more accurately, The Cult of Imran – was able to transcend the petty squabbles that have characterised so much of their cricketing history. Under his transformative leadership, the ‘cornered tigers’ triumphed in the 1992 World Cup, by far their most significant cricketing achievement.

The ‘Cult of Imran’ is still at work today – but cricket, the sport that made him, can seldom have seemed so insignificant. His passion for the betterment of his country is fierce, and this is what he’s devoted his energy to more recently. Some may have expected a lecture on Pakistan’s problem; Imran responds to questions almost confrontationally. He interrogates an English-educated Pakistani; “Are you going to use this knowledge to come back and improve the lot of your own country?” To Imran, returning is a matter of duty.

And, just as he led by example on the cricket pitch, so he is doing so in trying to fix his fragmented country. In 1996, he formed his own political party, the Movement for Justice – something sorely lacking in Pakistan, where “you cannot imagine the cruelty that is going on to the common man, because there is no justice.”

Imran began studying PPE at Keble in 1972 as a 19-year-old, by which point he had, extraordinarily, already made his Test debut for Pakistan. What immediately struck him about the country was not the wealth or glamour but the way in which the poor were looked after. “When I saw what a welfare state was, that’s what I understood a humane state was.” This is in stark contrast with present-day Pakistan – “In what country do the poor people subsidise the rich?” He has attacted the interest of far too many gossip columns to name throughout his life, he has retained a desire to help those less fortunate than himself. This has primarily been through extensive charity work, and more recently through the political life that he has emhe has so immersed itself in.
As he freely acknowledges, his brilliant cricketing career allowed him to “rub shoulders with some of the jet set” – something he took great pleasure from. Yet “is the purpose of life comfort of the self?” Imran’s dream is to restore Pakistan to being the great Islamic welfare state it once was –his optimism is admirable and extraordinary considering the plight currently facing his homeland.

Khan compares present-day Pakistan to “France just before the French Revolution”. He warns of incredibly dangerous, yet incredibly exciting, times ahead, and pinpoints the next six months as being pivotal in shaping the future of the country.

What is this optimism based on? “The level of political awareness in Pakistan is unprecedented”; the people are aware of the corruption that is propping up the small ruling elite. With the people suitably engaged, “we have all the prerequisites…now all we need is an election.” A fair election, unlike that in 2007 which Imran boycotted, is essential for Pakistan’s transformation into the sort of state he dreams of. But he believes circumstances will make this inevitable within a few months.

Admittedly the task following the election will hardly be an easy one. He argues “the biggest problem is this war on terror.” Like so many, Khan has been disappointed by Barack Obama (after the stratospheric expectations, one could hardly fail to be), though he is more scathing than most in his comment on the surge in Afghanistan, going as far as labelling him “Bush +”.

Imran’s message, delivered forcefully yet with charm and charisma is unmistakeable. To all those Pakistanis currently living happily in England, “you have a responsibility to go back and help your own country”. He is himself proving as good as his word.

The hardy members of Oxford University Lawn Tennis Club (OULTC) are currently wondering why Federer, Murray et al are living it up in the Melbourne sunshine whilst we are attempting to battle rain, snow and other adverse weather conditions just to get to the indoor tennis courts.  However, in contrast to the weather, it is not at all gloomy in Oxford tennis this year.  Five out of six of our teams are currently competing in the BUCS leagues, with the Women’s 3rds hopefully the next to join. The Men’s Blues are in the Premier League for our third consecutive year and the women are pushing through Division 1A, looking like they may very well match the boys in tennis achievement.   

This Wednesday both the Men’s and Women’s Blues were travelling against the snow to their respective matches, against Bristol 1sts and Warwick 1sts. The matches started with a pro-set (first to 8 games) of doubles, and the Men’s 2nd pair of Gregory Weir (Keble) and Tim Matthewson (Brasenose) quickly showed their dominance by winning a stunning 8-1. The Men’s 1st pair of Marc Baghdadi (Pembroke) and Fred Burgess (Trinity) had a much tighter, see-saw set. After going down an early break of serve, they recovered and managed to go up a break themselves to lead 5-3. However, the lead was lost two games later, and after going down another break, couldn’t recover and lost the set 9-7. This meant the overall match was poised at 1-1, and with four singles to come, everything was still to play for.

With the luxury of having four courts to play on, all four players went on at the same time. The first to come off was Fred, playing at number 4. Matched up against a more experienced opponent, Fred unfortunately went down 6-2 6-2. Next off was Tim, playing at number 2. This time, it was Tim who had the much stronger game, and beat his opponent 6-1 6-1. The overall match was back on level terms. Both remaining singles matches had only just finished the first set by this time.

Greg, playing at 3, got off to a slow start, letting his opponent race into a 4-0 lead. However, he managed to claw his way back, and sneaked the set on a tie-break, 7-6. He then raced through the second set 6-0 with an easy confidence. Marc, playing at 1, let an early break slip at 5-4, and lost his first set on a tie-break 7-6. The second set also went a lot quicker, but unfortunately the wrong way again, as he lost it 6-2. This meant another 5-5 draw for the Men, who remain in 3rd place in a tight and talented group, just a point behind 2nd-placed Bath, who are their next opponents.  A victory against Bath would make a second place finish still a distinct possibility.

At the same time the Women’s team, comprised of Anjoli Foster (Keble), Astrid Grindlay (Christ Church), Philippa Coates (Somerville), and Vicky Moffett (Keble), travelled to Warwick. Both the doubles were straightforward affairs, with Philippa and Vicky on top form, winning 8-0 at second pair, and Anjoli and Astrid winning 8-3 at first pair. With both doubles under their belts, they seemed to be cruising to victory with the singles still to be played. The matches were played in reverse order, so Vicky, playing at 4, and Philippa, at 3, were first on. Both came through very comfortably,  with Vicky winning 6-3 6-1, and Philippa winning 6-3 6-2.  The win already secure, Anjoli went on and came off just as quickly, with a 6-3 6-1 demolition as well. This left Astrid, playing at 1, to finish off a comfortable whitewash.

However, this match proved a little tougher. A tight first set eventually went the way of the Warwick girl, 7-5. The second set was equally tight, but with Astrid leading 5-4, the match unfortunately had to be abandoned as court time had run out. Under BUCS rules, the win was therefore given to Astrid, and the Women came home with their third 10-0 win of the season.

They are now firmly in second place in their Division, just three points behind leaders Birmingham, but with the last match against them. With a much greater rubber difference, a win next week would see them leap into first place, and gain the promotion play-off spot to join the Men in the Premier League for the first time in the club’s history.