They May Take Our Lives, But Never our...ANDY!!

So David Cameron lowered the flag of St. George over Downing Street on Monday as the English football team headed home after failing to end 44 years of hurt.

But now the tabloids are trying to persuade the English football faithful that Dunblane born Andy is actually English. Why? Because his maternal grandmother was both to a Berwick-Upon-Tweed solicitor and his York born wife.

So taking into consideration the dispute that the town to the north of the Tweed is actually Scottish and that it's designation has changed so often through history. That would leave Andy's mum Judy's mother, Eileen Edney being the offspring of indisputably English* Joyce Anderson.

So lets apply laws that England football fans and FIFA understand: so that rules out offside and what constitutes a valid goal. To qualify to play for you nation you have to have been born or have one of your parents or grandparents born in that country. For Andy Murray that is seven counts of Scotland.

Guess Andy isn't an English Rose after all, but that doesn't stop the whole of the UK supporting him, so he can be a thorn in Rafa Nadal's Championship hopes this afternoon.

Also if Downing Street can take down the English flag after a team goes out in the last 16 of a major tournament why aren't they raising the Saltire in honour of a Brit from another part of the United Kingdom who is two games further on and looking to get to the final ending either 72 or 74 years of hurt since we had a home grow finalist (Bunny Austin '1938) or winner (Fred Perry 1936).

* Hang on isn't York a Viking kingdom? Especially with a name like Anderson?

Head to Head - Murray v Federer

"I didn't aspire to be a good sport; 'champion' was good enough for me."
Fred Perry (1909-1995)

There are now less than 12 hours before Andy Murray faces Roger Federer in the final of the Australian Open. The Scot goes into the final knowing one thing. Win or loss he will still have a better win-loss record against the worlds number one and not a lot of people can say that. But of course as Andy himself has said he wants to chalk up another in that win column. Here are the 10 previous encounters.

Bangkok Final, 2005, hard court: Federer wins 6-3, 7-5

Andy's first tour final when he was only 18 but he came up against the world number one. Andy had just broken into the top 100 at the time. But taking 8 games in a 2 set defeat was still nothing to be sniffed at in his first meeting.

Cincinnati Masters, 2006, Second Round, hard court: Murray wins 7-5, 6-4

This was the second week of the teaming up with Brad Gilbert and Andy faced Fed in the second round. He was one of only two players to beat Federer that year, the other being Nadal.

Dubai, 2008, First Round, hard court: Murray wins 6-7, 6-3, 6-4

Federer has just lost to Novak Djokovic in the Australian Open Semis and game up against an unseeded Murray in the first round. It isn't often that Federer loses in the first round of any tournament but this was a sign that Andy was a real contender.

US Open final, 2008, hard court: Federer wins 6-2, 7-5, 6-2

Andy's first Grand Slam final, but unlike this fortnight he'd had a tough time getting there. This time he has really only played half a set over the minumum requirement to get to the final. This time he is fresh in New York he was tired as this demolition proved.

Madrid Masters Semi-Final, 2008, hard court: Murray wins 3-6, 6-3, 7-5

Andy had won the Cincinnati Masters Event before the US Open and this was his first event after that defeat in the Final. So in the semi-final they meet again but this time the Scot fought back after losing the first set to take a second successive Masters but this one by beating Fed.

Masters Cup, Shanghai 2008, hard court: Murray wins 4-6, 7-6, 7-5

Over three hours of grueling tennis that knocked Federer out at the Round Robin stage of the season ending tournament. Tomorrow might well be a long old slog and this is a sign that Andy can win such encounters against Federer.

Doha Semi- Final, January 2009, hard court: Murray wins 6-7, 6-2, 6-2

Andy recovered from a back injury in the third set to record yet another win on his way to the final.

Indian Wells Masters, March 2009, hard court: Murray wins 6-3, 4-6, 6-1

Murray fended off a second set fightback to snare his opponent for a fourth successive time in the semi-finals but went on to lose to Rafael Nadal in the final.

Cincinnati Masters Semi-Final, August 2009, hard court: Federer wins 6-2, 7-6

Federer finally wins one again over the newly-crowned world No 2 and defending champion in this semi-final encounter but brushes aside his poor head-to-head record against his rival. "It doesn't matter to me, I'm past that point."

ATP Tour Finals, London O2 Arena, November 2009, hard court: Federer wins 3-6 6-3 6-1

In London Andy starts well taking the first set having broken Federer twice. But his serve deserts him in the final set as Federer gets revenge for his defeat the previous season.

So there you have it. Their record is 6-4 in favour of Andy. My prediction is that it won't be over in three sets. I think Andy will edge it in 4 or 5 sets.

A Little Bit of Murray Magic

Possible the shot of the day from yesterday's match between Andy Murray and Marin Cilic.



But that wasn't all from yesterday The Times take a look at another wondershot.

Thanks to my brother for unearthing this footage of that shot.



He will on Sunday become the first British male since 1977 and John Lloyd to appear in the Australian Open final against either Roger Federer or Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. But Andy says he'll be disappointed after the tournament he's had if he doesn't win.



UPDATE: I do apologise for the lack of video no on this post Tennis Australia have decided that the couple of minutes of Scottish genius that I wish to show should not be available on You Tube are stopping almost every stream that was showing this.

My View on Sports Personality of the Year

Earlier today I promised that I would give my take on the BBC's Sports Personality of the Year shortlist. So here we go.

First off here is the actual shortlist of 10

• Jenson Button
• Mark Cavendish
• Tom Daley
• Jessica Ennis
• Ryan Giggs
• David Haye
• Phillips Idowu
• Andy Murray
• Andrew Strauss
• Beth Tweddle

Let's start of the Football and Cricket, these two sports seem to have a right to have someone on the list. If you look at the full list of nominees from the press you may see why. Cricket had Stuart Broad, Andrew Flintoff and Charlotte Edwards nominated along with Strauss. Football had Kelly Smith, John Terry, Cristiano Ronaldo and Darren Fletcher keeping Giggs company.

Of course Strauss was the highest scorer in the Ashes series with 474 for an average of 52.66. So he was undoubtedly the batsman of the series add on to that captaining the side to regain the Ashes. But that sadly in my eyes is not enough to warrant winning this prize across all sports. As for Ryan Giggs yes he was again an integral part in his eleventh Premier League title with Man United, winning the PFA player of the year title in the process. But none of that in itself is enough to lift the award. If anything Ryan still playing at the top level for the same team should qualify for the Lifetime Achievement Award which is going to Seve Ballesteros tomorrow.

Boxing only have David Haye on the shortlist this year, both Amir Khan and Carl Froch were nominated. But Boxers don't fair well in winning. Ricky Hatton never did and Joe Calzaghe had to wait so long at the top before he won in 2007. Haye though has stepped up from Cruiserweight where he held the WBA, WBC and WBO world titles to take on the Heavyweights. He was originally to fight either of the Klitschko brothers Vitali the WBC Champ on 20 June ,the Vladimir IBF and WBA on the same date, only for Haye to pull out injured. In the end just last month he defeated the giant seven foot Nikolai Valuev. When Lennox Lewis and Joe Calzaghe won this title they were both undisputed World Champions admittedly something Haye almost did at Cruiserweight. A mighty achievement but he may and should be passed over for the Top spot this time.

Andy Murray may have won more tennis events in this year than any previous male tennis player in a season. Indeed his six tour titles not counting the slams was more than anyone else, even Federer and Nadal. But Greg Rusedski won his award for getting to the US open final, Andy did that last year. This prize will be Andy's in the future I'm sure when he breaks the British tennis duck since Fred Perry and lifts one of the Grand Slams. So not this year even though he was at one point number two in the world.

As for Jenson Button he had a blinding start to this season, but then somewhat tailed off to win his championship. He did hang in there to lift the world championship, but the early season form was as much a part of the ingenuity of Ross Brawn as the skills of JB, even though I love F1 I fell that Brawn GP should win the team award but not Jenson the individual. Jenson also has the disadvantage that sometimes our World Champs don't win while the losers do. Lewis Hamilton didn't win as Champion last year and Mansell and Damon Hill both won Sports Personality as losers before winning again as World Champs.

That leaves the other five from where I think the deserving winner. Four individual World Champions and the winningest man in his sport this year.

The world of cycling is limited to just one choice Mark Cavendish. Both Bradley Wiggins and Vitoria Pendleton were also on the nominations, Bradley had . Cav won an amazing six stages on the Tour de France after 3 stages in the Giro d'Italia and 2 in the Tour de Suisse. Some will say that Cav had the help of his lead out train, but not for all of these stage wins. For some he was riding on his opponents wheel which shows just how good a sprinter he was.

Athletics produces two worthy candidates Phillips Idowu following in the hop, step and jumps of Jonathan Edwards won the Triple Jump and Jessica Ennis continues the depth of British success in the multi-event disciplines. Denise Lewis never lifted the top prize for her Heptathlon indeed only Daley Thompson as a multi-event athlete has won SPotY. But she put aside the disappointment of injury in Olympic year and watching Kelly Sotherton fail to capitalise on the retirement of Kluft. However, for someone not of the typical heptathlete physique she towered above the more lengthy limbed opponents to lead with the third best day one score ever and end up only 100 points shy of Denise Lewis's British and Commonwealth record with 6,731 points.

Phillips faced a different disappointment at Beijing, he went as the longest jumper in the world after his trials performance. Jumped further in the final but only took silver. But added the World Outdoor championships with a PB and World Best performance of 17.73 to his World Indoor, Commonwealth and European Indoor titles. He has jumped further than Jonathan Edwards indoors but has yet to get to the distance that the former Olympic champion did outdoors, but a constantly improving effort again this year from a man who is already one of the best in the world at the moment.

Tom Daley is currently Britain's youngest senior world champion. Having jumped in the synchronised event in Beijing, the youngster went solo to his success this year. Whilst he does not yet have the high level of difficulty of some of his opponents he kept consistent good scores and when they had a poor final round of dives soared ahead of the two Chinese to take gold. Quite an achievement for a lower tariff performer. In fact his winning score of 539.85 pts was higher than Matt Mitcham's 537.95 which secured gold at the Olympics last year. His new partnership with Max Brink only finished 9th in the final, but for a first year together the synchronisation needs time to bed in.

That leads to Beth Tweddle, who came third in 2006 when she was Britain's first world Champion on the Uneven Bars. However, this year she fell in her preferred event in qualifying in front of the home crowd in London. A couple of days later having qualified for her other event the floor for which she had never medalled in her previous two World Champ finals she pulled out all the stops and won. Indeed that failure in the uneven bars was the only time that she failed to top the podium in her two events in competition this year.

My personal preference for the top three this year is:

1. Beth Tweddle

2. Mark Cavendish

3. Tom Daley


I suspect I will be wrong as this omits any of the so called "big" sports and is based purely on another sportsman basis of meritocracy.