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Richardon is arguably the biggest twat in sports broadcasting. No exaggeration.

He interviewed Marcos Baghdatis after he trounced Murray in 2006 in I think the third round.

Richardson: "So Marcos, surely this is the biggest win of your career!?"

Baghdatis: "Ehhh...well....I reached the Australian Open final a few months ago. I had some bigger wins there."

Richardson: "But this is WIMBLEDON for heaven's sake!!!"


He's OBSESSED with the royal family too.

1st question to federer after quarter-final this year: "Did you raise your game knowing there were so many royal dignitaries present?"

To Murray last year: "So how did it feel to play in front of William and Kate?"

He's a complete cretin. An absolute disgrace to the sport

I'd rate Murray's chances of picking up a slam at about 50:50.

I certainly believe he'll get his chances in the next couple of years.

Nadal has dodgy knees and Djokovic is looking increasingly human after his insane run in 2011 and early this year.

Also Federer is getting older. He's a step slower than he was at his peak but his natural movement and quickness off the mark on grass hides it. His age will be more apparent at the other slams.

Most importantly, the age profile of the sport has changed dramatically in the last 5 years. The average age of the top 100 is over 27 for the first time. (It was more like 24 in 80s and 90s).

In the past it was common to see teenagers winning majors. With the increased physicality of the game and greater depth globally, talented youngsters are taking much longer to break through.

There's just a single teenager in the top 175 in the world, something that would have been inconceivable even 5 years ago.

All of this means that for the next two years, the current top 4 should continue to dominate with the occasional big runs from the usual suspects like Berdych, Tsonga and Soderling if he ever recovers from illness.

Juan Martin Del Potro should become a contender again but the best of the young generation (the likes of Bernard Tomic and Milos Raonic) will need at least two years development to become potential major winners in my opinion.

Anyways, apologies for the long winded post but I think Murray can take more positives than negatives from today's performance and there's no need to believe that he's missed the boat just yet.

having watched a lot of Garrycastle matches in the last couple of years I can safely say that Doron Harte has plenty of previous when it comes to the Busquets-style theatrics.

I had a good view of the Brennan incident.

He swung a wild elbow at Heslin 15 yards in front of the linesman. There was little if any contact but it was a deserved red. He'd already been booked as well. Completely f**king stupid thing to do.

I was following Heslin at that stage because he'd been booked a minute earlier for the wrestling match with Rooney and I was worried he'd lose the head altogether, given some of the treatment he was getting.

Dunno if he said something to Brennan or what because there was no physical provocation to warrant him lashing out the way he did.

G Connaughton (capt);
M Curley, J Gaffey, K Maguire;
D Harte, M Ennis, D McDermott;
P Bannon, J Heslin;
K Martin G Egan, J Dolan;
Denis Glennon, David Glennon, P Sharry.

Kieran Gavin a big loss, don't know how fit Glennon the elder is, Bannon and Heslin also carrying injuries. A lot riding on this game for Pat Flanagan, he has one victory against Mickla to show for two championship summers, can't seem him there next year if he looses this despite two relatively successful league campaigns. Looking forward to it, can't beat championship days out.

Losing Gavin is massive alright. Gaffey and Curley together looks like an accident waiting to happen.

Bad news if the midfielders aren't fully fit too. Keenan has run riot in the last two meetings. Need to get a grip on him to have any sort of chance.

Both forward lines look capable of racking up big scores against those defences. Could go either way.

Just hope Westmeath really go for it. I don't think a defensive system will be any use in this match-up. Need to play to our own strengths.

Good spot. I think I had John Heslin and Ger Egan in mind and somehow made a balls of it.

Was impressed with Heslin even though he didn't have any particularly stand-out performance. He did the simple things well and seems to have matured a lot already. He's mostly cut out the flying tackles and over-ambitious outside of the boot stuff for instance.

Saw Westmeath four times and the most consistently impressive players were probably Kevin Maguire and John Egan.

Saw Monagahan twice and Paul Finlay was an absolute joy to watch but blotted his copybook a bit with the 2 crucial late misses against Galway.

delighted to be proven wrong by Westmeath. I didn't give us a prayer of staying up.

I probably overestimated the quality of the opposition as much as underestimating us.

by my count (may or may not be accurate):

Paul Finlay 1-28

Nicky Joyce 0-17

Denis Glennon 0-14

Stephen Bray 0-25

Paddy Bradley 0-24

Peter Harte 5-4

ummm yeah, it's possible I may have got my dates arse-ways 

have to admit the implications of the drawn club final didn't even dawn on me at the time. Horrible result for Westmeath.

Would have been such a huge boost to get the Garrycastle lads back for the Derry match.

Still, two home wins on the trot gives us some grounds for hope...

Monaghan were woeful alright but I was impressed by Westmeath.

Best performances I've seen at this level from Ger Egan and David Glennon by a distance. Ran the Monaghan defence ragged and their movement gave the midfield easy options.

Win was blighted by some injuries to key players though. Kieran Gavin, Garry Connaughton, Kieran Martin and Michael Ennis all hurt.

Decent chance of staying up now. I thought we'd be dead and buried by this stage.

The seventh point you had was probably the effort from Paul Bannon after about 6 or 7 minutes. Would have been Westmeath's second point. Umpire picked up the flag initially but it was given as a wide Not sure if it was by the ref, the other ump or the first ump had just got himself in a muddle in the first place and changed his mind

Strange match alright. Two poor enough teams and like you said, Galway clearly didn't give a shit but great to get the win

Where do you all do you bets? bookies or online? my local bookies odds are pretty pish so what site would be the best option?

www.oddschecker.com

cheers Shark. already have a William Hill acc but been told it's not the greatest. bet fair looks decent. any one in particular you would recommend to set up and use as my primary site?

I have accounts with about 10 different websites. When I have a bet I want to make I check to see who is offering the best odds for that particular bet. Simple as. I don't gamble often but when I do it tends to be a sizeable bet so small difference in odds can lead to very different returns.

it's the only way to do it. small differences in odds add up in the long term.

one thing I would advise is to set up a moneybookers account. it only takes a minute and it means you won't have any transactions with bookies coming up on your bank statement.

they can be pissy enough about that sort of thing apparently.

we need to rope in defoe, young and pavlyuchenko to settle this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIwFUnV73x4

don't think they'd fare quite as well with a hurl and sliothar to be honest