Button Signs For McLaren

Formula One world champion Jenson Button has signed on to drive for McLaren.

The 29 year old 'Frome Flyer' has signed a long term deal with the Woking based team, which see's him partner ex world champion and fellow Brit Lewis Hamilton. This is the first time two British world champions have started a season on the same team, since Graham Hill and Jim Clark drove together for Lotus in 1968.

Button said in a press release, '...life is all about challenges, and, most important of all, it’s about challenging yourself. So, although I won the World Championship with Brawn GP last year, and I’ll never forget that, I was always adamant that I wanted to continue to set myself fresh challenges.'

This new driver lineup is great news for British motorsport, but bad news for Finnish driver Kimi Raikkonen, who has decided to leave the sport to focus on a career in rallying, after failing to find a drive for the 2010 season.

Raikkonen, who won the world championship in 2007, set his sights on joining McLaren, as he saw them as having a competitive, championship winning car, which he was without during what is now his last season in F1, and after the drive was taken by Jenson Button, there were no teams he wanted to drive for. There were a number of teams interested in signing Raikkonen, but the combination of his high wage demands and his need to drive in a competitive car meant only McLaren were on his radar.

Already, the 2010 season looks to improve on the last in every possible way.

Uni Work - Radio

The last uni work I posted on here was for TV, and now we turn to Radio! Just for you, here is my group's work on Radio, focusing on Remembrance Day... Enjoy!

Rememberence Day (VOX) by mattmansfield

Penalty Joy For Canaries

Norwich pressed through to the Johnstone's Paint Southern Section Semi Final (ridiculous name for a tournament by the way) with a penalty shootout victory over Swindon.

Both teams squandered chances throughout the game, but Norwich keeper Fraser Forster (on loan from Newcastle United) saved Craig Easton's penalty for the home team in the shootout.

With this save, Forster managed to scrape back some respect from the Norwich fans after his dreadful mistake gifted Leeds a victory last month.

Other results in the tournament (North and South Sections):

Accrington Stanley 3 - 2 Bury

Bradford 2 - 2 Port Vale (Bradford win 5 - 4 on penalties)

Chesterfield 1 - 3 Carlisle

Leeds United 3 - 1 Grimsby

Leyton Orient 1 - 1 Hereford (Hereford win 3 - 2 on penalties)

MK Dons 3 - 1 Northampton

Tommorow sees the final match of the Quarter Final Stage of the tournament, Southampton vs Charlton

German Goalkeeper Dies

German international goalkeeper Robert Enke has died in a suspected suicide in Germany, after being hit by a train at a level crossing earlier today.

The Hannover 96 goalkeeper, 32, won 8 international caps for his country and was expected to be named as number 1 keeper in Germany's world cup squad, for next summer's tournament in South Africa.

A press conference is sceduled for tommorow (Wednesday) to shed more light on the tragedy.

Uni Work - TV

I know this is strictly speaking a sports blog, but I have a piece of video work that my group finished today that I just had to share... enjoy!!!

Ukraine vs England - What Happened????

VS

Hello avid readers. Sorry for the lack of posts this week but i've been (and still am) pretty ill. Not great but there we are. Anyway, i've left the comfort of my bed in order to write a new post for you, so be grateful!!! The only problem is that it focuses on an abysmal weekend for English football, where one record came to an end, and an equally negative one was set. Lovely!

Last week, the very, very wise Wayne Rooney said he wanted England to go through to the world cup finals unbeaten... ha! This is England... it was never gonna happen and it didn't... Thanks Wayne.

The embarrasing 1-0 defeat in Ukraine also marked the start of a new English football record. Goalkeeper Robert Green, became the first keeper to be sent off for England. That's quite an honour Rob... cherise it...

Overall, just an awful, if not hilarious, weekend for English football. But, looking on the bright side, we've already qualified, so its not a major catastrophe after all!!!

Click here to view 'Highlights' of the match

Weekend Football Roundup

This weekend saw high scores, big games and red cards across the UK, with no shortage of excitement in any of the leagues.

In the Premiership, there were decent results for Arsenal, Chelsea, Sunderland and Portsmouth (getting their first points of the season with a 1-0 victory over Wolves), whilst the biggest losers were Liverpool, suffering a 2-0 defeat to league leaders Chelsea.

The Championship saw big victories for Derby, Crystal Palace and Cardiff, with the leagues bottom club Ipswich losing again, this time 2-1 to Barnsley, with the winning goal coming in the 96th minute of play! Other winners were Nottingham Forest, Plymouth and Middlesbrough.

League One saw emphatic victories for Norwich City, Millwall and Southampton, and a disappointing goalless draw between the two leading teams, Charlton and Leeds.

Finally, League Two saw Barnet and Rotherham win well, and a heated 1-1 draw between Morecambe and Shrewsbury, with both teams ending the game with 10 men.

For a full list of results for the Premiership, Championship, League One and League Two, follow the links.

For league tables for the Premiership, Championship, League One and League Two, again follow the links.

Japanese Grand Prix

This weekend saw the Japanese Grand Prix, one of the final three races of the Formula 1 season, and it did not disappoint... for the most part.

The Saturday qualifying session was very exciting, with no less than three red flags disrupting the session. I have never seen a red flag in a qualifying session before and then three turn up at once... what a cliche! Eventually, Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel was on pole, with title rival Jensen Button suffering a grid penalty dropping him down to 10th place for the race.

Onto Sunday now, and despite the drivers seemingly forgeting that cars are meant for roads in qualifying, the race was a different kettle of fish altogether, with it being surprisingly quiet with only one major incident, resulting in a safety car towards the end of the race. This was a blessing in disguise for racing fans as it bunched up the cars and left the last three laps as essentially a race on their own, allowing for an entertaining end to a mediocre race.

The winner was pole sitter Sebastian Vettel, who led throughout, with Jensen Button coming home in 8th place.

Click here for a detailed race summary, courtesy of the BBC