Ok coke, so here's another update on the state of affairs on the Mutua Madrid Open, as it draws closer to its conclusion, all the ladies quarter finals matches are now out of the way and then men's will be soon done as well, which I will update later on as they are all done.
So let's for a change start off with the ladies, and the quarter finals match-ups were all intruiging to say the least. First off we had the world no.1, Victoria Azarenka take on the defending French Open champion, Li Na, in a pretty competitive encounter. Vika in the first set was for once completely outhit by Li Na, with her powerful groundstrokes, and went on to take the 1st set. In the 2nd however, Victoria soon found her form and went onto to break and levelled the match, and in the decider, Victoria stamped her authority on the match with a 4-0 lead, but Li Na mounted a brief fightback to lift the next three games. But in the end it wasn't enough as Victoria went on to close out the match and securing her place in the semi finals with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 win.
Next up we had a much anticipated match between the former World No.1's, Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams, and on paper this one promised to be a real belter, or as the Eurosport commentator Sam Smith said, it promises to be like watching Barcelona against Real Madrid. However it was more like watching Barcelona against Dunfermline, as Serena (clearly Barcelona here!) took the mighty Sharapova apart in an incredible display in the 1st set. In the 2nd, things got a bit more competitive, but Sharapova struggled badly to hold onto her serve, and with the sun getting in her field of vision, she double faulted about 8 times, which didn't help matters at all. And in the end, Serena proved to be way too solid and good for the World No.2, and managed to book her place in the semis with an emphatic 6-1, 6-3 win. This really was a bit of shock, but in another way it was a real reminder that when Serena is on form, that no one can even live with her on a tennis court, and this certainly was the case today. And based on this performance you would be mad to write off Serena's chances for lifting the title, which she stands a great chance doing so with that display.
So next up was the newly appointed World No.3, Agnieszka Radwanska, who took on the impressive qualifier, Varvara Lepchenko, and the two of them played a competitive high quality match. Lepchenko frequently looked threatening to Aga on her serve, taking her to duece several times and Aga surviving several break points, although Lepchenko did break Aga in the first set, but was immediately broken for Aga to close out set 1. In the 2nd set, Lepchenko again took an early break at 2-1, but after a long mini-battle, Lepchenko under pressure handed the break back to Aga once again, and from then on it was the world no.3 that dominated the play, despite yet another break of serve from Leppy, Aga defied her again and won the match in 6-4, 6-4.
This was an entertaining match from both players, and Agnieszka really showed just why she is such a top player, and what she lacks in raw power, she makes up for with sheer creativity and her canniness in reading the game so well. Her next opponent however is her nemesis as she will face Victoria Azarenka once more, for the 6th time, and so far this year Victoria remains the only player who has defeated Aga. So I'm already thinking the result of this one has been written before the match has even started, and I think Victoria will drub Radwanska yet again, which is a real pity, and I'm starting feel sorry for Agnieszka when she steps out on court against Victoria, as you feel its just a thankless task, putting in all the hard work, only to be defeated once again. But you never know each match is different, so you can never predict what exactly will happen, but I think its a pretty safe bet that Azarenka will come through with ease yet again.
And finally we had Sam Stosur, who played another impressive qualifier, Lucia Hradecka, who had already upset Petra Kvitova, the defending champion earlier in the tournament. So could Lucia pull off another upset?????? Yup as it turned out she did! However the match itself was very tight as it took two tiebreakers to separate the two women, who both came out strong, playing rapid fire tennis, with alot of power and pace. Hradecka also almost put Milos Raonic to shame as she served up 19 aces throughout her match against Stosur (who by contrast managed only 3!). So Lucia now will go through to her first Premier Mandatory semi final, but she will face an even bigger mountain ahead of her in the form of Serena Williams. Can she upset another slam champion????? Hmmmmm not so sure about that one, I'd really have to say that Lucia's journey will end tomorrow, but stranger things have happened, so watch this space.
So onto the men's which saw the quarter finals begin with big Del Potro taking on the dog, Alexandr Dolgopolov, the unpredictably talented Ukranian player. However big Delpo had no trouble getting past the Dog, as he broke him in both sets to get the semi final place booked, with a 6-4, 6-3 win. Tomas Berdych also had no trouble whatsoever against Fernando Verdasco, who only yesterday had the win of his career against Rafa, but he had little left against the big Czeck, who dismissed him in 6-1, 6-2.
And now onto the big upset of the day, the World No.1, Novak Djokovic who took on his fellow countryman, Janko Tipsarevic, who is the World No.8. And from the start we knew this could be quite a competitive match, and it sure turned to be that in the 1st set, with Djoko looking the more impressive on serve earlier on, whereas Tipsy had struggled with his first two service games. However after that things settled down for Tipsy, and it soon went to a tiebreak, where Djokovic, kept slipping and sliding on the surface, and we could see him get visibly more and more frustrated with the clay, and his dip in level cost him the 1st set tiebreak. In the 2nd things didn't get any better for the Serbinator as he got broken again by Tipsarevic, and at 5-3, Tipsy did what a year would have been unthinkable in defeating the best player in the world in straight sets in 7-6(2), 6-3.
It really does appear that the blue clay has been the main culprit in the loss of both Djokovic and Rafa's matches, and the slippery surface certainly has helped upset the odds. But it also seems almost mistifying how these guys are the best players in the world, yet somehow they just can't adapt as well to the surface as well as the other players on tour have, such as Tipsarevic, Berdych and Del Potro. And I don't know if its just a psychological hindrance they have about the blue clay that has haunted them on the court, but you really think whatever it was both of them should have tried to focus more on their game and put aside their concerns and just try and win, however that's easier said than done of course. However one thing is for sure, next year if that blue stuff is still there, Rafa and Djoko will be nowhere to be seen in Madrid!
And as additional note regarding the surface this was something that
Victoria Azarenka answered to really well to in her post match press
conference, as she too wasn't happy with the surface, but she
acknowledged that those are the surface conditions, and that you can't
let it affect your concentration, and that there was no use in
complaining about it just now, and it was something best left to discuss
once the tournament was over. And that's so far what she has done,
just gotten on with her game, as have done alot of the female players
(even Serena!!).
But getting back to Tipsarevic, I think he deserves full credit for playing a solid match against Novak, and he has earned his rightful place in the semi finals, where he will play a not so enviable match against Roger Federer, who has just defeated David Ferrer with ease in 6-4, 6-4. And Tipsy's head to head against Roger isn't so good as he has yet to win a single match against him, and with the other two guys gone, I really have to say that Federer is now the firm favourite to win the title. Its also a testament to Roger's impeccable all round skill on any surface or any court in the world, that he can adapt and move so smoothly, as I have yet to even see him slip on the blue clay, in fact I think I've only ever seen him slip once anywhere! (and that was the ATP tour world finals 2010 final). Its also testament to ladies on the WTA tour who have just gotten on with it, and not complained as much, as well as the ATP tour players, such as Del Potro, Ferrer, Berdych, Tipsarevic and of course Federer, who rather than whinge and moan about the surface, just get on with it, which I think is something Rafa and Djoko should have done more of, and just maybe then they would still be in this tournament. But anyway its a whole big argument, and Madrid certainly has sparked nothing but controversy this week.
Oh and as an update the draw for the Internazionali BNL Italia (Rome Open) for the men and ladies, with the men Andy Murray will be in the same half of the draw as Rafa and Berdych, but he's not in the same section as Berdych which is a good thing, who will have to face Rafa, but you don't fancy his chances against the King of clay, but you never know. Rafa himself will have a very tough first round opponent, well potentially anyway as he could face Milos Raonic, which will be a real test if he does. Djokovic and Federer are again in the same half of the draw again as well, and Djoko will face the likes of Tsonga, and Del Potro, whereas Fedora will face big John Isner, who has already beaten him once this year, so its no easy!
As for the ladies in Rome, Victoria Azarenka will face the likes of Li Na, Sabine Lisicki, and of course maybe Serena Williams in the semis (and they play tomorrow in the final of Madrid!). Caroline Wozniacki will also have to face Serena Williams once more, and to her credit, I think she did fairly well against Serena in their last match, as she was the only player that managed to get into Serena's head for one set at least! Maria Sharapova, who will dust herself down after losing to Serena in Madrid will face the likes of Sam Stosur, Ivanovic and Venus Williams.
Sooo anyway more will follow on the men's semi finals and ladies too.
That's it for now!
Friday, 11 May 2012
Madrid Part 2: Seeing red on the blue dirt....
Ok so now onto the second of my posts about the 2012 Mutua Madrid Open, which is reaching the latter stages today, as the ladies and mens quarter finals are set to take place. So here is a bit more about the 3rd round matches which happened yesterday.
OK so as usual, in what might appear chauvanistic (but really isn't at all!) by starting with men's tennis, which saw one of the biggest upsets in recent memory when Rafa took on his fellow Spaniard, Fernando Verdasco in a pitch battle on the blue clay. Right from the start, Rafa looked far from comfortable on the blue clay, as he slipped and slided everywhere, meanwhile Verdasco managed to take advantage of Rafa's poor play, and ended up taking his first set on clay off him in the opener. In the 2nd set, Rafa fought back and secured a crucial break, which soon saw him take the 2nd set, which took us into the decider. And in the decider, the mother of all upsets took place, and even with Rafa being 5-2 up at one point, he missed what was a basic smash at the net, which somehow took its toll on his game, as he let Verdasco right back in, even when serving for the match at 5-4, Rafa still couldn't close it out. And before we knew it, not only had Verdasco drawn even, he also at 6-5, pulled off one of the biggest upsets in recent memory, by breaking Rafa for the final time, and taking his first victory in 14 meetings over the king of clay, to claim a memorable victory in 6-3, 3-6, 7-5.
There is no doubt about that this match was a real shocker, especially as Rafa played so well on the blue clay just the day before, breezing past Davydenko in 6-2, 6-2, he looked on course to be the winner of the title. But somehow Rafa yesterday just went out and played the worst match he has played on clay in recent memory, and you felt despite it all, he should never have lost. Not to take away from Verdasco's victory, as he played very well and he deserved to win, and he was clearly quite emotional afterwards. Rafa however after the match had no trouble showing his contempt for the newly coloured surface as he said if the organisers continue to keep the blue clay next year, he will not be playing at the event. Djokovic also, despite managing to secure a win over Stan Wawrinka in 7-6, 6-4, also backed Rafa in his decision to boycott the event next year if they carry on with using the blue clay as well. Federer however had the least amount of trouble in getting past his opponent, Richard Gasquet, in just under an hour, winning in 6-3, 6-2, also was sympathetic to the problematic surface, although he wasn't as outright vocal in his dislike for the surface. But you would think that being the king of clay that Rafa would be the best one to adapt to the surface, and it was utterly ironic he was the least best person that adapted to the blue clay. Somehow psychologically the surface must have gotten in Rafa's head, as he seemed to bring those troubles onto the court with him, but most of the other players have just done their best to get on with it.
And this is where I am somewhat torn in my opinion on the blue surface, on one hand I do agree that it is a difficult surface for the players to play on, and despite the fact it makes the ball easier to follow on TV, it is the players who are going out there to risk their necks. However, on the ladies side, most of the players, while they may have said something about it, have mostly just gotten on with it, and even Serena Williams, usually is quicker to complain that most players, hasn't even said anything about it. So it makes you think, it comes down to the top 3 mens players in the world, once again using their power in the sport to make things happen, and no doubt they probably will. But ultimately it does come down to the players and if the surface causes problems then its something they really have to address, as the response to it has been overwhelmingly negative.
Anyway onto the ladies and the first match was a much anticipated one between former World No.1's, Serena Williams and Caroline Wozniacki. Serena was naturally the favourite to win this one, however she got off to a terrible start, as she struggled against Caroline's superb consistency, and Caroline played some of the best tennis she has played all year, breaking Serena twice to take the opener. But things change, and Serena being Serena, suddenly found her form and from then on, there was no looking back, as she broke Caroline to take the 2nd set. And in the 3rd it was the same story as Serena proved to be just too good for the Dane, and broke her twice, to seal her place in the quarter finals, winning in 1-6, 6-3, 6-2.
This match for me had the same kind of feel to as Andy Murray's match with Rafa last year at the Wimbledon semi finals, when Andy started off brilliantly in the first set, but after that set, he came apart at the seams, and from then on it was all Rafa, and it was same here. And while the match was far from a bad one, and wasn't as big a car wreck or as much of a drubbing as I thought, you knew from the start there would only be one winner. Still Caroline should take some positives from it, as for one set we saw some real potential that she can try and build on, but she still has a long way to go before she can power her way past the big hitters. However Serena's next match up is very exciting one as she will be set to take on Maria Sharapova, which promises to be a real barnburner, although you never know which way these things will go. It could prove to be a real battle or it could be just a straight set drubbing, however it remains a very intruiging match, so look forward it.
So quickly in other matches, the qualifier and doubles specialist, Lucia Hdrecka, who upset the defending champion Petra Kvitova, continued her fine run of form in getting past the Russian player, Ekerena Makarova, in 6-2, 7-6, to set up her place in the quarter finals, who will face the No.5 seed, Sam Stosur. And Agnieszka Radwanska faced her first test of the event against Robert Vinci, but managing to overcome her in 7-6(1), 6-4. Also another qualifier Varvara Lepchenko (great names these players have!) put in a fine performance and battled past Anabel Medina Garrigues to win 6-1, 6-7, 6-3. So it sets some very promising quarter final matches for the ladies.
As for the guys well we also have some potentially great quarter finals coming up, with Roger taking on David Ferrer (that should be good!), Djokovic taking on his fellow Serb, Janko Tipsarevic (yep should be good!), and Del Potro takes on the Dog, or Alexandr Dolgopolov (another promising one) and finally Tomas Berdych will face Rafa's conqueror, Fernando Verdasco. So its all good.
Right that's it for now, more soon to come.
OK so as usual, in what might appear chauvanistic (but really isn't at all!) by starting with men's tennis, which saw one of the biggest upsets in recent memory when Rafa took on his fellow Spaniard, Fernando Verdasco in a pitch battle on the blue clay. Right from the start, Rafa looked far from comfortable on the blue clay, as he slipped and slided everywhere, meanwhile Verdasco managed to take advantage of Rafa's poor play, and ended up taking his first set on clay off him in the opener. In the 2nd set, Rafa fought back and secured a crucial break, which soon saw him take the 2nd set, which took us into the decider. And in the decider, the mother of all upsets took place, and even with Rafa being 5-2 up at one point, he missed what was a basic smash at the net, which somehow took its toll on his game, as he let Verdasco right back in, even when serving for the match at 5-4, Rafa still couldn't close it out. And before we knew it, not only had Verdasco drawn even, he also at 6-5, pulled off one of the biggest upsets in recent memory, by breaking Rafa for the final time, and taking his first victory in 14 meetings over the king of clay, to claim a memorable victory in 6-3, 3-6, 7-5.
There is no doubt about that this match was a real shocker, especially as Rafa played so well on the blue clay just the day before, breezing past Davydenko in 6-2, 6-2, he looked on course to be the winner of the title. But somehow Rafa yesterday just went out and played the worst match he has played on clay in recent memory, and you felt despite it all, he should never have lost. Not to take away from Verdasco's victory, as he played very well and he deserved to win, and he was clearly quite emotional afterwards. Rafa however after the match had no trouble showing his contempt for the newly coloured surface as he said if the organisers continue to keep the blue clay next year, he will not be playing at the event. Djokovic also, despite managing to secure a win over Stan Wawrinka in 7-6, 6-4, also backed Rafa in his decision to boycott the event next year if they carry on with using the blue clay as well. Federer however had the least amount of trouble in getting past his opponent, Richard Gasquet, in just under an hour, winning in 6-3, 6-2, also was sympathetic to the problematic surface, although he wasn't as outright vocal in his dislike for the surface. But you would think that being the king of clay that Rafa would be the best one to adapt to the surface, and it was utterly ironic he was the least best person that adapted to the blue clay. Somehow psychologically the surface must have gotten in Rafa's head, as he seemed to bring those troubles onto the court with him, but most of the other players have just done their best to get on with it.
And this is where I am somewhat torn in my opinion on the blue surface, on one hand I do agree that it is a difficult surface for the players to play on, and despite the fact it makes the ball easier to follow on TV, it is the players who are going out there to risk their necks. However, on the ladies side, most of the players, while they may have said something about it, have mostly just gotten on with it, and even Serena Williams, usually is quicker to complain that most players, hasn't even said anything about it. So it makes you think, it comes down to the top 3 mens players in the world, once again using their power in the sport to make things happen, and no doubt they probably will. But ultimately it does come down to the players and if the surface causes problems then its something they really have to address, as the response to it has been overwhelmingly negative.
Anyway onto the ladies and the first match was a much anticipated one between former World No.1's, Serena Williams and Caroline Wozniacki. Serena was naturally the favourite to win this one, however she got off to a terrible start, as she struggled against Caroline's superb consistency, and Caroline played some of the best tennis she has played all year, breaking Serena twice to take the opener. But things change, and Serena being Serena, suddenly found her form and from then on, there was no looking back, as she broke Caroline to take the 2nd set. And in the 3rd it was the same story as Serena proved to be just too good for the Dane, and broke her twice, to seal her place in the quarter finals, winning in 1-6, 6-3, 6-2.
This match for me had the same kind of feel to as Andy Murray's match with Rafa last year at the Wimbledon semi finals, when Andy started off brilliantly in the first set, but after that set, he came apart at the seams, and from then on it was all Rafa, and it was same here. And while the match was far from a bad one, and wasn't as big a car wreck or as much of a drubbing as I thought, you knew from the start there would only be one winner. Still Caroline should take some positives from it, as for one set we saw some real potential that she can try and build on, but she still has a long way to go before she can power her way past the big hitters. However Serena's next match up is very exciting one as she will be set to take on Maria Sharapova, which promises to be a real barnburner, although you never know which way these things will go. It could prove to be a real battle or it could be just a straight set drubbing, however it remains a very intruiging match, so look forward it.
So quickly in other matches, the qualifier and doubles specialist, Lucia Hdrecka, who upset the defending champion Petra Kvitova, continued her fine run of form in getting past the Russian player, Ekerena Makarova, in 6-2, 7-6, to set up her place in the quarter finals, who will face the No.5 seed, Sam Stosur. And Agnieszka Radwanska faced her first test of the event against Robert Vinci, but managing to overcome her in 7-6(1), 6-4. Also another qualifier Varvara Lepchenko (great names these players have!) put in a fine performance and battled past Anabel Medina Garrigues to win 6-1, 6-7, 6-3. So it sets some very promising quarter final matches for the ladies.
As for the guys well we also have some potentially great quarter finals coming up, with Roger taking on David Ferrer (that should be good!), Djokovic taking on his fellow Serb, Janko Tipsarevic (yep should be good!), and Del Potro takes on the Dog, or Alexandr Dolgopolov (another promising one) and finally Tomas Berdych will face Rafa's conqueror, Fernando Verdasco. So its all good.
Right that's it for now, more soon to come.
Thursday, 10 May 2012
The price of fine art
Ok so now onto the 8th episode of The Apprentice, which this time saw the two teams (Sterling and Phoenix) be given the task of selling artwork to customers and corporate clients.
So in the task, Lord Sugar gave the teams their instructions (via an HD TV from his boardroom!) from under a bridge with grafitti art on it to get across the point of what he wanted the teams to do. So both teams went about trying to hunt out the best artists they could find, and both of them were very interested in the artist PureEvil (great name!). However on team Phoenix, lead by Tom, who apparently had a knack of fine art and who's who in the art world, displayed a lack of passion when pitching to PureEvil, who instead went for team Sterling, mainly due to Gabrielle's very enthusiastic pitch. This lead to Phoenix having to resort to choosing pieces by another artist, James Jessop, one of his work's being a ridiculously large sized painting, which would struggle to even fit a living room! Sterling however did well by nailing PureEvil, but they did also make a bit of a mistake by not asking their corporate client about their budget, as well as being dismissive to them on the night, by not giving them anything to drink or eat, nor did they say goodbye when they left!
In the boardroom, it was soon revealed what was what, and while there wasn't much in it at all, team Sterling, once again, came out just that bit better in their comissions, totalling £4,579 whereas Phoenix only made £4,442 and this marked the 3rd win in a row for team Sterling. And its funny that for their treat they got to do a bit of action painting on a big canvas, which basically amounted to the team being dressed in protected white clothing, and throwing at each other and at a big canvas wall, in which they ended looking very messy.
However for team Phoenix, back in the boardroom, Tom recognised that he made a poor choice in painting by opting for the massive James Jessop piece (so to speak) and rued not being able to nail the deal with PureEvil. However Tom decided to bring Laura and Jade back into the boardroom with him, and Adam got off, rightly so, as once again he proved his unswerving ability to adapt to selling in different environments, and he sold over £2800 of their art pieces, well over half over their comission (even if he clearly didn't have much of a clue about what he was saying!).
For the remaining three, Tom got some recognition from Lord Sugar, for taking a risk in choosing the large sized Jessop artwork, even though it didn't pay off. However his somewhat dour demeanour in a way also cost them the artist PureEvil as well, as Tom doesn't exactly exude a great deal of charm, and if anything he also came across a little bit patronising towards the corporate clients and the artists, as if he was some great expert, telling the practioners a thing or two about art in general. Jade once again back in the boardroom in the bottom three for the 2nd week running, did come a bit under fire for being a bit indecisive, but she managed to stand her ground again. But it was Laura who came off worse, as she sold the least out of three of them, as she felt a bit out of her comfort zone in trying to sell art, and only sold £750, despite the fact that she had the most sales experience out of three of them, being the owner of a bridal shop. And for Lord Sugar this was more than enough to make his decision and so he painted Laura a picture of a spitfire and let her go (that was an Alan Partirdge quote!;-)).
Again I can't really dispute Lord Sugar's decision to fire Laura, as she did on this occassion contribute the least amount in terms of sales, which ultimately was the failure of the task. However I wasn't so keen on the way in which he spoke to her, at one point saying "maybe you're not a good salesperson, or a good business person". And that's what bugs me about Alan Sugar, he can make some pretty ignorant comments about people's abilities, based on one task or one mistake, and is too quick to judge them and name call them for that one error, which I think he did on this occassion and has done so on numerous occassions in the past.
Despite all that though Laura was the weak link on this task, and she even admitted it on The Apprentice: You're Fired show, but she did come across as a nice bubbly lass (and pretty cute too I might add) so I'm sure she will do very well for herself even without a £250,000 investment from Lord Sugar.
Sooooo that's it for another post. More to follow....
So in the task, Lord Sugar gave the teams their instructions (via an HD TV from his boardroom!) from under a bridge with grafitti art on it to get across the point of what he wanted the teams to do. So both teams went about trying to hunt out the best artists they could find, and both of them were very interested in the artist PureEvil (great name!). However on team Phoenix, lead by Tom, who apparently had a knack of fine art and who's who in the art world, displayed a lack of passion when pitching to PureEvil, who instead went for team Sterling, mainly due to Gabrielle's very enthusiastic pitch. This lead to Phoenix having to resort to choosing pieces by another artist, James Jessop, one of his work's being a ridiculously large sized painting, which would struggle to even fit a living room! Sterling however did well by nailing PureEvil, but they did also make a bit of a mistake by not asking their corporate client about their budget, as well as being dismissive to them on the night, by not giving them anything to drink or eat, nor did they say goodbye when they left!
In the boardroom, it was soon revealed what was what, and while there wasn't much in it at all, team Sterling, once again, came out just that bit better in their comissions, totalling £4,579 whereas Phoenix only made £4,442 and this marked the 3rd win in a row for team Sterling. And its funny that for their treat they got to do a bit of action painting on a big canvas, which basically amounted to the team being dressed in protected white clothing, and throwing at each other and at a big canvas wall, in which they ended looking very messy.
However for team Phoenix, back in the boardroom, Tom recognised that he made a poor choice in painting by opting for the massive James Jessop piece (so to speak) and rued not being able to nail the deal with PureEvil. However Tom decided to bring Laura and Jade back into the boardroom with him, and Adam got off, rightly so, as once again he proved his unswerving ability to adapt to selling in different environments, and he sold over £2800 of their art pieces, well over half over their comission (even if he clearly didn't have much of a clue about what he was saying!).
For the remaining three, Tom got some recognition from Lord Sugar, for taking a risk in choosing the large sized Jessop artwork, even though it didn't pay off. However his somewhat dour demeanour in a way also cost them the artist PureEvil as well, as Tom doesn't exactly exude a great deal of charm, and if anything he also came across a little bit patronising towards the corporate clients and the artists, as if he was some great expert, telling the practioners a thing or two about art in general. Jade once again back in the boardroom in the bottom three for the 2nd week running, did come a bit under fire for being a bit indecisive, but she managed to stand her ground again. But it was Laura who came off worse, as she sold the least out of three of them, as she felt a bit out of her comfort zone in trying to sell art, and only sold £750, despite the fact that she had the most sales experience out of three of them, being the owner of a bridal shop. And for Lord Sugar this was more than enough to make his decision and so he painted Laura a picture of a spitfire and let her go (that was an Alan Partirdge quote!;-)).
Again I can't really dispute Lord Sugar's decision to fire Laura, as she did on this occassion contribute the least amount in terms of sales, which ultimately was the failure of the task. However I wasn't so keen on the way in which he spoke to her, at one point saying "maybe you're not a good salesperson, or a good business person". And that's what bugs me about Alan Sugar, he can make some pretty ignorant comments about people's abilities, based on one task or one mistake, and is too quick to judge them and name call them for that one error, which I think he did on this occassion and has done so on numerous occassions in the past.
Despite all that though Laura was the weak link on this task, and she even admitted it on The Apprentice: You're Fired show, but she did come across as a nice bubbly lass (and pretty cute too I might add) so I'm sure she will do very well for herself even without a £250,000 investment from Lord Sugar.
Sooooo that's it for another post. More to follow....
Wednesday, 9 May 2012
Madrid Part 1: Feeling blue on the clay
OK dokey, so here's the first of my posts regarding the ATP/WTA Mutua Madrid Open tournament from the La Caja Mágica Tennis Centre in... well Madrid.
So let's kick off the men's tennis, which so far has been pretty good. Of the top seeds, the first out was Novak Djokovic, who took on one of the Spaniards in the draw, Daniel Gimeno-Tarver, who proved to be a stern test for the World No.1. In the first set, Djoko stamped his authority, however, with the very slippery new blue clay surface, he struggled a bit in the 2nd, while Gimeno-Tarver's level improved, breaking Djoko twice to teak the set. In the 3rd however, Djokovic refound his form (and his balance!) and got the vital break to take the match, after a rather gruelling 6-2, 2-6, 6-3 win. Djokovic later complained about the blue clay, saying how much he slipped on it, and he jokily said he needed to either wear football shoes from now on or get lessons from Chuck Norris on how to play on the dreaded blue surface. But Djokovic is still through and next up he will face Stan Wawrinka, which could be a fair test as well, but no doubt he will come through, slipping or not.
Next out of the top 3, we saw Rafa take to the court and he previously complained the most bitterly out of every player about the blue stuff, prior to entering Madrid. However, Rafa had very little trouble moving on the surface or in getting past his opponent, Nikolai Davydenko, proving once again why he is the king of clay, as he breezed past the Russian in 6-2, 6-2. Its ironic that the man that complained the most about the blue clay, appeared to be the one who has had least trouble moving on it! But regardless of the surface, there is no doubt about it that Rafa has been playing terrific clay court tennis this year so far, and he continues to maintain his perfect record, not dropping a single set on the red (and now blue) dirt. In fact I really think that Djokovic (given his relatively poor start) will struggle to try and defend his title this year against Rafa. Rafa also having won already against Djokovic on clay in Monte Carlo, will have that extra edge that has been missing, so I wouldn't be at all surprised if he ended up lifting the trophy on Sunday.
So onto the last of the top 3, which saw Roger Federer take on the mighty serving Canadian, Milos Raonic, who proved to be the sternest opening opponent for any player. In the first set, Raonic displayed why is he is one of the fastest rising players on the tour, whopping down serves well over 140 mph (in fact one of them was 144mph!), and Federer clearly struggled to weather the storm, dropping his serve once, to drop the set. However Federer regrouped in the 2nd and after staving off some break points from an almost unstoppable Milos Raonic, he managed to secure one of his own at the tail end of the 2nd set. And in the 3rd, there was nothing to separate the two men, although again Raonic had his break point chances, but missed them all, and it took a tiebreak to sort it out, with the Swiss maestro coming through once more, winning a terrific match in 4-6, 7-5, 7-6(4). This really was an excellent match, and both players played some wonderful tennis for the crowd, and Raonic particularly showed just how good a player he has become (no wonder he beat Andy!). And it shows unless its Rafa, Federer can more times than not, weather the storm when he really needs to, and so far it was one of the best matches of the tournament.
Now onto the ladies on the WTA tour and there have been some very fine matches from the ladies side too. Starting with Caroline Wozniacki who started off her campaign in the toughest test imaginable as she faced Kesnia Pervak, who pushed her to the limit, but ultimately came through in a 7-6(7), 3-6, 6-4 win. After this Caroline faced the fast rising star in Mona Barthel, and I really expected this to be a drubbing however Caroline came through impressively, after a fairly tough match, but winning 6-4, 7-6 (good to see she can at least beat one German player!). However her next test will be a much sterner one, as she faces Serena Williams, who has been playing exceptionally well lately, and this could threaten to be a real gubbing for the Wozza, but hopefully it will promise to be a good match.
Onto Victoria Azarenka, who so far has had a couple of tough matches, with Svetlana Kuznetsova, the former French Open champion, providing a stern test for the World No.1, but she came through in 7-6, 6-4. Victoria then went on to face the doubles specialist, and promising singles player, Andrea Hlavackova, who put in a surprisingly good performance against Vika, altough Victoria gifted her a game, when she unusually double faulted on serving for the match, but in the 2nd tiebreak, Vika managed to win in 6-3, 7-6. And today Victoria faced Ana Ivanovic, but came through comfortably in 6-4, 6-4, which will set up a quarter final meeting with Li Na, which should prove to be a stern test. So far Victoria certainly hasn't had it too easy in Madrid, and unlike on hard court, she has been pushed alot more on the red dirt, but I'm sure she will come through.
In other matches, Sam Stosur has impressively come through as well against her opponent Petra Cetkovska in 6-3, 6-2, and Agnieszka Radwanska, who has now taken the world no.3 spot, was on blazing form as she routed Sara Errani in 6-0, 6-1, and Li Na impressively held her nerve against the very talented German player, Angelique Kerber, in 7-5, 6-4.
But the upset of the tournament so far on the ladies, actually came from Petra Kvitova, the defending champion from last year, who played her Fed cup Czeck team mate, Lucie Hradrecka, who stunned the 2011 Madrid champion in 6-4, 6-3. This was a real surprise and quite a shock as naturally Petra was the favourite to win the match, but it also shows that her form has gone worryingly downhill a bit so far this year. Petra at the start of the year was tipped to be the favourite to become the World No.1 and win the Australian open, but it just didn't happen for her, and this is her biggest upset of the year so far. So it does makes you wonder if like Caroline Wozniacki before her, will she start to go on the downward slide, as consistency has always been a problem for her (unlike Caroline when she was World No.1). It remains to be seen but we will however soon find out.
Anyway so tomorrow more great matches to come, so I will follow up on them, and yep so far, a lot of players have complained about the blue clay, although some players have just accepted that despite the colour, its no real different than Madrid was last year. But regarding the complaints, one of the players, it was either Gael Monfils or Gilles Simon said, that clay courts are all bad, but the blue clay in Madrid is the worst in the world! Roger Federer is yet to provide a soundbite on his thoughts on the clay, but I guess he will remain diplomatic, and he appeared, like Rafa, to move well on the dirt (well if you played as well as Rafa did, why complain?).
As for Andy Murray, well the good news is that he has confirmed by a rather sarcy comment on Facebook, that he will be playing in Rome next week, which is great to see. In his comment he said how it seemed the players were enjoying the blue clay, and that the clay in Rome is playing horribly! That might not go down too well with the other players! ;-) In fact they might be gunning for him when they come to Rome, but I hope Andy has a better campaign next week than he has so far in his clay season.
Until the next post, that's it!
So let's kick off the men's tennis, which so far has been pretty good. Of the top seeds, the first out was Novak Djokovic, who took on one of the Spaniards in the draw, Daniel Gimeno-Tarver, who proved to be a stern test for the World No.1. In the first set, Djoko stamped his authority, however, with the very slippery new blue clay surface, he struggled a bit in the 2nd, while Gimeno-Tarver's level improved, breaking Djoko twice to teak the set. In the 3rd however, Djokovic refound his form (and his balance!) and got the vital break to take the match, after a rather gruelling 6-2, 2-6, 6-3 win. Djokovic later complained about the blue clay, saying how much he slipped on it, and he jokily said he needed to either wear football shoes from now on or get lessons from Chuck Norris on how to play on the dreaded blue surface. But Djokovic is still through and next up he will face Stan Wawrinka, which could be a fair test as well, but no doubt he will come through, slipping or not.
Next out of the top 3, we saw Rafa take to the court and he previously complained the most bitterly out of every player about the blue stuff, prior to entering Madrid. However, Rafa had very little trouble moving on the surface or in getting past his opponent, Nikolai Davydenko, proving once again why he is the king of clay, as he breezed past the Russian in 6-2, 6-2. Its ironic that the man that complained the most about the blue clay, appeared to be the one who has had least trouble moving on it! But regardless of the surface, there is no doubt about it that Rafa has been playing terrific clay court tennis this year so far, and he continues to maintain his perfect record, not dropping a single set on the red (and now blue) dirt. In fact I really think that Djokovic (given his relatively poor start) will struggle to try and defend his title this year against Rafa. Rafa also having won already against Djokovic on clay in Monte Carlo, will have that extra edge that has been missing, so I wouldn't be at all surprised if he ended up lifting the trophy on Sunday.
So onto the last of the top 3, which saw Roger Federer take on the mighty serving Canadian, Milos Raonic, who proved to be the sternest opening opponent for any player. In the first set, Raonic displayed why is he is one of the fastest rising players on the tour, whopping down serves well over 140 mph (in fact one of them was 144mph!), and Federer clearly struggled to weather the storm, dropping his serve once, to drop the set. However Federer regrouped in the 2nd and after staving off some break points from an almost unstoppable Milos Raonic, he managed to secure one of his own at the tail end of the 2nd set. And in the 3rd, there was nothing to separate the two men, although again Raonic had his break point chances, but missed them all, and it took a tiebreak to sort it out, with the Swiss maestro coming through once more, winning a terrific match in 4-6, 7-5, 7-6(4). This really was an excellent match, and both players played some wonderful tennis for the crowd, and Raonic particularly showed just how good a player he has become (no wonder he beat Andy!). And it shows unless its Rafa, Federer can more times than not, weather the storm when he really needs to, and so far it was one of the best matches of the tournament.
Now onto the ladies on the WTA tour and there have been some very fine matches from the ladies side too. Starting with Caroline Wozniacki who started off her campaign in the toughest test imaginable as she faced Kesnia Pervak, who pushed her to the limit, but ultimately came through in a 7-6(7), 3-6, 6-4 win. After this Caroline faced the fast rising star in Mona Barthel, and I really expected this to be a drubbing however Caroline came through impressively, after a fairly tough match, but winning 6-4, 7-6 (good to see she can at least beat one German player!). However her next test will be a much sterner one, as she faces Serena Williams, who has been playing exceptionally well lately, and this could threaten to be a real gubbing for the Wozza, but hopefully it will promise to be a good match.
Onto Victoria Azarenka, who so far has had a couple of tough matches, with Svetlana Kuznetsova, the former French Open champion, providing a stern test for the World No.1, but she came through in 7-6, 6-4. Victoria then went on to face the doubles specialist, and promising singles player, Andrea Hlavackova, who put in a surprisingly good performance against Vika, altough Victoria gifted her a game, when she unusually double faulted on serving for the match, but in the 2nd tiebreak, Vika managed to win in 6-3, 7-6. And today Victoria faced Ana Ivanovic, but came through comfortably in 6-4, 6-4, which will set up a quarter final meeting with Li Na, which should prove to be a stern test. So far Victoria certainly hasn't had it too easy in Madrid, and unlike on hard court, she has been pushed alot more on the red dirt, but I'm sure she will come through.
In other matches, Sam Stosur has impressively come through as well against her opponent Petra Cetkovska in 6-3, 6-2, and Agnieszka Radwanska, who has now taken the world no.3 spot, was on blazing form as she routed Sara Errani in 6-0, 6-1, and Li Na impressively held her nerve against the very talented German player, Angelique Kerber, in 7-5, 6-4.
But the upset of the tournament so far on the ladies, actually came from Petra Kvitova, the defending champion from last year, who played her Fed cup Czeck team mate, Lucie Hradrecka, who stunned the 2011 Madrid champion in 6-4, 6-3. This was a real surprise and quite a shock as naturally Petra was the favourite to win the match, but it also shows that her form has gone worryingly downhill a bit so far this year. Petra at the start of the year was tipped to be the favourite to become the World No.1 and win the Australian open, but it just didn't happen for her, and this is her biggest upset of the year so far. So it does makes you wonder if like Caroline Wozniacki before her, will she start to go on the downward slide, as consistency has always been a problem for her (unlike Caroline when she was World No.1). It remains to be seen but we will however soon find out.
Anyway so tomorrow more great matches to come, so I will follow up on them, and yep so far, a lot of players have complained about the blue clay, although some players have just accepted that despite the colour, its no real different than Madrid was last year. But regarding the complaints, one of the players, it was either Gael Monfils or Gilles Simon said, that clay courts are all bad, but the blue clay in Madrid is the worst in the world! Roger Federer is yet to provide a soundbite on his thoughts on the clay, but I guess he will remain diplomatic, and he appeared, like Rafa, to move well on the dirt (well if you played as well as Rafa did, why complain?).
As for Andy Murray, well the good news is that he has confirmed by a rather sarcy comment on Facebook, that he will be playing in Rome next week, which is great to see. In his comment he said how it seemed the players were enjoying the blue clay, and that the clay in Rome is playing horribly! That might not go down too well with the other players! ;-) In fact they might be gunning for him when they come to Rome, but I hope Andy has a better campaign next week than he has so far in his clay season.
Until the next post, that's it!
Saturday, 5 May 2012
We are the Masters of Earth!.....
Rrrright time for a Doctor Who post, this one is about one of the classic stories from the original series, back in the olden days when the First Doctor, William Hartnell appeared on our screens. I've been watching quite a few of Bill's old stories on Netflix and I've found them to be a mixed bag, some are entertaining while others are a bit drawn out and boring. But I've chosen a really good one to review here, and that's The Dalek Invasion of Earth from 1964, so here's more on the plot (Spoilers, as Professor Song might say!).
The story begins with the Doctor, and his companions (the original cast) Ian (William Russell), Barbara (Jacqueline Hill) and Susan (Carole Ann Ford) who land in the TARDIS in what appears to be London. The crew, particularly Ian and Barbara, assume they have been brought back home to their own time (as they were originally high school teachers at Susan's local school, back in the 1960s). However on assessing their surroundings in a local dock, everything appears to be in ruins, and the city looks to be deserted, which suggests to the Doctor that they are not back in the 1960s. The Doctor and Ian investigate an old abandoned building and find a dead body in a cardboard box as well as a calendar which shows the year to be 2164 (200 years ahead of the original broadcast time of the show!). Meanwhile Susan and Barbara are taken by a couple of refugees to an abandoned underground station and meet up with a resistance group lead by a wheelchair bound scientist, Dortmun (Alan Judd), among them also are Tyler (Bernard Kay), David (Peter Fraser) and Jenny (Ann Davies). Susan and Barbara are told by the group that the daleks invaded Earth years ago and the population have been either killed or taken slaves. The Doctor and Ian in the meantime try to evade their captors, men who wear helmets with electrodes and a radio dish attached to them and speak in a robotic fashion, by making a run for the river, only to turn and find a dalek, which makes its way out of the river toward them. Its soon revealed that the daleks are using the men as their slaves, and have "robotised" them by using the helmets they wear, hence their name, robomen. The Doctor and Ian are taken on board a saucer, where they meet another resistance fighter, Craddock (Michael Goldie), and with his help they escape their cell, only to be recaptured. The Doctor is taken to be robotised, but at this point the resistance stage an assault on the saucer, in which the Doctor is rescued by one of the fighters, but most of the group are killed by the daleks in the attack. The Doctor is soon reunited with Susan, who by this time has started to form a romantic attachment to one of the resistance group, David, and they decide to head for the mines in Bedfordshire, where the daleks have got a slave workforce working for their own ends. At this time Ian has already made his way to Bedford, travelling incognito on the dalek saucer, meanwhile Barbara and Jenny have been taken captive by the daleks at their control centre. The daleks soon reveal that the purpose of their invasion lies in the mines in Bedfordshire, as they want drill out the core of the Earth and replace it with a propulsion device so they can pilot the planet anywhere in the universe, which could result in dire consequences, which the Doctor and his companions must try to prevent.
The Dalek Invasion of Earth is without a doubt one of the landmarks in the history of the show for a few reasons, for one, it was the first time in the show that the production team made extensive use of exterior film locations, as prior to this the stories were all recorded on stage in the television studios (well The Reign of Terror, the last story of the first season, was actually the first story to use location filming, albeit briefly). And another reason was because for the first time we saw one of the regular characters of the show depart, and this was to be Carole Ann Ford's last story in the series (well at least until The Five Doctors that is). This change also made quite an impression on the show and it was also a very important one, as the writers and production team obviously knew that at some point the program would have to move in a different direction.
But as for the story itself, its a very good one, and even after nearly 50 years, it has stood the test of time quite well. The story overall has quite a grim foreboding tone, and its well kept throughout, and you could almost think the story has a Quartermass feel to it, as things get pretty apocalyptic and heavy in feel. Not that the story isn't entertaining as it certainly is, and the return of the daleks was a great delight for children everywhere back then. And that was one of the benefits of the old format of the show, where each episode was given an individual name, as with a title like "World's End" (episode 1) you would never have guessed it would have daleks in it, so when you see them appear at the end, its a good surprise. The daleks themselves are quite impressive in this story, as with their improved mobility (as shown by the disks attached to the back of their casings, and in the first dalek story on Skaro, they could only move on metal floors by use of static electricity) they make for an even more sinister enemy. However maybe one negative point about them is their voices are decidedly mixed in quality, as they too often overuse the staccato effect, and the pace of their speech is very plodded. But this was an early story so you can make allowances for that, as it wasn't really until the 1970s where the dalek voices would improve (courtesy of Michael Wisher and Roy Skelton).
Performance wise things were always quite strong back in the early days of the show, particularly all four of the regulars are excellent here. Bill Hartnell by this time had really grown into playing the part of the Doctor, as he went from being a rather mean and miserly son-so in the very early stories, to becoming a charming, cantankerous, well meaning old fella, and you did get a real sense of melancholy in his final scene with Susan. Although one thing I always spotted about Hartnell's performance, was that he kept fluffing his lines, and there are plenty of moments where he does it here! But it was later revealed that this was in part due to the condition he suffered, arteriosclerosis (the hardening of the arteries) which he sadly later succumbed to in April of 1975. William Russell (who is still alive by the way!) is a solid and reliable an actor here as he always was in the show, and here his Ian Chesterton is still as good as ever. Jacqueline Hill also as Barbara is very good, and she always played her part with a great sense of strength, creativity and level-headedness. And of course we have Carole Ann Ford, who puts in her final performance as Susan here, and she does a fine job as she has ever done, and her last scene with the Doctor, who tells her that she should stay with David is quite poignant and beautifully played. I also quite like her scene with David, as they roll around as he playfully waves a big fish in her face!
The supporting cast are also very good too, particularly Bernard Kay, who plays the hardened resistance fighter, Tyler, who finds it difficult to bond with people, especially given the traumatic circumstances he has faced. Peter Fraser does a fine job as Susan's love interest, David Campbell, and shows that he can provide all the things that are missing from Susan's life, a chance for a life with one person, in one time. Other actors such as Graham Rigby as Larry, are given headroom for their characters as well, and he also gives a fine performance here, playing a man who is looking for his brother, only to find that he has been turned into a roboman. The scene where Larry reaches out and tries to plead with his brother, and grabs his brother's charged helmet, only to electrocute himself, is quite dramatic, and that faint recognition from his dying brother afterwards is well done.
The story however isn't without its faults, and as a six parter, you get there is an awful lot of padding in the story, and it moves along at quite a plodding pace at times, and it feels like it takes an eternity to shift itself into gear. This also isn't helped by the fact that the robomen themselves, move at such a slow pace, and they move so slow, no one would really have any problem running away from them! The plot itself if you think about it, is pretty silly too, I mean why do the daleks want to dig out the core of the planet, so they can pilot it around the universe. It just doesn't make sense to me. Is it so they can populate it with more daleks? Or is it so they can gather up more slave labour for their own nefarious ends??? Its just not clear what the writer Terry Nation intended to do with the Earth in the story, once the Daleks had it. It would have made more sense purely to just conquer the planet, erase all life and that's it.
Direction wise, Richard Martin (who funnily enough directed the show!) overall does a good job in keeping the story going, even though he allows for quite a few dips in pace. And one of the biggest problems he brings to the story is his staging of the studio scenes with lots of extras in them, as certain scene have a cluttered look to them, and the staging of some of the fight scenes are a bit clumsy (particularly the fight scene with the robomen in the sewer). Martin's use of the location filming however is really good, and the scene where Barbara, Jenny and Dortmun try to avoid being seen by the daleks as they move over Westminster bridge is very memorable, as is the scene where the dalek pops up out the water at the end of the first episode. And a brief note about the music by Francis Chagrin, which is a pretty minimal sparse score, written for percussion and an old synthesizer organ, but it is very effective and perfectly balances the tone of the story.
So for me The Dalek Invasion of Earth is one of the First Doctor's most impressive stories, as well as setting a landmark for the then future of the show in showing the importance of shaking up the format, by allowing for the departure of older characters in the show to make way for newer ones to come in.
A-n-d t-h-a-t i-s- t-h-a-t!
The story begins with the Doctor, and his companions (the original cast) Ian (William Russell), Barbara (Jacqueline Hill) and Susan (Carole Ann Ford) who land in the TARDIS in what appears to be London. The crew, particularly Ian and Barbara, assume they have been brought back home to their own time (as they were originally high school teachers at Susan's local school, back in the 1960s). However on assessing their surroundings in a local dock, everything appears to be in ruins, and the city looks to be deserted, which suggests to the Doctor that they are not back in the 1960s. The Doctor and Ian investigate an old abandoned building and find a dead body in a cardboard box as well as a calendar which shows the year to be 2164 (200 years ahead of the original broadcast time of the show!). Meanwhile Susan and Barbara are taken by a couple of refugees to an abandoned underground station and meet up with a resistance group lead by a wheelchair bound scientist, Dortmun (Alan Judd), among them also are Tyler (Bernard Kay), David (Peter Fraser) and Jenny (Ann Davies). Susan and Barbara are told by the group that the daleks invaded Earth years ago and the population have been either killed or taken slaves. The Doctor and Ian in the meantime try to evade their captors, men who wear helmets with electrodes and a radio dish attached to them and speak in a robotic fashion, by making a run for the river, only to turn and find a dalek, which makes its way out of the river toward them. Its soon revealed that the daleks are using the men as their slaves, and have "robotised" them by using the helmets they wear, hence their name, robomen. The Doctor and Ian are taken on board a saucer, where they meet another resistance fighter, Craddock (Michael Goldie), and with his help they escape their cell, only to be recaptured. The Doctor is taken to be robotised, but at this point the resistance stage an assault on the saucer, in which the Doctor is rescued by one of the fighters, but most of the group are killed by the daleks in the attack. The Doctor is soon reunited with Susan, who by this time has started to form a romantic attachment to one of the resistance group, David, and they decide to head for the mines in Bedfordshire, where the daleks have got a slave workforce working for their own ends. At this time Ian has already made his way to Bedford, travelling incognito on the dalek saucer, meanwhile Barbara and Jenny have been taken captive by the daleks at their control centre. The daleks soon reveal that the purpose of their invasion lies in the mines in Bedfordshire, as they want drill out the core of the Earth and replace it with a propulsion device so they can pilot the planet anywhere in the universe, which could result in dire consequences, which the Doctor and his companions must try to prevent.
The Dalek Invasion of Earth is without a doubt one of the landmarks in the history of the show for a few reasons, for one, it was the first time in the show that the production team made extensive use of exterior film locations, as prior to this the stories were all recorded on stage in the television studios (well The Reign of Terror, the last story of the first season, was actually the first story to use location filming, albeit briefly). And another reason was because for the first time we saw one of the regular characters of the show depart, and this was to be Carole Ann Ford's last story in the series (well at least until The Five Doctors that is). This change also made quite an impression on the show and it was also a very important one, as the writers and production team obviously knew that at some point the program would have to move in a different direction.
But as for the story itself, its a very good one, and even after nearly 50 years, it has stood the test of time quite well. The story overall has quite a grim foreboding tone, and its well kept throughout, and you could almost think the story has a Quartermass feel to it, as things get pretty apocalyptic and heavy in feel. Not that the story isn't entertaining as it certainly is, and the return of the daleks was a great delight for children everywhere back then. And that was one of the benefits of the old format of the show, where each episode was given an individual name, as with a title like "World's End" (episode 1) you would never have guessed it would have daleks in it, so when you see them appear at the end, its a good surprise. The daleks themselves are quite impressive in this story, as with their improved mobility (as shown by the disks attached to the back of their casings, and in the first dalek story on Skaro, they could only move on metal floors by use of static electricity) they make for an even more sinister enemy. However maybe one negative point about them is their voices are decidedly mixed in quality, as they too often overuse the staccato effect, and the pace of their speech is very plodded. But this was an early story so you can make allowances for that, as it wasn't really until the 1970s where the dalek voices would improve (courtesy of Michael Wisher and Roy Skelton).
Performance wise things were always quite strong back in the early days of the show, particularly all four of the regulars are excellent here. Bill Hartnell by this time had really grown into playing the part of the Doctor, as he went from being a rather mean and miserly son-so in the very early stories, to becoming a charming, cantankerous, well meaning old fella, and you did get a real sense of melancholy in his final scene with Susan. Although one thing I always spotted about Hartnell's performance, was that he kept fluffing his lines, and there are plenty of moments where he does it here! But it was later revealed that this was in part due to the condition he suffered, arteriosclerosis (the hardening of the arteries) which he sadly later succumbed to in April of 1975. William Russell (who is still alive by the way!) is a solid and reliable an actor here as he always was in the show, and here his Ian Chesterton is still as good as ever. Jacqueline Hill also as Barbara is very good, and she always played her part with a great sense of strength, creativity and level-headedness. And of course we have Carole Ann Ford, who puts in her final performance as Susan here, and she does a fine job as she has ever done, and her last scene with the Doctor, who tells her that she should stay with David is quite poignant and beautifully played. I also quite like her scene with David, as they roll around as he playfully waves a big fish in her face!
The supporting cast are also very good too, particularly Bernard Kay, who plays the hardened resistance fighter, Tyler, who finds it difficult to bond with people, especially given the traumatic circumstances he has faced. Peter Fraser does a fine job as Susan's love interest, David Campbell, and shows that he can provide all the things that are missing from Susan's life, a chance for a life with one person, in one time. Other actors such as Graham Rigby as Larry, are given headroom for their characters as well, and he also gives a fine performance here, playing a man who is looking for his brother, only to find that he has been turned into a roboman. The scene where Larry reaches out and tries to plead with his brother, and grabs his brother's charged helmet, only to electrocute himself, is quite dramatic, and that faint recognition from his dying brother afterwards is well done.
The story however isn't without its faults, and as a six parter, you get there is an awful lot of padding in the story, and it moves along at quite a plodding pace at times, and it feels like it takes an eternity to shift itself into gear. This also isn't helped by the fact that the robomen themselves, move at such a slow pace, and they move so slow, no one would really have any problem running away from them! The plot itself if you think about it, is pretty silly too, I mean why do the daleks want to dig out the core of the planet, so they can pilot it around the universe. It just doesn't make sense to me. Is it so they can populate it with more daleks? Or is it so they can gather up more slave labour for their own nefarious ends??? Its just not clear what the writer Terry Nation intended to do with the Earth in the story, once the Daleks had it. It would have made more sense purely to just conquer the planet, erase all life and that's it.
Direction wise, Richard Martin (who funnily enough directed the show!) overall does a good job in keeping the story going, even though he allows for quite a few dips in pace. And one of the biggest problems he brings to the story is his staging of the studio scenes with lots of extras in them, as certain scene have a cluttered look to them, and the staging of some of the fight scenes are a bit clumsy (particularly the fight scene with the robomen in the sewer). Martin's use of the location filming however is really good, and the scene where Barbara, Jenny and Dortmun try to avoid being seen by the daleks as they move over Westminster bridge is very memorable, as is the scene where the dalek pops up out the water at the end of the first episode. And a brief note about the music by Francis Chagrin, which is a pretty minimal sparse score, written for percussion and an old synthesizer organ, but it is very effective and perfectly balances the tone of the story.
So for me The Dalek Invasion of Earth is one of the First Doctor's most impressive stories, as well as setting a landmark for the then future of the show in showing the importance of shaking up the format, by allowing for the departure of older characters in the show to make way for newer ones to come in.
A-n-d t-h-a-t i-s- t-h-a-t!
Friday, 4 May 2012
Red clay, green clay, now wait...... blue clay!!
OK yup I confess this is yet another tennis post (coh! sigh I know!) but instead here its about the clay season and of course on the controversial decision of the organisers of the 2012 Mutua Madrid Open to dye the red clay to the colour blue.
So yes this has caused quite a furore with some of the players, and one man who is particularly unhappy about it is Rafael Nadal, who has made his feelings quite clear on the subject. Rafa said that he felt that making a court the colour blue right in the middle of the red clay season was a big mistake. And Novak Djokovic also admitted that he wasn't too happy about playing on blue clay either, although he did admit he felt it was at least something different. Roger however remained evasive on the subject, refusing to really venture an opinion, and Andy Murray said he felt that while he wasn't overly keen on the idea, he could see why they did it, as with the ball travelling at such a high altitude on the courts at Madrid, with the clay dyed blue, it will make the ball easier to see.
Whether or not this will help matters or not really isn't certain, I guess the only way we will find out is for the players to go out and play their matches. But one thing is for sure if they aren't happy, they will certainly let people know about it. I always thought looking at the dyed clay makes it just look like a hard court, and I wonder if that might favour Djokovic more psychologically??? You never know, or Andy maybe???? Again who knows, as I'm just guessing. Regardless of the colour, the players are all still playing on clay, regardless of the colour, and time will soon tell what the feeling of it all is.
As for the tournament itself in Madrid, I thought I would have a few pre-event thoughts on who might do well there. One player I have to say straight off who might have struggled is Andy Murray, although he did reach two quarter finals in Monte Carlo and in Barcelona, he has in the past struggled with the high bounce and the speed of the ball in Madrid. However that's irrelevant now as Andy has since stated in the press that he will have to miss out Madrid due to a back injury, which is a real shame as its always good to follow the Muzza in a tournament wherever he goes. So all the best to Andy and here's hoping he will be back in action for Rome in just over a week's time, and let's hope he can get revenge over Djokovic for his loss last year in Italy, but that's still a wee way off yet.
As for Novak, the defending champion, well he has a very good chance, should he find his form again, although he did suffer the loss of his grandfather during his week at Monte Carlo, which had affected his play that week, where he lost to Rafa for the first time since November 2010. But I'm sure that Djokovic will pose quite a big threat to Rafa should they meet in the final on a week on Sunday. Rafa on the other hand probably has an even better chance this year of getting revenge against Novak for his loss last year, and so far this season he has yet to drop a set on clay. And its safe to say that the king of clay is looking back on formidable form again this year, so can he win Madrid? Most likely, he is the top favourite, but we'll find out. And for Roger Federer well realistically I have to say he doesn't have much of a chance of actually winning the title, as long as he faces Nadal in the final, he will forever struggle to defeat his old nemesis on the clay (red, blue or otherwise). But it should be fun to watch.
So for the ladies who will have a shot at winning the title in Madrid? Well..... based on her performance last week, I'd probably have to say Maria Sharapova, who was very impressive on the clay last week in Stuttgart. Maria moves surprisingly well on the clay, and she also backed up her impressive efforts after winning in Rome last year. If Maria also wins this title then she will move to the No.1 spot, which I'm certain she is determined to do, but she will have to get past Victoria Azarenka first, which will be very tough. But on clay I think Maria has the advantage as she can use the surface more patiently than she can on hard court, where Victoria has the upper hand, but its going to be interesting to find out what happens.
In regards to other players on the ladies tour, we have Petra Kvitova who is the defending champion from last year, who has a chance of defending the title, but Maria definitely so far seems to have the edge over her this year, having beaten her twice already in Melbourne and Stuttgart, but that's not to say she can't win, she still has a good shot. As for Caroline Wozniacki unfortunately, she doesn't stand much of a chance of winning in Madrid or anywhere else just now, and she herself isn't a traditional clay court player, so I don't see her getting further than say the quarter finals. Agnieszka Radwanska on the other hand stands an excellent chance of getting to the deeper stages of the event, however as soon as she meets Azarenka, that's her scuppered, as she has failed to get anywhere near beating Victoria, so her best chance is hoping that someone knocks out Vika en-route. And there is also Sam Stosur, who two years ago made the final of the French Open, but she so far has struggled to win titles on the WTA tour, apart from the US Open last year, so I don't rate her chances of actually winning.
And then we have Serena Williams who will make her return to the WTA tour at this event, and she has definitely been getting back on form, and her scarily good performance at the Family Circle Cup in Charleston proved that. Serena definitely has a good a chance as any, and while she is ranked as the World No.9, she really is on her day, and when on form, unplayable and the best player in the world. So there is a strong shout that Serena could well be the winner in Madrid as well.
Anywayyyyyyyyyyyyy that's enough surmising, I will leave it there now. More will follow on the Mutua Madrid Open once its under way.
Till then that's ittt.
So yes this has caused quite a furore with some of the players, and one man who is particularly unhappy about it is Rafael Nadal, who has made his feelings quite clear on the subject. Rafa said that he felt that making a court the colour blue right in the middle of the red clay season was a big mistake. And Novak Djokovic also admitted that he wasn't too happy about playing on blue clay either, although he did admit he felt it was at least something different. Roger however remained evasive on the subject, refusing to really venture an opinion, and Andy Murray said he felt that while he wasn't overly keen on the idea, he could see why they did it, as with the ball travelling at such a high altitude on the courts at Madrid, with the clay dyed blue, it will make the ball easier to see.
Whether or not this will help matters or not really isn't certain, I guess the only way we will find out is for the players to go out and play their matches. But one thing is for sure if they aren't happy, they will certainly let people know about it. I always thought looking at the dyed clay makes it just look like a hard court, and I wonder if that might favour Djokovic more psychologically??? You never know, or Andy maybe???? Again who knows, as I'm just guessing. Regardless of the colour, the players are all still playing on clay, regardless of the colour, and time will soon tell what the feeling of it all is.
As for the tournament itself in Madrid, I thought I would have a few pre-event thoughts on who might do well there. One player I have to say straight off who might have struggled is Andy Murray, although he did reach two quarter finals in Monte Carlo and in Barcelona, he has in the past struggled with the high bounce and the speed of the ball in Madrid. However that's irrelevant now as Andy has since stated in the press that he will have to miss out Madrid due to a back injury, which is a real shame as its always good to follow the Muzza in a tournament wherever he goes. So all the best to Andy and here's hoping he will be back in action for Rome in just over a week's time, and let's hope he can get revenge over Djokovic for his loss last year in Italy, but that's still a wee way off yet.
As for Novak, the defending champion, well he has a very good chance, should he find his form again, although he did suffer the loss of his grandfather during his week at Monte Carlo, which had affected his play that week, where he lost to Rafa for the first time since November 2010. But I'm sure that Djokovic will pose quite a big threat to Rafa should they meet in the final on a week on Sunday. Rafa on the other hand probably has an even better chance this year of getting revenge against Novak for his loss last year, and so far this season he has yet to drop a set on clay. And its safe to say that the king of clay is looking back on formidable form again this year, so can he win Madrid? Most likely, he is the top favourite, but we'll find out. And for Roger Federer well realistically I have to say he doesn't have much of a chance of actually winning the title, as long as he faces Nadal in the final, he will forever struggle to defeat his old nemesis on the clay (red, blue or otherwise). But it should be fun to watch.
So for the ladies who will have a shot at winning the title in Madrid? Well..... based on her performance last week, I'd probably have to say Maria Sharapova, who was very impressive on the clay last week in Stuttgart. Maria moves surprisingly well on the clay, and she also backed up her impressive efforts after winning in Rome last year. If Maria also wins this title then she will move to the No.1 spot, which I'm certain she is determined to do, but she will have to get past Victoria Azarenka first, which will be very tough. But on clay I think Maria has the advantage as she can use the surface more patiently than she can on hard court, where Victoria has the upper hand, but its going to be interesting to find out what happens.
In regards to other players on the ladies tour, we have Petra Kvitova who is the defending champion from last year, who has a chance of defending the title, but Maria definitely so far seems to have the edge over her this year, having beaten her twice already in Melbourne and Stuttgart, but that's not to say she can't win, she still has a good shot. As for Caroline Wozniacki unfortunately, she doesn't stand much of a chance of winning in Madrid or anywhere else just now, and she herself isn't a traditional clay court player, so I don't see her getting further than say the quarter finals. Agnieszka Radwanska on the other hand stands an excellent chance of getting to the deeper stages of the event, however as soon as she meets Azarenka, that's her scuppered, as she has failed to get anywhere near beating Victoria, so her best chance is hoping that someone knocks out Vika en-route. And there is also Sam Stosur, who two years ago made the final of the French Open, but she so far has struggled to win titles on the WTA tour, apart from the US Open last year, so I don't rate her chances of actually winning.
And then we have Serena Williams who will make her return to the WTA tour at this event, and she has definitely been getting back on form, and her scarily good performance at the Family Circle Cup in Charleston proved that. Serena definitely has a good a chance as any, and while she is ranked as the World No.9, she really is on her day, and when on form, unplayable and the best player in the world. So there is a strong shout that Serena could well be the winner in Madrid as well.
Anywayyyyyyyyyyyyy that's enough surmising, I will leave it there now. More will follow on the Mutua Madrid Open once its under way.
Till then that's ittt.
Thursday, 3 May 2012
Strategy strategy!
OK so today's post is about the latest episode of The Apprentice's eight series, episode 7, which this time saw the two teams being given the task of trying to sell items worth £150 at a profit in the Essex area.
So team Sterling, lead by Nick (the young guy posh lad with the Justin Bieber hairdo) opted to go for cosmetic products such as fake tan, whereas team Phoenix had a variety of different products, which made it difficult for them to find a market strategy (this word will feature heavily here!) and a product they favoured to sell the most. Team Sterling however sold their fake tan really well, but after a while they ran out of stock, which had to be replenished, which cost alot of time. This was further not helped by the fact that Ricky and Stephen were stuck in heavy traffic while trying to get to the wholesalers to pick up more stock, but they also had some spare stock left in their van, which they could have dropped off at the shopping mall, where the rest of team Phoenix by this time had nothing left to sell. In team Phoenix, Jade made the mistake of not identifying the best selling product which was the toy insects, and she said just to re-buy all the items, which meant they ended up having stock leftover which they didn't sell by the end of the day.
In the boardroom however it was revealed that both teams final results were fairly close, with team Sterling coming out the better of two, as they had total assets of £955, whereas team Phoenix only had £838.21. In team Phoenix, the team leader Jade, brought Azhar and Tom back into the boardroom, with her, in hindsight Jade admitted that she had made a mistake bringing Tom back in with her, as Tom proved to be a great help in the task to her, and Tom deserves credit for remaining diplomatic and for not taking Jade's choice personally. It was also clear that Jade lost control of the task and as Azhar was correct to point out, many times throughout the task, that Jade did not have a clear strategy of which items to sell, and yes he did say strategy quite a bit! But Jade also wasn't keen on Azhar as she felt he was constantly nagging her and was more of a hindrance than a help, as he made no suggestions on how to improve things. Jade really was in the firing line as being the team leader she did lose her way in the task, but when it came to her defence of why she shouldn't be fired, she put up a good case to Lord Sugar. Azhar however wasn't so fortunate as Lord Sugar identified that while he pointed out which things were going wrong or didn't work, he offered no solutions, and also because of his negative attitude and lack of involvement, so he had to go.
In all fairness I think Lord Sugar did make the right decision, although if you watch his reasons for why he fired Azhar on The Apprentice: You're Fired, he was a bit harsh in his assessment, as he said that Azhar was someone no one listened to because of his attitude and no one respected. But Azhar did have a fairly negative attitude and he was too quick to point out when things did go wrong, he also most of the time appeared very dour faced and morose on camera. The only time you really saw a different side to his character was when he did the cheesy 1980s workout video, The Groove Train, a few episodes back. But of course on The Apprentice: You're Fired, he did come across as quite a likeable guy, as most of them do, and he also was quite self deprecating, and pointing out how he kept saying the "strategy" all the time in the episode! And also on the other hand, Azhar at times probably did make sense in what he said but in the end no one was prepared to listen to him, which was a bit unfair.
But again in the boardroom its more about stating your case as to why you shouldn't be fired that tends to get you through rather than trying to state your case about how you did on the task, its 60% the boardroom, 40% the task. And that is something Jade was better at than Azhar, but I have to say I'm not that keen on Jade and her attitude, especially the way she didn't even have the decency to shake Azhar's hand when she left, she walked right past him and took her suitcase. That's a really poor show, even if they didn't get on, its still not much of an excuse, but it does happen on the show now and then, and has in the past.
Sooooo that's seven weeks over, next week the teams turn to trying to sell fine art (or probably not so fine). Should be fun.
Till then that's it for The Apprentice for now.
So team Sterling, lead by Nick (the young guy posh lad with the Justin Bieber hairdo) opted to go for cosmetic products such as fake tan, whereas team Phoenix had a variety of different products, which made it difficult for them to find a market strategy (this word will feature heavily here!) and a product they favoured to sell the most. Team Sterling however sold their fake tan really well, but after a while they ran out of stock, which had to be replenished, which cost alot of time. This was further not helped by the fact that Ricky and Stephen were stuck in heavy traffic while trying to get to the wholesalers to pick up more stock, but they also had some spare stock left in their van, which they could have dropped off at the shopping mall, where the rest of team Phoenix by this time had nothing left to sell. In team Phoenix, Jade made the mistake of not identifying the best selling product which was the toy insects, and she said just to re-buy all the items, which meant they ended up having stock leftover which they didn't sell by the end of the day.
In the boardroom however it was revealed that both teams final results were fairly close, with team Sterling coming out the better of two, as they had total assets of £955, whereas team Phoenix only had £838.21. In team Phoenix, the team leader Jade, brought Azhar and Tom back into the boardroom, with her, in hindsight Jade admitted that she had made a mistake bringing Tom back in with her, as Tom proved to be a great help in the task to her, and Tom deserves credit for remaining diplomatic and for not taking Jade's choice personally. It was also clear that Jade lost control of the task and as Azhar was correct to point out, many times throughout the task, that Jade did not have a clear strategy of which items to sell, and yes he did say strategy quite a bit! But Jade also wasn't keen on Azhar as she felt he was constantly nagging her and was more of a hindrance than a help, as he made no suggestions on how to improve things. Jade really was in the firing line as being the team leader she did lose her way in the task, but when it came to her defence of why she shouldn't be fired, she put up a good case to Lord Sugar. Azhar however wasn't so fortunate as Lord Sugar identified that while he pointed out which things were going wrong or didn't work, he offered no solutions, and also because of his negative attitude and lack of involvement, so he had to go.
In all fairness I think Lord Sugar did make the right decision, although if you watch his reasons for why he fired Azhar on The Apprentice: You're Fired, he was a bit harsh in his assessment, as he said that Azhar was someone no one listened to because of his attitude and no one respected. But Azhar did have a fairly negative attitude and he was too quick to point out when things did go wrong, he also most of the time appeared very dour faced and morose on camera. The only time you really saw a different side to his character was when he did the cheesy 1980s workout video, The Groove Train, a few episodes back. But of course on The Apprentice: You're Fired, he did come across as quite a likeable guy, as most of them do, and he also was quite self deprecating, and pointing out how he kept saying the "strategy" all the time in the episode! And also on the other hand, Azhar at times probably did make sense in what he said but in the end no one was prepared to listen to him, which was a bit unfair.
But again in the boardroom its more about stating your case as to why you shouldn't be fired that tends to get you through rather than trying to state your case about how you did on the task, its 60% the boardroom, 40% the task. And that is something Jade was better at than Azhar, but I have to say I'm not that keen on Jade and her attitude, especially the way she didn't even have the decency to shake Azhar's hand when she left, she walked right past him and took her suitcase. That's a really poor show, even if they didn't get on, its still not much of an excuse, but it does happen on the show now and then, and has in the past.
Sooooo that's seven weeks over, next week the teams turn to trying to sell fine art (or probably not so fine). Should be fun.
Till then that's it for The Apprentice for now.
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