Sport Sunday: Grey Cup, أبو ظبي‎ ‎ Grand Prix

As autumn turns to Winter in many parts of the northern hemisphere, the sports world continues to advance. 

In Canada, the Grey Cup will be played to determine the Champions of the Canadian Football League.  The Calgary Stampeders and the Ottawa Redblacks will play the afternoon game which concludes the CFL season.  Today's game will be the 106th contest over the Grey Cup, first awarded in 1909.  Since the 1920s the cup has been an east vs. west contest, and continues that way today, the eastern vs. the western champion, in those divisions of the CFL.  

The Grey Cup is the successor to the Canadian Dominion Football Championship, which was first contested in 1884, and then annually until superceded in 1909. 

The Ottawa Redblacks sole victory in the Cup was two years ago, on their second appearance, in 2016.  The Stampeders have appeared more frequently, having 7 cup victories under their belts, the last in 2014.  In all, Calgary has 16 cup appearances.     The game will be played in the Commonwealth Stadium, Edmonton, Alberta, which will, perhaps have never seen such fine football.  A sellout crowd of roughly 55,000 will see the top two teams in each division, which is also annually the top rated program on Canadian television. In this year's regular season,  Calgary finished atop the West with a league-best 13-5 record while Ottawa was first in the East at 11-7.

This will mark the second Grey Cup meeting between these two teams in three years. In 2016, the Redblacks entered 8-9-1 and won 39-36 in overtime over Calgary (15-2-1) at Toronto.  

The Grand Prix season ends in grand style today with the أبو ظبي‎   Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, in the United Arab Emirates   الإمارات‎.  

Last year's winner, Lewis Hamilton, who is having a great season, well let's face it a great career, has won pole position in this year's race.   

Sport Sunday: CFL Football Finals! NCAA Basketball

The 2018 CFL season is the 65th season of modern Canadian professional football. Officially, it is the 61st season of the league. Edmonton is scheduled to host the 106th Grey Cup on November 25, 2018.  The regular season began on June 14, 2018, one week earlier than usual, and concluded on November 3, 2018.  The Final Four teams will play for spots in the final today.  

Today the Hamilton Tiger-Cats will take on the Ottawa Redblacks, and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers will play the Calgary Stampeders.  The Bombers and the Ticats have the longest droughths  in the Grey Cup.  The Redblacks and the Stamps are hungry for another title, to extend recent domination. 

 Winnipeg has waited since 1990 for another title, and Manitobans' hopes are running very high.  The Redblacks shocked the Stampeders two years ago in Toronto to claim the championship. Calgary has played in back-to-back Grey Cup games, only to lose both in dramatic fashion. The Stampeders did win the Grey Cup in 2014, however.

This final showdown of the season between Hamilton and Ottawa at 1 p.m. has all sorts of drama surrounding it. The two teams have met three times this year, with the Redblacks always victorious.  The Ticats are looking to get back to the Grey Cup for the first time since 2014 when the team thought it had beaten Calgary, only to have a late Brandon Banks punt return touchdown called back on a penalty. They also lost the championship game in 2013 to the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

Calgary has been in this exact same situation so many times before. In fact, the Stamps have hosted a home playoff game and made the West Final seven consecutive years.  They have not been good in Grey Cup competition.   The past two seasons have ending in bitter disappointment. 

 

An overtime loss to Ottawa two years ago, and a late interception against Toronto last year, ended Grey Cup dreams for the Stampeders.  Their season ending string of losses this season, ending in a win just when they needed it to advance, should also temper their hopes.  Winnipeg has won six of their last seven games.  Their game should make for an exciting, if unpredictable,  finish for a Sunday afternoon, and a great prelude to next week's season crowning Grey Cup.  

NCAA College Basketball has returned in full force, and is well on display today.  In addition to literally dozens of off brand games,  the preseason National Invitational Tournament, this year called the NIT Season Tip Off, reaches semifinals on Wednesday, with games between Louisville and Tennessee, and between Marquette and Kansas.   This is one of the three main preseason tourneys, along the Maui Invitational and the Great Alaska Shootout.  

Number 5 Tennessee faces Louisville on Wednesday in the Brooklyn, New York classic.  A meeting with No. 2 Kansas — the preseason No. 1 — could await Friday, if Kansas manages to get by Marquette.  Marquette is hungry, having made the national top 25 last week,  for the first time in several years, and then losing to Indiana.   Basketball fans will find no shortage of games to bracket their Thanksgiving Turkey. 

Saturday Sport: Water Polo! Swimming! Cricket! Canadian Football!

The FINA Aquatics World Championships are held each two years, and are too quickly done.  Two weeks ago, the competition kicked off with the Diving and Water Polo contests, last Sunday saw the swimming competition come into full swing.  

Today, the men's water polo competition comes to an end, with the championship game, and the consolation games, all being held.  In the finals, perennial powerhouses, and strong rivals,  Hungary and Croatia will play each other, in what promises to be a hard fought match.  Croatia beat Serbia in a close come-from-behind win to reach the finals.  Serbia will play Greece in today's third place game. 

In swimming, competition also promises to be fierce today.  The following final events will be contested this evening: 

• Women’s 50m Butterfly Final
• Men’s 50m Freestyle Final
• Women’s 200m Backstroke Final
• Men’s 100m Butterfly Final
• Women’s 800m Freestyle Final
• Mixed 4x100m Freestyle Relay Final

In Canada, today in CFL Football: the BC  Lions will meet the Edmonton Eskimos at The Brick Field at Commonwealth Stadium.  B.C. Lions head coach and general manager Wally Buono told his players to treat the  game against the Edmonton Eskimos like any other.  The first place in the CFL’s West Division is on the line, not to mention the season series and a potential playoff tiebreaker after the Eskimos (4-0) defeated the Lions (4-1) to open the schedule.  “The league is as balanced as it’s been in many years,” said Buono. “Edmonton’s got a very good football team. They’ve played hard. They’ve had their ups and downs in games, but they’ve always found a way to win.

 “It’s not the Grey Cup, even though it might feel like it,” said Lions defensive back Ronnie Yell. “It’s not the second round of the playoffs. It’s another game. We’ve got to stay calm.” (The Grey Cup is the CFL "Super Bowl" held each November)

In Cricket, England and South Africa continue their Test series, as do India and Sri Lanka.   In the United Kingdom, Alastair Cook came  to England's rescue at The Oval cricket Test against South Africa.  Although they have some hot new players, they relied on Cook to bail them out, so far this series.  Saturday's competition promises to be fierce.  

India, number one in the world, is fighting hard in Sri Lanka, meeting everyone's expectations.  India's bowlers tore through the Sri Lankan top order to put the visitors firmly on top on the second day of the first Test in Galle on Thursday.  Indian batsman Cheteshwar Pujara, said he was pleased that India had lived up to its billing as the No 1 Test side in the world.  "We would like to maintain that standard. We have scored enough runs, and we've got five wickets today. We are very well poised at this stage."  

Sport Sunday: Canada's Grey Cup, NFL and Winter, Winter, Winter

Sport Sunday

The GREY CUP:  Calgary Stampeders vs. Ottawa Redblacks in the 104th Canadian Football League title game, from BMO Field in Toronto.

JAPAN CUP:  While you were sleeping, Horse Racing's Japan Cup was run amidst sleet and snow in Tokyo.  Favorite Kitasan Black landed the Japan Cup and set his sites on Dubai and the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. The horse's 80 year old owner Saburo Kitajima, a famous singer in Japan, serenaded the crowd after the race.

FORMULA ONE:  The season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, a 55-lap race on the 3.45-mile Yas Marina Circuit is run today. 

SKIING:  Many events in the World Cup of Skiing are being contested today in Ruka, Finland

LUGE:  World Cup events are being held at Winterberg, Germany. 

NFL:  Will the Cleveland Browns lose absolutely every game this season?  In the current NFL season they are 0-11 and take on the 7-3 New York Giants at home this afternoon.  Sunday Night Football features the Kansas City Chiefs at the Denver Broncos. 

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