With the new 2007 season of the AFL now in full swing down under, and 3 rounds already gone, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the UK season is also about to start.

The British AFL has been running for over 15 years, and currently has 7 teams in the London premiership. Around the country teams have come and gone from places such as Bristol, Birmingham and Liverpool, but there is a good regional following today. The Sussex Swans share their name with my local team in Australia the Sydney Swans.

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I am pretty chuffed with this - its sale season, because of the end of the financial year so everything is going cheap, but this is something special. And for the males in the audience heres a lesson for you:

If you ever got out shopping with the wife, go with her, because you never know what you might walk past.

We were out the other day looking for something for girls, or sewig or knitting or something. Unfortunately it was closed, and we carried on walking around the block back to the car. We came up to a shop called something useful like Golf Warehouse and outside it were two of those comedy Giant Golf Bags with a sign on the side.

Golf Clubs $2!

Bargain, we had just been up the driving range for 100 balls and this was too good to be true. So we managed to find a couple of irons for heidi and myself. The best bit was yet to come, next to these bags was another one with Woods $29 ! I dug around for a bit and pulled out this beauty. Retails at around $500 - for $29! Wopper!

I will let you know how far the ball goes when I get to take it out for a test drive soon.

The end of the indoor rowing season on Concept 2 came on the 31st of April, and I managed to squeeze my season metres up to 100,000m.

I didnt manage to do the entire season as we joined the gym in August ish, and then had a month off around January, so when I saw that I was going to be able to make the 100,000 in late April I was pretty motivated to do it. Actually crossing the mark - I did 150m more than I needed, was really cool - I wasnt knackered ata ll after the 4km row, and was really lifted up by it.

This season I havent done any rowing yet, so I am still on 0km! but I think I could probably do 200,000 - at least thats my target, its not an awful lot - thats only 547m per day and there are people doing 10km per day on the system!

You can join the race at Concept 2.

So in the final week, here is what happened.
Loxton - 64pts
Kennedy - 63pts
Anderson - 48pts
Bowie - 46pts
Isaksen - 45pts
Body - 43pts
Grover - 38pts
Bond - 29pts
Long - 28pts
Littlefield - 25pts
Ware - 23pts

Congratulations to the Welsh on their first Grand Slam in 27 years - in fact the last one was in the same year as I was born, 1978. Being in Australia makes it kind of hard to watch the games, unless you are prepared to be in a bar at 3am. Unfortunately this weekend it wasnt to be.

Loxton putting in a few points on Kennedy, but not enough to take top spot, pushing Bowie into 3rd overall. A strong finish from Anderson, not quite enough to beat the rampaging Brody.

Congratulations to Kennedy, making a strong claim for the title in week one, and hasnt relinquished it all the way through. The battle for 2,3 and 4 was tight, Bowie, Isaksen and Loxton getting into the thick there, with Isaksen putting down some good scores to beat the boys in week 3. Long and Grover staying steady in 5 and 6, with Brody making a hit at the ranks from week 2, having missed the first round. Littlefield's performance was suprisingly lacklustre, and Bond doing well making only 3 changes in the tournament, with the Football orientated Ware taking up the rear.

Good game, Good game! Now all you have to do is worry about how to fill the next 10 months of your lives until the next 6 Nations tournament!

You better watch out there is a smug Bowie about! Kennedy would also be as smug but being Irish his result was tainted by the loss to the French in Dublin, which also lost them the Grand Slam.

So Wales are still on for it, but Ireland will be visiting the Millenium Stadium with retribution on their minds, and really looking to spoil the great Welsh party that is trying for its first Grand Slam in 26 years.

In the fantasy league, Smug Bowie takes out the top of the table with 63 points for the week, taking him above Isaksen and into 2nd overall. Kennedy holds his first place this week with 59, and Loxton in 3rd with 57 points, moving up to joint 3rd overall with Isaksen on a not too shameful 175.

Long and Isaksen move this week with 48 points, and Brody continues the rampage with 46 this week, putting him in 7th overall. Grover has managed to keep up his points despite making no changes since the beginning of the comp, and going overseas for 4 weeks.

Has Kennedy made the gap between himself and Bowie big enough to hold on to 1st for one more week? Will Bowie and the Destroyers catch up? Do Loxton or Isaksen have the grunt to make it up the ladder and take the final glory? Only time will tell.

While England got a pasting from the Irish, and the ref, those with Brian O'Driscoll in the team had a good week. The Welsh of course put a great game in to push past the French and keep the Slam dreams alive.

Next week has the French try and shatter the Irish hopes, while Wales should have a clear win over Scotland, and remain in good form for the possible Grand Slam decider against Ireland in the Millennium Stadium.

This week in the Fantasy League bowie finally stepped up and produced a whopping 47 points to put himself into 3rd above a flailing Loxton. Kennedy continues his domination, with Isaksen closing the gap to 4 points. Brody continues his late charge up the board with 36 this week, doubling his career points in one week and pushing up to 8th place.

No real gap at the top of the board, so with 2 rounds to go its all to play for!

So after week 2, France, Ireland and Wales all keeping their hopes of some silverware alive and some distinctly disgruntled English fans, heres the low down on the Fantasy League.

This weeks clear winner was Isaksen, kicking all the boys arses with a wopping 60 points. This puts The Manlys into second spot behind the leader for 2 rounds running - Kennedy, who put in a respectable 50 points to maintain his lead at the top.

Bowie came in third this week, pipping Loxton by one point on 46, bringing the Devon Destroyers up to 4th overall behind Loxtons You Little Ripper!

Grover - still harboring the injured Jonny Wilkinson must have a killer and late breaking plan up his sleeves because he has lost out on a whole lot of points, keeping him in 5th overall.

Other big movers this week, newbie Brody with 33 points after missing a week, has put him in penultimate place, overtaking the more round ball minded Ware now on a total of 28.

One week off now until the 26th Feb when things start to get hot - will Ireland hold England at home? Will France overcome a powerful Wales to contend for the Grand Slam that Ireland waht oh so badly? Stay tuned for another installment.

Week 1: Ireland, Wales and France come away with wins this week in a series of impressive performances from the perceived weaker sides. No game was a walk over in a series of fairly low scoring games.

There were some scares for Irish fans, Brian O'Driscoll didn't look like he would make it to the next match but he was named in the squad today.

In other news a Welsh fan was so confident England would win - he told his mates he would chop off his balls off if Wales win.

After plenty of pre tournament banter in the fantasy league, with Bowie and Long being uber confident of putting in the early lead, this weeks leader comes in the form of Kennedy - the Irish Accountant with a great 39 points, and Loxton close second with 38.

There is still time to join in if you havent had the chance yet - go to scrum.fantasyleague.com and use league id 391 to join us!

Its coming fast - the 2005 RBS six nations. England, Ireland, Scotland, France, Wales and Italy, battle it out to be holders of the outright title, the grand slam (wins all 5 games) and the triple crown (wins 3 games between England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales).

The 4 bbc rugby pundits predictions are leel on 2 for Ireland and 2 for France. The bookies form guide suggests that England are the favourites, with no outright winner being the next best. Then France, Ireland and Wales.

If you want to take more part in this seven week competition than simply sitting it out with a coldie on your sofa, then go to http://scrum.fantasyleague.com and set up a team of your own. Once you have done that come and join our mini league by entering league id of 391.

The top prizes in the fantasy league are 3 weekend breaks in rome, Paris and Edinburgh. The manager with the highest points in round one gets tickets to England vs France at Fortress Twickenham.

Its been a little busy recently, with no time to keep up with recent events. Lately I watched the sunset at Twickenham, I stayed up until 3am to watch the England Rugby team get narrowly beaten after a pretty great game in which they set down 18 odd unanswered points in about 20 minutes. Unfortunately it wasnt quite enough with one too many penalties to the Australians. I think Jason Robinson did really well as captain, I used to think Jonno said something to the team at half time to fire them up, but they came out all guns blazing in the second half here too.

Speaking of Martin Johnson, I recently purchased his autobiography. Its a good read especially if you remember the rugby from the late 80's and early 90's and he is very straight forward and honest, it shows that he really is a gentle giant. There are some great pictures to accompany and its got some good recollections of classic games.

Only yesterday Matthew Pinsentthrew in the towel on international rowing. Thats a great shame, he was a great asset to British rowing, and he kicked arse. Noone knows what the rest of the Athens Olympic Gold four will do as they take a years break, but Matt looks like he has the gig at the IOC all sewn up.