WORLD CHAMPIONS

Sadly my "readers" numbers have plummeted to single figures for some reason and I can understand the distractions that there have been recently; Americas Cup v Kiwis, Lions v Kiwis, Cricket v Kiwis; where are Brownlees? New Zealand? Are we rowing against them too? Are you on holiday? The internet can be accessed by the side of a pool in Marbella. I once bought a wood carving using my Mastercard in a rain forest shack in Bali. Come on make the effort!!

Don't care because the blog gives me a small pleasure to look forward to during my day. And today England has won a World Cup. Granted it is the FIFA Under 20 Cup beating a sparky Venezuela in a tense final that our youngsters led through Dominic Calvert-Lewis of Everton and then sealed victory with a wonderful penalty save by Freddie Woodman of Newcastle United. He denied Watford and Malaga's Penaranda to win the GK of the Tournament Golden Glove (six games, 4 clean sheets) whilst Dominic Solanke (let go by Chelsea to Liverpool) was awarded the Player of the Tournament, an award also won by Maradona, Messi, Figo (twice), Pogba and Aguero-heady stuff.

Six of our squad had played in the U17 Europeans in 2014 so there is some legacy carrying on. However in 2013 Harry Kane, Dier, Stones and Barkley were in an England team that came bottom of their group and in 2015 the winners, Serbia, included six players who were already full internationals; not so England! though our current squad boasts players with 72 Premier League appearances.

The beaten finalists ended their day in a hotel brawl with the Uruguayans whom they defeated in the semi-final.

This weekend our Women won a Euro 2017 friendly 4-0 in Biel, Switzerland. Our U20 Men (made up mainly of U18s) beat the Ivory Coast 5-3 on penalties after a 2-2 draw to retain the Toulon Trophy first won in 2016.