The Back Page - September 2010

It's been six months now since we started up Beyond the Cliche. So far we have successfully managed to combine insightful punditry with our own offbeat senses of humour. However, the thought occured that it may be better if we kept both of these entities separate. Hence, we have a new monthly feature (hopefully!), which will allow us to review the previous month and look forward to the upcoming month through the medium of idiocy. Just kinda hope it works really!

Lookalike of the month

When it comes to spotting these doppelgangers, you have to say that Nobody Does it Better than myself and Graeme! Which is ironic when you consider I was watching The Spy Who Loved Me the other night and thought I saw rugby's motormouth ex-hooker Brian Moore playing another one of those silent henchmen. Turned out it was just 70s hardman actor Milton Reid, but have a look and see what you think:

Review of the month

• Personal highlight - a certain Mr Iain Russell facilitating this current state of affairs: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/scot_div_1/div_2_table/default.stm
• Personal lowlight - Sebastian Vettel's crazy overtaking manoevure in the wet at Spa, taking Jenson Button off with him and all but ending my chances of making a fiver out of my dad (I bet that Jenson would finish ahead of Lewis Hamilton in the drivers' championship.) Bloody Germans.
• Moment of the month - THAT ball from Graeme Swann to bowl Imran Farhat at Edgbaston. It proved that the finger spinner is far from dead and that Swann can be a handful for anyone anywhere - positives for the Ashes.
• LAD of the month - Theo Walcott. Telling Mr Hansen where to shove it through consistently excellent goalscoring performances. Arsenal off to a flier.

Hopes for September

• That the Moliniari brothers make more headlines than the Milibands this month. The Italian duo, making their Ryder Cup debuts, will hope to lead Europe to victory at Celtic Manor. The Milibands will hope to avoid further character assassinations by "senior Tory figures" in the Labour leadership contest.
• The new NFL season lives up to all expectation. Kevin Kolb hopefully exceeds expectations!
• 4 points out of 6 for Scotland is a minimum requirement. 6 would be preferable at the start of Euro 2012 qualifying.
• Andy Murray doesn't cry (again) when Federer beats him in the final of the US Open (again).

Sliding Scale of the Month

It's the triumphant return of the Bradford-o-meter. In the first two pre-season games, our $50 million hero had lumps taken out of him due to his brittle O-Line. But now, he appears to have won his starting battle with AJ Feeley and looked good in a victory over the Patriots, throwing for 2 TDs, despite losing top WR Donnie Avery along the way. Things are looking up for Sam!

RM