The beautiful game?

When Howard Webb was awarded the honour of refereeing the 2010 World Cup Final his wife wondered how he could keep control of 22 grown men when he struggled with three young children.

Of course the mistake she made was to think that the football match would involve grown men. As Nigel De Jong’s kick to the chest of Xavi Alonso showed, this wasn’t always the beautiful game as played by adults.

But football wasn’t the only sport taking place over the weekend. The British Grand Prix had its own brand of excitement.

Both McLaren and Red Bull brought ‘improvements’ to their cars for the race. However, the Red Bull that didn’t get the upgrade won, and the two McLaren’s were quicker without the upgrades too.

Events that began a week before came to a chilling end when Raoul Moat was finally cornered by police. Perhaps the biggest surprise of these events was that he had been hiding very close to where they thought he was.

The Netherlands failed to beat Spain because their plan didn’t really work. The Formula 1 racing teams’ attempts to improve performance failed and the old cars were just as good. And a simple place to hide enabled Mr Moat to evade the police for several days.

This week’s WordLive sees the Israelites ask Samuel to improve their situation. They want to be like the other nations around them and have a king. They thought this plan would be the best for them.

They looked elsewhere for stability when stability was right under their noses. Sometimes the answer is the simple One.

Darren Hill