Recently by Martin Warrillow

You'll recall my assertion three weeks ago that this was the blog that refused to let itself get distracted by Euro 2008?
I didn't believe anyone would come here to read my views on the football while the web is littered with blogs, some funny and some less so, detailing the fans' view of things. Yet finally, with one match to go, I'm going to break my rule - because I can suddenly declare a personal interest.

One of the reasons I love working for one of the handful of broadsheet newspapers remaining in this country is the scope it gives us to display high-quality pictures properly.
Of course, our hard-working band of reporters (a very tight four-piece, not an orchestra) will tell you that it's their words which sell the paper or attract people to the Post's website, but a good picture can really pull the reader into a page - and once pulled in, they are more likely to keep reading.

Having managed to work Bob Dylan into a cricket piece here a couple of weeks ago, let's maintain the sport and music motif, shall we? And let's talk about rugby grounds.
I spent last weekend in Wales and the West Country, watching the peerless Bruce Springsteen in Cardiff on Saturday night (quite wonderful, thank you; an uninterrupted three-hour set and a five-track encore comprising Jungleland, Thunder Road, Born to Run, Rosalita and American Land more than made up for the great man arriving on stage 45 minutes late).
The concert was held at the Millennium Stadium, somewhere I've only previously seen from outside but which is a remarkable piece of work.

Welcome to the blog that is determined not to get distracted by Euro 2008. Not that I'm disinterested, like my colleague Lisa Smith (as I write, Holland v Italy is sparkling away on the office television and we've already had one eye on the bore that was France v Romania - and anyway, Lisa's fallen victim to the 'if it's not the greatest league in the world, it's irrelevant' school) but because I don't think you've come here to read what I think about it.

I mentioned here in my first contribution that I was curious to find out just who reads The Birmingham Post's sports pages.
It's a topic I expect to develop much further in the coming weeks but after the first few weeks of the season, I'd love to know if Warwickshire's cricketers do.

Sometimes, I have to remind myself that this is the best job in the world. I've been a sports fan all my life; one of my first memories is being in floods of tears the night England's footballers went out of the 1970 World Cup in Mexico City; one of my favourite memories is watching from the press box as Tamworth won the FA Vase at the old Wembley in 1989; one of the things I want to do before I die is watch a Major League Baseball game in the United States.
I get paid moderately well to spend my working hours reading about sport, looking at pictures of sport, talking about the best ways to cover sport in The Post. I work with people I like who (mostly) share my love of sport and, yes, I do very, very, occasionally get into sports events for nothing.
And now, the editor's gone and made the job just that bit better by asking me to blog about sport.