 | | Williard Chinhanhu speaks to BBC Radio Berkshire. |
This week: - A new WOKINGHAM HALF MARATHON record
- GRAEME MURTY's fighter pilot dream
- MICHAEL DUBERRY on life since Leeds
- MATTHEW JONES, England Schools sports star
- THE POLICE ARE BACK - and they've got a football team
Were you running, or supporting, at Sunday's Wokingham half marathon? If you were you'd have seen a new record for the event set by Williard Chinhanhu, from the Poole Runners. He finished the 13-mile course in 64 minutes and 52 seconds, breaking the previous best "This is quite a fast course and it wasn't all that bad," he told BBC Radio Berkshire's Sarah Walker. "I'm taking this as part of my training, which I haven't stopped all week, because I've got big races to come in March and I'm expecting to run under this time. "I've been doing quite hard sessions since December but I had hamstring problems last year - my best time was 65 minutes - so this year I'm aiming high. "If I can run in 62 or 61 minutes I'll be happy." You can see photos of the 2007 Wokingham half marathon in our special gallery, and don't forget to sign up for the Reading half marathon in February, which you can run alongside BBC Radio Berkshire's Maggie Philbin. Congratulations to Alice Braham too, who finished the Wokingham event as the fastest lady for the second time. A member of the BBC Running Club! Clearly Sportsweek needs to get on the treadmill...
Deborah Pearson-Jones - ace sporting interviewer. She might not be on the BBC's books yet but BBC Radio Berkshire listener Debbie wanted to become sports editor Joel Hufford for the day. So we got her in to give Royals skipper Graeme Murty a grilling. Debbie: "If you weren't Reading captain, what would you be?"
Graeme: "I'm a Top Gun era kiddie so I'd want to be a pilot, on an aircraft carrier with a big jet, giving it loads. My nickname would probably have been 'Target'."
 | | Graeme 'Target' Murty and Debbie's daughter Bridie |
Debbie: "My daughter thinks Kevin Doyle is 'lush' and we think he'd look fantastic in a boyband. Who else would be in it?"
Graeme: "Shane Long is an unbelievable singer. What he's doing in a football team, I've no idea. Probably Doyle as well - you have to have a good looking one, a talented one... then Hunty with the crazy hair as the mad manic one. And Ron Grant as the 'more mature' one that can dance. Actually Ron's a mover, to be fair." Debbie: "Ron's got quite an interesting job with all that kit he looks after. How does he know what size shorts to give you all?"
Graeme: "I think it's just experience. Ron just knows! We are the biggest bunch of moaning minnies if we get given stuff that doesn't fit - we go and have a hissy fit at him. But he's a lovely bloke, he takes it all in his stride and just ignores you. No, he doesn't measure our inside leg." Debbie: "As a Scotland international, tell us - what do you wear UNDER your shorts?"
Graeme: (Long pause, laughter) "Slips and cycling shorts as well. And that's as much information as you're getting out of me." Michael Duberry: is Reading the new Leeds? BBC Radio Five Live spoke to Reading new boy Michael Duberry over the weekend, focusing on his time at Leeds and how his career has progressed since. Duberry says he has no problem with the likes of Jonathan Woodgate these days - "we text a bit less now he's come to England" - and he says there are positives for Reading to take from his experience at Leeds. "Reading's got a team ethic - there's no superstars. In the good days at Leeds they had that and there's the same sort of feel here. Everyone's together and now I can add my bit - don't disrupt it, but add to it. "[But at Leeds] we needed to win something and we had people with ambitions who needed to be playing European football, so it disintegrated. That was a bittersweet chapter in my life - 90 per cent good and 10 per cent not so good." Duberry's learnt to deal with abuse fans still give him. "I've always been a tough character and it's part of the pressure of football, that some people feel they pay their entrance fee and it gives them freedom of speech. You've got to let them get on with it."
Theo Walcott's far from Berkshire's only successful young sporting export. Sport at a youth level is flourishing all around the county, as exemplified by two young sportsmen who joined BBC Radio Berkshire's Clare Catford and Charlie Baker on Saturday morning. Canoeist Andrew Daniels, from Henley, joined the programme on his way to Dorney regatta course, in Windsor, to train with the England U-23 team. He's just added to his two World Junior Silver medals and European Gold by securing one of Great Britain's three Gold medals at the Youth Olympics in Sydney. "I try to be out there every day," he told us. "The weather's not brilliant at the moment - I've come back from Australia to the snow. I try to fit three sessions in every day but it can be tricky with college too. "The English Institute of Sport try to help out a lot, but at junior level you have to do a lot of it yourself. This is my last year as a junior and it'll become my first year as a senior, so that's it - I've got to race everyone. It'll be a big step but hopefully I can improve. "There's no a lot of sponsorship in canoeing but if you're really proactive you can get enough money - you just have to be organised enough to go out there and find it." Matthew Jones is a true all-rounder. He's represented Berkshire at rugby, is a member of the Glamorgan County Cricket Academy, and he spoke to us from a training camp in Spain with the England Schools football squad. "It's a five day training camp with a game on the Tuesday evening against Villareal under-18s youth team," he explained. "We're being put through our paces ready for the international programme. "The England setup is a very nice thing to have under your belt, but when you go back and play for the team at school, you play to that standard. I don't see myself as an England player when I'm on the pitch with all my schoolmates." Matthew has a big decision to make. Several American universities are keen to give him a sporting scholarship, but he could have a big future in cricket with Glamorgan too. "I've had the problem for a while and it'll come down to the end of this year. "I could go to America to play football - not quite David Beckham's money but some US universities might offer me scholarships. "If they do there's a decision to be made over whether I stick at cricket here or play football there."
Sting made his comeback with The Police at the weekend, but in Berkshire the police have already been leaving a mark on local sporting work in the community. Rowan Friend runs a sports coaching business and he came up with an idea of community leagues in Reading for children, aged eight to 14, from schools in the east of the town, the Pakistan community centre, and the Sikh and Hindu temples. But it's not just football - there's cricket too, in which the local police force have fielded a team with the aim of developing relations on and off the pitch. Now they're hoping to increase the number of competitions in a range of different sports. | 
