READERS of Hear All Sides might have noticed in Wednesday's Northern Echo a letter from Richard Caborn, our esteemed Sports Minister. How nice of him to find time to write when he's so busy. Why, only the previous night I had seen him on the televison news, shuffling along the red carpet rolled out to greet the commission who had arrived to evaluate London's bid for the 2012 Olympics.

His letter was a plea to get behind the bid by sending an e-mail or a text, so if you haven't done it yet get on with it so Mr Caborn can show the commission just how supportive we are, even in this far-flung neck of the woods.

His letter was well-written - presumably not by him - and spelt out the benefits of staging the Games. It did not use the appalling phrase "window of opportunity", which had been attributed to Mr Caborn in an interview last week.

I have no doubt he means well, but he looked a little ill at ease on the red carpet, as though suspecting that the whole business would be better left in the hands of Lord Coe, whose elevation to bid leader has clearly given it impetus.

The bookies still have Paris as odds-on favourites, but have cut London's odds to 3-1 and it is said that public support will greatly influence the result. I would have thought the deciding factor will be whether we can convince the jury that we can deliver, and after the fiasco of Wembley and Picket's Lock, where this year's European Athletics Championships were to have been held, that will be no easy task.

The International Olympic Committee will decide and most of the commission here this week are experts in various fields such as transport and the environment rather than IOC members, who are kept away from any potential junketing following the acceptance of lavish gifts in the past.

To keep everything businesslike, the party of 13 greeted on the red carpet were apparently offered one social event and chose to have dinner with the royal family. It isn't known whether or not Camilla will be present.

SIR Alan Sugar thinks footballers are "total scum", yet he still has a 13 per cent stake in Tottenham Hotspur. Perhaps Malcolm Glazer agrees with him as he continues his attempt to take over Manchester United, which is becoming an extremely tedious saga.

No doubt there are a few scumbags out there on the pitch, but the fact that so many people who want to run football clubs are themselves covered in slime merely adds to the impression that the professional game is one big soap opera.

I see Ken Bates as more of a Mike Baldwin than a Ken Barlow, a cheeky chappie who is full of bluster but just won't be knocked down. Leeds fans appear to have welcomed him because they had little choice, but what about the man who dragged their club into the mire, Peter Ridsdale?

Rumours linking him with Darlington must send shudders through Quakers fans after what they have endured. But their real problem is that there aren't enough of them, and while David Hodgson continues to strengthen his squad the books won't balance if the state-of-the-art stadium remains less than a quarter full. It will be extremely interesting to see what happens if they gain promotion.

HOW things have changed when England win the try-count against France 2-0 yet lose the match. Had Jonny played they would have been out of sight after 50 minutes and might then have gone on to win by 30 points.

England didn't score two tries in any of the big World Cup matches - the group game against South Africa, the quarter-final against Wales, the semi against France and the final produced a total of three tries and 82 points from Jonny's boot.

So there were optimistic signs in Sunday's first half, especially as Newcastle's Jamie Noon justified my faith in him, but the second half shambles left the impression that Charlie Hodgson simply isn't up to it.

Call it bottle, nerve or the ability to rise to a challenge - he hasn't got it. We also need to see how Jonny handles the captaincy because it certainly doesn't sit well on Jason Robinson's shoulders.

KEVIN Pietersen scored 454 runs in the one-day series in South Africa at an average of 151.33. Next came Michael Vaughan with 159 runs at 39.75. We can therefore assume Pietersen is here to stay and when Andrew Flintoff returns they could form quite a double act in the middle order.

Where does that leave Paul Collingwood? The best he can hope for is to play the role of floater, up and down the batting order as the situation demands.

His bowling average of 84.66 in South Africa proved that statistics can be misleading as only he, Darren Gough and Ashley Giles conceded fewer than five runs an over. Duncan Fletcher obviously wants him in the team, but it's difficult to be a bit-part player when things are going well and be expected to produce the goods when the going gets tough.

Published: 18/02/2005