Two penalties from Wayne Rooney helped Manchester United fight back from three goals down to draw 3-3 away at Chelsea in the weekend’s big Premier League game on Sunday, the first time in Premier League history that Chelsea have surrendered a three-goal lead.

Daniel Sturridge forced Jonny Evans to turn the ball into his own net in the first half and within five minutes of the restart Chelsea had increased their lead to three. Juan Mata volleyed a Fernando Torres cross home in the first minute of the second half and David Luiz directed a Mata free kick in off Rio Ferdinand for Chelsea’s third.

United rallied, though, and Patrice Evra and then Danny Welbeck won two penalties for their side which Rooney converted to set up a thrilling finale.

A header from substitute Javier Hernandez completed the comeback after in the 84^th minute but United needed a fingertip save from much-maligned keeper David De Gea to keep out a Mata free kick in injury time.

Arsenal produced the standout side from Saturday’s fixtures, demolishing Blackburn 7-1 at the Emirates Stadium. Two goals from Robin van Persie had helped Arsenal to a 3-1 lead before Gael Givet was dismissed for a dangerous tackle just before half-time.

Van Persie sealed his hat-trick just after the hour for Arsenal’s sixth and Thierry Henry completed the rout in injury time.

Manchester City moved ahead of United with a comfortable 3-0 win over Fulham. Chris Baird gave away a penalty and an own goal in the first half and Edin Dzeko scored a third late on.

In an interview with Italian broadcaster RAI, England manager Fabio Capello broken ranks to state that he disagrees “absolutely” with the FA’s decision to strip John Terry of the England captaincy. “I thought it was right that Terry should keep the captain’s armband”, he said. Former FA chairman David Davis believes that the comments could constitute breach of contract.

In the opening weekend of the Six Nations, Leigh Halfpenny scored a match-winning penalty with 30 seconds left on the clock as Wales fought back to a 23-21 victory against Ireland. Wales lock Bradley Davies was sent to the sin bin on 65 minutes but has since been cited for the dangerous tip tackle and Wales coach Warren Gatland has admitted that the tackle was worthy of a red card.

England won at Murrayfield for the first time since 2004, but the match was notable for Scotland’s inability to convert chances into tries rather than England’s own attacking play. Charlie Hodgson’s converted try was the difference in a 13-6 win as Ross Rennie and Greig Laidlaw amongst others will be left to rue a raft of missed opportunities.

France comfortably beat Italy 30-12 in Paris to kick-off this year’s Six Nations. Clermont’s Aurelien Rougerie and Julien Malzieu helped France to a 15-6 lead at half-time and Vincent Clerc and debutant Wesley Fofana scored in the second half to dismiss any chances of a repeat of last year’s shock 22-21 win by Italy.

Pakistan look set to complete a 3-0 series whitewash on the fourth day of the third test in Dubai. England have been set a hefty target of 324, with Azhar Ali and Younis Khan scoring 157 and 127 respectively.

Rugby League’s Super League kicked off this weekend and it’s Catalan Dragons who lead the earliest of Super League tables after a 34-12 win at Bradford, in part thanks to the boot of Scott Dureau. Reigning champions Leeds beat Hull KR 34-16 in the season’s first game on Friday evening. Wigan lost at home to Huddersfield 20-16 and St. Helens beat London Broncos 34-24 at the Stoop.

The New York Giants came from behind to win Super Bowl XLVI 21-17 in a repeat of the 2008 season-ending match. Patriots’ quarterback Tom Brady had excelled to help his side to the lead after a poor start to the match in which the Giants took a 9-0 lead.

He was unable to inspire his side to victory despite stringing together a Super Bowl record of 16 straight completed passes and his Hail Mary pass in the final seconds was knocked to the ground for the Giants to win their fourth Super Bowl Championship.

World number one Novak Djokovic successfully defended his Australian Open title by beating Rafael Nadal in an incredible five-set final in what was the longest match in the tournament’s history at five hours 53 minutes.

Djokovic won the match 5-7 6-4 6-2 6-7 (5-7) 7-5, just 48 hours after Andy Murray took him to five sets in Friday’s semi-final.

In the ladies final, Victoria Azarenka beat Maria Sharapova 6-3 6-0 to win her first grand slam title and displace Caroline Wozniacki as world number one.

In the weekend’s big FA Cup fourth round tie, Liverpool beat Manchester United 2-1 at Anfield. In a game of few chances, Dirk Kuyt evaded Patrice Evra to hit the winner with two minutes remaining after Park Ji-sung’s first-half strike had seen United draw level.

Arsenal came from two goals down to beat Aston Villa 3-2 at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday evening. Richard Dunne and Darren Bent had given Alex McCleish’s side a 2-0 lead at half-time but Robin van Persie scored two penalty’s either side of a Theo Walcott goal to see Arsenal through to the fifth round.

The biggest upset of the round came at the KC Stadium where Hull City crashed out to Crawley Town of League Two courtesy of a second-half goal from striker Matt Tubbs, his 18^th of the season.

The Amex Stadium was the scene of another upset as Brighton beat Newcastle to earn a fifth-round tie away at Liverpool. An own-goal from Mike Williamson was the difference.

A controversial second-half penalty from Juan Mata put Chelsea into the next round at the expense of West London rival QPR.

An embarrassing second innings batting collapse at the hands of Pakistan’s spinners saw England lose the second test to give Pakistan an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series.

England required 145 runs to win after dominating the first three days, but they managed less than half that total, posting just 74.

Celtic will face Kilmarnock in the final of the Scottish League Cup after a second-half Anthony Stokes brace against Falkirk. Jay Fulton levelled for Falkirk after Scott Brown gave Celtic the lead from the penalty spot but Stokes scored what would be the winner with a superb free-kick before settling the tie with an 86^th minute tap-in.

In the LV= Cup, Joel Tomkins scored two tries in an impressive debut for Saracens as they beat Worcester 41-14, having switched codes in October.

Bath beat fellow pool leaders Northampton 46-14 at the Recreation Ground to maintain their lead over Saracens at the top of Pool 1. Leicester and Scarlets beat Harlequins and London Irish respectively to maintain their leads in their respective pools.

The weekend’s football programme was dominated by Sunday’s fixtures as Tottenham and Arsenal sought revenge for embarrassing defeats inflicted on them by Manchester City and Manchester United respectively back in August.

Mario Balotelli’s late penalty gave Manchester City a 3-2 win at home to Tottenham, but not before a stamp on Scott Parker’s head while the Spurs midfielder was on the floor which went unnoticed by referee Howard Webb.

Danny Welbeck’s 81^st minute strike gave Manchester United all three points against Arsenal at the Emirates after Robin van Persie’s second-half strike had cancelled out Antonio Valencia’s opener.

Saturday’s Premier League results meant that defeat for Arsenal did little to dent their aspirations of Champions League qualification as their rivals slipped up – Liverpool lost 3-1 at Bolton while Chelsea could only manage a 0-0 draw at home to Norwich.

Andy Murray made it into the second week at the Australian Open after his opponent retired hurt in the third set after Murray had won the opening two 6-1, 6-1. He will face Kei Nishikori of Japan, who beat sixth-seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, in the quarter-final.

There were few other shocks in this morning’s men’s fourth-round matches. Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Tomas Berdych all progressed.

In the women’s singles, Serena Williams crashed out in straight sets to the unseeded Ekaterina Makarova. Top seeds Caroline Wozniacki and Petra Kvitova beat Serbs Jelena Jankovic and Ana Ivanovic respectively in straight sets. Defending champion Kim Clijsters recovered from losing the first set against Li Na to win in three sets.

Neil Robertson won snooker’s Masters title for the first time as he beat Shaun Murphy 10-6 in yesterday’s final. Murphy had the better of the early frames but had only three of the first six frames to show for it and Robertson won fix of the next seven to storm into a 9-4 which proved too much for Murphy to claw back.

Saracens and Edinburgh both made it into the quarter finals of the Heineken Cup with wins over Treviso and Cardiff Blues respectively to top their pools. Saracens will host Clermont Auvergne while Edinburgh will play Toulouse at home. In the other quarter finals Munster will take on Ulster and Leinster will welcome Blues.

New York Giants and New England Patriots both won their championship matches to set up a repeat of the 2008 Superbowl in this year’s showpiece match. The Giants needed a dramatic overtime field goal to get past San Francisco 49ers, while the Baltimore Ravens came close to forcing overtime with the Patriots but Ravens kicker Billy Cundiff pulled a 32-yard field goal wide.

A goal from returning hero Paul Scholes set Manchester United on the way to a comfortable 3-0 win over Bolton at Old Trafford as they continue to pursue league-leaders Manchester City, who play Wigan this evening.

North London rivals Arsenal and Tottenham both struggled: Tottenham lost ground on the Manchester clubs after only managing a draw against Wolves at White Hart Lane and Arsenal lost 3-2 away at Swansea.

Dutchman Christian Kist won the BDO World Darts Championships final against Tony O’Shea on Sunday. The unseeded qualifier who was making his first appearance in the competition knocked out two-time champion Ted Hankey in Saturday’s semi-final before winning Sunday’s final 7-5 to take home the title and £100,000 in prize money, reportedly 50 times his career earning to date.

Ronnie O’Sullivan knocked out defending champion Ding Junhui in the first round of the Masters at London’s Alexandra Palace while Mark Williams beat Stephen Maguire. O’Sullivan will face Judd Trump, who defeated Stuart Bingham this afternoon.

Both Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer registered first round wins in the first round of the Australian Open, both winning in straight sets. Andy Murray begins his campaign against Ryan Harrison at midnight tonight.

The pick of the weekend’s FA Cup third round ties was played out at Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium on Sunday where Manchester United progressed to the fourth round of the FA Cup at the expense of their city rivals.

United announced a new signing of sorts just before the game when they named the recently-retired Paul Scholes as a substitute having re-signed the 37 year-old until the end of the season.

Wayne Rooney scored the first of United’s three first-half goals with a powerful header before City captain Vincent Kompany was sent off in dubious circumstances for a two-footed tackle on Nani.

City mounted a valiant comeback after the break, though, and goals from Aleksandr Kolarov and Sergio Aguero set up a tense final quarter but United held on to register a 3-2 victory and they were rewarded with a fourth-round tie away at Liverpool, whose 5-1 win over Oldham on Friday evening was not without controversy.

Oldham’s Tom Adeyemi was visibly distressed after being the victim of racist abuse from a small section of Liverpool fans in the closing minutes of the game. A 20 year-old man from Aintree has been bailed following his arrest on suspicion of a racially aggravated public order offence.

Chelsea knocked four second-half goals past Portsmouth at Stamford Bridge, Tottenham strolled past Cheltenham 3-0 and Everton overcame Tamworth 2-0.

Macclesfield Town and MK Dons came closest to embarrassing Premier League opposition but both had to settle for a replay against Bolton and QPR respectively, having led for periods.

After the result against MK Dons, QPR manager Neil Warnock was sacked having failed to muster a win in nine games. Mark Hughes is the bookies favourite to replace him.

England’s cricketers struggled during the first two days of their warm-up match against an ICC Combined Associate and Affiliate XI in Dubai. After bowling out their opposition for 281 on Saturday, Alastair Cook (76) was the only English batsman to register a half-century.

The visiting side’s bowling performance was slightly better and Stuart Broad impressed, taking 2-15 from nine overs at the beginning of the ICC side’s second innings.

Harlequins’ lead at the top of the Aviva Premiership was cut to three points as Saracens capitalised on the league-leaders’ 24-3 slip-up away at Northampton on Friday evening with a 26-19 win at home to Bath.

Martin “Wolfie” Adams’ tilt at a record-equalling third-straight BDO World Dart Championship got off to a good start with a straightforward 3-0 win over Scott Mitchell. Former champion John Walton lost 3-1 to Martin Atkins.

Manchester City and Manchester United, level on points at the top of the Premier League, suffered shock defeats to Sunderland and Blackburn respectively over New Year’s weekend.

Sir Alex Ferguson’s 70^th birthday was spoiled as Rovers moved off the foot of the table with a 3-2 win at Old Trafford. Yakubu gave the visitors a surprise 2-0 lead, the first from the spot, but Dimitar Berbatov’s brace levelled proceedings midway through the second half. However, Grant Hanley headed a late winner.

Leaders City failed to take advantage on their rival’s slip-up the previous day as Ji Dong-won’s injury-time goal sealed a 1-0 victory at the Stadium of Light.

Third-placed Tottenham could not fully capitalise as they were held 1-1 at Swansea. Arsenal moved up to fourth with a 1-0 win at home to QPR while Cheslsea lost 3-1 at home to Aston Villa. Liverpool were level on points with Chelsea following a 3-1 defeat of Newcastle.

Everton won 1-0 at West Brom and the other games were drawn: Bottom side Bolton 1-1 with Wolves, Norwich 1-1 with Fulham and Stoke 2-2 with Wigan.

Harlequins extended their lead at the top of Rugby Union’s Premiership as they won 11-9 at Exeter and second-placed Saracens were held 15-15 at home to Gloucester.

Third-placed Northampton and Leicester were level on points following Saints’ 32-14 win at bottom side Newcastle and Tigers’ thrilling 28-23 victory at home to Sale. Bath thrashed London Irish 30-3 and Worcester won 6-0 at Wasps.

Manchester United moved level on points with Manchester City at the top of the Premier League thanks mainly to Dimitar Berbatov’s hat-trick in a 5-0 Boxing Day win at home to 10-man Wigan while the leaders could only manage a goalless draw at West Brom.

In the other Boxing Day games Fulham held Chelsea, who remained fourth, to a 1-1 draw and sixth-placed Liverpool were limited to the same scoreline by bottom side Blackburn.

Seventh-placed Newcastle moved a point behind Liverpool with a 2-0 win over Bolton, Stoke and Aston Villa drew 0-0 while Sunderland and Everton finished 1-1.

In the two Premiership Rugby Union fixtures on Boxing Day Sale went third in the table with a 27-19 victory over bottom side Newcastle and six-try Gloucester thrashed Wasps 39-10.

In Rugby League’s traditional Boxing Day friendlies Leeds beat Wakefield 26-10, Castleford saw off Bradford 28-18 and Warrington defeated Widnes 32-18.

In Racing Kauto Star sealed a historic fifth King George VI Chase victory at Kempton Park.

First posted on December 20, 2011 at carlbeech.com

In truth I’ve actually spent more years as a bible teacher/pastor than as an evangelist. As a pastor I had a deep concern to introduce all types of people, from all walks of life, ages, stages to Jesus and to see them grow in faith and understanding. That concern hasn’t changed. In fact over the years its grown to be a burning passion and one of the driving forces of my life. In turn its generated some of my greatest frustrations. But then, as a much wiser man once said to me; “make your frustrations your friends and they won’t eat you up!”

For the last seven years I’ve been working in a much more specialist field and work predominantly with men and almost exclusively in the area of evangelism by seeking to mobilise, equip and resource the local church to reach all types of men. We also try to tackle some of the ills in society that men perpetrate and create. Because of this I face some tough and somewhat stretching challenges. In the following, for “we” I’m meaning you, me and the church.

• How do we reach the itunes generation whilst keeping in touch and empowering. with men who don’t know what itunes is?
• How do we reach the builders and the geezers (not necessarily one and the same) without being labelled as being a ministry just for blokes?
• How do we reach the gay community?
• How do we reach the retired men in our community?
• How do we create a brand and an image that is accessible to all, or is that even possible.
• How do we reach the businessman on his second sunseeker yacht.
• How do we reach the white working class young men that the middle classes love to call “Chavs”
• How do we reach the opera lovers as well as the drum and bass fans.
• How do we reach the long term unemployed.
• How do we reach the misfits and the so called “geeks”
• How do we reach the man I see every day, chain smoking outside the working mens club who has chronic liver problems.
• How do we reach the family guy as well as the single man, the grandad and the divorced and struggling.
• How do we help the church reach disabled men?

Over the last few years I’ve been asked what we are doing for every single one of these examples and more and to be honest with you all, its a constant source of frustration and angst. We recently had a long meeting as a team, addressing some of these questions and hopefully we will stay balanced whilst trying to address the lack of balance in most churches outreach activity. So far we’ve managed to resource a group reaching the over 50s, developed some resources for the itunes brigade, fathers, students, builders and geezers and dabbled in working in the business community. We’ve produced resources for footy and film fans (and I don’t even like football)

Theres so much more we want to do but with very limited resources, people, time and crucially money there is only so much we can do at a time. With the church having been largely chronically unsuccessful at reaching “blue collar men” and the itunes generation, we have been trying to deal with this lately but how successful we are being remains to be seen!

Manchester City regained their two-point lead at the top of the Premier League after rivals Manchester United briefly led the table on Sunday afternoon.

United won 2-0 at QPR in the lunchtime game but City restored their advantage with a 1-0 victory at home to fifth-placed Arsenal, David Silva netting a close-range effort.

Tottenham returned to third with a 1-0 defeat of Sunderland after Chelsea, who dropped to fourth, were held to a 1-1 draw at Wigan.

Sixth-placed Liverpool won 2-0 at Aston Villa, Newcastle drew 0-0 with visiting Swansea, Stoke were 2-1 winners at Wolves and Norwich took a 1-1 draw from their trip to Everton.

Fulham beat basement side Bolton 2-0 and second-from-bottom Blackburn lost 2-1 at home to West Brom.

In Rugby Union, Saracens remained the only English side to lead their European Cup group although Leicester and Harlequins boosted their quarter-final prospects with wins.

Visiting Saracens held off Ospreys 16-13, Leicester beat Clermont Auvergne 29-13 at home but the performance of the weekend came from Quins who won a stunning game at Toulouse 31-24.

In the same group Gloucester saw off Connacht 23-19 but will still struggle to progress, as will Bath who lost 52-27 at defending champions Leinster. Northampton thrashed Castres 45-0 but remained a long shot for the last eight.

In the Challenge Cup Exeter and Wasps led their groups after beating Bayonne and Newport-Gwent Dragons respectively. Worcester and Sale were second in their pools following wins, as were Newcastle who lost to a Toulon side featuring former player Jonny Wilkinson who last week retired from internationals.

In Golf there were wins for two Englishmen: Lee Westwood took the Thailand Open by seven shots and Ian Poulter the Australian Masters by three.

England’s Luke Donald became the first man to top Golf’s US and European money lists by finishing third in the Dubai World Championship.

Having sealed the American prize in October, Donald needed to finish in the top nine in Dubai to secure the European equivalent. He did so with a final-round 66 to end 16 under par, three shots behind the winner Alvaro Quiros of Spain.

Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy was the only player who could deny Donald the European title, if he won in Dubai and the Englishman finished outside the top nine. McIlroy’s challenge faded and he ended 10 shots adrift of Quiros.

An Englishman also held off a Northern Irishman in Snooker as Judd Trump beat Mark Allen 10-8 to win the UK Championship title in York.

Allen led 3-1 but Trump took the next seven frames. Allen won five of the next six but Trump, who took his first ranking title in China earlier this year, held on.

In Football’s Premier League, Manchester United closed the gap on leaders Manchester City to two points although it could be temporary with City playing at Chelsea on Monday evening.

United saw off Wolves 4-1 thanks to braces from Nani and Wayne Rooney. Third-placed Tottenham lost ground with a 2-1 defeat to Stoke, former Spurs winger Matthew Etherington scoring both City goals.

Arsenal broke into the top four, again possibly temporarily with Chelsea is action on Monday, thanks to a 1-0 win over Everton. Liverpool went sixth with a 1-0 victory against QPR and Newcastle losing 4-2 to Norwich.

Wigan moved off the bottom with a 2-1 defeat of West Brom and Bolton taking their place courtesy of a 2-1 loss to Aston Villa. Sunderland beat struggling Blackburn 2-1 in new boss Martin O’Neill’s first game in charge. Swansea saw off Fulham 2-0.

In Rugby Union’s European Cup Saracens beat Ospreys 31-26 at Wembley to stay top of their group, the only English side in such a position.

London Irish defeated Racing Metro 34-14, Northampton lost 41-22 to Castres, Bath were beaten 18-13 by Leinster and Leicester lost 30-12 to Clermont Auvergne. Gloucester and Harlequins, who are in the same group, respectively beat Connacht 14-10 and lost to Toulouse 21-10.

In the Challenge Cup there were wins for Worcester, Exeter, Sale and Newcastle but not Wasps.