Scotland’s Laurence Docherty, who plays for Klein Zwitzerland in the Dutch League and has been considering applying for Dutch citizenship, failed to turn up and must surely have ended any chance he had of playing for Britain.The Great Britain team leader, Mike Hamilton, who fractured his jaw in three places in a training ground accident last Wednesday, was back at Bisham yesterday.. The penalty corner specialist has scored a brace in each of the first two games.His return to form could have something to do with the methods of his Australian coach, Todd Williams, an old friend of Jim Irvine, the highly successful coach of Amsterdam, who last season coached David Mathews into one of the most feared specialist corner strikers in the world.Mathews was training with the British squad at Bisham this week under the watchful eyes of the coaches, Jason Lee and Mathias Ahrens. With the Great Britain players, having completed the first half of their two-week training camp at Bisham Abbey, again missing the National League programme, this week’s third series of games goes into action with Hampstead and Westminster, the only team in the division on maximum points, visiting Guildford.
For the past couple of years, Hampstead and Westminster have struggled to maintain their Premier status, but, after the club’s multinational recruiting drive in the summer, the return of Will Nurse has proven significant. But Brodie has never dwelt on the injustice and has waited patiently for his chance this evening. It should be pointed out that Brodie was extremely fortunate to retain his Commonwealth title against Simon Ramoni on points in London in 1998.Brodie will start as a slight favourite to win the WBC title on points against Chi, but in so many recent fights he has finished with cuts and bruises that have distorted his features, hindering his vision, and that could very well be one of the decisive factors in a fight that is not expected to end quickly.. Chi proved there that he could go 12 very hard rounds and that fighting away from home in front of a hostile crowd does not bother him.When Brodie met California’s Willie Jorrin for the vacant WBC super-bantamweight version in Manchester in 2000 he lost a majority decision that remains as baffling now as it did on the night. “I think that British promoters have a lot to answer for over the last 10 years or so because we have let other titles take over.” Hearn should know having been instrumental in persuading the British Boxing Board of Control to sanction World Boxing Organisation fights when he promoted Chris Eubank in the early Nineties, and during the last few years he has given credibility to the IBO, which is run by the former WBO boss Ed Levine.Tonight, Chi will try to go one stage further than he did in 2001 when he was beaten on points by the Mexican legend Erik Morales in Los Angles for the same belt.

It is an even and quality encounter that has been put together in the old-fashioned way by lobbying and not thrown together at late notice by a couple of matchmakers handicapped by a shortage of cash.This will actually be the fourth time in eight fights that Brodie has fought for a vacant world title having lost a controversial challenge for the WBC’s super-bantamweight version in 2000, won the World Boxing Federation title at feather in 2002 and the International Boxing Organisation title earlier this year.”This is for the real world title,” Brodie’s promoter, Barry Hearn, admitted. It is a title game of endless possibilities, and right now more than 20 British boxers are world champions, which should improve their bank balances, help sell tickets and satisfy television’s obsession with so-called championship fights.However, Brodie more than almost any other British boxer deserves a real fight for a proper title, and that is exactly what he has tonight when he finally meets Chi. At last a real world title fight will take place in Britain when the vacant World Boxing Council featherweight championship will hopefully be decided over 12 rounds at the MEN Arena in Manchester tonight between the local fighter Michael Brodie and Korea’s Injin Chi. This situation, which greatly benefits the fighter financially, has taken the sport closer than ever to being recognised as a fake game where influence and not talent is essential, but Brodie’s fight with Chi has the authentic feel of a world title from a previous era.There have been a lot of exceptions during the last five or six years, but in general a half-decent British fighter will meet a willing import for a gaudy bauble and suddenly Britain and, more importantly, television has a new world champion. It must have taken them some time to negotiate their way out of all that clinging lycra, but the delay did not seem to have affected the concentration of their elderly spectators.If I’d only had a camera…. At one point we passed an old people’s home whose inhabitants, mainly female, had set out tables and chairs in the driveway to get a better view of the passing spectacle.But the ladies’ attention was being distracted by something at the roadside – 20 or so cyclists who had evidently made a group decision to relieve their bladders into a neighbouring hedge.

But I will be forever grateful to the great sport of cycling for providing me with one of my fondest memories.Seven years ago, when the Tour de France briefly visited the south-east corner of England, I was invited to experience the occasion with the Motorola team, of whom the home rider Sean Yates was a part, as well as an American called Lance Armstrong, who went on to do quite well in the event.Speeding through the cleared Kentish roads in the team car and accepting the excited applause of those who had come out to watch was a truly exhilarating experience. So dodging the call to wheels gave me the same kind of satisfaction as closing the door on people who want to sell me double glazing or religion (mops I usually buy). Chips and mayonnaise – that old energy-giving standby of the Belgian cyclist – became our staple fare.At times, I confess, I was tempted to join the two-wheelers For a while I wobbled. But although a diet of chips and mayonnaise was fine by me, I just couldn’t face the thought of getting into and out of those exhibitionist shorts on a daily basis.Keen cyclists – and they’re all keen, aren’t they? When have you ever met a half-hearted cyclist? – as I say, keen cyclists tend towards the evangelical. The upstairs office began to look more cramped than ever.Our old lunchtime bun-run down to the bakers was replaced by a more lengthy journey to Baxters fish shop.