Neil Drysdale

Sports Journalist

I'm a general sports writer with a love of cricket, golf and rugby and a detestation of Old Firm nonsense. Committed to highlighting so-called minority sports. I think the 2014 Commonwealth Games will be fantastic for Scotland if the politicos get off their backsides and invest in sport. But let's talk!

I'm a general sports writer with a love of cricket, golf and rugby and a detestation of Old Firm nonsense. Committed to highlighting so-called minority sports. I think the 2014 Commonwealth Games will be fantastic for Scotland if the politicos get off their backsides and invest in sport. But let's talk!

Latest articles from Neil Drysdale

George Graham, the club game's great champion, says standards are on the rise

HE might turn 50 next year, but you still get the feeling George Graham would run through a brick wall for the sake of Scottish rugby if somebody asked him politely. This, after all, is one of the sport's trailblazers and who has always been more interested in the trail than the blazer, whether starring in both codes, excelling at Newcastle, or gaining 25 international caps in the union ranks and being a pivotal part of the last great Scottish team, the one which triumphed in the Five Nations Championship of 1999.

Date of curtain raiser at Murrayfield leaves Heriots coach scratching his head

PHIL SMITH sounded more mystified than miffed, but there again, you couldn't really blame the redoubtable Heriots coach. As the defending Scottish champions, Smith might have supposed his charges would begin their quest for another title at the same time as all the other clubs in the Premiership. But no. Instead, the Goldenacre side will be tackling Edinburgh neighbours, Boroughmuir, in something called the BT Charity Shield at Murrayfield with an 11.45 kick-off on Saturday. And if you think that sounds perilously close to the rugby equivalent of the football fixture which has become one of sport's biggest irrelevancies, Smith isn't inclined to disagree.

Paul Hoffmann questions Trevor Bayliss appointment ahead of the Ashes

Usually, the former Scottish pace bowler, who arrived in Caledonia from Rockhampton in the late 1990s, backs his Aussie comrades to the hilt. But he's no blind patriot. He despaired of some of their displays five or six years ago, but was one of the few observers to forecast they would demolish England in the last Ashes campaign.

'New' England line up against old foes for an Ashes set to come down to wire

Praise be for that! If it hasn't been Sky advertising one of their (few) summer attractions on a wall-to-wall basis during the last month - including Bob Willis dressed up as a judge in a skit which makes The Three Stooges seem like comic geniuses - it has been an endless litany of past and present players discussing whether this latest series will have more or less sledging than previous campaigns and so on, ad nauseam.