Sport Preview, 27-29 March

There is a busy weekend of sport ahead including the return of F1, potentially decisive football World Cup qualifiers and more cricket in the West Indies.

Formula One
It's back - and it's back on the BBC so there should be no chance that we miss a vital overtaking manoeuvre as Lewis Hamilton starts the defence of his title at Albert Park in Melbourne.

Hamilton has played down his chances this weekend and suggested McLaren are not quite ready for the season.

And he's probably right to do so, considering his practice times overnight which saw him finish 16th and 18th.

The Williams - and Nico Rosberg in particular - made an impressive start to the weekend, topping both practice sessions.

And Brawn GP, headed by ex-Honda boss Ross Brawn, have lived up to the promise they showed in testing 4th and 6th in the first practice, and 2nd and 5th in the second session. Rubens Barrichello beat Jenson Button for pace both times.

Nevertheless, Button remains 4/1 fav with most bookmakers to add to his single career GP victory this weekend. Make of that what you will...

I'm just looking forward to hearing The Chain by Fleetwood Mac again.


Football - World Cup qualifiers

A big weekend of World Cup action for four of the British Isles' teams.

Scotland face Holland in Amsterdam amid an injury crisis following the withdrawals of David Weir, Kirk Broadfoot, Kris Commons, Paul Hartley and the latest victim, Celtic captain Stephen McManus.

The last time the two teams met in Holland, the Dutch prevailed 6-0 and overturned a 1-0 deficit in the playoffs for Euro 2008 qualification.

Scotland are a better team now and should avoid a similarly crushing blow despite their injury problems while looking to pick up maximum points at home v Iceland on Wednesday to strengthen their hold on second place.

Wales simply must beat Finland at home to maintain any hopes of progressing from a tough-looking Group 4.

The Welsh follow this up with a second match at the Millennium Stadium against Germany who are already four points clear of the chasing pack (although Russia have a game in hand).

The group draw was hardly kind to Wales who have produced a batch of talented youngsters and you feel the best they can do is finish behind the powerhouses of Germany and Russia then hope for better next time.

Like Wales, Northern Ireland play two home matches in the World Cup double-header and must make it count at Windsor Park - otherwise opponents Poland and Slovenia will race off over the horizon, not to mention the Czechs and the Slovaks.

The Republic have put themselves in a decent position in second but level on points with leaders Italy in Group 8.

They face a similarly vital weekend and would further strengthen a top-two position by beating Bulgaria (minus Dimitar Berbatov) on Saturday before a tough test in Bari against Italy.

Meanwhile, England's players will skate around Slovakian challenges on Saturday in the hope of avoiding injury before the somewhat more important match in a qualifier v Ukraine, their closest Group 6 rivals at Wembley on Wednesday.

Beating Ukraine would put England in a wonderfully strong position, five points clear of Croatia - assuming they deal with the arduous task of beating Andorra - and eight points clear of Ukraine.

In local north east football, Whitley Bay will hope to take a big step to a second successive Wembley appearance in the first leg of their FA Vase semi final against Lowestoft Town at Hillheads on Saturday at 3pm.

And Gateshead will hope to stay top of the Blue Square North by beating Hinckley on Saturday at the International Stadium at 3pm.

Cricket - one-day internationals

With the series tied at 1-1, England will play two decisive matches in Barbados on Friday and Sunday against the West Indies.

England had failed to win a match all winter until being gifted victory by the Windies coach in the first one-day international when he failed to understand the Duckworth-Lewis tables (although, having said that, who does?)

But the Windies continued to show the determination on display through the Test series to level at 1-1, winning by 21 runs after a century by Shiv Chanderpaul.

England will want to win more legitimately while the Windies will want to put themselves within reach of a Test-ODI double.

As I type, it's not started at all well for England who are 47-5 after 16 overs following the loss of Strauss, Bopara, Pietersen, Shah and Flintoff all caught.

Other sports

In Ice Hockey, it's playoff time in the Elite League with the following match-ups played over two legs this weekend:
Sheffield v Edinburgh (first leg in Sheffield on Fri, second leg in Edinburgh on Sun)
Belfast v Cardiff (first leg in Belfast on Sat, second leg in Cardiff on Sun)
Coventry v Newcastle (first leg in Coventry on Sat, second leg in Newcastle on Sun)
Nottingham v Manchester (first leg in Nottingham on Sat, second leg in Manchester on Sun)

So, by the end of the weekend, we will be aware of the combatants on finals weekend (4th/5th April) at the National Ice Arena in Nottingham.

And GB's cycling team continue their pursuit of gold in the World Track Championships in Pruskow, Poland.