5. Dirt 3 – Xbox 360
Dirt 3 removed the few bad parts of Dirt 2 and introduced some great tracks and racing. The return of split screen gaming was fantastic and the multiplayer added a lot of value. Its just a shame they had to shoe horn in gymkhana nonsense.

4. F1 2011 – Xbox 360
This years game may be slightly buggy but this is a much more playable game than the first one and is actually enjoyable to play with friends. As above Codemasters saw the sense and added split screen multiplayer.

3. Batman Arkham City – Xbox 360
The first Arkham game was fantastic, I loved everything about it. The new game was very good but still felt disappointing. The new environment was not generally as good and the boss battles were not so strong. It was still a great game though.

2. Dark Souls – Xbox 360
I will be honest, I am not a long way through this tricky game but I can tell that it is fantastic and despite being very hard I have had fun with it so far.

1. Portal 2 – Xbox 360
A great game, the story is great and the gameplay is still very very enjoyable. It is rare for a game to make you laugh but this has humour in spades. Valve does it again.

Beth:
10. Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol
9. Senna
8. Source Code
7. Cars 2
6. Harry Potter
5. Horrible Bosses
4. Attack the Block
3. Sherlock Holmes
2. Bridesmaids
1. King’s Speech

Jonathan:

10. source code
9. horrible bosses
8. attack the block
7. Sherlock holmes
6. tinker tailor soldier spy
5. King’s Speech
4. Senna
3. bridesmaids
2. tintin

And at number 1:

1. Mission impossible: Ghost Protocol
It may be big and noisy as well as everything a film graduate should hate but I don’t care about any of that. I want to watch a film and have fun and Mission Impossible 4 was the film I had the most fun watching.

That logic is also what sees Tintin at number 2 and Bridesmaids at three. From there we have three of the films that have/should have critical acclaim, Senna was a good portrayal of a great racer while Kings Speech has already cleaned up an awards season.

Bring on 2012 with Batman and Bilbo!

Top 5 sportsmen of 2011
Drew Brees for breaking Dan Marino’s yardage record.
Jenson Button for coming ahead of everyone except Sebastian Vettel
Dai Greene for winning the world 400m Hurdles and for being Welsh
Nathan Cleverly for being Britain’s only remaining boxing World Champion (and for being Welsh)
Mark Cavendish for winning Sports Personality

Losers of the Year
Carlos Tevez – Perhaps it was too cold to play?
The three Pakistan cricketers convicted of match fixing.
Mike Tindall – He would have been put in the Tower 400 years ago.
Alain Rolland – For sending off Sam Warburton against France. I know he’s Irish but he sure sounds French.
Amir Khan – for losing when a Super-Fight was on the horizon.

Teams of the Years
AFC Wimbledon – well the first half of the year anyway.
Wales Rugby team – for being better than England.
England Cricket – for being better than everyone (in Test Cricket anyway).
Barcelona – for thrashing Man Utd in the Champions League Final
Oakland Raiders – well why not?

Special Mile High Messiah Award
Tim Tebow – no he’s not he’s just a naughty boy!

Note that there are no women listed, well its not really sport is it?

Trefor Little

5. Karting
While I won again that wasn’t the key thing. I had lots of fun with friends and family on the track at the meals afterwards and I hope that will continue in 2012 with races likely in February, August and November/December. I also had more experience of outdoor karting racing around Surbiton and Bayford Meadows. The latter is superb and gave me my first proper race against proper foes. Unfortunately the rain scuppered my opening race fourth place. Bring on 2012′s racing.

4. 48 hours in America

In October Beth and I flew to Chicago on a Friday and then flew back on a Sunday. This was not because we are mad (well maybe partially), but because Beth’s uncle Bob was marrying his fiancée Joanne. I did a pretty good job or staying in GMT for the trip, helped by the reception finishing around 9pm. The weekend was made the more enjoyable with a trip Saturday to the John Deere museum and the wedding itself was lovely despite a rock concert in the background and the punkin (pumpkin) people. The reception was nice and the company was good. The only downside really was the travel.

3. Becoming involved in American Football
For several years I have followed American Football quite strongly. I had knowledge of an British league but had never really researched it. Then in February 2011 the league’s forum advertised a webmaster position. I applied and found the position was already filled but was offered a role as the league’s news editor instead. As the season started the role consumed a lot of my time but was rarely a chore. I now have a good amount of knowledge of the sport in this country and am looking forward to my second season in the role while also now becoming the webmaster.

2. Moving house
In January we moved from our lopsided flat at one end of the high street to a bungalow on the other end. The new place is an improvement under almost all criteria. We now have a garden, a driveway and a study. The downside is that we had to invite fewer people for thanksgiving and the shower is a bit naff. Minor issues.

1. Denver
Two trips to Denver this year. The first saw a largely sport filled break. I went a little baseball mad, seeing three games in four days at Coors Field home of the Colorado Rockies. I then went to my first NHL and NBA games as well. We also saw some lovely scenery including the Garden of the Gods.

Our trip in December was just as good as I brought my parents along and we spent Christmas in a log cabin in Estes Park then spent a nice quiet week at casa des Blomberg with another NHL game added in for luck.

I am now 6-5 on watching the Denver sports teams. May more wins improve that further.

So that was my 2011, how was yours?

Congratulations also to 2011′s other newlyweds:
Demelza and Craig King, Laura and Simon Rafferty and Nicola and Michael Sharkey

So for the first time since race 5 of the season we have an F1 driver ranking post. While my feelings towards F1 were tempered slightly by the domination of king Vettel and the introduction of DRS it was still generally a good season. Possibly not up there with the last couple but fairly strong. How were the drivers though? Well Hamilton certainly struggled with his style not suiting a DRS / Pirelli tyre world. He made silly mistakes aplenty and looked like a rookie. This is the first season he has been outperformed by a teammate and that saw him slip. Heikki Kovaleinen continues his rise through the rankings. He has worked very well with a teammate not seeming to contribute much and moved Lotus near to the midfield. He deserve a high spot.

1 Sebastien Vettel /
2 Fernando Alonso +1
3 Jenson Button +1
4 Nico Rosberg +1
5 Heikki Kovaleinen +4
6 Lewis Hamilton -4
7 Paul Di Resta +6
8 Kamui Kobayashi -2
9 Sergio Perez +2
10 Mark Webber -2
11 Michael Schumacher +3
12 Bruno Senna RE
13 Felipe Massa -1
14 Adrian Sutil +2
15 Timo Glock +2
16 Vitaly Petrov -7
17 Daniel Ricciardo NE
18 Nick Heidfeld -8
19 Pedro De La Rosa RE
20 Sebastien Buemi -5
21 Jaime Alguersuari -2
22 Rubens Barrichello -4
23 Jarno Trulli -3
24 Tonio Liuzzi +3
25 Pastor Maldonado -2
26 Jerome D’Ambrosio -4
27 Karun Chandhok RE
28 Narain Kathikeyan -4

At the bottom, the two Indian drivers sit at the bottom fairly deservedly based on performances. D’Ambrosio never seemed fully cut out as Di Grassi’s replacement while I still don’t like Maldonado or Liuzzi in F1. Trulli and Barrichello need to realise it is time to retire and the two Toro Rosso drivers must have reached their ends too? Hopefully some old boys can go away and the new generation can come and play. With that being said though, Schumacher is showing the old boys still have some life in them. Curses.