F1 offers us the great Renault scandal. Remarkable, isn't it, how the world's most tedious sport manages to keep itself in the headlines with one shock horror story after another? Cynics might think they were doing it deliberately; all scripted, like those various initialled wrestling soap operas.

And, by the way, why all the fuss whenever a driver lets his teammate pass him because he needs the points more? Hasn't anyone noticed the TEAM bit? Do people complain if Wayne Rooney passes to Michael Owen instead of shooting for goal himself?

Which brings us to Sparky Hughes and his magic watch. Funny that, for once, Fergie didn't whine about added time. But come on, folks. Even an amateur basketball team manages to have a clock on the wall that starts and stops at the referee's signal, so everyone knows where they are. Is it beyond Premier League football clubs to do the same? Problem solved in an instant.

What else happened? Oh yes, we lost 6-1 to Australia in the one-day series. Anyone care? I thought not.

As for proper sport, my week included two Aveley games, both 4-2s. The first was an FA Cup replay against London Colney who looked very much better than Spartan League Div One and led 2-0 at half-time before manager Rod Stringer's flying teacups sorted his team out and they finally made the three-division gap count.

Millers reached the lofty heights of second in the Ryman Premier on Saturday (a mere eight points behind Dartford) but were on the receiving end of the 4-2 scoreline this time. Talking point here was the volunteer linesman who took over when the proper one hurt himself soon after half-time. Aveley were told by the ref, who was from Lancashire and knew no better, that the newcomer was 'a Maidstone official' . Cue outrage on the Aveley bench when he flagged for offside to cost them a goal. Stringer and centre-back Darren Blewitt, who had just been substituted, were invited to depart the premises (though I heard no moaning sufficient to justify such drastic action, and I was standing pretty close to the bench). Alongside me was Aveley secretary Craig Johnson, who gave me the 'Maidstone official' story. I hurriedly pointed out that the deputy, who was on the far side of the pitch, was nothing of the sort. He was, in fact, league vice-chairman Nick Robinson. Craig grabbed his phone just in time to ensure that Stringer, who was about to pass Nick en route to the stand, was not tempted to comment further on the decision - which was, incidentally, perfectly correct.

Just to make it the protest even sillier, Nick's signal led to an Aveley penalty a couple of minutes later - and that was a correct decision as well.

In between the two Aveley games I paid my first visit of the season to Hornchurch, a club in total financial chaos for the second time in five years. Manager Colin McBride has somehow kept them going and there seems a general belief that a buyer will soon appear to rescue them, though no-one seems to know who it might be.

On the speedway front, there was a heavy cup semi-final defeat for an injury-hit Rye House and a disappointing play-off display by Lakeside Hammers at Wolverhampton on Monday. I watched the latter on TV, which meant suffering a Tony Millard commentary with its three stock phrases, one of them being the semi-meaningless 'teammate and partner' which comes out about three times in every race. And he kept getting the riders' names wrong. Hammers' in-form pair of Finns, Kauko Nieminen and Joonas Kylmakorpi, were right out of form so, needing a 20-point second leg win to force an aggregate draw, the Essex men are probably finnished.

Things started badly for Romford when James Gammons was sent off after three minutes (which included two minutes of mass pushing and shoving) for allegedly headbutting Nicky Cowley, the Concord captain. Gammons, who apologised to club officials at half-time, accepted the decision but the visiting fans behind the goal, never the most unbiased group, were none too happy.

Imagine their delight when Joe Sweeney put Concord ahead on the half-hour with a goal that might have been offside and/or handball, provoking Boro defender Paul White to shout "Don't worry about this chap" as play restarted. Words to that effect, anyway, and he didn't say chap. Now it was 11-9.

Concord failed miserably to make the most of their two-man advantage and managed to add only a Danny Heale penalty before, remarkably, it became 11-8 with 15 minutes left when Richard Oxby's wild challenge earned him a second yellow. The curious thing about it was that it wasn't a particularly dirty game and that Romford's nine men had more than held their own against their star-studded opponents.

A three-man deficit was a bit much to cope with, though, and Concord knocked in another four goals. Just to rub it in, the sixth and last was a backheel by Cowley, not the visiting fans' favourite player.

It's long time since I've seen a side reduced to eight men, though I have fond memories of a brutal Essex Senior League game that finished 8-9 and that only because the referee simply refused to issue any more red cards. He was left with no choice, however, when a home forward broke through and the keeper rushed ten yards out of his box to scythe him down with a thigh-high tackle. He had to show red for the 'professional foul' or the height of the challenge, but out came a yellow card. This was doubly unfortunate because the keeper had been wearing the no.5 in the first half and had been booked in that role.

I mentioned this fact to a league official after the game and he turned rather pale before rushing off to the officials' dressing room, returning ten minutes later to announce that the no.4, not the no.5, had suffered the first-half booking. Yeah, right.

What made it even more entertaining was that the home side had invited all their local councillors and quite a few of them turned up, including the mayor whose chain was heard to be rattling furiously as the game went on.

I had toyed with the Halstead-Enfield replay last night, Halstead being one of the closer senior grounds I've never visited. I tried to once, but became hopelessly trapped in a traffic jam behind a major accident. It was most frustrating; five minutes earlier and I'd have missed it all. But that would have been even more frustrating in the end because the opposition got stuck as well and failed to arrive. Anyway, the Halstead game finished 2-0 to Enfield on penalties, which doesn't speak well of the marksmanship. The national press had it as 4-0 on penalties which, if you think about it, would have been a world record.

Route 66 took me to Great Wakering Rovers and there can be few more pleasant places to watch football on a warm, sunny afternoon than this village in the Southend hinterlands.

Rovers used to be famous for having a path round the pitch made of seashells; very nice, unless you were barefoot I guess. Sadly, that was not 'hard standing' within the terms of the ground grading rules and they had to replace them with boring concrete.

They remain an endearingly modest club despite their steady progress from local Southend football to Ryman One. Survival is their stated aim for this season and you have to press quite hard before they'll admit to hopes of finishing in the top half of the table.

They are, however, very proud that when a young Michael Kightly, then playing for Basildon in the Essex Senior League, was advised to find a bigger club in order to advance his career, Great Wakering was the club he chose. It worked very quickly. The future Wolves and England Under-21 star played only one match for them (some say it was none at all) before moving onwards and upwards via Grays Athletic.

Opponents for the day were Tilbury, who rather unexpectedly won the League Cup last season but have struggled to make an impact this time.

A beautifully-taken volleyed own goal by Rickie Hayles gave Rovers the lead but Dockers soon equalised with a Joe Keith penalty and 1-1 it stayed.

Own goals . . . now there's a topic that could take up a blog or two. My favourite remains the stunning 18-yard header by Liverpool's Tony Hateley at Highbury in 1967. It was only just after Liverpool had signed him what what was then a massive fee and for many years I kept a press photo of the event which showed the Reds defenders, including Emlyn Hughes, in a state of shock. "WHAT have we bought here?"

Dockers probably should have won it but Wakering came closest when Neil Richmond's shot was cleared off the line by his Aveley colleague of last season, Glen Golby.

That match was bookended by a couple of speedway meetings. Play-off bound Lakeside Hammers enjoyed a routine victory over Ipswich on Friday night but there was more entertainment at Rye House the following evening.

Rye's Tommy Allen was the star of the show. Allen, not the luckiest man in the sport, literally flew over the safety fence and a ten-yard grass strip before crashing back first into the inner rail of the old dog track which, fortunately, is made of plastic. You have to be scared by a back impact of such force and Allen was receiving attention for a long time. The old speedway rule that the worst-looking crashes are (usually) the ones that do the least damage came into play, however, and the sight of Allen walking away allowed us to 'enjoy' the spectacular mishap. He withdrew from the meeting with concussion, which was odd as his head seemed the one part of his body that hadn't hit anything during its journey.

Two men down (they were already without Robert Mear), Rockets did well to hang on for a 45-44 victory against a Newport side without an away win all season. After all, Rye had been in action at distant Edinburgh the night before and lost two riders during that match (Allen being one of them), though both were declared fittish for Saturday.

Alas, the 63-27 defeat in Scotland was the first leg of the cup semi-final and although Rockets are famously strong at home on their day, it might be too much to ask in the return this Saturday.

The weekend finished with Romford Raiders' first home ice hockey match of the season, a bad-tempered 'friendly' against Milton Keynes which they lost 6-2 to follow up a 7-2 defeat in MK the previous night. Romford's new import forwards struggled to make their mark but it's early days. My word, it was cold in that rink.

Last time, back in the spring, I'd managed a few test posts without figuring out how anyone might find it to read it.

Now, thanks to Gavin, I have a link to his popular TGS Photo site and, just maybe, someone might find me.

The original project stalled because of a sudden change in my personal circumstances. That crisis now more or less over, I should be able to keep it going.

In the meantime I have been appointed communications administrator for the Ryman (Isthmian) League, a part-time job which involves providing material for the league's website and bulletin.

Following on from that, I decided to venture upon writing a book about the league by visiting all 66 clubs in the course of the season. The book, inevitably, will be called Route 66 (I expect) and the title of this blog is an unashamed advertisement for it.

A pity, in a way. I rather liked the original name of Broadsider, reflecting both the fact that much of the summer material would be about speedway and also having a happy and more personal meaning.

I am now 14 clubs into the 66, which is a good start, and have enjoyed myself at the likes of Kingstonian, Tooting, Chipstead and Horsham YMCA. Less enjoyable was the latest visit, to Harlow, where the lights failed three times before play was abandoned after 20 minutes.

Next on the list, tomorrow as I write, will be the titanic Essex derby between Great Wakering Rovers and Tilbury. You might wonder why I won't be at one of the many intriguing FA Cup matches featuring Ryman League clubs and the answer, sadly, is that I decided to make my task more difficult by featuring 66 league matches. Why? Heaven knows, but I shall be brave and stick to it.

On the speedway front, one of the sport's great clubs, Swindon, have at last won the Elite League title, their first championship since 1967. Except thyat they haven't. Thanks to Sky, they can't call themselves champions unless they win the play-offs, which start on Monday week. My local Lakeside Hammers are through to the play-offs as well, with a difficult semi-final against Woverhampton, and have also reached the Elite League Cup final. They achieved that on June 12 but, being as how the other semi-final hasn't even been scheduled yet, enthusiasm may have waned by the time the final actually takes place.

My other local club, Premier League side Rye House, are also in contention for Cup honours and are as I write preparing for the first leg of their semi-final at Edinburgh tonight.

So, no doubt, speedway will feature in this blog for a few weeks yet.

But football, and particularly Ryman League football, is likely to be the main focus.

However, I can hardly ignore England's successful qualification for the World Cup, that being the big issue of the moment. Well done, chaps, and let's hope the unreasonable expectations which will now be placed on you by the media don't overwhelm you. Yes, we can win it, but it will involve winning three successive matches against, say, Germany, Brazil and Spain. Failure to do that really shouldn't be considered a disaster.

One small point: poor Mr Heskey has come in for some more stick. Well, maybe his finishing leaves something to be desired - but, as well as being our front-runner for this week's 5-1 win, he was also the spearhead for the 4-1 romp in Croatia AND, lest we forget, for the 5-1 in Germany which seems so long ago now. So he must be doing something right.

I suppose playing in a successful side doesn't necessarily guarantee anything. Ask Roger Wedge? Who he? You may well ask. He was a member of the only Leyton Orient forward line that ever scored nine goals in a game - and he never played another game for them, before or after.