, getting off to a record start on the way to finishing with the most points in the NHL.

Until this week, the closest Chris Woakes had come to a Test on his home ground was working with the groundstaff during the famous 2005 Ashes encounter, when the Warwickshire Academy players were asked to help with the covers.And if, six months ago, you had said that he would be the talk of Birmingham ahead of this Edgbaston Test there would have been some quizzical looks.Woakes finished the South Africa tour dispirited and frustrated: after Centurion, where he took 1 for 144, six Tests had brought eight wickets at an unflattering average of 63.75. When there was a spot for a spare pace bowler at the start of the summer it went to Jake Ball. Woakes knew he had slipped down the pecking order. It could have been a summer in the county game.Then Ben Stokes knee went in the opening Test against Sri Lanka at Headingley, England wanted as close to like-for-like as they could find and Woakes took a career-best 9 for 36 against Durham.Now, four matches into his comeback, Woakes has taken 26 wickets at 13.84, 18 of them in the two Tests against Pakistan, 11 at Lords when he filled the hole left by James Andersons absence. He has shown he is far more than just injury cover for both Anderson and Stokes, his form with bat and ball securing a first-choice place in the XI.On Wednesday or Thursday, weather permitting, he will mark his batting guard or measure out his run in front of the stands that he used to sit in as a kid. Somewhere among the crowd will be friends (plenty of them, judging by the ticket requests he has received over recent days) and family - including his father, Roger, who is unable to watch his son overseas due to suffering from claustrophobia, which prevents him from flying - those he used to come down to the ground with when an England career was still a far-off dream.In a turn of fate, the opening day of the Test will come ten years and a day since Woakes first-class debut against West Indies A on this ground in a Warwickshire side that also included Moeen Ali. He took the wickets of Sylvester Joseph, Jason Mohammad and Sewnarine Chattergoon while making 4 batting at No. 9.Now, after 10 Tests, he sits with a batting average of 35.00 and bowling average of 25.58. The sample size remains small, but the turnaround has been remarkable.It will be a special week, he says, after Centurion it would be silly to think Id have the summer I have had. I had doubts that I may not play Test cricket again unless there were quite a few injuries, but Id have been disappointed if Centurion was my last game because I knew I had so much more to offer.I actually bowled well in the first Test in Durban and probably didnt get the rewards, had Hashim Amla dropped. Who knows if that had gone in, you end up getting a five-for. It just wasnt working for me. I then had four weeks off without playing and didnt bowl well in the nets leading into the last Test. I just didnt feel as good as I could have been, so it wasnt a great position to be going into a Test match.I was scratching my head a little, especially after Centurion. I can do it at first-class level, why arent I showing it at the next level? But its amazing what six months can do for you.There hasnt been any magical formula to Woakes summer of success. However, the increase in pace has been noticeable and now he has been able to marry it with accuracy helped, he says, by not bowling day-in day-out at county level.I fell into a trap in my early years of just trying to pitch it up, swing it and conserve some energy because I knew Id have to bowl 25 overs a day. We all know the schedule is crazy. Now I bowl a little less but at full tilt, but the most important thing is I use my front arm more and my run up is a bit quicker.It sounds two simple things, but to put them into practice is actually quite difficult. Id put on the pace quite quickly but my accuracy suffered. It took a while, it didnt happen overnight, probably the last two years.Still, the margins between success and failure remain small. Woakes, himself, has barely noticed what others - notably assistant coach Paul Farbrace - believes has made a key difference.Farby feels Ive bowled a fraction fuller this summer. In previous years he felt I was a little bit safe, bowling a little bit short, worried about getting driven or attacking the stumps. I havent tried to do it on purpose but that might be the case.Such has been Woakes rise, that he is being seen as an integral part for England this week by his more senior team-mates. Stuart Broad has spoken about using his local knowledge but, in the slightly deferential manner that is reflective of Woakes character, he says there is not a massive amount of insider tips to be given out.Warwickshire have sometimes played two spinners here this season, but Woakes expects more grass to be left on than for county games, although the surface certainly looked less green than last years Ashes encounter.You generally want to bowl a bit fuller. Its all about conditions, I know people say that about Lords but its massive here. Sometimes you go through periods when the ball does nothing because the sun is out then in overcast conditions it can be completely different. It almost looks a different colour when the clouds come out.With or without cloud cover, Woakes is proving himself a Test bowler.Investec is the title sponsor of Test match cricket in England. For more on Investec private banking, visit investec.co.uk/banking Clearance NFL Jerseys .C. -- Todd Fiddler scored a hat trick, including the overtime goal, as the Prince George Cougars survived an 8-7 win against the Kamloops Blazers in Western Hockey League play Sunday. Wholesale NFL Jerseys Outlet . It was the kind of score that might make everyone else wonder which course he was playing. Except that Graeme McDowell saw the whole thing. 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RIO DE JANEIRO -- With fireworks forming the word Rio in the sky and supermodel Gisele Bundchen shimmering to the tune of The Girl from Ipanema, Rio de Janiero jubilantly welcomed the world Friday to the first Olympic Games in South America.After one of the roughest-ever rides from vote to games by an Olympic host, the city of beaches, carnival, grinding poverty and sun-kissed wealth opened the two-week games of the 31st Olympiad with a high-energy gala celebration of Brazils can-do spirit, biodiversity and melting pot history.The low-tech, cut-price opening ceremony, a moment of levity for a nation beset by economic and political woes, featured performers as slaves, gravity-defying climbers hanging from buildings in Brazils teeming megacities and -- of course -- dancers, all hips and wobble, grooving to thumping funk and sultry samba.But Brazil also packaged its party with solemnity, lacing the fun and frivolous show with sobering messages about global warming and conservation. Images of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, swirling in the Earths atmosphere were followed by projections of world cities and regions -- Amsterdam, Florida, Shanghai, Dubai -- being swamped by rising seas. The peace symbol, tweaked into the shape of a tree, was projected onto the floor of the Maracana Stadium that filed with thousands of athletes from the 207 teams.The heat is melting the icecap, a voice intoned. Its disappearing very quickly.The crowd roared when Bundchen sashayed from one side of the 78,000-seat arena to the other, as Tom Jobims grandson, Daniel, played his grandfathers famous song about the Ipanema girl tall and tan and young and lovely.In a video preceding the show, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the games celebrate the best of humanity and appealed for an Olympic truce, calling on all warring parties to lay down their weapons during the two weeks of sporting achievement.There were times after the International Olympic Committee selected Rio ahead of Chicago, Tokyo and Madrid in 2009 when it seemed that the city of 6.5 million people might not get its act together for the worlds greatest sporting mega-event. The spreading health crisis of the mosquito-born Zika virus kept some athletes away. Promises to clean up Rios filthy waters remained unfulfilled. The heavy bill for the games, at least $12 billion, made them unpopular with many. Heavily armed security stopped a small group of protesters from getting close to the stadium ahead of the ceremony.But with more than a dash of gambiarra, the Brazilian art of quick-fixes and making do, Rio is ready.Just.Our admiration is even greater because you managed this at a very difficult time in Brazilian history. We have always believed in you, IOC President Thomas Bach said.The honor of officially declaring the games open fell to Michel Temer, Brazils unpopular interim president, who was loudly jeered and faced shouts of out with Temer. He was standing in for suspended President Dilma Rousseff. Her ouster less than four months aahead of the games for alleged budget violations was one of many spanners in the works of Brazils Olympic preparations and impacted the opening ceremony itself.dddddddddddd Fewer than 25 foreign heads of state were listed as attending, with others seemingly staying away to avoid giving the impression of taking sides amid Brazils leadership uncertainty.The cannonball-shaped cauldron was lit by Brazilian marathoner Vanderlei Cordeiro de Lima. At the 2004 games, an Irish spectator wearing a kilt, knee-socks and a beret tackled de Lima while he was leading the Olympic marathon. Instead of gold, he fell back to take bronze.Greece, the historical and spiritual home of the games, led the march by athletes into the stadium. They were joined by a first-ever Refugee Olympic Team of 10 athletes, displaced from Syria, South Sudan, Congo and Ethiopia. Their flag-bearer, Rose Nathike Lokonyen, fled war in South Sudan and ran her first race in a refugee camp in northern Kenya. Only Brazils team, which marched last, drew a louder roar from the crowd than the refugees.The athletes were given tree seeds, plus cartridges of soil. When they sprout, they will be planted in a Rio park.With USA emblazoned on the back of his jacket, Michael Phelps carried the flag for the U.S. team, the largest with 549 competitors. At his fifth and last Olympics, it was the first time the record holder of 22 medals had marched in an opening ceremony, having skipped previous ones to save energy for competition.On behalf of all 11,288 competitors (6,182 men; 5,106 women), Brazilian two-time Olympic champion sailor Robert Scheidt pledged that they wont take banned drugs -- an oath likely to ring false to fans after the scandal of government-orchestrated cheating in Russia. As a consequence, Russias team was whittled down from a hoped-for 389 athletes to around 270.Iran picked a woman, archer Zahra Nemati, as flag-bearer for its team made up overwhelmingly of men. Another woman pushed Nematis wheelchair. She was paralyzed in a car accident as a teenager.Shoals of samba dancers flowed in a rainbow of colors, but many showed less flesh than normal for Brazil, seemingly mindful of their global TV audience.After the grandeur of Beijings opening ceremony in 2008 and the high-tech, cheeky inventiveness of Londons in 2012, Rios was earthier and less swish but more sobering with its gloomy environmental look at the future and deliberate penny-pinching. Creative director Fernando Meirelles said their budget, slashed by half as Brazils economic recession bit ever harder, is 12 times less than London, 20 times less than Beijing.It is pretty tacky to be overspending, he said. It is not a good message for the world. When 40 percent of the homes in Brazil have no sanitation, you cant really be spending a billion reals for a show.In the end I feel good that I am not spending money that Brazil hasnt got. ' ' '