Roger Alton

Roger Alton is an executive editor at The Times. He writes the Spectator Sport column.

Boxing belongs in the Olympics

29 March 2025 9:00 am

If there is anything more pointless than signing a five-year contract to be Emma Raducanu’s coach, it is the effort…

Angela Rayner’s war on Britain’s playing fields

15 March 2025 9:00 am

With the world on fire – not to mention large swathes of the North Sea – it is understandable that…

The real reason for Scotland’s Six Nations defeat

1 March 2025 9:00 am

The confused world of Duhan van der Merwe must seem more confused than usual after last weekend. The Scotland winger…

Emperor Trump and the spectacle of the Super Bowl

15 February 2025 9:00 am

It’s easy to not quite get the Super Bowl. What exactly is it: a sporting event, a music show, a…

Can anyone stop France in the Six Nations?

1 February 2025 9:00 am

Winter’s almost done and spring’s on the way. We can tell because the Six Nations is about to muscle into…

The unnecessary complexity of the World Test Championship

18 January 2025 9:00 am

Have you booked your tickets for the World Test Championship yet? Did you even know it’s on? What seemed like…

Could Thomas Tuchel be the one?

4 January 2025 9:00 am

You would have to be living a very sheltered life not to have noticed that the Premier League this season…

The best (and worst) of this year’s sport

14 December 2024 9:00 am

It was quite a year for some of the worst of sport – America’s golfers, already among the richest and…

Who says Test cricket is boring?

30 November 2024 9:00 am

Under a dark sapphire sky, tearing across grass as green as a lick of new paint, Mitchell Starc raced in…

The towering talent of Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii

16 November 2024 9:00 am

When it comes to dishing out God’s gifts, you feel the Almighty could be a little more even-handed. Take Joseph-Aukuso…

The glaring mismatch in English football

2 November 2024 9:00 am

Your starter for ten: who was the last English manager to win the top flight of English football? Treat yourself…

The hypnotic competitiveness of Sir Ben Ainslie

19 October 2024 9:00 am

Sailing’s very own ubermensch Sir Ben Ainslie has every right to be considered the world’s most competitive bloke. Those who…

Sorry, but you’ve got to love the Springboks

5 October 2024 9:00 am

There may still be some poor benighted souls who regard the Springboks as the bane of rugby union. If you…

Why women’s golf is better than men’s

21 September 2024 9:00 am

In the exhilarating event of Somerset managing to sneak past Surrey and being on their way to claim their first…

Mickleover: the real home of cricket

7 September 2024 9:00 am

Readers concerned that the seemingly imperious march of Bazball across the cricket firmament has blotted out the more, er, traditional…

The simple beauty of the Hundred

24 August 2024 9:00 am

Time to come clean: I really like the Hundred. This is the sort of view that normally makes people look…

This Olympics belongs to the female athletes

10 August 2024 9:00 am

You knew it was going to be a superb Olympics from the moment Celine Dion belted out an Edith Piaf…

Why Keely Hodgkinson is the one to watch at the Olympics

27 July 2024 9:00 am

The Olympics have been creeping up on us through the forest of top-class sport this summer. But now they’re here,…

Murray shouldn’t have relied on injury-prone Raducanu

13 July 2024 9:00 am

Talk about raging against the dying of the light: Andy Murray and President Biden both. Murray because he is no…

Don’t let City spoil top-flight football

15 June 2024 9:00 am

The Pac-Man defence, as all high-flying financiers know, is a tactic borrowed from the enjoyably addictive computer game which means…

The perils of going to Manchester United

1 June 2024 9:00 am

Plodding up Wembley Way to the FA Cup Final at the weekend surrounded by a phalanx of well-refreshed Manchester United…

Is pro-golf eating itself?

18 May 2024 9:00 am

Spare a thought for Manchester United’s Erik ten Hag. He’s got a fairly crummy, injury-hit team who appear to have…

The strikers giving Southgate a headache

4 May 2024 9:00 am

Poor Gareth Southgate. Having three outstanding finishers is giving him a thumping headache ahead of the European Championship. Harry Kane,…

Manchester City are surely unstoppable

20 April 2024 9:00 am

Well it was fun while it lasted, the closest three-way race for the Premier League in history, a title challenge…