Roger Alton

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

What English cricket needs now

23 April 2022 9:00 am

You couldn’t ask for a more amiable man than Rob Key to run English cricket: affable, shrewd and universally liked,…

Pep and Klopp, kings of England

9 April 2022 9:00 am

It’s a game for the ages all right, City againstLiverpool on Sunday as the Premier League moves to its most…

Where Eddie Jones is going wrong

26 March 2022 9:00 am

Rugby Union, bloody hell. We’ve got to talk about Eddie, but before that, what about something much cheerier? Just when…

Let’s scrap the Six Nations

12 March 2022 9:00 am

If you were one of the sharp-suited head honchos at CVC Capital Partners, the private equity megalith that has ploughed…

Is football hooliganism on its way back?

26 February 2022 9:00 am

Forty-odd years ago a friend, a Liverpool supporter, somewhat unwisely took his girlfriend to Elland Road for a Leeds match…

Mason Greenwood and football’s obsession with prodigies

12 February 2022 9:00 am

Well, there’s a surprise: Nike have cancelled their sponsorship of the Manchester United and England footballer Mason Greenwood, who is…

Why everyone should be shouting about Dave ‘Rocket’ Ryding

29 January 2022 9:00 am

As we digest another Ashes thrashing for England’s cricketers in Australia, and wonder whether the 1966 World Cup victory will…

The BBC is killing cricket

15 January 2022 9:00 am

Full homage to the nail-biting cricketing miracle in Sydney, while bearing in mind that miracles, like lightning, rarely strike twice…

The year sport and politics became inseparable

18 December 2021 9:00 am

Sport and politics have always been intertwined, but this was the year they became joined at the hip. Yorkshire racism;…

Has Formula 1 ever been this exciting?

11 December 2021 9:00 am

The good citizens of Stevenage would be well advised to prepare extensively for the likely open-top bus parade of their…

Poor Ole wasn’t cut out for Man U

27 November 2021 9:00 am

Manchester United have ended up with a temporary coach before they look for an interim manager. Haven’t we heard that…

Yorkshire cricket: the long view

13 November 2021 9:00 am

The new chairman of Yorkshire County Cricket Club played a blinder in his first innings, consistently hitting the boundary and…

Why the Reds have got the blues

30 October 2021 9:00 am

Not so much the hair dryer: more a gentle home perm. Contemplating the increasingly less youthful visage of Ole Gunnar…

Where did all of rugby’s fans go?

16 October 2021 9:00 am

Could rugby union get any better? The entertainment in the Premiership is breathtaking and the overall product as good as…

England’s shameful betrayal of Pakistan

2 October 2021 9:00 am

Any English person with a love of cricket knows life has its ups and downs. But until now we have…

The other winner of Emma Raducanu’s stunning victory

18 September 2021 9:00 am

Not many people would have seen that coming. I’m talking of course of last Saturday evening and the women’s final…

The absurdity of tennis players’ toilet breaks

4 September 2021 9:00 am

Forgive the personal question, but how long does it take you to, you know, go to the gents, ladies, non-binary?…

Can cricket go on like this?

21 August 2021 9:00 am

‘Fifty years from now Britain will still be the country of long shadows on county grounds, warm beer, invincible green…

What would Avery Ice Age have made of the Tokyo Olympics?

7 August 2021 9:00 am

Avery Brundage was known to his enemies as Avery Ice Age — and to quite a few of his friends…

Can the Lions prise open the strong Boks?

24 July 2021 9:00 am

You would need a digger to explore the levels of irony in a Springbok chief slagging off an opponent’s dirty…

The real sporting star of this summer

10 July 2021 9:00 am

Think of a punishing distance for a bike race. Double it, multiply by ten, throw in two of the world’s…

Forget football – rugby is the real beautiful game

26 June 2021 9:00 am

The question is surely destined to become a pub quiz staple: ‘Who moved a bottle 18 inches across a table…

Ollie Robinson’s ritual humiliation

12 June 2021 9:00 am

One of the more egregious innovations of Chairman Mao’s cultural revolution was something called the ‘struggle sessions’. This involved the…

For the sake of athletics, the Olympics must not be delayed again

29 May 2021 9:00 am

Whatever became of athletics? It’s fallen nearly as far as show jumping and that is a long way. But the…

Thoughts on a foreign clash of the English titans

15 May 2021 9:00 am

Thank heavens the Champions League final is being played in Portugal, now Turkey’s off the menu (sorry). It will certainly…