The BBC is failing the Test
Michael Vaughan might disagree but — putting aside 2005 and all that — was there a more thrilling and satisfying…
Will Britannia rule the Auckland waves?
Alan Bond was a rogue and a rich man, in every way your typical Aussie larrikin. In 1983 he bankrolled…
Pig in the middle
It’s the Portuguese piglet you feel really sorry for. The diminutive (ready cooked) porker — a festive delicacy all over…
Empty seats and silver linings
The best thing about sport in 2020 was that any happened at all. And how good much of it was.…
Rugby must try harder
Remember those lazy, hazy, crazy days of last year’s rugby World Cup, when as perfect a performance by England as…
Farewell to four of the finest
So the Good Lord really wants to fill out his team: how else to interpret the passing in recent months…
Sit back and enjoy the spectacle ahead
‘At least there’s sport,’ said the woman in the supermarket queue. True enough, and in a welcome sop to an…
Thanks for nothing, Pickford
You might hate the Premier League for its determination to suck all the money out of football, but at least…
Football without the crowds is a winner
The Liverpool defence might have decided in a rare show of togetherness to demonstrate what the word ‘appalling’ means, and…
A scene with Harry and Son
José Mourinho, it was surprising to read, recently said how relieved he was that the Amazon Prime cameras were out…
In praise of today’s young footballers
You suspect that a bar of duty-free Toblerone, no matter how supersized, wouldn’t really do the trick when hapless England…
Sport as a TV event
Crowds, Covid and sport: could it get any crazier? I don’t mind about golf: no idiots yelling ‘Get in the…
Test of character
You are, shall we say, a famous commentator, one of a tiny elite in the British media. You are paid…
Carlos the magnificent
We know about the endlessly jaw-dropping greatness of Ben Stokes (a peerage soon, surely), the furious power of a supercharged…
The ugly side of the beautiful game
So all that sound and fury about Manchester City’s sins signified precisely nothing. Well, a €10 million fine isn’t nothing,…
Hats off to Liverpool
Where were we? Oh yes, Liverpool were running away with the Premier League and a mere three months later have…
Bad boys of the Six Nations
Sadly it looks as though the 2020 Six Nations may have to go down with an asterisk and an explanation…
Tyson Fury, the colossusweight star
Thankfully, Tyson Fury is as good at boxing as he is terrible at singing. But he really should pick on…
Eight lessons from the world of sport
What we have learned in the past few weeks: 1) Don’t play rugby in a howling gale, even though for…
Can England rise to the Six Nations challenge?
Not everyone likes the Six Nations — a recent well-received book on the state of rugby union described it as…
Sport needs more men like Vincent Kompany
Anyone still vaguely tempted to subscribe to that lazy and stupid cliché about footballers just being overpaid idiots should have…
Roger Alton’s highlights from a magical year in sport
We don’t half take a lot for granted. We may look up to the Aussies, kowtow to the Americans and…
Only now are we seeing what an extraordinary figure Bob Willis was
Maybe it’s just an age thing, but the death of Bob Willis has left me — and, I am sure,…
Why Ben Stokes should win Sports Personality of the Year
Oh those lazy, hazy, Stokesy days of summer: how long ago they seem now. When England won the cricket World…
England’s rugby team are embarrassingly sore losers
Sports events come and go, but good manners, as William of Wykeham might have put it, last for ever. Or…
