Sport
World rugby is changing for the better
It’s rugby, Jim, but not as we know it, as they nearly said on Star Trek. The Northampton vs Bath…
I find it hard to be outraged about the Man City saga
When the sonorous voice of Clive Myrie describes something as the ‘biggest sports story of the century’ in tones normally…
Face it: Frank Lampard just isn’t a good manager
As Spectator readers will surely be aware, many of the stories we read in the papers nowadays are there not…
Cycling is the most dangerous sport
Who’s the greatest athlete on the planet? It’s hard to look beyond the Slovenian cyclist Tadej Pogacar, five times winner…
Amy Hunt could be the saviour of British athletics
Britain’s latest Charioteer of Fire has no need for grandad vests or a Vangelis earworm, just a smile as dazzling…
We’re not morally superior to Fifa
Watching football work itself into a lather of self-righteousness is never a pretty sight. The English FA is now back-pedalling…
Don’t feel sorry for Argentina
It keeps on happening, the passing of sporting titans. First Garfield Sobers and now Kevin Keegan, a couple of the…
Thank God for Thomas Tuchel
Here’s an interesting question: had Thomas Tuchel been Portugal’s manager rather than England’s, would he have picked Cristiano Ronaldo to…
Why are the Belgians so bad at football?
Whisper it if you must, but it looks as if Gianni (‘Today I feel gay…’) Infantino might have got it…
Who cares if cricketers drink?
Cricketers Have Beer, Shock: well, who knew! This wretched incident in some joint in Chelsea involving Ben Stokes and Gus…
I’ll be praying for Arsenal’s God squad
Looking forward to the World Cup? I do hope so. You can complain and say that a gargantuan tournament without…
Declan Rice is an island of decency in modern football
As all but the most tribal fruitcases would agree, Arsenal’s Declan Rice is an island of decency in the rather…
In London, Sabastian Sawe demolished the impossible
Suddenly last Sunday in London nearly 60,000 amateur runners were able to say they had competed in a race in…
The inner secrets of Rory McIlroy
It’s easy to be sceptical about top sportsmen turning to psychologists for help. A bit precious, no? After all, what’s…
It’s time to let go of Tiger Woods
It’s not the newest joke in the world, but worth a quick rerun right now after the latest in a…
Arsenal’s boy wonder is the future of English football
It certainly never happened to me when I was a lad – even after a particularly insightful essay on the…
The endearing Englishness of Harry Kane
There’s something ineffably endearing about Harry Kane (though I am sure plenty of Bundesliga defenders would disagree), a sort of…
The real problem with Welsh rugby
Wales rugby coach Steve Tandy must have the most difficult job in sport, apart maybe from Jim Ratcliffe’s public–relations whizz.…
Don’t write off Wales just yet
My friend Tim Andrew has admirable priorities. When I told him I had tickets for this week’s Six Nations opener…
The lost brilliance of football’s Pink ’Un newspapers
If you can remember Pink ’Un newspapers and the days when FA Cup shocks really were shocks, then God bless…
Don’t blame Ben Stokes
So what was the best bit of this dispiriting Ashes series? Lucky you if you’ve found one, but for me…
Could two great managers bring us two World Cup wins?
Maybe it’s the time of the year, or maybe it’s down to my sad little life, but surely I can’t…
Ben Stokes’s run-in with Aggers
There’s tetchy, and then there’s Ben Stokes ‘tetchy’ – pulling out his mic and stomping off cursing, or so I’m…
Ben Stokes will go down as the greatest captain of modern times
And so it begins, as Donald Trump likes to say, though not usually about cricket. He was offering his thoughts…
The maverick magnificence of Henry Pollock
‘Gosh he seems full of himself’ was how my friend’s wife reacted when she came in to see Henry Pollock…
