Cricket
How to tackle rugby’s doldrums
French rugby has always been well stocked with boeuf but now it has added lashings of exceptionally tangy moutarde and…
Letters
Too many bishops Sir: As a former Anglican clergyman, I have been following your articles about the current state of…
Portrait of the week
Home On Sunday 7 February, as the week began, 11,465,210 people in the United Kingdom had received a first vaccination…
The BBC is failing the Test
Michael Vaughan might disagree but — putting aside 2005 and all that — was there a more thrilling and satisfying…
Letters
Joy Sir: Alexandra Coghlan identifies the coincidence between the rise of recording and broadcast technology and the flourishing of the…
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…
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…
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…
Portrait of the week
Home At a few hours’ notice, the government removed Spain from the list of countries from which it was possible…
Carlos the magnificent
We know about the endlessly jaw-dropping greatness of Ben Stokes (a peerage soon, surely), the furious power of a supercharged…
Beauty, brutality, cricket and wine
In one respect, there has been a reassertion of normality, though this is nothing to do with the virus. Although…
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,…
Cricket balls
The Prime Minister recently blamed the delay in the resumption of amateur cricket on the ball itself, calling it ‘a…
Hats off to Liverpool
Where were we? Oh yes, Liverpool were running away with the Premier League and a mere three months later have…
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…
Barometer
Parliamentary motions The government floated the idea of moving the House of Lords permanently to York. Until it was found…
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…
What did psychics predict was going to happen in 2019?
Bah humbug Some of the things reported to have been banned this Christmas: — Mulled wine banned from being sold…
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,…
Bob Willis’s contribution to English cricket will never be forgotten
Certain days in the long and sometimes glorious history of English cricket are so brightly coloured they can never fade.…
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…
Does the outcome of the Ashes dictate who wins a general election?
Party speak Should the next Speaker of the House of Commons be a Labour MP on the basis that John…
