Rugby
Tony Abbott is wholly misplaced about WTO Brexit
Hubris and nemesis Sir: Douglas Murray’s assessment of Angela Merkel’s decision to stand down as German Chancellor (‘Europe’s empty throne’,…
Letters: Matthew Parris’s marriage proposal is absurd
Marriage proposal Sir: Matthew Parris’s proposal that marriage be abolished, and civil partnerships installed in its place, is absurd (‘The…
How gentlemen supplanted hooligans in football
Most British sports fans are familiar with the maxim that ‘football is a game for gentlemen played by hooligans, and…
Cricket’s ball-tampering scandal has been nothing but a tearful pantomime
I haven’t seen so many men crying since the end of A Tale of Two Cities at the Scala Cinema…
Two perfect kicks from Johnny Sexton destroyed England’s rugby’s dream
Which would you least like to see coming towards you? An Uber driverless car, Ant McPartlin in his black Mini…
Letters
No reason for subsidies Sir: For believers in free enterprise like me, it was hugely disappointing to read that Sir…
The keys to the kingdom await
Give them all peerages as far as I’m concerned: if you can pick up a gong for bunging a few…
The noble suffering of Maria Sharapova
The return heavyweight bout between England and Wales lived up to its billing as the most thumping rugby match of…
The angry young bowler who could take the West Indies back to the top
In the north of Antigua, just by the medical school, is a neat little cricket ground. It was a bit…
A former England international on the meaning of the Six Nations
Back in 1882, exactly 100 years before I was born, the Four Nations rugby competition was formed. It was originally…
Dear Mary solves problems for Nicky Haslam, Nigel Slater, Professor Mary Beard and others
From Nicky Haslam Q. Being considered something of a guru on the subject of things common, can you advise me…
Just what Tom Watson needs: a Bananarama tribute band
Available for parties Labour deputy leader Tom Watson said that leaving his party to join the Liberal Democrats would be…
A World Championships that puts Sebastian Coe on the right track
Sebastian Coe’s new job as head of world athletics will be a heck of a lot easier thanks to the…
Australia’s amazing, exhausting sporting comebacks
I have never met an Aussie I didn’t like, but, crikey, their sporting indefatigability is exhausting. Don’t they ever give…
A rebellion among Rugby schoolboys proved perfect training for its ringleader in putting down a Jamaican slave-rising in later life
The public schools ought to have gone out of business long ago. The Education Act of 1944, which promised ‘state-aided…
In praise of Ben Moon: the man who took rock-climbing to new heights
For anyone who knows or cares about rock climbing — a minority sport if ever there was one, albeit pretty…
Sebastian Faulks’s diary: My task for 2015 – get a job
Just back from Sri Lanka, a place I first went to in 1981. It was then a dreamy island. I…
My grandson's getting into the rugby: 'Which one's West Ham?'
My grandson and I had a lovely hour-long swim at the leisure centre. We had the learner pool to ourselves…
We should be grateful for Andy Murray (and Kim Sears)
It wasn’t that long ago when the most exciting event in any British tennis fan’s life was whether Jeremy Bates…
What does Duncan Fletcher actually do?
Some years ago, when the last Conservative government was limping towards defeat, someone published a book called 101 Uses for…
The real England team is playing for Stuart Lancaster
A revealing handwritten letter emerged at the weekend from the England scrum half Danny Care, who wasn’t playing in the…
Whisper it, but could England win the next Rugby World Cup?
There are many eternal questions. Why do all aircraft, no matter how much your ticket cost, where you’ve come from,…
Five reasons to be cheerful about British sport (yes, even the cricket)
James Cook’s third voyage as an English captain ended in disaster, stabbed to death and disembowelled by a pack of…
Roger Alton: The day Viv Richards came to watch me play cricket
Sir Vivian Richards came to watch me play cricket the other day. That’s the sort of sentence you wait a…
As England's cricketers wobble, the rugby team are finally getting it together
My friend Miles was bowling in a festival of wandering cricket clubs in Oxford the other day. First wicket down…
