Sport
How to breathe life back into European rugby
French rugby has always been well stocked with boeuf but now it has added lashings of exceptionally tangy moutarde and…
Sailing’s coming home: the stunning Ben Ainslie comeback
Alan Bond was a rogue and a rich man, in every way your typical Aussie larrikin. In 1983 he bankrolled…
Is Indian cricket no longer cricket?
There is nothing in world sport, ‘nothing in the history of the human race’, Ramachandra Guha modestly reckons, that can…
The unfortunate misuse of ‘fortuitous’
‘Try the sports pages,’ said my husband, stirring in his armchair. I was looking for examples of fortuitousused as though…
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 Graham Cowdrey, cricket’s king of the dressing room
So the Good Lord really wants to fill out his team: how else to interpret the passing in recent months…
Letters: Why lockdown II was necessary
Cancelled procedures Sir: Your leader (‘A lockdown too far’, 7 November) suggests that the Prime Minister should have shown ‘leadership’…
Sporting spectacles to look forward to in lockdown
‘At least there’s sport,’ said the woman in the supermarket queue. True enough, and in a welcome sop to an…
What I’ll miss most in Lockdown II
A second lockdown won’t cause me much suffering. I don’t have a shop selling ‘non-essential’ goods (e.g. books) that will…
Thanks for nothing, Jordan Pickford
You might hate the Premier League for its determination to suck all the money out of football, but at least…
Football is better without the crowds
The Liverpool defence might have decided in a rare show of togetherness to demonstrate what the word ‘appalling’ means, and…
BBC sports coverage is becoming unwatchable
BBC sports coverage is becoming unwatchable
Foden and Greenwood’s ingenious Icelandic rendezvous
You suspect that a bar of duty-free Toblerone, no matter how supersized, wouldn’t really do the trick when hapless England…
The science of tennis grunts
How grunting helps players win
The absurd self-pity of Stuart Broad
You are, shall we say, a famous commentator, one of a tiny elite in the British media. You are paid…
Was there ever any transparency in football?
So all that sound and fury about Manchester City’s sins signified precisely nothing. Well, a €10 million fine isn’t nothing,…
How dangerous are cricket balls?
The Prime Minister recently blamed the delay in the resumption of amateur cricket on the ball itself, calling it ‘a…
Klopp’s childlike enthusiasm – and incalculable savviness
Where were we? Oh yes, Liverpool were running away with the Premier League and a mere three months later have…
Horse-racing has made a triumphant return
Horse racing, it turns out, wasn’t the first sport back in post-lockdown action: that distinction went to pigeon racing when…
From the wrestling ring to Plato’s Cave in one easy throw
One of the delights of going to stay with my grandparents in the 1970s was that my grandmother was a…
Croquet is the perfect sport for social distancing
In Mr Alton’s absence, I thought readers might want a column about sport. The problem is that I’m largely indifferent…
What’s the point of boxing?
Why do we box?
The Amazon Prime doc that will convert anyone to cricket
Imagine rooting for the Australian cricket team. If you’re Scottish, Welsh or Irish — or Australian obviously — it might…
A Formula 1 doc for people who hate Formula 1
Some years ago I was invited to the British Grand Prix at Silverstone courtesy of a watch manufacturer. As freebies…
The joy of a day spent bagging almost no birds
The highlight of my country calendar is when I’m lucky enough to be invited to what even the host describes…