Sport
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…
Can Arteta hold his nerve?
The second half of the Premier League season is brimming with stories and subplots. Hundreds of players are hoping to…
The rise and fall of the football presenter
What does it mean to be a ‘good’ sports presenter? Really, it should mean nothing. They aren’t important. They should…
Does running 42 Lakeland fells in less than 24 hours really bring ‘serenity’?
The Keswick hotelier Bob Graham achieved this in 1932 – and nowadays running improbable distances is considered almost normal, as well as an important factor in mental wellbeing
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…
Labour is doing all it can to kill off horse racing
In July, Victoria, Lady Starmer was photographed at Royal Ascot, celebrating with friends after backing the winner of the Princess…
I’ve been duped by the Toby hoaxers
Going to see QPR on Boxing Day has become a tradition in the Young household – and not because we…
My advice to Ben Stokes
In preparation for the 2005 Ashes series, the late Graham Thorpe, a man I looked up to enormously, turned to…
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…
From South Africa to Saracens, two rugby stars are born
Moments when a 24-carat superstar bursts on the scene are few and far between, but always something to cherish. And…
A great comedy about a terrible sport
I’m trying to think of things I’m less interested in than American football. The plant-based food section? Taking up my…
Does it matter that the BBC lost the Boat Race?
So we won’t be watching the Boat Race next year on the BBC, but on Channel 4. Never again will…
Death and glory: the politics of the World Cup
The choice of ‘tiny boiling Qatar’ as a venue in 2022 – where thousands of construction workers lost their lives – typifies Fifa’s cynical favour-auctioning, says Simon Kuper
The search for a Kenyan Stonehenge
Cradle of Mankind Paleoanthropologists tried to kill me a few days ago. Luckily I was saved by Max Mutkin, a…
There’s nothing quite like the Ryder Cup
It’s never been easy to warm to golfers, an overpaid, self-obsessed bunch who rarely fail to ask for more. And…
Why three is the magic number in these Ashes
And so it begins, the Great Debate: no, not who will be deputy leader of the Labour party but the…
Welcome to the Republic of Dyslexia
Kenya It used to be that the black sheep from prominent British families were sent out to Kenya and told…
QPR’s downward spiral
Charlie, my 17-year-old son, was hopeful about QPR’s chances this season. True, we managed to avoid relegation only by the…
Good riddance to the traditional sports bar
They used to be places that reeked of testosterone, sweat and male egos, their floors sticky with lager spilled by…
Nothing can save Test cricket
Forgive me if I don’t join the general ‘Make mine a treble’ hoo-ha about the future of Test cricket after…
Don’t believe the doomsday talk about London
It is one of the joys of sport that friendships forged in changing rooms and on playing fields can be…
Why is sport so obsessed with Goats?
It was late at night in rural France and Martin wanted to discuss Goats. And he didn’t mean livestock. ‘You…
