Sport
Putting Fletcher in the shades
Some years ago, when the last Conservative government was limping towards defeat, someone published a book called 101 Uses for…
Letters
Poor treatment Sir: Jane Kelly’s article (‘No tea or sympathy’, 2 August) on the lack of empathy and emotional support…
Squash hits
Thank god for the Commonwealth Games: at least they gave us a brief respite from football transfer stories. Instead of…
Diary
Sport is like love: it can only really hurt you if you care. Or for that matter, bring joy. You…
Being the best
This time last year, England’s cricketers were 2-0 up against Australia, two thirds of the way towards their third consecutive…
Barometer
Public benefit Public sector unions held a strike over pay. How well are public-sector workers paid compared with their counterparts…
What’s right with Saracens– and José’s Chelsea
It’s hard to love Saracens rugby club — their centre is called Bosch, a word that also describes their bulldozing…
In defence of the Boat Race
It’s Boat Race time again and as soon as the BBC starts its broadcast on Sunday there will be those…
Flying boards and killer moustaches
You can trust the BBC to behave like a leaf blown by any breeze, but even that spineless leviathan (if…
Death of a team
Englishmen used to be deported to Australia as a punishment. Now they get sent back to England as an act…
Winter warmers
James Cook’s third voyage as an English captain ended in disaster, stabbed to death and disembowelled by a pack of…
$10 million nobodies
Golf has reached the eye-watering end of the season in the United States. By Sunday night, one man in a…
Teenage dreams
Were you still up, as they used to say about Portillo in the 1997 election, for Hedwall? It was well…
Speculation season
It’s been a long, hot, soccerless holiday. There has been football about — the women’s European Championship, for example, and…
Must I sponsor your misery?
Every charitable donation now seems to come with a promise to suffer
Can anyone save Aussie cricket?
Insomniacs, invalids and cricket obsessives (step forward yours truly) were probably the only people who stumbled on it, but BBC4…
It’s sport that really matters in life. Now where’s my surfboard?
What a glorious sporting summer it has been so far. For some the highlight will have been Andy Murray at…
Failing the Test
Test Match Special is the sound of the English summer. Why are we letting it be vulgarised?
Murray’s mountain
There’s nothing we old folk like more than a chat about how poorly all our friends and acquaintances are. This…
Gillard and the Grange Hermitage
My Australian friend was in mourning over the removal of Julia Gillard, the country’s first female prime minister. She had…
