Sport
Why we all need an Ollie Robinson
It’s a long way from Edgbaston to Karachi, but that’s where my thoughts were turning after Australia’s last-gasp victory in…
Is Uefa just useless – or is it worse than that?
It’s not clear how many readers of this journal will be affected, but anyone planning a stag weekend in Prague…
Unreality shows
The blurred lines between sport and entertainment
State of the union
Dear oh dear, as exasperated kings are known to murmur – just look at the state of rugby union. But…
English rugby needs rescuing
Make no mistake: the game of rugby, which many of us love so much, is in serious trouble: it will…
Why football needs a regulator
Plans by the government to introduce a regulator to the football industry – endorsed by all Westminster parties just a…
All the world’s a cricket pitch
So farewell to cricket’s The Hundred tournament, or what seemed by the end to be beefy South Africans in ‘Butterkist’…
Another supremo comes in to bat
Well alleluia, English cricket doesn’t seem able to put a foot wrong these days. After hitting three cherries with Rob…
The (occasional) joy of being a QPR fan
I made my way to Loftus Road on Saturday for QPR’s first home fixture of the season. We’ve got a…
Slippery slope
Runaway inflation is proving costly for Turkey’s oil wrestlers
Mountains to climb
That great Frenchman the Marquis de Sade would have been justly proud of the Tour de France had he lived…
What took you so long, Seb Coe?
There’s a left-wing internet advocacy group called 38 Degrees which suggests to its followers that all they have to do…
Basketball talk
On the cover of The Sidekick, just below a broken basketball hoop, a quote from Jonathan Lethem suggests Benjamin Markovits…
Rob Burrow is in a league of his own
What a privilege the other night to see Rob Burrow, the Rugby League legend, win Autobiography of the Year at…
The only way is up for England’s cricketers
The timing of Brendon McCullum’s appointment as England’s Test match coach couldn’t be better for him, or for the matey…
We love you Rangers, we do
Normal families spend the Easter holidays by the seaside or in the Mediterranean. But not the Youngs. My three boys…
What English cricket needs now
You couldn’t ask for a more amiable man than Rob Key to run English cricket: affable, shrewd and universally liked,…
Where Eddie Jones is going wrong
Rugby Union, bloody hell. We’ve got to talk about Eddie, but before that, what about something much cheerier? Just when…
Why do Russian tennis stars need to condemn Putin?
Nigel Huddleston is Under-Secretary of State for Sport, Tourism, Heritage and Civil Society, hardly the biggest job in government. Yet…
Rest in peace, Shane Warne
Headingly, July 22nd 1993 and the opening day of the fourth test that summer between England and Australia. This, as…
Is hooliganism on the way back?
Forty-odd years ago a friend, a Liverpool supporter, somewhat unwisely took his girlfriend to Elland Road for a Leeds match…
China breaks new records in the Surveillance Olympics
Never before have the participants in a major sporting event been so closely monitored as in this Winter Olympics in…
Going downhill fast
As we digest another Ashes thrashing for England’s cricketers in Australia, and wonder whether the 1966 World Cup victory will…
Some (tentative) reasons to be cheerful
Someone sent me a job advert recently for a Junior Research Fellowship at Queen’s College, Oxford. It states: ‘The Queen’s…
Another year of brickbats and bouquets
Sport and politics have always been intertwined, but this was the year they became joined at the hip. Yorkshire racism;…
