Articles by Tom Hollingworth

About Tom Hollingworth

Tom Hollingsworth is a former deputy sports editor of the Daily Express. For many years he worked in a sports agency, representing mainly football players and motor racing drivers. Tom holds a private pilot’s licence and flying is his principal recreation. More Posts

Thoughts on the European Super League

If nothing else the proposed European Super League (ESL) of the major clubs of England, Italy and Spain has done something unique: united the disparate and diverse elements of football in voicing its opposition. The devil, as they say, lies in the detail. I found the best coverage to be in The [...]

April 20, 2021 // 0 Comments

My “remote” sporting weekend

The most notable impression that I took away from my personal sports-following (via radio, television and newspapers) over the weekend was that – when the time eventually comes to look back upon the records of the years 2020 and 2021 – it will only be fitting to place asterisks against them to [...]

April 5, 2021 // 0 Comments

England v Poland

Can it really be 48 years ago since that night at Wembley when a 1-1 draw against Poland eliminated England from World Cup qualification? It was a game when England missed chance after chance – they had 53 against Poland’s 2. I recall Kevin Hector of Derby coming on right at the end and he [...]

March 31, 2021 // 0 Comments

Martin Johnson (journalist) – RIP

The sad reached me yesterday of the death of Martin Johnson, a great character and one of the most gifted fellow sporting pen-pushers (or should that be “keyboard-tappers”?) to have graced media centres at UK sports grounds over the last four decades. As a tribute I can do no better [...]

March 20, 2021 // 0 Comments

The physicality of female sport (a postscript)

Earlier this month I posted on this august organ a piece listing some of the physiological differences between men and women (The physicality of female sport – 11th March 2021) and discussing how, in modern sport – attended as it is by the strains of extreme training and strength and [...]

March 19, 2021 // 0 Comments

The physicality of female sport

In recent months I’ve occasionally posted on the Rust about issues affecting women and sport. As I begin today I must declare the usual caveats that I self-identify as a male – and a pretty ancient one at that – which facts probably contribute to my somewhat old-fashioned views, such as my [...]

March 11, 2021 // 0 Comments

A sporting day in front of the tv

My sport watch would have started in the morning if it had been the fourth day of the Test. I agree with Duggie Heath that the ramifications for Test cricket with pitches prepared resulting in only 2 days’ play would be severe. Scyld Berry in the Telegraph argued that nothing will happen [...]

February 28, 2021 // 0 Comments

A sporting life

The news of Tiger Wood’s serious car accident in California yesterday has been dominating the world’s news media outlets since it happened and will have saddened many – and not just golfing and sports fans. At this stage – before the investigations are completed and the facts established [...]

February 24, 2021 // 0 Comments

The world keeps going forward in time

A question category that comes with the territory of being a member of the human race – springing from its abilities to rationalise, acquire and then pass on knowledge to its future descendants – is “What if?” Henry Ford may have dismissed history as “bunk” – and arguably to an [...]

February 18, 2021 // 0 Comments

When “equality for all” hits the iceberg

It may be fundamentally inappropriate and/or facile to discuss the Covid-19 pandemic in quasi-wartime terms so I apologise in advance to any Ruster who may be offended by me doing so today. However, it seems to me that with the benefit of hindsight – amidst the snowstorm of incoming competing [...]

February 12, 2021 // 0 Comments

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Thoughts on the European Super League

April 20, 2021 // 0 Comments

If nothing else the proposed European Super League (ESL) of the major clubs of England, Italy and Spain has done something unique: united the disparate and diverse elements [...]
The Tanner Report: Arsenal 1 Fulham 1

April 19, 2021 // 0 Comments

To concede a goal late in the 7th minute of extra time is gut-wrenching but, when it costs you the final lifeline of survival, doubly so. Had we won we would have closed the [...]
A Taste of Honey (1961) and The Family Way (1966)

April 18, 2021 // 0 Comments

A Touch of Honey is based on a Shelagh Delaney play which she wrote when just eighteen. It’s set in the industrial landscape of Salford and was the first and acclaimed [...]
County championship woes

April 17, 2021 // 0 Comments

The county cricket championship is under way and Sussex CCC have the thin end of the bat. The mini league format of the last Covid-stricken season was re-adopted with Sussex [...]
What’s it all about?

April 17, 2021 // 0 Comments

My subject for today – illustrated by two examples – is the vexed one of how the human race copes with life on a planet with finite resources on the one hand and [...]