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My sporting Saturday

Although there was no breakfast match , the Southern Hemisphere game between South Africa and New Zealand, which ended 31-27, was worth waiting for. I have already said the All Blacks are a work in progress under new Head Coach Scott Robertson – with no Brodie Retallack or Aaron Smith – [...]

September 1, 2024 // 0 Comments

Quiz night

Monday night is “quiz night” on BBC2 and I’m a fan and follower. There are three quiz programmes: Mastermind, Only Connect and University Challenge. Of course such programmes have the advantage of being so cheap to broadcast: the only major cost is the presenter. However, there is [...]

August 21, 2024 // 0 Comments

The Reunion/Radio 4

The Reunion is back on Sunday mornings. Once presented by Sue McGregor – a superb broadcaster – it’s now in the hands of Kirsty Wark. The rationale is to look back at an event and invite some of the main actors in it to discuss and review it. Yesterday’s event was the [...]

August 19, 2024 // 0 Comments

Great British failures

The failure to win gold by Team GB’s Matthew Hudson Smith was the 3rd such one after Adam Peaty and Josh Kerr. You would not have guessed it from the soft post-event interview – and now Peaty is blaming the food. He is pathetic. Footballers are overpaid but they have to put up with much [...]

August 8, 2024 // 0 Comments

The Olympics assessed

We are now more than a week beyond the opening ceremony ruined by rain which set the tone for an Olympiad not living up to expectation. Scarcely a day goes by without some scandalous happening – the latest being the barring of running Goddess Sha’carri Richardson to the stadium for the [...]

August 4, 2024 // 0 Comments

The Crusades/PBS

I was taught history to a high level at my school, so much so that a fellow pupil who later achieved a first at Oxford said he was able to rely upon his school tuition in the first year of university. However, in the teaching of the Crusades, I do not believe we had an accurate assessment. The [...]

July 26, 2024 // 0 Comments

The Paris Olympics

Suddenly the Olympics are here. With the Rugby World Cup and the Euros we have not been deprived top notch international sporting competition this year. However, the array of summer sports in Britain have been spoiled by the appalling weather. Paris and France are appropriate stages. Baron de [...]

July 25, 2024 // 0 Comments

Schauffele’s Open

Xander Schauffele won his second Major of the year, seeing off the challenge of Trystan Lawrence and Justin Rose. Yorkshireman Dan Brown, who up to the tournament some might have thought wrote The Da Vinci Code, faded away as did West Ham supporter Billy Horshel who had led on the third day. He [...]

July 23, 2024 // 0 Comments

A sporting Saturday on the sofa

Saturday was my normal sports-fest watching two marvellous rugby internationals and the highlights of the Tour de France. First up was the second Test match at Eden Park, Auckland where the All Blacks are undefeated for 30 years. Though England ran up a small lead their young side never looked [...]

July 14, 2024 // 0 Comments

Sporting heroes

My newspaper of choice is The Times. My routine is to buy the paper version, skim-read the sports section and – to fight off dementia – do the quiz and chess puzzle. There is a section on the Euros within Section 2 largely dedicated to the Arts. Yesterday the section padded out the [...]

July 13, 2024 // 0 Comments

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