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Thoughts on two World Cups – the England perspective

The words England and English will be appearing a lot in this post. The Rugby World Cup Final was a tense, thrilling, match but afterwards there was some criticism of English referee Wayne Barnes. The problem is that – if you are continually told you are the best in the world – you [...]

October 29, 2023 // 0 Comments

Brighton 2 Ajax 0.

Were we to go back nearly 30 years, you would see Brighton struggling to survive and Ajax – with the likes of Dennis Bergkamp, Edwin van der Sar, Marco van Basten, Marc Overmars and Jan Lithanen – winning the European Cup. That very good Ajax team broke up whilst the then homeless [...]

October 27, 2023 // 0 Comments

Chess defeat

Last night I played my second game for the Reform Club which ended in personal and team defeat. This was no disgrace as our opponents – the RAC – are the Manchester City of club chess.  They host the Varsity Match and their chess dinner usually attracts a British Grandmaster. Before my [...]

October 25, 2023 // 0 Comments

Farewell to The Stoop: Harlequins 22 Exeter Chiefs 14

Yesterday I made what in advance I had billed as “possibly my last-ever visit to The Stoop” as a member of a five-person contingent for the Harlequins home Premiership match against the Exeter Chiefs, eventually won by the hosts by the margin of 22-14. I don’t regard myself as generally a [...]

October 23, 2023 // 0 Comments

Thoughts on two World Cup defeats … both to South Africa.

The defeat to South Africa in the cricket World cup was massively comprehensive (244 runs) the defeat in the Rugby World Cup (15-16) tragically narrow. On the BBC commentary there was an excellent South African who questioned England’’s decision to bowl  given the extreme heat and humidity [...]

October 22, 2023 // 0 Comments

New Zealand 44 Argentina 6

Whilst I understand the criticism of a draw made 3 years ago which had the four best teams in the world in the one section, it has helped the All Blacks who have choked in past World Cups by not meeting competitive opposition before the business end. This time they have had to play France and [...]

October 21, 2023 // 0 Comments

The Power of Sport

Let’s face it the news is pretty darn depressing these days: war in Ukraine, the Middle East a tinderbox and a terrorist atrocity on the streets of Brussels. Speaking to the Rust team, the only cheer and positivity  is on the sports desk. They report on  a late summer/early autumn of fine [...]

October 18, 2023 // 0 Comments

Sunday‘s quarter finals

Our readership has had plenty of opportunity to read of two more thrilling matches so I thought I would major on the coverage which, in my view, did not match the occasion. I was particularly irritated by David Flatman – the analyst for ITV’s coverage of France v South Africa. He [...]

October 16, 2023 // 0 Comments

The Saturday RWC quarter finals.

The two semi-final victories by Argentina and New Zealand prove that at the highest competitive levels it’s less about tactics and more about laying your body on the line for your country I remember the two football World Cup finals of 1974 and 1978, when Argentina beat Holland, the former had [...]

October 15, 2023 // 0 Comments

Rugby World Cup: Quarter Final preview

WALES v ARGENTINA Wales are as overrated as much as Argentina are understated, but I still take the Principality to win narrowly. In Rees-Zammit they have one of the most lethal wings around but Beffelli of Argentina runs  him close. IRELAND v NEW ZEALAND The tie of the round, if not the [...]

October 14, 2023 // 0 Comments

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