BY DENE BEBBINGTON Thirty years ago, when Beryl Burton passed away at the age of 58 while on her bike, my own cycling days were already over. Nearing 30, I’d spent too many hours sitting at a computer, and the convenience of owning a car had left my muscles and willpower weak. Had I tried to cycle with Beryl—even in her late 50s—I’d have been … Continue reading The Woman With the Iron Legs
BY ALEX STORY In a world governed by officials that demand constant change, it is reassuring to know that some things never do. The Boat Race between Oxford and Cambridge is some such. On April 13th, for the 170th time, since Charles Wordsworth of Oxford and Charles Merivale of Cambridge started the challenge, two crews of eight men “good and true” (and a cox) from … Continue reading The Reassurance of the Never Changing
BY ALEXIA JAMES Gary Lineker’s departure from BBC’s Match of the Day at the end of the 2024-2025 Premier League season marks the close of a defining chapter in the history of the iconic football show. After 26 years at the helm, Lineker, who has hosted the flagship programme since 1999, will step down from his role but will continue to lead the BBC’s coverage … Continue reading Laters, Gary
BY NIALL McCRAE London mayor Sadiq Khan urges the Premier League to start staging matches around the world. So Chelsea versus Manchester City might be moved to Jakarta or Abu Dhabi. Like the exhibition matches of American football, there would be much money to make, but Khan is pushing the globalist agenda, in which the idea of English or British football clubs becomes outmoded. … Continue reading The Best Decade of British Football
BY DOMINIC WIGHTMAN “Welcome to Ukraine,” joked one of the dads from the visiting team. His son’s U14 rugby team was on a tour to Devon from wealthy, rural Berkshire. From the mobile breeze block seats—yes, literally—where we were perched under a leaky corrugated iron roof, looking out across the sodden pitch towards the building in front of us with a massive hole in its … Continue reading English Regional Rugby Needs Help
BY NIALL McCRAE How football clubs are taken from local communities and how supporters fight back ‘You make me happy when skies are grey’, sang the fans of Morton FC (quite appropriately in the west of Scotland climate). But the last line of the adapted popular song, ‘please don’t take my Morton away’, became awfully prescient when the club was threatened with a move to … Continue reading Uprooted by Moneymen
BY DOMINIC WIGHTMAN Rugby is a beastly game played by gentlemen. Everyone knows the great sport teaches so many life lessons from bravery to team work to stoicism. Rugby is a fantastic sport for youngsters, building their confidence and character and introducing them to values that will help them in rugby and throughout life. Which is why – as my father did for me – … Continue reading Sporting Bruises with Pride
BY JACK WATSON In Unbreakable, Ronnie O’Sullivan, certainly one of the most successful and prestigious players in the history of snooker, shares the story of how he became perhaps the greatest snooker player of all time. It explains how his journey has been extreme, from ‘losing himself’ for seven years to alcohol and drugs, to spending part of his career in rehab going through the … Continue reading Unbreakable
BY DOMINIC WIGHTMAN Watching the FA Cup Final on Saturday, it was fascinating studying the body language and facial expressions of Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag. Ten Hag knew that, against the odds, his side had already beaten Manchester City earlier in the season but that the chances of repeating this feat were slim. His furrowed brow was a permanent feature during the match … Continue reading Checkmate
BY STEWART SLATER 2012 may have been a banner year for British sport, but 2008 wasn’t bad either. I was working in Singapore at the time, and whiled away many a happy phone-call back to London bantering about our latest gold medal in Beijing – “Oh, we’ve just won another one” regularly punctuating conversations. But I have one standout memory of that golden summer, the … Continue reading Chapeau
BY ALEX STORY As winter gives way to spring and days lengthen heralding a longed-for summer, the eighteen men of Oxford and Cambridge University Boat Club can now rest their limbs having met yesterday on the Tideway, the 4.25 mile stretch of the Thames that runs through London from Putney to Chiswick Bridge. The first race, in 1829, took place 14 years after the end … Continue reading A British Institution
BY NIALL McCRAE During the recent World Cup, St George’s flags were conspicuous by their absence. There was little of the usual fervour when England reaches the later stages of the tournament. The reason for this is laid out, unwittingly, by Daily Telegraph chief sports writer Paul Hayward, whose book England Football: the Biography (2022) shows that there is no escape from woke ideology in … Continue reading Football Gives Way to Critical Race Theory
BY STEWART SLATER “It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all.” It may seem churlish to drag up Dr Johnson’s dictum on women preaching in the aftermath of the Lionesses’ famous victory. For it was, surely, one of the great British achievements worthy, on the basis of the breathless and ubiquitous coverage, of comparison to the discovery of … Continue reading Coming Home
It is only a few years ago when Forest Green were plying their trade in the far flung reaches of the footballing pyramid. Now, Rovers fans will be able to search for special betting offers from sites such as oddschecker, for games against such footballing glitterati as Ipswich Town and Sheffield Wednesday, teams they are competing with on a level playing field. That rise through … Continue reading Forest Green Rovers, A Green Revolution in Football
BY ALEX STORY After a two year Covid related break, the Boat Race between Oxford and Cambridge is coming back to London. It was cancelled out right in 2020, then moved to Ely in Cambridgeshire last year. To add to the uncertainty, over the last few months, local authorities mentioned that the river might not be opened to another Boat Race for five years on … Continue reading The Boys are Back in Town
BY FRANK HAVILAND Allow me to declare an interest, or rather a lack of one: I couldn’t give a full toss about cricket. Therefore the cricketer Ollie Robinson represents something of a perfect storm; a storm of which I was blissfully ignorant, until the woke insisted I be offended by him. For those still shamelessly untriggered, the promising England all-rounder made his debut against New … Continue reading Robinson
BY NICK PEARCE With two Heineken Cups, four Six Nations Championships, three Triple Crowns, a Grand Slam and a World Cup to his name, the man is an out and out winner. His ferocious tackling was courageous. His metronomic goal-kicking the result of many hours of practice – well after his teammates had returned home. Jonny Wilkinson was one of the greatest ever rugby players. … Continue reading Sir Jonny
BY FRANK HAVILAND For all its undeniable brutality, boxing is a fairytale. You don’t need to have ever laced up yourself or watched Rocky to understand that. The cold hard truths meted out in the ring are surpassed by the blood, sweat and tears that enable men to triumph over adversity; to fight battles others cannot see. Boxing has saved many men from a certain … Continue reading Fairytale Fury
All you need to know about Point-to-Point horse racing: Point-to-point action, live at Whittington Racecourse. Photo by Extraordinary, CC BY-SA 3.0 Point-to-point horse racing is one of those things that most people don’t even question when they head into a bookmakers. That’s because most people prefer to watch horse races hosted at the major flat or National Hunt racecourses involving professional jockeys. The key difference between … Continue reading The Point to Point Horse Racing Guide
Dear Readers, For those of you who are field sportsmen or field sportswomen a critical time is upon us. You have until the 15th of September to fill in the Scottish consultation into protecting wild animals as organised by the Scottish Green MSP Alison Johnston. https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/WildMammals/ So do please fill it in, even though we all know what their silly little game is by now, … Continue reading To All Field Sports Participants
