Hysterical, deluded and thoroughly English (BBC news online)
Why do the English fool themselves, again and again, into believing they can win? Might they actually enjoy it?
Continue Reading June 28th, 2010
Posts filed under 'Sport'
The cold, physical chess (Financial Times magazine)
There are few more visceral mindgames for the competitor than swordplay, whose conventions and violent history seem so far removed from modern life.
Continue Reading Add comment January 23rd, 2010
A team of my own (Daily Telegraph magazine)
I’m standing on a sunny playing field in a corner of post industrial Kent, trying to take in the fact that what I’m watching is a football revolution.
Continue Reading Add comment May 10th, 2008
Channel number one (Daily Telegraph magazine)
At Samphire Beach, a Japanese woman stands in front of Dover’s white cliffs.
Continue Reading Add comment September 22nd, 2007
Calderwood’s goals are set (The Times)
If knowing one’s past is the key to future success, then the Nottingham Forest manager, Colin Calderwood, may succeed where so many recent predecessors have failed.
Continue Reading Add comment July 31st, 2006
The eyes of the world fall on Burton-on-Trent (The Guardian)
For a few hours this Sunday, Burton-on-Trent will matter to the outside world. Ever since its non-league football team was drawn against Manchester United in the third round of the FA Cup back in December, this sleepy town where nothing ever happens has been temporarily roused.
Continue Reading Add comment January 6th, 2006
Streak ends Test career as coaching row engulfs Zimbabwe (The Times)
On the day that Heath Streak announced his retirement from international cricket, his former Zimbabwe colleagues were demanding that the country’s cricket board reinstates Phil Simmons, the coach who was dismissed in August.
Continue Reading Add comment October 19th, 2005
Simmons blames politics for Zimbabwe dismissal (The Times)
Phil Simmons, who was dismissed last month as Zimbabwe coach, has attacked the country’s administrators, saying that they have “no understanding of cricket”.
Continue Reading Add comment September 28th, 2005
The golden age of Cloughie’s Forest (The Observer)
On Tuesday thousands of men and women in green jerseys will make their way to the City Ground, Nottingham, to remember Brian Clough. While Nottingham Forest, in the third tier of English football and crippled with debt, struggle to overcome Bristol City many of those wearing the famous Clough sweatshirt will be thinking of a more rewarding era, when the East Midlands club dominated Europe.
Continue Reading Add comment September 18th, 2005
Rebels rattle the cage of reconciliation (Wisden Cricketer)
After a year of bitter infighting the long-running dispute between Zimbabwe’s white `rebel’ players and their cricket board appears to be over. But, as with most things in this troubled country, many questions remain unanswered and talk of a new dawn for Zimbabwe cricket seems premature.
Continue Reading Add comment April 1st, 2005