Radio Times
type: channel
link: https://www.radiotimes.com
date: 2025-12-12T23:16:57.000Z
update period: hourly
update frequency: 1
update base: 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00
items: Who wins your vote?
items: Will England win the Ashes Down Under?
items: Band of brothers
items: Ready for the rollercoaster
items: Head of the pride
items: Can the Lionesses roar back?
items: England Expects
items: Unlikely lads
items: Let battle commence
items: Italy has awoken
items: Gabby Logan: 'A football match on Christmas Day might be going too far'
items: Feel the noise
items: Last but not least
items: Paris, je t'aime
items: The First Law of Sport
items: Power of Scotland
items: Can England win it?
items: Fast and Furious
items: Jenson Button on his underdog F1 victory: "For a start, we had no engine"
items: Worzel Gummidge's Mackenzie Crook talks improvising his character and the message the BBC special hopes to deliver
items: Bradley Wiggins reveals "utterly strange" experience after winning the Tour de France
items: James Cracknell returns to compete in the Boat Race – 15 years after he gave up rowing
items: "The title race is on": Liverpool v Manchester City preview
items: A tale of two skippers: will Root or Kohli triumph?
items: Michael Vaughan has a plan for the future of Test cricket
items: Why Team GB could win big in athletics at the European Championships
items: Why the European Championships could be this year’s surprise sporting success
items: It's been a golden summer for sport – but 2012 was the greatest of all
items: What is the greatest Wimbledon final of all time?
items: England and the 2018 World Cup: it's the hope that saves you

Who wins your vote?
type: item
creator: Simon Barnes
subject: App
subject: App features
description: The Sports Personality of the Year is decided by our hearts, not our heads, says Simon Barnes
encoded: Add BBC Sports Personality of the Year to your watchlist Sporting brilliance is not enough. You can collect all the glittering prizes in the world and still not be a winner. You need something more to win the BBC Sports Personality of the Year. The voters – that’s us – don’t vote for someone just because he or she is good at sport. We vote for someone we adore, someone we want to be, someone who makes us cheer, someone who reminds us that it’s good to be alive. The shortlisted contestants won’t be competing for goals or points or cups, but for our hearts. The one who has the best story usually wins. Who will it be this year? Women’s football has supplied two of the past three winners, Beth Mead and Mary Earps (800m gold medallist Keely Hodgkinson followed in 2024). It could well be a Lioness again after England retained their European Championships title in Spain this summer. Chloe Kelly became the face of that team. She supplied a strut and a swagger that some found insufferable, especially her opponents. She scored the winner in the semi-final against Italy, hitting the rebound from her own penalty: “I don’t miss penalties twice.” In the final against Spain she fired in the cross from which Alessia Russo headed the equaliser. The match stayed level and went to penalties, with Kelly scoring the last and winning spot-kick in the shootout. Self-defining quote: “Thank you to everyone who wrote me off.” Now we turn to Rory McIlroy, who years ago was going to be the next Tiger Woods. He won four major tournaments between 2011 and 2014, when he was in his early 20s – and then stalled. After an 11-year drought, he finally won another major. His victory in the Masters at Augusta this year completed a career grand slam: he tapped in a birdie putt to win the play-off and collapsed in sobs. He’d done something he clearly thought he’d never do again. McIlroy also overcame the fairways – and the unsavoury crowds – at Bethpage Black, emerging with the Ryder Cup alongside his Eur…

SPOTY-73748be.jpg
width: 5343
height: 3562

Will England win the Ashes Down Under?
type: item
creator: Simon Barnes
subject: App
subject: App features
description: Ashes rivalry is always passionate — now it’s time for England’s best to shine in Australia
encoded: I love Australia. And I have nothing against the Australian people. Why, then, does the rare spectacle of the Baggy Greens looking broken, battered and bewildered bring me so much delight? Why does their each and every victory over England bring such pain? As England prepare for an Ashes series Down Under, the memory of Adelaide comes back to me with unstoppable force: the dreadful agonies of Adelaide, the overwhelming joys of Adelaide... That fair city was the site of two matches, four years apart, that captured the delirious extremes of partisanship in sport. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2021/08/GettyImages-540119655-8a4d7e0.jpg" width="3069" height="2256" alt="(AUSTRALIA OUT) The Ashes 2006-2007. Australia's Shane Warne takes the wicket of England's Paul Collingwood at the Gabba on the fourth day of the First Test at the Gabba in Brisbane, 26 November 2006. THE AGE Picture by PAUL HARRIS (Photo by Fairfax Media via Getty Images/Fairfax Media via Getty Images via Getty Images)" title="The Ashes 2006-2007. Australia's Shane Warne takes the wicket of England's Paul" /> In 2006, after a long losing streak, England held the Ashes and were expected to retain them. They began with a hapless defeat in Brisbane – remember Steve Harmison’s first ball of the series that went straight to second slip? – but they batted up a storm in the first innings of the second Test at Adelaide and Shane Warne was reduced to defensively pitching the ball outside leg stump to Kevin Pietersen. Captain Andrew Flintoff declared at 551–6. Yet England still lost. They collapsed on the last day when Warne imposed his will. He also imposed it on the umpire, who started the slide with a dodgy decision against Andrew Strauss. England were all out for 129. Australia knocked off the 168 runs to win in just 33 overs and England went on to lose the series 5–0. Four years later in Brisbane, England managed a draw in the first Test of the 2010 Ashes, thanks to a sec…

Ben-Stokes1-2d7a0c8.jpg
width: 4462
height: 2973

Band of brothers
type: item
creator: Simon Barnes
subject: App
subject: App features
description: Individual brilliance counts for less in the Ryder Cup than passionate partnership, says Simon Barnes
encoded: Add the Ryder Cup to your watchlist For me the mystery of the Ryder Cup was summed up on the first afternoon of the 2004 edition in Michigan. Tiger Woods, the greatest golfer in the world, was playing a foursome – alternate shots, same ball – with Phil Mickelson, the world number two. Mickelson slammed his ball into the bushes. From the disgusted look on Tiger’s face he was thinking, “Who is this idiot?” The pair lost twice that day. It’s fair to say that Woods, for all his 15 major tournament victories, never really got the idea of “team”. Fast-forward a couple of days: the winning putt for Europe was holed by Colin Montgomerie. If he’d played every major the way he played in the Ryder Cup, he’d have had as many trophies as Woods. But he’s never won any. Woods played in eight Ryder Cups, and the USA triumphed just once. Montgomerie was never beaten in Ryder Cup singles and Europe won five times in the eight editions he played. Between them, these two great golfers represent the eternal mystery of team sport. Golfers don’t usually have to worry about other people. Perhaps that’s why they choose the sport. Woods at the Ryder Cup reminded me of the actor who asked the director what he should do in the pauses. What pauses? “You know – when other people are speaking.” It’s time to consider the phenomenon of team playing again as the Ryder Cup moves to Bethpage Black Course at Farmingdale, New York State. The American build-up has been dominated by one question: should the captain, Keegan Bradley, pick himself as a player? President Trump posted on social media that he should go for it, but in the end, Bradley said no. “It hurts for sure,” he said. The captain of Europe, Luke Donald, had no such dilemma. He selected the same team that won in Rome two years ago, apart from preferring Rasmus HØjgaard to his twin brother Nicolai. The Ryder Cup is contested on alternate occasions in the USA and Donald needs experienced players who can cope with a hostile crowd. US sport is i…

https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2025/09/39shutterstockeditorial14133544j-copy-2dca46e-e1758549451751.jpg
width: 1492
height: 993

Ready for the rollercoaster
type: item
creator: Simon Barnes
subject: App
subject: App features
description: Failures ditched, new signings made and managers changed… Simon Barnes predicts another season of high drama
encoded: The Premier League kicks off on Friday 15 August with Liverpool v Bournemouth, 8pm on Sky Premier League/Main Event. Add it to your watchlist I asked a friend, “How’s the football season looking, Danny?” His reply: “We’re in pretty good shape – especially as the tribute act is still a car crash.” Question: which team does Danny support? No, it’s not Manchester City. It’s Celtic. The most obvious pleasure in football is the success of your chosen team. But never underestimate the game’s second most powerful force: schadenfreude, or delight in another’s misfortune. And for Celtic supporters there has been a surfeit of such pleasures in their rival’s performance over recent years. Danny’s assessment of Rangers as Celtic’s tribute act can’t be entirely laughed off. Rangers have won the title once in the past 14 years – since the dark days of administration and demotion to the Scottish third division – and Celtic have won all the rest. In May a new consortium bought into the club and promised the usual great things; but supporters on both sides of the city of Glasgow are a little cynical. But it was the city of Manchester that gave most English football supporters the greatest pleasure last season. It’s never encouraging to hear anyone say that your club may have the worst team in its 147-year history – especially when it’s said by your own manager. That was Manchester United’s Ruben Amorim. In the final 12 years of Sir Alex Ferguson’s reign, United had seven Premier League titles and one manager; in the next 12, they’ve won no titles and got through ten managers. Last season they recorded the lowest points total they’ve ever had in the Premier League and ended 15th. The pre-season at United has been pretty mad, with five players, including former favourites Marcus Rashford and Alejandro Garnacho, placed on the naughty step: the former exiled to Barcelona and the latter forbidden to train with the good boys. There have been signings, of course, including Matheus Cunha an…

Premier-League-trophy-56f97ca.jpg
width: 6000
height: 4000

Head of the pride
type: item
creator: Simon Barnes
subject: App
subject: App features
description: If anyone can lead the British and Irish Lions to victory in Australia, it’s Maro Itoje, says Simon Barnes
encoded: Add Australia v British and Irish Lions: First Test to your watchlist It’s a concept that might seem unusual in today’s era of brutal professional rugby, but back in the 19th century, the idea of bringing together a bunch of players from opposing teams and forming a cohesive group, then pitting them against some of the best and most established teams in the world – on their home turf – seemed rather romantic. That is exactly how a Lions tour was envisaged, and how it still works (more or less) today. Curiously, the first British Lions (the “Irish” was added, somewhat tardily, to the name in 2001) were created by three former cricketers – Alfred Shaw, Arthur Shrewsbury and James Lillywhite – and while they failed to initially get the sanction of the Rugby Football Union (RFU), an 1888 tour pressed ahead nonetheless, heading off to Australia and New Zealand for a staggering 249 days. Off the back of its relative success (they won 27 out of 35 games), the RFU came round and the first official test tour visited South Africa three years later. Teams made up from English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish players have been touring the southern hemisphere ever since. And that romantic ethos – of enemies sinking their differences in pursuit of a near impossible goal, a glorification of camaraderie and futile heroism – prevails despite the advent of the more pragmatic professional game in 1995. Traditions survive and every now and then the Lions actually win. Indeed, the Lions have won one series in 12 trips to New Zealand, though there was a heroic tie – one win, one loss, one draw – in 2017, when a promising youngster called Maro Itoje caught the eye. The Lions have won four times in 14 tours of South Africa, though the last series was only lost by a penalty two minutes from time in the decider and Itoje was again outstanding. In 2025, the Lions have a better than usual chance despite the fact they lost their warm-up fixture to Argentina in Dublin. Their opponents are Australia. A…

Maro-Itoje-30729cf.jpg
width: 3594
height: 2396

Can the Lionesses roar back?
type: item
creator: Simon Barnes
subject: App
subject: App features
description: The pressure of success may weigh on a wounded England, but debutantes Wales can play without fear, says Simon Barnes
encoded: Add Women's Euro 2025 to your watchlist What would you rather be: a swaggering champion trying to prove your greatness all over again, or a plucky contender with nothing to lose? Underdog or overdog? It looks like a no-brainer. Everybody wants to be a champion, that’s what you’re there for. But the underdog has a freedom from expectation and a joy just in stepping onto the pitch. The cares of a champion are known only to a privileged few, but they can weigh the world. England will perhaps feel a tiny hint of envy as they keep the closest of close eyes on Wales in the next few days. The two are drawn in the same group at the Women’s Euros: the defending champions against the first-timers. England carry the burden of expectation; have Wales already exceeded theirs? If the idea of going into a tournament is to have fun, being Welsh has a lot going for it. The rise of the England women’s football team has been one of the great national adventures, creating joy after Covid. England won the Euros in 2022 – Ella Toone’s perfect chip and Chloe Kelly’s shirt-whirling celebration in extra time took them to a sensational 2–1 triumph against Germany. The following year England reached the final of the World Cup. They lost 1–0 to Spain, but goalkeeper Mary Earps saved a penalty, won BBC Sports Personality of the Year and was awarded an MBE. The Lionesses had become part of national life. But it’s not always easy to be a champion and teams are horribly complicated things. You always plan to go into a major tournament looking serene, but England are having a hard job convincing us they’re not a team in crisis. And Mary Earps is part of that crisis. She announced her retirement from international football just days before England beat Portugal in the Women’s Nations League at the end of May. She was no longer England’s first choice keeper, having lost her place to Hannah Hampton. England head coach Sarina Wiegman has overseen the age of England’s success – and seemingly doesn’t hav…

https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2025/06/27GettyImages-1242233451-copy-75740b6-e1750689390754.jpg
width: 1500
height: 1000

England Expects
type: item
creator: Simon Barnes
subject: App
subject: App features
description: Is German master tactician Thomas Tuchel the man to guide the Three Lions to World Cup glory?
encoded: England v Albania is on Friday at 7pm (k/o 7.45pm) on ITV1 and Radio 5 Live. Add it to your watchlist. When Thomas Tuchel replaced Frank Lampard as the manager of Chelsea in January 2021, the club’s players were lost and bewildered. Four months later, Chelsea won the Champions League. If you think that was difficult, you should see the job Tuchel has got now that he’s managing England. All he needs to do if he doesn’t want to be considered a pathetic failure is win the next World Cup. Hope springs eternal in the English breast, but it soon becomes urgent demand. Ever since 1966, wild hope has preceded desperate disappointment and a furious search for someone to blame. Tuchel becomes the third non-English manager of England, after Sven-Goran Eriksson and Fabio Capello, both of whom endured some bruising times during their tenures. International football may seem a gentle option after the day-in-day-out life at a major club, but there’s nothing like the intensity – and the scrutiny – of a major international tournament. And that rule counts double for England. But there are some plus points. For a start, no international manager has rows with the hierarchy over transfers. Tuchel has the old-fashioned belief that a football manager, rather than a club’s executives, should be in charge of team matters, and has fallen out with the powers that be at just about every club he has been at. When he starts off, he’s regarded as brilliant, innovative and a perfectionist; a season or two later, he’s said to be difficult and demanding. In international management it’s more important to have the players on your side. But Tuchel has been known to alienate players as well as directors and higher-ups. His intensity and his tactical demands can be fearsome – and international players don’t have to take that. They can retire from international football and continue a happy, profitable club career. Or there’s always the option of a diplomatic injury. Playing for England is an honour, bu…

England-Thomas-Tuchel-first-match-daa68bf.jpg
width: 8256
height: 5504

Unlikely lads
type: item
creator: Simon Barnes
subject: App
subject: App features
description: England are the Six Nations outsiders who have learnt to win ugly, says Simon Barnes
encoded: Rugby Union: Six Nations fixtures this weekend Ireland v France Saturday 1.25pm (k/o 2.15pm) ITV1, 2.10pm 5 Sports Extra Scotland v Wales Saturday 4.00pm (k/o 4.45pm) BBC1/S4C, 4.30pm 5 Sports Extra England v Italy Sunday 2.15pm (k/o 3.00pm) ITV1, BBC Sounds and BBC Sport website and app England could win it, you know. That’s not a sentence I expected to be writing about any major tournament this year, let alone the Six Nations rugby union championship. But if a couple of remaining results fall kindly and England manage a pair of bonus point wins against floundering opposition – wooden spoon candidates Italy and Wales – they might just sneak past the winning post ahead of the rest. England won their past two games by the canny tactic of being completely outplayed. France and Scotland did all the running with the ball that rugby’s supposed to be about, but England still won each match by a single point. Scotland beat England 3–1 in tries, but lost 16–15 on points. England’s next game is at home against Italy and it will be interesting to see how they approach it. Their basic tactic against Scotland was to make sure Scotland had the ball as often as possible. Nearly all the time, in fact. They kicked away 69 per cent of possession, as if the ball was somehow cursed. Rugby union is unique among ball games in that it’s often a genuine advantage to give the ball away to the opponents – no thanks, you have it, you make the mistake. All teams do it to a greater or lesser extent. Against Scotland, England opted for greater. Much greater. “Is it the type of rugby we want to play? No,” said their head coach Steve Borthwick afterwards. He was being grilled about this supposedly dull and unenterprising tactic, but surely the bottom line is that England took the victory. Last time I looked, sport was supposed to be about trying to win. Perhaps we need to redefine “outplayed”. Against Scotland, England made 194 tackles. There were long passages of play in which Scotland had plent…

Six-Nations-2025-England-v-Italy-a236878.jpg
width: 4947
height: 3296

Let battle commence
type: item
creator: Simon Barnes
subject: App
subject: App features
description: This year’s Super Bowl has the makings of a classic, says Simon Barnes
encoded: Add the Super Bowl LIX: Kansas City Chiefs v Philadelphia Eagles to your watchlist Britain, it’s often said, is divided from the United States by the Irony Curtain. I’ve walked straight into it on more than one occasion. US immigration officer: What kind of business are you in, Mr Barnes? Me: I’m a sportswriter. I hear you have a little football game in town this week. US immigration officer: You mean the Super Bowl? That’s a big football game. And you know something? He’s right. The Super Bowl is always America’s most-watched television broadcast of the year; last year’s was viewed by 123 million people in the US and a further 60 million overseas. There were more than 6,000 media accreditations, with most of the holders asking the same question of every player: “How are you handling the hype?” It’s the only sporting occasion I’ve covered in which the most hyped aspect of the occasion is the hype itself. It’s all so crazy that it’s sometimes hard for sport to break through. There have been many Super Bowls in which the players have seemed almost embarrassed by the nonsense that surrounds the event and viewers ended up with an encounter that had them craving the equally hyped advertising breaks. But one of the abiding truths of sport is that being very good day in, day out is never quite enough. The greatest of sport occurs on the greatest occasions: Olympic finals, World Cup finals, Lord’s Test matches, Wimbledon finals and so on. These are moments when the best play the best for the biggest prizes of all. The Super Bowl is a great occasion, even if it’s a wholly domestic affair, as non-Americans are allowed to observe, so long as we remember it’s a big occasion. And this year’s edition in New Orleans – Super Bowl 59, or Super Bowl LIX if you prefer – has the makings of a classic. Yeah, yeah, don’t they all, I hear you say with a cynicism that ill becomes you. But the indications are that it’s going to be very close, with the Kansas City Chiefs narrowly favoured ove…

Super-Bowl-home-team-a0db89e.jpg
width: 2918
height: 1945

Italy has awoken
type: item
creator: Simon Barnes
subject: App
subject: App features
description: Talk of changing the Six Nations is still in the air, but will the resurgence in the Blues’ form silence it, asks Simon Barnes
encoded: It was lovely to be back in Rome. I was there to cover a rugby match, but it felt like a true holiday, even more for the Scottish supporters in kilts and Jimmy wigs. The Scotland team must have shared the prevailing mood. After all, they were reigning Five Nations champions. It was 2000. Italy had just joined the great annual rugby tournament of Europe, turning the Five Nations Championship into Six. Rome was its gorgeous self, though no one there expected anything more than a pleasant day out. At the World Cup the previous year, Italy lost all three matches while conceding nearly 200 points. On Saturday, we made our way to the Stadio Flaminio, a delightfully retro venue that held a modest 24,000 – and it became the stage for one of the great occasions. Italy won 34–20 as Diego Domínguez kicked 29 points, including a hat-trick of drop-goals. Every time a big team tells you they’re not underestimating the opposition, you know they’re lying. However, it seems that every single year of the subsequent quarter-century, people have been trying to oust Italy from the tournament – a return to the Five Nations. Or pitched going the other way to expand the tournament to make it even better. Or rather, even more lucrative. Italy haven’t always been their own best friends. Starting in 2015, they went on a 36-match losing run in the competition that only ended when they beat Wales in Cardiff in 2022. Last year they made great strides, beating Wales and Scotland and drawing with France. England beat them by a mere three points in an unexpected thriller. That match was played at the Stadio Olimpico in front of 57,000 fans. After a long, slow burn, Italians have started to support their own team. But whispers of change continue. One idea is to bring in South Africa and make it the Seven Nations, or substitute them at Italy’s expense. There has been serious discussion of this possibility at the highest level, or so it’s been claimed, but so far nothing has materialised. It’s a move …

6gettyimages-1521243-594x594-15fcc62.jpg
width: 594
height: 465

Gabby Logan: 'A football match on Christmas Day might be going too far'
type: item
date: 2024-12-10T00:01:19.000Z
creator: Simon Barnes
subject: Football
subject: Sport
subject: TV
subject: Amazon Prime Video
subject: Christmas
subject: Interview
subject: Magazine
subject: On demand
description: Gabby Logan will present Liverpool v Leicester on Boxing Day for Amazon Prime Video.
encoded: This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. Christmas is desperately hard work. It's the most intense period of the year, one that will expose frailties, confirm strengths, undermine pretenders and show the world the difference between the merely hopeful and the real thing. Frivolity is for other people. For football people, Christmas is deeply, unforgivingly serious. All the Premier League clubs play four games in a fortnight, including Boxing Day for most. By the time the decorations are down and the thank you letters written, the league table could have taken on a whole new complexion. Christmas has been like that since childhood for Gabby Logan, who will be presenting the Premier League games on Boxing Day and the day after for Amazon Prime Video, and also hosts their Champions League coverage. Her father was Terry Yorath, a terrific footballer, mostly for Leeds United and Wales. "Christmas was always somewhat truncated," she says. "Often we'd have Christmas in a hotel. I was a child, I didn’t know any different. Mum was very good; she always made it an adventure. And most of my working life it’s been the same. On Boxing Day I’ll be at Anfield for Liverpool against Leicester City. I’ll have done most of my prep by Christmas Eve, but I’ll still be thinking about it. I might have one glass of wine on Christmas Day." Not that she’s asking for pity, and is quick to point out that emergency workers and people in essential services are doing something that actually matters. “People sit down to enjoy sport after the madness of Christmas Day. And sport over Christmas is lovely. Families go together – I love going to live sport. “That’s partly because Christmas is the pivotal point of the season, the time when promising teams fall away – and as a Newcastle fan I know all about that! That glut of matches really gives the league a different shape. But it all comes with a certain lightness. The match is serious, but afterwards, there’s a relaxed atmo-sphere, you ca…

GettyImages-2187174692-a92a03a.jpg
width: 5031
height: 3354

Feel the noise
type: item
creator: Simon Barnes
subject: App
subject: App features
description: As Manchester City attempt to win their fifth Premier League title on the trot, Simon Barnes says millions of people around the world will be watching – and listening to the unique soundtrack of stadiums packed with British football fans in full flow
encoded: Why bother? Everybody knows Manchester City are going to win the Premier League. They’ve won in six of the past seven years, so who’s going to waste time watching it? Answer: most of the world. The Premier League is still the most popular league on the planet. No one else is even close. The average global audience for a live Premier League match is 643 million. The nearest rival is La Liga in Spain with 76 million. In third place is Ligue 1 in France with 10.5 million. Germany’s Bundesliga got six million after Covid. Serie A in Italy and Major League Soccer in the US get two million apiece. Popularity brings money, and Premier League clubs have access to plenty of the stuff. So is that what it’s really all about? Answer: not really. Take Manchester United. They’ve spent 11 seasons since Sir Alex Ferguson retired as manager proving that money and success aren’t inevitable partners. Last season they finished eighth. They paid £82 million for the Brazilian winger Antony in 2022, but in two seasons he’s scored five Premier League goals. Chelsea, too, have proved that spending and success aren’t blood brothers. Todd Boehly bought the club in 2022 and has assembled a squad by spending a billion pounds. In the past two seasons they finished 12th and sixth. All this money producing less than impressive results gives a refreshing flavour to the Premier League. These two clubs have given us an intriguing subplot about pride and falls and humility, and a proper perspective on the clubs that succeed. The winning clubs have money, but they have something else as well. Manchester City set the standard. Their manager, Pep Guardiola, is on a mad mission to create perfection. Belgian midfielder Kevin De Bruyne – who’s perhaps beginning to fade as a major force – has been the player who has done most to put these ideals into action. Guardiola knows as well as anybody that footballing perfection is an impossible dream. But that gives him all the more reason to chase it, and this purs…

https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2024/08/34GettyImages-2073552829-80951e8-e1723461492771.jpg
width: 2890
height: 1924

Last but not least
type: item
creator: Simon Barnes
subject: App
subject: App features
description: In a Games all about equality it’s fitting that the honour of ending the show in Paris goes to the women
encoded: Marathons: Men’s Sat 7am, Women’s Sun 7am, BBC1, 8am Eurosport 1 The men’s marathon is traditionally the final event of the Olympic Games, but this year in Paris they have delivered a switcheroo. The honour of closing the Games instead goes to the women’s marathon, which is a fitting expression of the progressive nature of these Games. It’s hard to believe, but women’s stamina was doubted and they had to fight for the right to run the 26 miles and 385 yards of the marathon. It has only been an Olympic event for women since it was introduced at the Los Angeles Games in 1984. The gold was won back then, in two hours, 24 minutes and 52 seconds, by Joan Benoit Samuelson of the USA, who made an early break from the pack and ran alone for the next 20-odd miles to the finish. The choice of the route in Paris is significant. Athletes will run this 40th-anniversary women’s Olympic marathon from the Hôtel de Ville in the heart of the city to Versailles and back, in a race that has serious history. It commemorates the Women’s March on Versailles of 5 October 1789, when thousands of women descended on the royal palace to bring the king back to the Tuileries. That day, Louis XVI finally agreed to ratify the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizens. It’s also a route posing serious physical challenges – by city marathon standards this one is distinctly lumpy, ascending 436 metres and descending slightly more; the steepest gradient a demanding 13.5 per cent. To qualify, women needed a personal best of two hours, 26 minutes and 50 seconds (men a PB of two hours, eight minutes and ten seconds). The fastest woman in the race is Tigst Assefa of Ethiopia, who ran two hours, 11 minutes and 53 seconds in Berlin last September. It was a stunning performance, but in the records the time has an asterisk, because she was running in a mixed-gender event. The fastest time for a women-only marathon was set in London earlier this year, when Olympic defending champion Peres Jepchir…

GettyImages-2148000662-042db22.jpg
width: 5049
height: 3366

Paris, je t'aime
type: item
creator: Simon Barnes
subject: App
subject: App features
description: France gave us the modern Games and now the City of Love is preparing the most romantic stage of all. It’s time to lose your heart to the Olympics…
encoded: The French see themselves as practical, clear-sighted and, above all, logical people. So different from that lot on the other side of la Manche with their obsession with their royal family and imperial past. But the Olympic Games are before us – and they wouldn’t exist without the ineluctable romanticism of the French. The beach volleyball will be held beneath the Eiffel Tower, built from 1887–9 as a symbol of French romantic feelings about modernism. The parade of athletes that opens the Games will take place not in a stadium, but along six kilometres of the River Seine, concluding opposite the Trocadéro, an expression of the notion that the Olympics are for everyone. Vive la liberté! There will be sporting events held all over the city that was rebuilt by Georges-Eugène Haussmann in the 19th century, with its wide boulevards, squares, fountains and parks combining radical thinking with romantic aspirations. The modern Olympic Games was the dream of another romantic Frenchman, Baron Pierre de Coubertin. The French are entitled to claim that Paris is the natural home of the Olympics, and for the next 17 days it would be ill-mannered not to agree. De Coubertin had one of the great moustaches of history. He also had deeply romantic notions about ancient Greece, along with equally romantic notions about British education. He especially admired the way that sport was part of the curriculum at British public schools and venerated the headmaster of Rugby School, Thomas Arnold, who was never as keen on sport as De Coubertin believed. It has been suggested that De Coubertin got most of his ideas about sport and the British from Thomas Hughes’s novel Tom Brown’s School Days, which is set at Rugby. The baron was an idealist who put his ideals into practice. He took the ancient Greek festival of sporting excellence called the Olympic Games and combined it with the British vision of the noble sportsman. The first Olympic Games of the modern era took place in Athens in 1896, to …

30shutterstock1955200738-759b960.jpg
width: 6945
height: 5000

The First Law of Sport
type: item
creator: Simon Barnes
subject: App
subject: App features
description: Predicting who will be victorious at sporting events isn’t guesswork — just do the science
encoded: Add Wimbledon 2024 to your watchlist. Sir Isaac Newton understood momentum as something you could calculate precisely: p = mv and all that. But in sport, momentum is the mysterious essence that allows individuals and teams to win tournaments. As we move into a weekend that brings us the finals of the men’s and women’s singles at Wimbledon and the final of the European Championship, the question everyone is asking is, who has momentum? It’s not necessary to play seven blinders in a row to win either Wimbledon or the Euros. It’s more usual for the winner to start slowly, overcome a few setbacks, look like a goner and somehow get there in the end. The emerging champion tends to get better with every passing round, saving the best for the final. It’s an especially difficult process for footballers. Tournament football is nothing like a domestic season and even the luckiest players only get a chance to win once every two years. It’s easier for tennis players, but even for them a two-week, seven-round grand-slam tournament only happens four times a year. How can we get a better understanding of sport’s mysterious concept of non-Newtonian momentum? How can we get a handle on the triple-event of the coming weekend? Let’s try some case studies. Denmark hadn’t qualified for the Euros of 1992 when Yugoslavia were disqualified on the grounds that Yugoslavia no longer existed, meaning Denmark, runners-up in their qualifying group, found themselves taking part. The players were unprepared, turned up and, as expected, were pretty terrible. They drew 0-0 with England and then lost to the hosts, Sweden. So their ultra-defensive coach, Richard Moller Nielsen, brought in striker Henrik Larsen and that freed up fellow forward Brian Laudrup. They were still a defensive team but now they could counter-attack. And they did so, beating France to go through to the semi-finals. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2024/07/GettyImages-145880450-61c3553.jpg" wid…

GettyImages-1045410-d4bd46c.jpg
width: 1557
height: 1289

Power of Scotland
type: item
date: 2024-06-13T13:55:39.000Z
creator: Simon Barnes
subject: App
subject: App features
description: To make the knockout stage, Scotland might have to beat hosts Germany in their opening game – but Simon Barnes and Pat Nevin say they have the firepower to be a surprise package
encoded: Scotland’s best hope of going beyond the group stage could lie at the feet of a man who was actually born in England — but his name is Scott, so that presumably takes care of the eligibility problems. Besides, his father was born in Helensburgh on the Firth of Clyde. Scott McTominay is committed to Scotland all right. He played a blinder of a qualification group. Scotland are supposed to go agonisingly close and then fail at the 11th hour, but this time they forgot the script and won their first five matches. They qualified with two to spare. McTominay, who has made more than 250 appearances for Manchester United, was at the heart of Scotland’s charge, scoring seven goals from midfield, most of them arriving late in the box for a decisive finish. The only players to score more than he did in qualifying were Romelu Lukaku for Belgium, Cristiano Ronaldo for Portugal, France’s Kylian Mbappé and Harry Kane. McTominay scored twice against Spain, the second a beautiful guided volley into the bottom corner. This is the fourth time Scotland have qualified for the European Championship finals and for once they go in with a swagger. Mind you, they will need to. Their first match is against the host nation, Germany, in Munich. After that, they play Switzerland and then Hungary. Qualification for the knock-out stage is possible, but it will require a few heroics. It will be a first for Scotland if they do manage it: the three previous times they qualified, in 1992, 1996 and 2020, they never got out of their groups. Euro 2020 wasn’t a happy experience: they lost to the Czech Republic and Croatia. The one bright(ish) moment came at Wembley where they frustrated England with a tigerish 0–0 draw. This is the kind of crumb that Scotland tend to live on in major tournaments. It’s always just about to be the moment they make a real statement in the international game. But Steve Clarke, Scotland’s manager since May 2019, has built a defence every other country must respect – “They are …

Euro-2024-Scotland-route-to-final-b8d912e.jpg
width: 7699
height: 5133

Can England win it?
type: item
date: 2024-06-12T16:01:07.000Z
creator: Simon Barnes
subject: App
subject: App features
description: Gareth Southgate can call on the three best players in Europe, says Simon Barnes. All his men need now is to believe – and be lucky
encoded: We love a Big Date. European historians bring up 1789 or 1914 or perhaps 1945. Those who follow cricket and the Ashes prefer 2005. In football it’s the Lionesses, in 2022. But for England’s senior men’s team, the only possible contender is 1966, the last time they won a major international trophy. The relentless disappointment that followed has cast a vast shadow over England’s preparations for tournaments ever since. The question “Can England win it?” has become one of those loaded questions like, “Do you believe in Father Christmas?" But the European Championship begins on Friday and England start as clear favourites with the bookmakers. And why not? England have the three best players in Europe: every one of them would stroll into any squad at the Euros and be instantly accepted as the main man. The first is Harry Kane. Throughout his career he has made goal-scoring a matter of routine: he’s pleased when he scores, but never surprised. What’s more, he’s better than he was at the last tournament, in December 2022, when England reached the quarter-finals of the World Cup in Qatar. That’s because he left Spurs for Bayern Munich, a team with higher expectations. He was top scorer in the Bundesliga, with 36 goals: calm and accurate in the madness of the penalty area. He’s the best player in Germany. Jude Bellingham is a West Midlands boy who has played most of his football abroad, which has given him an air of self-certainty (see our profile on page 14). Certainly he’s gone far beyond the parochial concerns of English football. He knows he can do it anywhere, and do it well. He moved from Borussia Dortmund to Real Madrid last summer and has surpassed all expectations, driving Europe’s top club with power, style and plenty of goals. He’s a midfielder but in all competitions he’s scored 23 goals, mostly crucial ones, with 15 assists. He’s just been voted la Liga player of the season. He’s the best player in Spain. And then there’s Phil Foden. You might have expected Man…

GettyImages-2107475971-12c7505.jpg
width: 3757
height: 2633

Fast and Furious
type: item
date: 2024-06-04T16:48:00.000Z
creator: Simon Barnes
subject: TV
description: Bowlers Jofra Archer and Adil Rashid are key to England’s chances, Nasser Hussain tells Simon Barnes — but any team could win it
encoded: Nasser Hussain is on his way to Dallas, Texas, to cover the opening match of the men’s T20 World Cup. It’s the United States v Canada, which is perhaps not a fixture you’d expect, but there’s more tradition to it than you might think. “It’s the oldest international fixture in cricket,” Hussain is quick to remind me. The countries first played in 1844 and Canada won by 23 runs. Matches will also be played in New York and Florida, but the bulk of the tournament is in the West Indies. There are 20 nations taking part, including Oman, Nepal, Papua New Guinea and Scotland, England’s first opponent. “The shorter the format, the more it’s up in the air,” Hussain says. “Someone has a good day and the match is won.” In other words, anyone can beat anyone. Scotland have beaten England in a 50-over match before (in 2018) and have a genuine chance of doing it again in a Twenty20. With this in mind, I have a theory that I want to run past Hussain. It goes like this: T20 is a bowler’s game in disguise. After a pause, I get qualified agreement. “Batters will win you matches. Bowlers will win you tournaments.” Of course, everything is geared for the batter in T20: flat pitches, short boundaries, fielding restrictions, very tight wides, ever more efficient bats, the list goes on. “Michael Holding said they shouldn’t bother with bowlers and just put up a bowling machine. But there’s only one effective way of bringing down a scoring rate, and that’s to take wickets. That’s why Pakistan consistently do well.” So, let’s look at England’s most important bowlers. “Adil Rashid’s four overs in every match are like gold dust,” Hussain says. Rashid is now 36 and as good as ever; better, perhaps. “He has the variations, the accuracy and the consistency. And he’s equally good bowling to right-handers as left-handers.” And then there’s fast bowler Jofra Archer. “He jogs in and makes it look easy as he bowls at 90-plus miles an hour,” says Hussain. It was Archer’s pace that gave England the edge …

GettyImages-849474488-bcf90bc.jpg
width: 4912
height: 3272

Jenson Button on his underdog F1 victory: "For a start, we had no engine"
type: item
date: 2023-11-15T08:00:49.000Z
creator: Simon Barnes
subject: Documentaries
subject: TV
subject: Disney Plus
subject: Interview
description: His success is the topic of a new documentary series on Disney Plus.
encoded: Underdogs do better in some sports than in others. Perhaps there's scope for doctoral-level data analysis yielding a figure for every sport in the calendar. We could call it the Woof Index – the bigger the number, the better the chance for the underdog. It would be something like 10 for football, seven for tennis, six for T20 cricket, four for rugby union, three for Test cricket – and 0.5 for Formula 1. Naturally, the Woof Index drops appreciably over a full season, so the chance of an underdog victory in the F1 Drivers' Championship is vanishingly small. But it did happen. In 2009, a fairy tale took over the world's most single-mindedly commercial sport – and the story is now richly retold in a Disney Plus documentary series, Brawn: the Impossible Formula 1 Story, fronted by petrolhead film star Keanu Reeves. It began with a team in chaos. "For a start, we had no engine," says Jenson Button, who was the designated number one driver in the Brawn GP team. Even I, no motorsport expert, can see that this was a critical shortage. Honda had pulled out of F1 racing before the season began, and it looked as if the team they'd left behind would fall apart. Then, they were taken over by motor racing maestro Ross Brawn, who had masterminded the dominance of F1 by Michael Schumacher and the Ferrari team in the early 2000s. Brawn had been working for the Honda team, but now he controlled it. Button had to take a pay cut. "I had one other option [to move to another team], but I decided to stay. I wasn't going to get results elsewhere. The whole team chose to take a pay cut so we could go racing – I wasn't the only one, and I was still getting more than anyone else, so don't feel sorry for me. We did it so we could win races. That's why we were in Formula 1." The car itself looked better once it had a Mercedes engine in it. All the other teams had been testing for a while when Brawn finally got a car onto the track, but Button was cautiously optimistic. "It felt smooth. It felt r…

Button-1bea761.jpg
width: 3000
height: 2000

Worzel Gummidge's Mackenzie Crook talks improvising his character and the message the BBC special hopes to deliver
type: item
date: 2020-12-24T09:00:34.000Z
creator: Simon Barnes
subject: Drama
subject: News
subject: TV
subject: Christmas
subject: The Big RT Interview
description: Mackenzie Crook talks to Simon Barnes about turning his back on a Ferrari and buying an Essex woodland instead.
encoded: There comes a time in many of our lives when for once we have a little more money than we expected, a little more than we actually need. It’s like a gift from God: money to spend in pursuit of pure joy. The decisions we make at such a time define who we are. It was 2008 and with three Pirates of the Caribbean movies under his belt, Mackenzie Crook had set his heart on a vintage Ferrari. Why not? He was now definitely in the Ferrari class – and here was just the car. “And then I had a revelation,” he says. “I realised that a Ferrari was the last thing I wanted to buy. Instead I bought eight acres of ancient woodland and it’s the best purchase I ever made.” Crook is back on BBC One this Christmas with a third outing as Worzel Gummidge. To say that he “plays” Worzel would understate the link between character and actor; he inhabits the scarecrow’s world as writer, director and orchestrator of the country character’s revival. As his BBC Four comedy Detectorists displayed, Crook is a passion-project man, and Worzel is a passion of the first rank. He sees the scarecrow of Scatterbrook Farm as a rough-and-ready guardian of the countryside: a champion of nature with a robin’s nest in his pocket. “Nature was all I used to think about as a child,” he says. “I was obsessed.” When Sir David Attenborough is asked how he got his love of nature, he generally replies: “How did you ever lose yours?” It’s something we’re all born with: but it helps if you have someone to encourage you. “It was my father’s fault,” Crook says. “I grew up in Kent in a suburban cul-de-sac. But it was a short hop into the countryside and my father and I would take bike rides all the time. He would tell me the names of the birds and the flowers and the trees, everything we saw.” But it wasn’t nostalgia that made Crook buy his patch of woodland, it was an enduring love. “It was a way of giving my family the nature they deserve,” he says. The wood lies in Essex, and it’s dominated by hornbeam coppice. For th…

Mackenzie-Crook-RT-Interview-db73100.png
width: 620
height: 413

Bradley Wiggins reveals "utterly strange" experience after winning the Tour de France
type: item
date: 2020-09-02T15:13:40.000Z
creator: Simon Barnes
subject: Cycling
subject: News
subject: Sport
subject: TV
description: Wiggins rode to victory in 2012.
encoded: Ah, victory. It’s absolutely everything in the world – and then again, it isn’t. Is victory harder in the Tour de France than in any other sporting event? Is it sweeter? Sir Bradley Wiggins was the first British winner of the men’s Tour in 2012 (Nicole Cooke having won the women’s Tour in 2006), and a week later he won an Olympic gold medal in London: not a bad year. As cycling’s greatest race enters its second week, Wiggins – who appears every day on The Breakaway, Eurosport’s post-race review show – tells me it’s a shame that there are no serious British contenders in this year’s Tour: no Chris Froome, no Geraint Thomas. A British rider has won six of the past seven Tours, but it won’t happen this year. “It’s been challenging for everybody and we’re lucky to have the race,” says Wiggins. “It’s been very difficult for the riders to prepare: how do you peak when you don’t know when it’s happening?” At least we have a Tour, even if it’s in September rather than July. Wiggins will be there: “You always forget what it’s like. I can’t imagine doing anything like riding the Tour now. It lasts three weeks – it seems like a long time to me now, and I’m just doing the TV. “But I remember that it can seem mundane and repetitive: so much of it is a mental game. You have to get up day after day and get on with the race.” The Tour is an ordeal: each rider must face a daily question of how much more he can take, and if it’s all really worth it. Those of us who merely watch are entitled to wonder if the riders get up one morning after the halfway stage and think: do I really want to do this today? “No,” Wiggins says, “I never did feel that. And, by the way, I think you’ve just defined the difference between winners and losers.” OK, then: what’s it like being a winner? Not just a winner, but the winner? And suddenly we are back in 2012, on the 19th stage, a 53km time trial from Bonneval to Chartres. The riders set off knowing there was only this stage left to secure victory as the…

bradley-wiggins-e079d76-scaled.jpg
width: 2560
height: 1706

James Cracknell returns to compete in the Boat Race – 15 years after he gave up rowing
type: item
date: 2019-04-07T07:00:03.000Z
creator: Simon Barnes
subject: News
subject: Sport
subject: TV
description: The Olympic gold winner will be the oldest ever participant at the age of 46
encoded: I don’t know. You start off with the idea of asking James Cracknell what it’s like to row four and a bit miles at racing pace along the River Thames when you’ve reached the advanced age of 46 and you end up talking about the glories of the National Health Service and the best way to save it. Cracknell won gold medals for rowing at the Olympic Games of 2000 and 2004, so he was – and indeed still is – one hell of an oarsman. It’s not really surprising that he fancies a new athletic challenge: people like that always do. What’s far more startling is that he wanted to be a student again. How to watch and live stream the Boat Race 2019 He’s at Cambridge University studying for a masters degree in human evolution; the chance to row in the Boat Race and become the oldest ever participant is a mad bonus. “I’m here to study,” he says. “The course comes first. If there’d been any problem about keeping the course going, I’d have dropped the rowing.” All the same, there’s a kind of inevitability about it. You work hard, but you turn up at the boat house and find yourself “taking the option to put yourself in the mix”. Like the cavalry charger responding to the whiff of cordite, the fascination of sinking your ego and your ambitions into a crew and moving a boat at speed across the water becomes irresistible. But not at the expense of his studies. He wants to lay down a serious academic qualification so that he can help the NHS in the best possible way. “My mother worked in the NHS. The NHS is something we should all be proud of,” says Cracknell. “But as a society we put so much pressure on it, and to make it a more effective organisation we must take the pressure off.” That means making sound decisions about healthy living. Cracknell’s passion for the extreme tests of sport is only a part of what drives him. “It’s not about policies for the middle classes; it’s about everyone’s ability to make effective choices. We can change our attitude to diet as we changed our attitude to s…

cracknall-pic-499abd4.jpg
width: 1000
height: 666

"The title race is on": Liverpool v Manchester City preview
type: item
date: 2018-10-07T08:00:23.000Z
creator: Simon Barnes
subject: Football
subject: News
subject: Sport
subject: TV
description: Man City's bogey team from last season are causing them greater problems this year
encoded: They were so nearly perfect. But they had a flaw, and it still haunts them. Manchester City came as close as any team ever has to a perfect season, but their flaw made it clear that they were still vulnerable human beings like the rest of us. The name of that flaw was Liverpool. Now Manchester City must make the short trip to Anfield for a match that will go some way towards defining both their seasons. What Premier League matches are live on TV this weekend? How to watch the Premier League live on TV: Sky and BT subscription costs, games and more RadioTimes.com newsletter: get the latest TV and entertainment news direct to your inbox Liverpool finished fourth last season but, unbeaten in six league games at the start of the season, they are already seen as City’s main rival for the Premier League title. It would be an understatement to say that Manchester City won the title last season. They triumphed, setting a number of records while they were at it. Most points: 100. Most goals scored: 106. Most consecutive wins: 18. Most away wins: 16. Best positive goal difference: 79. Biggest gap to second place: 19. And there are probably a few more records I’ve left out. But in the course of making all that history, Manchester City lost to Liverpool – three times. In one view, this failure, by humanising the heroes, makes their deeds more remarkable. But professional athletes don’t tend to see it that way; they will see only the stark failure. City seemed to transform football into a kind of ballet: one based around speed and grace, with players who seemed incapable of surrendering possession, even for an instant. There would be long periods when this looked like pointless self-indulgence: and then their opponents would make a tiny miscalculation and, in a moment of bewildering speed, City would strike. Again. Their style lacked the swashbuckling joy of the best Manchester United sides under Sir Alex Ferguson, looking more like a form of chess than the swing-on-the-chandeli…

GettyImages-844775072-f56fb01.jpg
width: 1024
height: 623

A tale of two skippers: will Root or Kohli triumph?
type: item
date: 2018-08-18T08:00:58.000Z
creator: Simon Barnes
subject: Cricket
subject: News
subject: Sport
subject: TV
description: This summer's Test series between England and India is really a battle between the two captains, Joe Root and Virat Kohli, says Simon Barnes
encoded: It’s a ritual. Before every major Test series, someone – usually a fast bowler – will announce that the team will be “targeting” the opposition captain. It’s one of those meaningless sporting statements: after all, you’re not planning to go easy on the rest of the team, are you? But the captain is a crucial player. If the skipper has a bad series, you know you’re halfway to victory. Being the most important figure in every cricket team also makes the captain the most vulnerable. Their failure is often the team’s failure – and they know it. A good personal performance leads to strong, confident decisionmaking, but a second-rate showing eats into the confidence of the captain – and by extension, the entire team. England v India 2018 cricket TV and radio coverage: how to follow the summer Test series live Sport on TV 2018 calendar RadioTimes.com newsletter: get the latest TV and entertainment news direct to your inbox View oEmbed on the source website As the Test series between England and India unwinds across this impossible summer – the more impossible because, absurdly, the Premier League has started right in the middle of it – it becomes clear that this is a personal competition between the two captains – Joe Root and Virat Kohli. Who is the better cricketer? Who is the better leader? Who leads the better team? Personal performance is closely intertwined with leadership abilities. A captain who can’t buy a run – captains are traditionally batsmen – will often make flawed decisions. That’s why the sight of the opposing captain hopping and ducking at a fast bowler, or groping desperately at a spinner, brings great joy to the opposition. Root began the series with a terrific innings – but he was run out for 80 by Kohli with a stunning piece of fielding. The fact that it was Kohli made it worse for Root – and the fact that it was Root being run out gave special joy to Kohli. It seemed that the entire match hung on that captain-on-captain encounter, especially as Kohli …

GettyImages-1008209214-331efe1.jpg
width: 1000
height: 666

Michael Vaughan has a plan for the future of Test cricket
type: item
date: 2018-08-09T07:03:59.000Z
creator: Simon Barnes
subject: Cricket
subject: News
subject: Radio
subject: Sport
subject: TV
subject: audio
description: Crisis? What crisis? The former England captain is bullish about the future of Test cricket at home and abroad
encoded: If you’ve got a problem – any kind of problem – talk to Michael Vaughan. He’ll have the answer. It may not be the right answer, but he’ll certainly have one: and that in itself is wonderfully cheering. It’s easy – look, we can do this... Premier League 2018/19 fixtures and live TV coverage revealed Sport on TV 2018 calendar RadioTimes.com newsletter: get the latest TV and entertainment news direct to your inbox England’s most successful captain of recent times is playing cricket again, though not in a Test this time. He’s captaining a Test Match Special commentators’ team on Friday 17th August against a celebrity team called the Tailenders, in Derby. A similar fixture last year got an audience of half a million on the BBC red button. So, let’s ask Vaughan how to fix cricket’s problems. After all, he’s like Charlie in The Italian Job. You remember the last scene, with the coach balanced on the edge of the cliff, all the gang on the landward side, all the gold over the drop? That’s when Michael Caine, as Charlie, speaks the film’s immortal last words: “Hang on a minute, lads. I’ve got a great idea...” So, cricket is in crisis. “No it isn’t,” says Vaughan. “Millions of people love cricket. Millions of boys and girls are playing the game, millions of people are watching the game. We need people inside the game to be more positive: don’t go around saying cricket’s knackered when it’s not.” Vaughan is good at doing the impossi ble. That’s because he has no concept of the impossible. It’s a mindset that brought victory in 2005 when England beat Australia to win an Ashes series for the first time in 16 years. In the final Test at the Oval, with defeat a real prospect, Vaughan had an idea that made all the difference. At lunch on the final day with England on 127 for 5 and just 120 ahead Vaughan told Kevin Pietersen, who was 37 not out: “Go out and take them on.” Fifteen fours and seven sixes later, Pietersen was out for 158, and the draw was secured that won the Ashes for E…

GettyImages-1008754202-3ecf76f.jpg
width: 5298
height: 3418

Why Team GB could win big in athletics at the European Championships
type: item
date: 2018-08-02T10:41:12.000Z
creator: Simon Barnes
subject: Athletics
subject: News
subject: Sport
subject: TV
description: Paula Radcliffe and Radio Times Sports columnist Simon Barnes say Great Britain has real medal hopes on the track
encoded: Athletics is the heart of sport. Whatever sport you most like to watch and to play, it all goes back to track and field – and that’s why athletics always seems to matter more when it’s the central part of a multi-sports event. We’re always keenest on running and jumping and throwing when these events are surrounded by a garland of other sports – and that’s why the newfangled European Championships might just turn out to be a winner as they unfold over 100 hours of television coverage, in the course of ten days of action. The athletics will be in Berlin, while a bunch of other Olympic heartland sports, including swimming, gymnastics, rowing, cycling and triathlon, will take place in Scotland, with Glasgow as the main host city – and if that’s slightly awkward, bringing these sports together will give a touch of specialness to each one. Why the European Championships could be this year’s surprise sporting success European Championships 2018 live on TV: how to watch the all-new sports tournament RadioTimes.com newsletter: get the latest TV and entertainment news direct to your inbox View oEmbed on the source website Athletics is always the centrepiece, because it’s is the basic sport. The only equipment you need is your own body – its origins are primeval: I bet I could run to that tree ahead of you; I bet I could leap that stream and you couldn’t; I bet I could throw that rock further than you. When other sports take place around athletics, you understand the central role that athletics has in the way we watch and play all of them. Some purists might prefer to see track and field as a stand-alone event, as has been the case in the past with the European Athletics Championships – but not Paula Radcliffe. “It actually helps bring a wider focus to all of the sports,” the great British distance runner, who is now a key member of the BBC’s team, tells RT. “Cycling, rowing and golf don’t detract from the athletics at the Olympic Games. They make it more of a celebration of …

GettyImages-944617678-af26ea2.jpg
width: 3247
height: 2183

Why the European Championships could be this year’s surprise sporting success
type: item
date: 2018-08-02T08:16:49.000Z
creator: Simon Barnes
subject: Athletics
subject: News
subject: Sport
subject: TV
description: A new event unites Europe’s best – and you can watch it all for free
encoded: The satellite companies keep buying up top sporting events. If you don’t subscribe to the right channels, you are deprived of live Test match cricket, Premier League action, Champions League football, all kinds of stuff. The idea is that you miss them all so much you just have to take out a subscription. But there’s a fascinating counter-revolution taking place alongside. The shortage of familiar sport on free-to-air channels has created a hunger for athletic excellence, for the unending dramas of sport and for the simple joys of partisanship – and this hunger can be sated by free-to-air channels that bring us sporting brilliance in less familiar forms. Sport on TV 2018 calendar RadioTimes.com newsletter: get the latest TV and entertainment news direct to your inbox View oEmbed on the source website We may not be able to watch Cristiano Ronaldo outside of the World Cup, but we can turn to other disciplines and find the same kind of quality, all the more compelling for the way it comes in a radically different package. And that is the thinking behind the European Championships, which will be launched for the first time across the continent, and all of it free-to-air. The events take place in two cities and across seven different sports, in the great European belief that sports, like nations, are better together. Britain will be a part of it: most of the events will be in and around Glasgow, the city that did such a terrific job of the Commonwealth Games in 2014. The athletics will take place in Berlin, while Glasgow will hold swimming and diving, cycling – all four Olympic disciplines: road, track, mountain bike and BMX – gymnastics, rowing and triathlon. So far, so understandable: all of these are heartland Olympic sports holding serious competitions that every competitor will be desperate to win. But bizarrely, there’s also a team golf event at Gleneagles. It’s likely to lack the intensity of the other events… but no doubt it will please punters who were unable to …

16237883-high res-glasgow-2018-european-championships-c20cb43.jpg
width: 4740
height: 2581

It's been a golden summer for sport – but 2012 was the greatest of all
type: item
date: 2018-07-21T08:00:52.000Z
creator: Simon Barnes
subject: Athletics
subject: News
subject: Sport
subject: TV
subject: Comment
description: Simon Barnes looks back at the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics – and considers why we're still looking for another Jessica Ennis
encoded: There’s nothing like a great summer of sport for bringing a nation together: a glorious few weeks when partisanship, drama and sporting excellence all combine, and huge numbers of us are out there rejoicing beneath the great gold medal of the sun. This has been such a summer. England had a great ride in the World Cup, refreshing and noble, the disappointment as Gareth Southgate’s young charges lost in the semis – watched by 26 million – only adding to its poetry. On the same day, Roger Federer went out of Wimbledon, proving an iron rule of sport: that you can’t win ’em all, though a genius can get close. It seems like generations since we went through similar agonies and delights – but six years ago, the London Olympic and Paralympic Games brought one of the greatest summers of all. Sport on TV 2018 calendar: how to watch the Premier League, Tour de France and more Everything you need to know about the Premier League fixtures and live TV coverage The best women’s sport on TV in 2018 View oEmbed on the source website So it’s always a delight, when the Anniversary Games come round again, to recall that sporting euphoria. It’s just an athletics meet on the IAAF Diamond League circuit – nothing like the mad omnisport grandiosity of the Olympics – but over two days we will be able to set the athletes who currently lead the world against memories of those golden days of 2012. The event takes place at the Olympic Stadium in Stratford, which is now the London Stadium in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. The current crop of all-time greats, aspiring hopefuls, ageing champions, has-beens, never wozzers, nearly-but-not-quiters, maybe-this-timers and all the other members of the cast of breathtaking talent will be out there doing their stuff in the context of all our memories of greatness. The athletes will have their eyes turned towards the future and the unanswerable question of what happens next. But we who watch have the luxury of comparing one generation with the next. And…

GettyImages-484971618-a150bdf.jpg
width: 4386
height: 2988

What is the greatest Wimbledon final of all time?
type: item
date: 2018-07-15T07:30:33.000Z
creator: Simon Barnes
subject: News
subject: Sport
subject: TV
subject: Wimbledon
description: "Choosing your favourite Wimbledon final is deeply personal, like choosing your favourite Beatles song" says Simon Barnes – but which match stands out above the rest for him?
encoded: It’s easy to work out which is my favourite Wimbledon final – all of them. They’re all great: the sense of occasion, the power of history, the Centre Court hush on match point, when you can hear the server bouncing the ball even if you’re sitting right at the top of the stands… But this week we’re playing by Desert Island Discs rules, so I’m only allowed to choose one. Well, one of each of the men’s and women’s singles finals. And after a good deal of cogitation, I’ve made my decision. It’s a deeply personal matter, of course, like choosing your favourite Beatles song. On what grounds do you choose? Partisanship? In that case, you must go for Andy Murray’s first win in 2013, or perhaps Virginia Wade’s historic win in 1977. Drama? That will be Goran Ivanisevic’s victory over Pat Rafter in 2001, or the agonising, eternally oscillating struggle between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal in 2008 – though, on that occasion, I felt that the tension became genuinely unbearable. A human dramatist would never have let things get so out of hand. How much do Wimbledon tennis players get paid? Wimbledon 2018: How does Hawk-eye work? On the women’s side, there is the parade of brilliance from the Williams sisters, the victory of the 17-year old Maria Sharapova over Serena in 2004, and the athletic glory of Martina Navratilova. But in the end, my choice is the 1995 final between Spain’s Arantxa Sánchez Vicario and Steffi Graf of Germany. The eleventh game of the final set, with Sánchez Vicario serving at 5–5, went on for 20 minutes. They played 32 points, with 13 deuces and 18 game points, of which six were break points. When Graf finally broke the Spaniard’s serve, the crowd stood and applauded throughout the changeover. View oEmbed on the source website It was a classic example of the minute difference between the very, very good players and the all-time greats. Sánchez Vicario had attacked Graf’s backhand relentlessly, a policy that took her within touching distance of victory: an…

GettyImages-815530004-d969855.jpg
width: 3079
height: 2053

England and the 2018 World Cup: it's the hope that saves you
type: item
date: 2018-07-07T07:34:41.000Z
creator: Simon Barnes
subject: Football
subject: News
subject: Sport
subject: TV
subject: Comment
description: Simon Barnes looks back on all those years of hurt – and why still, after all that, England fans still believe
encoded: Hope is the thing with feathers, wrote Emily Dickinson, but she was a poet who never reported on a World Cup. Had she done so, she’d have known that hope is the thing with football boots. I have never seen a ground in quite the same state of delirium as the Big Swan in Niigata, Japan, in 2002, when England were leading Denmark 3–0 in the round of 16. England fans formed a series of long, snaking conga lines, dancing their way around the stadium. This detonation of glorious feathered and football-booted hope seem utterly justified when England went 1–0 up against Brazil in the next match, the quarter-finals, and it was clear that every defender in the competition was terrified of the speed and skill of Michael Owen. Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive, but to be in Shizuoka was very heaven. Watch Ian Wright, Gary Neville and Lee Dixon LOSE IT in the ITV studio as England beat Colombia Of course, it ended badly. So what? Yes, perhaps the abiding memory is of disappointment and ill-conceived headlines about “years of hurt”. Never mind. What counts is the experience: those few days of hope, glorious hope. View oEmbed on the source website Did the hope make up for the pain of defeat? Of course not. How could it? But think of every World Cup as a love affair that went wrong. No matter how painful the ending, you will always have those mad times of perfect bliss. Incredible 23.6 million viewers tune in as England beat Colombia on penalties England played Argentina in the round of 16 in 1998 in a match haunted by sporting and military history. I was in England for that one and experienced first-hand the tsunami of hope that flooded the country in the days before the match. It was as if no one could talk of anything else: people only vaguely aware that a football was round were discussing David Beckham’s free kick against Colombia. Sure, Beckham got sent off against Argentina, and England lost on penalties: but what mattered most were those long moments when England were s…

GettyImages-990925480-706493a.jpg
width: 1024
height: 683