Last December 8th, on a chilly, damp evening in South London, I experienced a sporting epiphany. It wasn’t the moment I finally realised I was never destined for Olympic glory. No. That had already come, many years earlier, when, in every sport I attempted, it quickly became clear that I would always be commended principally …
Sports fans have long memories and, to be honest, an occasionally overdeveloped sense of justice and injustice. It’s one of the reasons that non-sports fans find us so insufferable. Ancient games are analysed and reanalysed, the question of who deserved what, or didn’t deserve anything, endlessly picked apart: Leeds United deserved to win the 1975 …
A man came to my house last weekend, canvassing for the local elections. Big mistake. By and large I do not want to talk on the doorstep. But when it’s politics, a visit from my local councillor is a red rag to a bull and I’ll talk. I mean I’ll really talk. To his vast …
It’s Friday and they think it’s all over. Time to Pause for Thought – except no one wants to Pause. I don’t. I just want to get to the end of the day, the end of the week and have two blessed mornings not riding the bus to Oxford. So spare a thought, ladies and …
I’ve been thinking about football. This has been a great season for the underdog and we've reveled in the exploits of Sutton United and Lincoln City, but at Champion Hill, the home of Dulwich Hamlet on Saturday afternoon I witnessed a feat to match any of them. Picture the scene. It's the quarter final of …
While Ben Stokes and Mark Wood were polishing off the Australian tail at Trent Bridge on Saturday morning, I was in the cellar. There are three things to take from that. First, that in the forty-one years since I first went to a test match I’ve seen very little that was as thrillingly unexpected or …