Betting on sport has always been popular, even when illegal, but after the last disastrous Gambling Act it is time to treat the issue in a more mature waySuper Bowl XXIX in January 1995 between the San Francisco 49ers and the San Diego Chargers looked like a lopsided mismatch beforehand and the reality was even worse. From the moment the 49ers scored what was, at the time, the fastest opening touchdown in Super Bowl history, it felt like the longest WWF bout in history, only without the round where they pretend the bad guy is winning.The only thing that took anyone by surprise was the TV ratings. It was not the headline figure of 83.4m viewers which was impressive because...
Glacial opener, failed captain, convicted assaulter – no wonder the former PM has idolised him since childhoodGeoffrey Boycott has always represented Theresa May’s idealised version of herself, and in that sense it is no surprise that the former prime minister has given him a knighthood in her resignation honours. She can see the hero where others can’t, and if only people could look past the social awkwardness, and the thinly disguised selfishness, and the various nasty businesses, then they would surely realise what heroic qualities truly are.Indeed, perhaps this knighthood foreshadows how someone who has herself exhibited these characteristics in her own career could go on to a highly successful second act in the political commentary box, or on the...
Top golfers take CBD for calmness, while Saracens locks George Kruis and Dominic Day were so impressed with it they launched their own businessThe first time I saw Charley Hoffman play, you would not have looked at him twice. That was at the Masters in 2015, where he stopped by the 1st tee box to beg autographs off Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus. He was 38 already, a little tubby, a little schlubby, in a hat that looked two sizes too big and a pair of wraparound sunglasses so tight they gave him tan lines. Then he went and shot a 67. Well, like the old salts say at Augusta, the bars of Chicago are full of people who led...
One side of the argument believes that women’s sport must be protected, the other that gender identification trumps everything. Debate is needed to find a fair solutionI can’t stop thinking about Feagaiga Stowers. Or rather a picture of the 18-year-old Samoan, standing on the second step of a podium last week, looking stoic but sad. By any measure Stowers is a remarkable woman. As a child she was a victim of sexual violence, and sought refuge at a Victim Support Group where she began weightlifting and went from being “shy and hopeless” – her words – to a world junior and Commonwealth Games champion. Yet having been chosen to be the flag bearer at the Pacific Games, she missed out...
With a payout in excess of the jockey’s Magnificent Seven on the cards at the Royal meeting, the big firms did no one a favour by refusing multiplesThere were some memorable and historic achievements at Royal Ascot last week, including Hayley Turner’s win on Thanks Be in the Sandringham, the first at the meeting for a female jockey since 1987, and Blue Point’s Group One double in the week’s big sprints.But everything else pales into insignificance when set against Frankie Dettori’s remarkable afternoon on Thursday, when he won the first four races including the Gold Cup and left the bookies staring at a potential payout for a Dettori six-timer which would have far exceeded the £30m for his “Magnificent Seven”...