This week’s roundup also features electric skateboard pole-vaulting, a tribute to speedway great Ivan Mauger and county cricket from 19491) To the marbles world championship! Hot action from this year’s event at Tinsley Green in Sussex, plus Trans World Sport’s trip there in 2017 and Pathé’s coverage of the 1938 edition (plus a US event in the very same year). Then there’s this rather remarkable short BBC Nationwide report from 1973 on Len Smith, “the Muhammad Ali of marbles”.2) It is FA Cup semi-final weekend! Here is some thunderous Gazza, proper underdogs, Giggs dribbling and Palace against Liverpool. Continue reading...
After a nervous start for both on the final round of the Masters the Texan settled to play his game but McIlroy’s challenge diedThey say a Green Jacket costs around $250, though no one who knows will confirm that. Money talks in Augusta, same as anywhere, but Augusta does not like to talk money. Certainly they are made in Cincinnati by the Hamilton Tailoring Co, from tropical wool, pantone 342, three buttons, double‑breasted, with the owner’s name stitched on the inside. And there is nothing, certainly not in the game of golf, that Rory McIlroy wants more. This was McIlroy’s fourth run at finishing the career grand slam and the most painful to watch of the lot because it was...
The nebulous interference rule, a point of controversy all year long, is a ticking time bomb that threatens to spoil a team’s Stanley Cup hopesThe NHL playoffs begin on Wednesday, as the remaining 16 teams get set to begin what they hope will be a two-month journey towards the Stanley Cup. It’s a great time to be a hockey fan. But this year, there’s a cloud hanging over everything. A controversy over the league’s goaltender interference rules has flared up periodically all season long, especially down the stretch. And that has fans wondering when – not if – a key game is going to be determined by an interference call that everyone hates. Related: 'It's the best game in the...
A former technical director for the Premier League may just have the answer to US Soccer’s perpetual youth development bugaboo If the USA were to ever win a World Cup, there would be a long roll of people to thank. But this week another name was quietly added to that notional list:Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. Related: Christian Pulisic has succeeded in spite of American soccer, not because of it Continue reading...
Controversial statements, accusations and uneasy family relations have marked the career of Captain AmericaAfter the third round, Patrick Reed was in the interview room at Augusta National, talking journalists through his day. He had just scored 67, which made him the first person in eight years to shoot in the 60s for all the first three rounds of the Masters. He was asked about pressure, his iron play, the Ryder Cup. Then came this: “Patrick, it doesn’t take much to do a quick Twitter search to find a lot of people rooting against you. Why do you think that is? Why are there fans that don’t embrace you?” The question hung there in the air, while the temperature dropped a...