UK Sport cuts cycling funding as it plots more Olympic and Paralympic medals at Tokyo 2020 December 9, 2016 British Cycling has had its funding slashed by £4m in UK Sport's investment programme in Olympic and Paralympic sports for Tokyo 2020. Five sports – badminton, weightlifting, wheelchair rugby, archery and fencing – have lost their funding over the next cycle as UK Sport divided £345m of National Lottery and government funding to sports it believes [...]
Sadiq Khan says London is a step closer to getting its own NFL franchise after four games announced for 2017 December 9, 2016 London will host four regular season NFL games for the first time next year, a move Mayor Sadiq Khan said will bring the capital closer to getting its own franchise. Four games represents half a regular season home schedule for an NFL franchise and will further put to the test London's capacity to host a franchise. Read more: The [...]
Over 1,000 Russian athletes benefited from state-sponsored doping programme, Wada report finds December 9, 2016 Over 1,000 Russian athletes benefited from state-backed doping cover-ups between 2011 and 2015, according to a new independent report from the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada). The second report into doping from law professor Richard McLaren found that doping took place across 30 sports and at Olympic Games, Winter Olympic Games and Paralympic Games. McLaren's findings will [...]
Peter Pan at National Theatre: this off-kilter adaptation is as as bewildering as it is beguiling December 9, 2016 The National Theatre’s adaptation of Peter Pan is a hectic, colourful experience that should appeal to young and old alike. It’s also all over the place in terms of its treatment of JM Barrie’s long-serving fairytale, by turns reactionary and radical. Director Sally Cookson leaves the barrier between story and stage machinery engagingly fluid – [...]
Zaha Hadid at Serpentine Sackler Gallery review: a surprising, inspiring look at a true great December 9, 2016 Zaha Hadid’s iconic buildings can be found everywhere from Beijing to Brixton, a distinctive baroque modernism that curves organically across some of the most famous skylines. Less well known are the notoriously fiery architect’s paintings, many of which pre-date her first completed project. They are collected for the first time in this Serpentine exhibition, commissioned [...]
Henrikh Mkhitaryan comes in from the cold to fire Manchester United into Europa League last 32 – but Southampton crash out in late drama December 8, 2016 Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has praised the resilience of Henrikh Mkhitaryan after the playmaker’s first goal for the club ushered them into the last 32 of the Europa League with a 2-0 win at Zorya Luhansk on Thursday night. Mkhitaryan – making only his only fifth start, having struggled to win over Mourinho following a [...]
This lively adaptation of Pride and Prejudice squeezes twenty characters out of two actors December 8, 2016 Jane Austen’s novels are about the macrocosm in the microcosm. They are about the discreet play of agendas that turn a regency drawing room gathering into an epic battle of wills, for those lively enough to read between the lines. Johannah Tincey’s adaptation of Pride and Prejudice explores this polite, compact ferocity by casting two [...]
Once in a Lifetime at the Young Vic review: Harry Enfield fails to set fire to this dated Hollywood comedy December 8, 2016 Recent years have seen a slew of productions about Hollywood, from the magic of its inception in Travelling Light to its seedy latter days in Speed-the-Plow. Falling chronologically between the two is George S Kaufman’s bawdy 1930 comedy Once in a Lifetime, which charts the upheaval brought about by the arrival of the “talkie”. In [...]
Buried Child at Trafalgar Studios: Ed Harris shines in this searing portrait of a decaying America that’s the perfect prelude to Trump December 8, 2016 Buried Child, first performed in 1978, feels like it was written for the dog days of 2016. Sam Shepherd’s quietly crushing portrait of entropy and despair is concerned with those disillusioned white working classes that have dominated the news agenda since 8 November. It’s about the death of the American dream in the wake of [...]
Dominant domestically, crushed on the continent: Why the Atlantic League is back on the agenda for clubs like Celtic December 8, 2016 If you're ever going to win the European Cup, then this is the day and this is the place.” Those were Jock Stein’s parting words to his Celtic side in 1967 before they became the first British club to become kings of Europe with a 2-1 victory over Inter Milan. More likely intended as a rallying [...]