Courtney Lawes to captain England on 100th cap as Jonny May gets surprise call August 24, 2023 Courtney Lawes will win his 100th cap when he captains England in their final warm-up match before the Rugby World Cup against Fiji at Twickenham on Saturday. With Owen Farrell serving a four-match ban for a dangerous tackle, Lawes is retained as skipper to become the fifth England player to amass a century of Test [...]
Qatar tightens grip on elite padel with takeover of rival Spanish-owned circuit August 24, 2023 Qatar Sports Investments, the owner of French football champions Paris Saint-Germain, has confirmed its takeover of the World Padel Tour. The move concludes around 18 months of wrangling over control of the fast-growing sport at elite level, following the launch of QSI’s rival Premier Padel circuit. It will see Premier Padel become the main tour [...]
Meet the man keeping London’s Turkish barber scene alive in Soho August 24, 2023 Memo Barbers has just opened in Soho Memo was 12 when his father, who was also a barber, passed away. At that young age he was put into a haircutting job at his family salon in Istanbul. By 16 he was professionally qualified. With bundles of eccentrically frizzy black hair, Memo is only in his [...]
Ed Warner: Why sport shouldn’t waste its time courting royals and politicians August 24, 2023 Politicians and royals rarely mix well with sport, so the fuss about the Prime Minister and Duke of Cambridge missing the Women’s World Cup final was classic British nonsense. In my experience, the less time spent trying to sprinkle dubious stardust on sporting events, the better. Civil servants and UK Sport spent ridiculous time that [...]
Stonewall Inn owners: Gay marriage could be taken away from LGBTQ people August 24, 2023 LGBTQ rights are being challenged in the UK and US, but The Stonewall Inn co-owners tell Adam Bloodworth that their pioneering safe spaces initiative is already changing the lives of LGBT employees and customers. Now British companies and employees can sign up. “We’re being attacked and moving backwards on a global level,” says Stacy Lentz, [...]
Jos Buttler: Ben Stokes one-day U-turn is ‘incredible boost’ for World Cup August 24, 2023 England captain Jos Buttler has hailed the return of Ben Stokes to the one-day international set-up as an “incredible boost” for the team’s looming World Cup defence. Test skipper Stokes came out of his self-imposed ODI exile last week, a year after deciding he could no longer play in all three formats of cricket. He [...]
Scrapper film review: Touching London film with great cast August 24, 2023 High rise council estates have provided the setting for many independent British gems, like Andrea Arnold’s Fish Tank or Joe Cornish’s Sci-fi Attack The Block. Scrapper does not scale those heights, but it brings fresh ideas to the formula. It’s the story of Georgie (Lola Campbell), a 12 year old recently orphaned and managing to [...]
Mob Land film review: John Travolta crime thriller lacks originality August 24, 2023 John Travolta’s streak of ropey cinematic output continues with Mob Land, a crime thriller set in America’s South. Down on his luck in a crumbling small town, family man Shelby (Shiloh Fernandez) is talked into robbing a pharmacy by his brother (Kevin Dillon). The seemingly straight forward job goes awry, and soon Shelby finds himself [...]
Theatre Camp film review: Theatre fans will adore this big-hearted comedy August 24, 2023 The Show Must Go On is the mantra of this Disney-made comedy, which has The Bear actor Molly Gordon as its writer, co-director, and star. She plays Rebecca-Dianne, an acting coach and former student of a surreal New York theatre camp. When their founder Joan (Amy Sedaris) falls into a coma, it’s up to her [...]
Next to Normal, Donmar Warehouse, review: Nostalgic musical still feels relevant August 24, 2023 Brian Yorkey’s Pulitzerwinning Next to Normal (it sits alongside Hamilton and A Strange Loop as the only musicals to be awarded the accolade in the 21st century) returns to the stage 14 years after its Broadway debut – but its message about the weight of coping with mental illness has barely aged a day. It [...]