World Rugby’s 15 minute contact limit: the solution to injury fears or too simplistic? October 4, 2021 Rugby’s physically demanding nature has seen the sport’s organisers implement advanced concussion policies and a science-based approach to medicine, but they are about to go further. World Rugby, the game’s international governing body, last month issued the recommendation that players be limited to 15 minutes of full-contact training per week, across a maximum of two [...]
Weekend of achievements: 30 fun new world records set at London Marathon October 4, 2021 A Londoner can boast she is now the fastest woman to finish a marathon in a cake, having competed in this year’s London Marathon. The effort by Anna Bassil, 42, of St Albans, is among 30 official Guinness World Records (GWR) titles which were broken as the Virgin Money London Marathon returned after last year’s [...]
No Time To Die: Latest James Bond set to break Box Office records October 4, 2021 A range of betting houses have cut the price from 10-1 to 7-1 for new James Bond movie No Time To Die to become the highest grossing UK film of all-time. The UK’s widest theatrical release of all time opened to five-star reviews in 772 cinemas in the UK and Ireland on Thursday. And box office expectations are high, [...]
England cricket chiefs set to make decision on Ashes participation October 4, 2021 The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) plans to decide this week whether to send a team to Australia for the men’s Ashes this winter. The series is in doubt because of Australia’s strict Covid-19 protocols, although talks are continuing between both countries. A major sticking point has been whether players’ families can accompany them, [...]
Premiership: Five things we’ve learned as the east Midlands rise again October 4, 2021 The east Midlands are on the rugby rise again and more clubs than ever are competing for European places, here are five things we learned from this weekend’s Premiership action. The east Midlands heartlands are back The east Midlands duo of Leicester Tigers and Northampton Saints now occupy the top two Premiership spots. The pair [...]
Liverpool 2, Manchester City 2: Neutrals win stalemate between clinical Reds and blunt Blues October 3, 2021 As they caught their breath following this whirlwind contest at the top of the Premier League, Manchester City supporters could be forgiven for feeling conflicted. Glass-half-full Blues will point to the fact that they twice came from behind at Liverpool, where they have won just three times in 49 league games. Pessimistic City fans, on [...]
Where to eat, drink and sleep in Manchester this Tory conference October 2, 2021 Conservative Party Conference, which starts tomorrow, is a useful opportunity for the London bubble dwellers amongst us to be reminded of the promise beyond the M25. It sometimes feels as if Manchester is more familiar to football-crazy kids in the Far East than to denizens of this country’s capital city. So for out of the [...]
No Time To Die: Daniel Craig signs off in style October 1, 2021 Fifteen years after first donning the tuxedo, it’s time for Daniel Craig to take his final bow as James Bond. He arrives just as cinema is crying out for a hero: No Time To Die’s several delays (starting in March 2020) were a constant reminder of an industry still reeling from the last 18 months, [...]
A house in St John’s Wood with a garden to die for October 1, 2021 ‘Our England is a garden that is full of stately views, / Of borders, beds and shrubberies and lawns and avenues’ – so begins Rudyard Kipling’s 1911 poem, The Glory of the Garden. Over a century later, England’s towns and cities are not quite so green, and houses with decent-sized gardens are harder to come [...]
Why Spain’s LaLiga believes Uefa and other leagues should follow its lead October 1, 2021 Spain has a long and rich tradition of shaping how football is played. It has given us the great Real Madrid sides of the 1950s; Pep Guardiola and his all-conquering Barcelona; the national team who swept all major men’s international tournaments from 2008 to 2012; tiki-taka. Britain may be the birthplace of the game but [...]