William Blake at Tate Britain review: A trip into the mind of a true revolutionary artist September 13, 2019 William Blake isn’t just an artist, he’s a figure almost as mythical as those he committed to paper, a part of the pop culture lexicon whose influence extends far beyond the works he left behind. He was famously plagued by phantasms: strange, demonic creatures that inspired his most iconic works. They appeared to him throughout [...]
England’s horror film batting makes a mockery of The Oval’s pleasant conditions to spurn fifth Test opportunity September 12, 2019 Many horror films begin with an opening period of calm serenity. A group of fresh-faced innocence teenagers go to a cabin by a lake. A family check into a remote, eerie, cobweb-filled mansion. A group of friends head off on a road trip across the barren countryside. Initially the characters go about their lives with [...]
Rugby World Cup to give Georgia the chance to earn their seat at rugby’s top table September 12, 2019 Georgia have spent the better part of a decade stuck in European Rugby’s no man’s land, wedged under the glass ceiling that separates them from the continent’s elite. Currently, their primary competition is the Rugby Europe Championship, the second tier beneath the far more prestigious Six Nations. Georgia have won nine of the last 11 [...]
Quique Sanchez Flores’ Watford return is fraught with complications after frosty exit in 2016 September 12, 2019 When Watford wrote in their parting statement with manager Quique Sanchez Flores in May 2016 that he “leaves with all our best wishes for the future and the knowledge he is always welcome at Vicarage Road” it appeared a generic gesture of good will. But three years and three months – and three managers – [...]
World Cup winner but Ashes failure: Trevor Bayliss leaves England with lopsided legacy September 11, 2019 Tomorrow’s final Ashes Test match at The Oval marks the end of Trevor Bayliss’s four-year tenure in charge of England and, naturally enough, the landmark has prompted an assessment of his body of work. The man himself rates his time in charge as a five out of 10 – a straight-down-the-middle judgement which is fairly [...]
Celebrities take to the trading floor to raise money for charity September 11, 2019 Prince Harry became a city boy for a morning yesterday. Along with movie stars, music artists and sports personalities, the Duke of Sussex turned his hand to trading stocks in aid of charity. Traders watched on as the Prince hit the phones to seal deals with clients, helping to raise money as part of brokerage [...]
Front three are as good as any but England must improve defence and midfield September 11, 2019 England’s pair of high-scoring wins over Bulgaria and Kosovo will have left Gareth Southgate broadly happy, although the Euro 2020 qualifying double-header did highlight their shortcomings. They were always going to takes six points from these fixtures – anything else would have been a huge shock – but I’d suggest Southgate would have expected two [...]
Blair Witch game review: Bloober Team over-stretches with this ambitious but flawed tale September 11, 2019 There are moments in Blair Witch that live up to the promise of the source material, recreating the sense of suffocating panic that comes from being lost and alone. It’s an area in which Polish games developer Bloober Team has form: in psychological horror Layers of Fear, doors would flicker out of existence when you [...]
England 5-3 Kosovo: Three Lions show all their colours in wide-open thriller at St Mary’s September 10, 2019 Fans often moan that international football is boring, that games are one-sided and that results are predictable. Those gripes were nowhere to be heard tonight as England and Kosovo served up an absurdly open, seesawing and incident-packed eight-goal thriller at St Mary’s. It was a crazy Euro 2020 qualifier which had it all, displaying all [...]
England must press the reset button and use their Ashes disappointment to drive a new era September 9, 2019 Not so long ago England were the best Test cricket side in the world. The story of how they went from world No7 in 2009 to the summit just over two years later has been retold recently, first through the gripping film The Edge and now with the release of former England captain Alastair Cook’s [...]