Rory McIlroy, Gout Gout and the search for sport’s elusive heroes April 16, 2026 Rory McIlroy’s back-to-back Masters triumphs have triggered the inevitable mythologising. Destiny fulfilled, demons banished after previous heartbreak, a journey not only completed but now extended. If he was merely the Hero of Hollywood before (that’s Hollywood, County Down not Los Angeles), to many the golfer has now donned the mantle of universal sporting hero along [...]
Familiarity of Masters and Augusta should be lesson to other golf majors April 9, 2026 Let me get the azaleas reference out of the way in this first sentence. After all, no Masters preview is seemingly complete without citing Augusta’s horticultural features. The flora are just one ingredient, though, in the secret sauce of golf’s first major of the season which starts today. Even if other sports could steal the [...]
Middlesex CCC needs saving from oblivion so ECB must take bold action April 2, 2026 As the English cricket season begins again, the demise of Middlesex should be ringing alarms bells at fat cats Surrey and the ECB, writes Ed Warner. Of course the forecast is for biting winds across the country this weekend. What did you expect? The English cricket season starts tomorrow. Expect confected hoopla about The Hundred, [...]
Tottenham Hotspur relegation: A black swan event the Premier League needs? March 26, 2026 The Premier League trades on its unpredictability so the relegation of Spurs, one of its ever-present clubs, could offer a Leicester-like lift in a dull season, says Ed Warner. Barnsley, Oldham Athletic, Bradford City, Swindon Town, Portsmouth. Just a few members of the not-so-exclusive club of 16 teams that Tottenham Hotspur fans will be desperate [...]
Google and Apple can give Team GB Lottery-like boost up medal tables March 19, 2026 It took John Major’s National Lottery brainwave to turn GB into an Olympic and Paralympic force but Big Tech could do the same, argues Ed Warner. With Milan Cortina a wrap, British athletes have completed a full set of post-Covid Olympics and Paralympics, both Summer and Winter, in 21 months. A solitary silver medal from [...]
Horse racing came together to fight tax hikes. Now it must unite again March 12, 2026 The Jockey Club’s chief executive’s recent rallying cry to British horse racing was bang on, writes Ed Warner. All successful sports have tentpole events, the occasions that attract attention well beyond hardcore fanbases and which drive profits that may (although not always) provide financial scaffolding for its lesser players and promoters. The Cheltenham Festival is [...]
English rugby is on brink of seismic change. It mustn’t fumble at the try line March 5, 2026 Ed Warner was part of the group that has recommended major changes to the way English rugby is governed. He explains why this is a generational opportunity. This is news overload time for English rugby. The men’s national team wilting twice in the Six Nations under weighty expectations, debate about the possible impact of head [...]
Olympics should lead way in AI and lighten impossible load on its judges February 26, 2026 If any sporting body has the means to fund investment in AI judging it’s the International Olympic Committee, writes Ed Warner. I’ve no idea whether Zoe Atkin’s “amplitude” deserved to bag silver rather than bronze in the freeski halfpipe on Sunday. All I know is she didn’t wipe out on all three of her three [...]
IOC looks tin-eared at best, cruel at worst over Ukraine helmet saga February 19, 2026 The reputations of the IOC and its president Kirsty Coventry have suffered badly from its handling of the Ukraine helmet row at the Winter Olympics, says Ed Warner. Are you not entertained? The Winter Olympics have delivered stories ranging from the titillating (penile injections, condom shortages and a narcissistic declaration of infidelity) to the enraging [...]
Sport’s overreachers like Sussex and Leicester are guilty of hope not greed February 12, 2026 As long as sport’s governing bodies and regulators reward risk over restraint, the cycle of boom, bust, sanction, repeat will continue, writes Ed Warner. First the disclaimer: I live in Sussex and although its county side isn’t my first cricketing love – that “honour” belongs to Middlesex CCC – I’ve enjoyed days at Hove’s County [...]
