Sport
The secret to doing better at darts – and life
I have always been intrigued by the scoring systems for different sports, and the degree to which they contribute to…
I adore sport. I can no longer stomach boxing. Here’s why
In most sports, injuries happen when things go wrong. In boxing, they’re the ultimate goal. It isn’t right
Staines, Pile o’ Bones and other towns that changed name
Name that town The representative of Slough in the UK Youth Parliament called for the town’s name to be changed…
No golf, no bridge, scared of champagne – it’s tough being a leftie
No golf, no bridge, a tortured relationship with champagne… lefties deserve your sympathy, not your scorn
What does it take to have someone declared dead? £480, for a start
Matters of life and death Lord Lucan is now officially presumed dead. How do you have someone declared dead? In…
A former England international on the meaning of the Six Nations
Back in 1882, exactly 100 years before I was born, the Four Nations rugby competition was formed. It was originally…
This could be the year that sport starts to die
If sport loses the public’s faith – and it’s starting to – then all its power and glory will fade
From the dismal to the delightful: the year in sport
So long, then, to another thrilling year of sport in which the full range of human possibility — from the…
The most dangerous word in the digital world is 'send'
Those who forget the pasta are condemned to reheat it, tweeted Jon Ronson, a man I’d never heard of until…
It’s not just the Russians – there is no morality in top-level sport
Why do transgendered people need separate toilets? I thought, according to the prevalent orthodoxy, that the new gender they had…
Should the first modern Olympic drug cheat get to keep his gold?
A marathon of cheats Russian athletes may be stripped of the medals they won at the 2012 Olympics, but what…
Just what Tom Watson needs: a Bananarama tribute band
Available for parties Labour deputy leader Tom Watson said that leaving his party to join the Liberal Democrats would be…
A World Championships that puts Sebastian Coe on the right track
Sebastian Coe’s new job as head of world athletics will be a heck of a lot easier thanks to the…
Why nothing in sport beats thrashing the Aussies at cricket
Why nothing in sport beats thrashing the Aussies at cricket
I've loved football for decades. Now I dread the start of the season
I’ve spent years defending football from middle-class disdain. But I can’t do it any more
The madness of the Beijing Winter Olympics
Jumping the shark isn’t yet an Olympic sport, but if it were the International Olympic Committee would be a shoo-in…
Where ‘big ask’ came from, and why it still sounds barbaric
‘That’s unnecessarily crude,’ said my husband, turning momentarily from the television and improving the shining minute by setting the whisky…
Just how hard is it to sack a lord?
Safe house Lord Sewel is unique in leaving the House of Lords in disgrace. Until the House of Lords Reform…
Australia’s amazing, exhausting sporting comebacks
I have never met an Aussie I didn’t like, but, crikey, their sporting indefatigability is exhausting. Don’t they ever give…
Croquet is a sport that makes you want to cheat and kill
I have always been what I suppose one could call a weed, and a cowardly one at that. I never…
Hallelujah! The England cricket team is fun again
At long last, the England cricket team have rediscovered their love of the game
Rachel Johnson’s diary: Why I told my book party I was coming out as a lesbian
My husband says I only write books in order to have a launch party. Not so. I also write books…
Why sport and sham morality go so well together
Why sport and sham morality go so well together
Dear Mary: Should I follow Cilla Black’s lead on disabled loos?
Q. I was at the theatre recently and bumped into a well-known Liverpudlian crooner coming out of the disabled lavatory.…
Sir Ian Botham is a hero – and a fool
Mark Mason 28 November 2015 9:00 am
In 1981, when I was ten and Ian Botham was 26, I thought he was God. Now, the week after…