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The Independent (Free subscription) | yesterday
It would be plain silly not to take a summer holiday because of all the activity one would miss in the vegetable garden and the orchard, but I confess that as we hauled the final case into the taxi for the trip to Birmingham airport, my thoughts were not of the forthcoming flight to Nice and long al fresco lunches in the Provencal sunshine, but of bolting Little Gem lettuces and what the squirrels...
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The Independent (Free subscription) | 08/12/2008
We should all be just a little ashamed that in last night's Panorama, it took an American, albeit one so Anglophilic as Bill Bryson, to lecture us on our littering habits. As the President of the Campaign to Protect Rural England, Bryson's particular beef is with those who defile our hedgerows, but in Panorama he also found, rather depressingly, that in the London Borough of Camden last year there...
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The Independent (Free subscription) | 08/09/2008
Dominic Lawson, not a name that regularly kicks off a sports section, raised some pertinent comparisons in this newspaper yesterday between the hosts of this year's Olympic Games and the hosts four years hence. Lawson made the point that, although we can all feel legitimate revulsion towards China for its human rights abuses, Britain is not exactly unblemished in that and many other areas.
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The Independent (Free subscription) | 07/23/2008
We have a friend who, when she was a girl growing up in Birmingham 25 years ago, ran away to join the circus. Running away from home to join the circus is a bit like eloping to Gretna Green, romantic storybook stuff that nobody you know has ever done, except that our friend did. And when she recounted the tale to our youngest son, nine-year-old Jacob, I'm sure I saw a purposeful glint in his eye....
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The Independent (Free subscription) | 07/21/2008
Now the Claret Jug can be filled with Guinness, or ladybirds, or whatever the Harrington family wants. Actually, it probably won't be Guinness because Padraig Harrington is a teetotaller. Whatever, when the 36-year-old Dubliner won the Open at Carnoustie last July, and his little son Patrick scampered on to the 18th green and asked if he could fill the famous old trophy with ladybirds, it was fully...
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The Independent (Free subscription) | 07/19/2008
One could quite easily be forgiven for thinking that the Open Championship is about golf, but in fact the Royal and Ancient game is only the very tip of the iceberg that, were it to appear in the Ribble estuary just north of Southport, would surprise nobody, least of all those Americans in town who appear to be suffering from the delusion that the summer is about sunshine.
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The Independent (Free subscription) | 07/19/2008
On another day more suited to moorhens than birdies and eagles, Graeme McDowell managed to cling onto the leaderboard yesterday without ever quite reproducing the form that had yielded one of only three sub-par opening rounds and a share of the lead. The 28-year-old Ulsterman is used to leading the Open on day one, having posted a course record 66 down the coast at Hoylake two years ago, but he slumped...
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The Independent (Free subscription) | 07/18/2008
As consecutive shots go in Open Championships at Royal Birkdale, Justin Rose's last in 1998 and his first yesterday could hardly have been more different. On a balmy Sunday afternoon 10 years ago, Rose, then an unworldly amateur aged 17, pitched into the 18th hole to finish tied for fourth. At just before 7.45am yesterday, in a mighty wind and relentless rain, the wiser Rose, with seven professional...
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The Independent (Free subscription) | 07/12/2008
Thursday was one of the best days English cricket has enjoyed for some time; indeed, I can't recall Lord's hosting a more auspicious opening day of a Test series against another major cricketing power. Against Australia in 2005 it looked good for a while, as Ricky Ponting's team were dismissed for only 190, but by close of play England had been reduced to 91 for 7 and Glenn McGrath looked ominously...
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The Independent (Free subscription) | 07/09/2008
The Docklow summer fete in aid of the perennially needy church roof takes place in our garden on Saturday afternoon, and although there are a few signs along the A44 publicising this seismic event in Docklow's social calendar, a plug in a national newspaper can't do any harm, and might even help us – though I don't expect anyone will come from Camden Town or even Leamington Spa – to steal a lead over...
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The Independent (Free subscription) | 07/05/2008
It is 28 years to the day since Bjorn Borg beat John McEnroe in what is surely still the most thrilling of all Wimbledon men's singles finals. Roger Federer's defeat of Rafael Nadal last year was a doozy, and the first time Federer had been taken to a fifth set in a Grand Slam final, but he completed that set in relative comfort, 6-2.
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22dropout.com (Free subscription) | 06/28/2008
The alleged late-night antics of four young men that attracted such unfortunate publicity for the England rugby team in New Zealand should have brought a disapproving purse to my lips, but instead I found them forming into a small smile.
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The Independent (Free subscription) | 06/28/2008
The alleged late-night antics of four young men that attracted such unfortunate publicity for the England rugby team in New Zealand should have brought a disapproving purse to my lips, but instead I found them forming into a small smile.
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The Independent (Free subscription) | 07/23/2008
... Miles Kington David Lister Pandora Will Self Thomas Sutcliffe Catherine Townsend Rebecca Tyrrel Brian Viner John Walsh Claudia Winkleman Letters Big Question Open House Environment Climate Change Green Living Nature Sound & Vision Sport Football Premier League News & Comment Football League FA & League Cups International European Scottish Transfers Cricket Rugby Union Golf Tennis...
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Belfast Telegraph (Free subscription) | 06/27/2008
Tim Henman: ‘It's a sack of crap to say that I was too nice to win’ Brian Viner Interviews: In retirement, the former British No 1 has a different perspective on his role as 'nearly man', especially from his new position in the commentary boxFriday, June 27, 2008 There could hardly have been more symbolism on Tuesday evening if Tim Henman had wandered on to Centre Court and ceremonially...
