You can take our pubs and our shopping centres. You can wall us up behind the front door with Netflix and newsagent wine. But don’t take away our glimpse of the sky, that proscribed 30 minutes of brain-soothing, body-stretching exercise. Judging by the experiences of Spain, Italy and France, this …
Read More »Jamie Vardy’s shot at golden boot is one of season’s great unfinished subplots | Barney Ronay | Football
There have been a lot of lists doing the rounds this week of the best foods to boost your immune system. These seem to be mainly things such as oily fish, yoghurt, spinach, elderberries, ginger and raw shaved garlic, although having followed these ingredients to the letter I can confirm …
Read More »Tokyo 2021 is golden chance to close Big Sport circus and give the Olympics back | Barney Ronay | Sport
Citius. Altius. Cancelled by a bat virus. In the end the decision to postpone the Olympic Games came as no surprise to anyone. Tokyo 2020 had struggled on manfully, like the last Japanese soldier still fighting the second world war from inside a small Pacific island copse in 1974. But …
Read More »How will club cricket survive the coronavirus crisis? | Barney Ronay | Sport
The doomsday clock ticked a little closer to midnight for cricket’s summer of 2020 when the England and Wales Cricket Board announced on Wednesday that all recreational cricket should be suspended indefinitely. A letter from the chief executive, Tom Harrison, to county boards, clubs and leagues said the decision was …
Read More »Cursed Euro 2020 might just give us what we need next year | Barney Ronay | Football
The lamps are going out. They will be lit again across Europe – 15 months from now if current timescales hold. Although what traumas the 12 host cities for Uefa’s Euros of Everywhere might have endured by then is open to uncomfortable speculation. For now Rome’s piazzas are empty. Bucharest …
Read More »Sport’s role as the great distraction reluctantly cancelled but it will be back | Barney Ronay | Sport
And, breathe. Preferably, it goes without saying, into a vacant space. At the end of a week when the sporting news cycle has seemed to pulse and spread and multiply like a malevolent bacillus, two things are abundantly clear. The correct decision on containment has – and this is important: …
Read More »Eric Dier’s trip through the fourth wall was an oddly moving act of defiance | Barney Ronay | Football
“Where can there be a place in the game for a man of such extravagant talent, a man of such wicked temperament? A man who has now … OH MY GOODNESS ME!!! He has KICKED … He has PUNCHED A FAN!!! Eric Cantona has jumped in and SCISSOR KUNG FU …
Read More »Virtuoso cup final display suggests future is Phil Foden-coloured | Barney Ronay | Football
You can take our freedom. But you’ll never take our largely routine domestic cup victories! On a fun, occasionally full‑throated afternoon at Wembley Manchester City extended their hugely impressive winning run to six of the past seven domestic trophies. At times City seemed to doze a little at the wheel. …
Read More »People crave the redemptive violence of Tyson Fury: it’s worth asking why | Barney Ronay | Sport
It is hugely disappointing that Tyson Fury isn’t fighting again this weekend. Or indeed, that he isn’t fighting every Saturday and midweek too, part of a 68-game Tyson Fury fixture pileup, bookended in summer with four weeks of Tyson Fury tournament competition. It is still worth saying. How good was …
Read More »Logic of blooding outsiders clashes with England’s defiant winning way | Barney Ronay | Sport
Homework isn’t supposed to be this much fun. England’s white-ball tour of South Africa had been billed as preparation, refinement, revision for the T20 World Cup in Australia. In the event it split neatly into two halves. The second of these was an adrenal three-stage drag race along the coast …
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