Tim Worstall

I tend to think that Italy were the better team on the pitch today. Unlucky not to win that. And I admit to wanting Italy to beat England at some point. I think would would be good for the Six Nations in the long run as and when Italy become proper competitors for the title. [...]

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Of course, it matters only a little that England wins. Far more important that France loses. Not just about rugby of course, as a general rule for life. But until the Frogs started changing their team around, sending on the replacements, I thought they were going to win. They certainly looked the better team for [...]

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Diego Dominguez Former Italy and Stade Francais fly-half Tired? Tired of what? Tired because they have to put up with three hours of training a day and one match a week? What about a working-class guy who has to slog away 10 hours a day to feed his kids? A bit of dignity, please. It’s [...]

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The Sunday Telegraph’s rugby correspondent, Paul Ackford, was presented with a Harlequins shirt at half-time as the club recognised his retirement from the paper after 20 years. Ackford said: “It was fitting that I ended my writing career at the same place as my playing career.” Lummee. And I can remember when he first joined [...]

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But we’re also keen that players, especially Academy players, do refereeing courses to enhance their understanding. The RPA has even talked about making this compulsory for young players. Refereeing union is bloody difficult. Getting the players to understand how difficult sounds like a damn good idea to me. “Compulsory” always worries me. But a general [...]

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England 38 New Zealand 21 Right. So which damn gremlin in the management of the universe had to have the one decent match of the autumn series while I was on a aeroplane?

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Is that our Tim Newman there, third photo from the bottom? Looks very vaguely like him. But why he would be wearing Aussie colours at a cricket match in Thailand I’m not sure. I mean we know he’s got a base in Thailand. If it is maybe he can tell us more about John Bell?

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But, but, traditionally, the Tour victor doesn’t take any prize money. It all goes to his team mates. And everyone knows this. So, are they going to demand that all the members of his team repay Armstrong so that he can repay the Tour?

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Paula Radcliffe is likely to be among the British athletes who miss out on Lottery funding for next season when UK Athletics announces a reduced list of competitors on Monday. Eh? Why is she getting a penny of it at all? I can just about understand (although oppose) the idea that skint athletes might get [...]

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Fairytale of New York: Murray beats Djokovic to taste grand slam glory The Scot wins his first grand slam at the fifth attempt, Guardian front page. Well done to the lad and all that. I’m talking though purely about words here. I was always under the impression that the Big Four were the slams (US, [...]

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….was filling the broadcasting void by standing outside on the roof interviewing the heroic former England captain Ted Dexter, who was holding an umbrella as the elements crashed above. “Ted,” said Peter, “what do you think of the game so far?” “You’ll have to excuse me for a moment, Peter,” came the reply, “but I [...]

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Armstrong’s attorneys sent a letter to USADA today saying he won’t fight drug allegations by the agency that the cyclist called part of an “unconstitutional witch hunt.” “We will have an official release tomorrow, but he will be banned for life and loss of results since Aug 1, 1998,” Annie Skinner, a USADA spokeswoman, said [...]

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The Olympics will create four millionaire sportsmen and women from Britain’s pool of gold medal-winners, sports agents predict. Jessica Ennis, Victoria Pendleton, Sir Chris Hoy and Mo Farah could each earn upwards of £1m a year by signing enhanced endorsement deals and banking higher appearance fees. We really do have to stop this you know. [...]

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In this series of photos here we get to see Sir Bradley to be with his shirt off. It would appear that one of the fittest men on the planet, one of the great endurance athletes of our time, has a little pot belly. Indeed, in general, he’s not quite the hunk of rippling muscle [...]

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Labour wisely avoided crowing too directly over Olympic golds, for fear of undermining GB athletes’ sheer grit. But Britain was 36th in the medal tables in Atlanta in 1996 – and after Labour’s £600m investment came fourth in Beijing, and now third. Yes, it’s lovely that “we” got lots of medals. But it ain’t the [...]

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From what I understand from the papers we have both a Queen and a method of health care in this country. Who knew?

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The ASI addresses the Olympics. The outcome of this approach to the Olympics is that my religious zeal for London 2012 is roughly the same as everyone else’s religious zeal for other, lesser-known athletic competitions; namely, it is non-existent. This is a far more reasonable and mature approach than that which has been adopted by [...]

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Three sets of Olympic medals, so he’s a CBE. That’s the way it goes: MBE, OBE, CBE, KBE, each successive games you get medals at (golds, I think, no?). The question. Is a Tour de France title going to be counted like an Olympic gold? Sure, sure, two days to go yet, but is winning [...]

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World’s number 4 tennis player loses to world number 1 player. Ho hum.

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Angry passengers reported queuing for nearly two and a half hours last week – with some starting far outside the immigration hall – to be met with empty passport control desks and uninterested staff. It’s not actually all that difficult to have people looking at passports at Heathrow. But it does seem to be beyond [...]

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