Tim Worstall

There’s a very definite part of me that thinks that this is the important news.
"England wins" is good, admirable, enjoyable. Hard work, done well.
"France loses" is simply delightful.
Europe, eh?

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Italy to get creamed (sadly) in Ireland and England….well, depends, but I think they’ll beat Wales.

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OK, OK, it’s only 10 minutes into the game and form will probably reassert itself.
Problem here though. Like every other Englishman I’ve a terrible soft spot for the underdog. The little guy battling the giants. So of course I want Havant to win.
But: my wife is a fanatical Liverpool supporter.
Much as I’d like the plucky […]

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SF Barnes.

No, really, it’s not Don Bradman. It’s SF Barnes.

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I’d not seen this one before:

Equally quick-witted was England’s Jimmy Ormond, whose arrival at the crease in an Ashes Test met with the usual fusillade of Aussie abuse. "What are you doing here? There’s no way you’re good enough to play for England," said Mark Waugh, twin brother of the Australian captain Steve Waugh. "Maybe […]

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No, I know what a marathon is in running, a touch over 26 miles. I also know that I’ll never run a marathon as my knee cartilages are screwed.
However, there are two other "endurance" sports that I can do, cycling and swimming. I’m not saying that I’m very good at them, but I can actually […]

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- Is the ‘Geordie Nation’ deluded?

Yes.
This has been another in our series of short answers to simple questions.

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Neil Harding:

Good ideas can come from anyone and we forget this at our peril. Reading a quote by England Manager prospect Fabio Capello today - it seems he doesn’t listen to those he considers less intelligent than himself (point -

Really, that doesn’t sound like a very good idea. What use is a manager […]

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No, not a dream about football at all.

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Hmm. I’m not quite sure what to think of this.
I really don’t know whether a supporter owned club, entirely transparent and actually run by the supporters (as opposed to simply owned, like, I think, Barcelona is) is a good idea or not.
There’s more here as well.
But as I’m asked about economics (as is Chris Dillow […]

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Errm, excuse me?

The Premier League is in discussions with Downing Street over ways in which it can increase the number of home-grown players appearing regularly for England’s leading clubs.

Why is anyone talking to a Scot about this? Further, will the same rules appply to the Scottish Leagues? The Welsh (in so far as they have […]

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Things have slightly changed in rugby….

Bath then brought on Matt Banahan, a 6ft 7in wing,

6′ 7”? A wing?

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Oh yes, most good:

The shocking preponderance of Blondes in key decision-making positions at half back and centre should leave an impartial observer in no doubt as to the fascist nature of team selection process. In a shocking echo of Philip Toynbee’s observation, Mere dark-haired men of potentially un-aryan extraction are left to do the donkey-work […]

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Minette Marin:

People say it’s a class matter; for historical reasons there is something essentially middle class and respectable about rugby, about the players and about the fans. There’s an odd contradiction about the way the more violent game can produce the less violent supporters and vice versa.

It lies in the old distinction (for those bright […]

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More than 200 Soweto Rugby Club members, their friends and other fans gathered to watch the match in a stadium in the South African township. The game was shown projected onto a sheet draped over a fence, two South African flags propped up on either side.

Gorgeous that the Afrikaner game of rugby has reached Soweto, […]

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I, er, think not.

Jonny Wilkinson is on course to be voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year and receive a knighthood for his World Cup heroics, bookmakers predicted last night.

There’s still, rightly or wrongly, a certain class based assumption behind such awards. Brain Ashton might get a KBE if they win but not a player. […]

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Does indeed reflect, as they should, the mood of the nation.

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I agree, obviously, that all of creation should celebrate this, that plants should spurt with growth, that the very heavens should reflect that God is indeed there and that all is right with his creation.
Might I ask a small favour though? (And I do not believe that I am the only one who will be […]

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And I would never have mentioned Philip Toynbee’s suggestion that a bomb under the West Car park at Twickenham would set back fascism in England for a generation.

Mick Hume

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Prime Minister Gordon Brown has switched his allegiance to England following Scotland’s exit.
"I will be supporting England," Brown said. "I think the victory over Australia was one of the great victories in rugby."

Gosh, thanks Gordo.

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