Tim Worstall

While spectators are being urged to abandon their cars and embrace public transport, 4,000 brand new BMWs have been ordered to escort dignitaries and officials to events. The fleet of the German cars will include more than 3,000 BMW 3 and 5 Series saloons, which will be permitted to beat the traffic by using specially [...]

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So, Oz out for 47. Their worst innings in a century. But, umm, they’ve still a decent chance of winning the match. Odd game, cricket.

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“Playing in the World Cup was a dream and playing in New Zealand was special. What other time are you going to play in New Zealand? The five planes it took us to get there was worth the trip,” he said. “The local people embraced us completely and made us feel at home. In Blenheim, [...]

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8-7

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The Olympic stadium fiasco laid bare How did the saga begin, how has it gone wrong and how will it end? It began with politicians spending other peoples’ money it went wrong as politicians spent other peoples’ money and it will end badly and expensively. Because, y’know, politicians have been spending other peoples’ money.

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So, err, decent enough second half then I suppose? But I think that Wales today would have walked through France today. So, Wales in the final and I sorta assume NZ will be there too (although, come on you Pumas!). Actually, I wouldn’t want to bet against Wales today beating NZ sans Dan Carter.

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* Wisden looks at it all rather differently from many others.

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Is he out then? For the rest of the Cup?   Update: So it appears he is. Which is a bit of a blow. Yes, I know, it’s a team game, nothing to do with the individual. But, but, there is a part of what we’ve all been waiting for gone. Is he really as [...]

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Just phew, eh?

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And maybe the sad decline of Fiji and, to a lesser extent, Tonga as rugby powerhouses is not surprising. The sides these countries put out in this World Cup are third or fourth teams at best, the top players having long ago relocated to countries who can offer attractive wage packets. There are eight Islanders [...]

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This scoring tries using the wingers. When did that come about? All very strange, the aim of the game is that the big blokes in the white shirts grumble up and down the field, isn’t it?

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Hey, go for it folks. But those who wanted football to carry on here acted admirably quickly, and launched the new Chester FC as a “phoenix club”. Crucially, it’s a mutual: owned by its supporters, who can pay a minimum of £5 a season to become active shareholders. And it is not alone: the night [...]

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Anyone really know what this is all about? Francis Baron, the former chief executive of the Rugby Football Union, has called for the governing body’s acting chief executive, Martyn Thomas, and the five elected board members criticised in the Blackett report to be charged with bringing the game into disrepute. I’ve seen occasional pieces but [...]

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No, don’t laugh, this is the opportunity for some really great social science research. Telecom Corp., a team sponsor, planned to launch an advertising campaign calling on fans to “Abstain for the All Blacks” next week to generate publicity ahead of the September-October tournament, the New Zealand Herald reported. It said fans would be given [...]

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Haven’t we been here before? Startlingly good centre, playing for England against Wales? Made a fool of? Anyone remember Matthew Tait against Gavin Henson? Ah, yes, The Guardian does: It is six years since England named a young, trembling debutant called Mathew Tait to face Wales, an experiment that ended in conspicuous failure. Now they [...]

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The mood was defiant, but a stirring musical expression of that defiance hadn’t yet appeared – until the fateful night at the Drury Lane theatre, when “God Save our King” was sung on stage by the company. The audience was electrified. As the Daily Advertiser reported: “The universal applause it met with, being encored with [...]

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Long piece here. But as has been pointed out about car seat belts: if we really want people to drive safely then ban seat belts and put a dagger on the steering wheel, aimed at the heart of the driver. The solution to repeated concussion in football players leading to their being punch drunk is [...]

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The 2011 Tour de France, which flirted with madness last week, lost the plot altogether yesterday when an official French television car smashed into Sky’s Juan Antonio Flecha just as he and Johnny Hoogerland launched an attack off the front of a five-man break 35km from the finish. Talking about the Tour de France and [...]

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But Ferguson, a long-time critic of the academy system, insists that the changes cannot come quickly enough for English teams. “We are only allowed to coach [schoolboys] for an hour and a half [each week]. An hour and a half each week? Academy regulations state that young players can receive no more than 3,760 ‘contact [...]

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I know, I know, we’re not really supposed to mention these things, are we? It’s just about acceptable to point out that those of West African descent have a higher liklihood of sickle cell anaemia but carry on and point out that almost all modern sprinters share such ancestry and almost no modern competitive swimmers [...]

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