By Pete Wilson 9 April Chelsea’s Frank Lampard has spoken about how gratifying it was to thrash Aston Villa 7-1 in the Premier League recently, calling the result a “kick up the bum” for Martin O’Neill’s side ahead of this weekend’s FA Cup semi-final between the two clubs. In a message that is sure to […]

8 April 2010 British Swimming has unveiled a select group of Development Clubs as part of its provision of a world-class daily training environment for athletes in Britain. Five clubs earned Development status by right following analysis of club performances at the British Gas Swimming Championships this month in Sheffield. The successful clubs are Plymouth […]

8 April 2010 Novak Djokovic, the world No2 men’s tennis player, will try to win his first grass court title when he competes at the AEGON Championships this summer after confirming his entry today. Djokovic, a finalist at The Queen’s Club in 2008 and a Wimbledon semifinalist in 2007, joins three other top 10 players […]

By Nick Harris 8 April 2010 The failure of England’s leading football clubs to reach the semi-finals of the Champions League was a predictable consequence of the declining value of the pound, and not a sporting aberration, according to a leading Cambridge academic. Lionel Page, a Frenchman resident in England, is a behavioural economist and […]

By Lionel Page 8 April 2010 As an academic with an interest in economic analysis, the downfall of the English teams in the Champions League this season did not surprise me, even while it disappointed me as a Manchester United fan. Earlier this season, I was actually expecting that the English teams would “under-perform” in the competition, when set […]

By Nick Harris 7 April 2010 If footballers with South Asian heritage were proportionately represented in the English game, there would be around 125 pros with sub-Continental backgrounds. In fact there are seven, and even that lowly figure is an all-time high. So as Chelsea today launched their second ‘Search for an Asian Soccer Star’ […]

7 April 2010 Can you identify the sporting arena? We take an aerial view of a topical ball park, football stadium, marathon course, golf course, Games venue, race track, iconic arena, athletic theatre (some literally theatres), pitch, park, stretch of water or wherever else sport takes place. And we ask you to identify it with […]

By Nick Harris 7 April 2010 Liverpool’s search for new investment is back to square one after confirmation that the Rhone Group has walked away from a potential £100m deal to take a 40 per cent stake in the club following a luke warm response to their offer from the club’s owners, Tom Hicks and […]

JOHN ROBERTS wrote for the Daily Express, The Guardian, the Daily Mail and The Independent, where he was the tennis correspondent for 20 years. He collaborated with Bill Shankly on the Liverpool manager’s autobiography, ghosted Kevin Keegan’s first book, and has written books on George Best, Manchester United’s Busby Babes (The Team That Wouldn’t Die) and Everton (The Official Centenary […]

SALLY ARSCOTT is a self-confessed “horsey girl” who’s ridden at Badminton, organised the Olympia International Horse Show and counts equestrian sports, racing in particular, as her abiding passion. But in the absence of a horse, then tennis, rugby and more recently ski cross fill the void. Sally lives in Gloucestershire, which is fantastic if you […]