OH NO

OH NO

19)Oh no Ons writes Nigel Anderton.The narrative was surely set. After battling past giant opponents with considerable skill and nerve, Ons Jabeur would put the disappointment of last year’s final defeat behind her. She would become the first African player to win a Wimbledon singles title. Only Marketa Vondrousova stood in her way. The unseeded Czech had gone unnoticed by many until she defeated crowd favourite Elina Svitolina in the semi-final. Bookmakers made Jabeur the 4/9 odds on favourite. If you were interested in such matters, you could get 6/4 that both players would win a set. Or in Sned quiz terms, that this would be a 3 set match. It never looked like going beyond TWO SETS. Poor Ons started nervously and was unable to find her form. Marketa displayed the skills that won her a Silver medal in the 2020 Olympics and took her to the 2019 French Open final. ’No rain, no flowers’ is how one of her tattoos translates and is a reminder of how life’s disappointments can lead to success. For Ons, the wait for a major goes on.

20)The Djokovic/Alcaraz final was exactly the match I was dreaming of when I set the Former/First Timer question last Autumn. And for five hours,the match lived up that dream billing. Alcaraz was not born when someone not called Federer, Djokovic,Nadal and Murray last won the Wimbledon mens’ singles. Fed turned up for a ceremonial farewell, sandwiched between Kate and Cameron, the bland leading the bland.No word on Raf’s whereabouts,plans or health.Andy’s hip will surely prevent him competing in the later rounds of Slams and national treasure Andy departed with the other British hopes on Frightful Friday.

Which left former champs represented by Djokovic alone. Unbeaten on Centre Court for ten years, now statistically the GOAT though without Fed’s balletic grace or Raf’s epic energy. Djokovic always seems so frustrated to find that in match after match, he’s the crowd’s second favourite, Answer, Novak, is that in comparison, tennis seems such a grim, joyless business,a drum machine to Raf’s Keith Moon,a synthesizer to Fed’s classical piano.Sternly, Novak has seen off waves of promising contenders like Zverev or Tsitsipas who no longer believe they can beat the Serb icon.(I stress the Serb after he used a recent tennis interview to peddle some repellent piece of Serb nationalist warmongering twaddle).

At long last Alcaraz arrives, a contender for greatness who might play Djokovic without fear, a player who combines Fed’s grace and Raf’s energy. Oh no,I thought in Paris as young Alcaraz tied up in Paris with nerves. Oh no I thought again as Djokovic swept to a 5-0 leads in the first set. And then the tide of history turned and Alcaraz won sets 2 and 3with increasing ease. Oh no for the Serb was not finished and the fourth set was his. All square into the final set.No need to worry for Alcaraz was back in charge, the charmless Serb smashed his racket and a FIRST TIMER was crowned. Long live King Carlos!To be fair,a first for me, Djokovic was gracious in defeat and perhaps acknowledged that the era of The Great Triumvirate(plus Andy)was over. But it it’s Ons’ distraught loser’s interview we shall remember.

21)Neil Southwood dodged the Edgbaston showers(Oh no) and writes

Barely a week goes by these days without a new T20 league emerging somewhere around the world. Most recently the US have entered the fray, threatening to tempt a few of our leading white-ball stars over the Atlantic to their Major League franchise tournament in the years to come. Playing in front of one man and his dog for the San Francisco Unicorns will be a stark contrast though when compared to the sell-outs that we still regularly see around the UK over eight weeks each summer. The Finals Day tickets get eagerly snapped up almost a year in advance and even dire weather forecasts like the past weekend don’t put many punters off.

This year ended up being dominated yet again by southern counties. Regular contenders from the north, Nottinghamshire, Warwickshire and Lancashire, were defeated in the quarter-finals by their southern opponents. Many canny quizzers seemed to have recognised this recent trend.

SOMERSET and defending champions Hampshire both took part in their third-straight Finals Day and were the two most-popular picks. They were joined by 2019 winners Essex and the county with the greatest pulling-power of all in our domestic game – Surrey. All bar Essex had strolled through the group stage, with Somerset winning an unprecedented 13 out of 15 games en route to Edgbaston.

Play miraculously started on time after the previous day’s deluge thanks to incredible efforts from ground staff who were working from 3:30am to ensure conditions were suitable. Essex faced the holders in a tense first semi-final and were set a tricky rain-adjusted total of 115 in 12 overs after a rogue storm briefly interrupted play. Hampshire based their success last year on defending such scores expertly but they met their match this time thanks to a quick-fire partnership of 45 in 20 balls between talented all-rounder Matt Critchley and the Australian Daniel Sams, who had delayed his trip over to the States to try and win silverware.

The volume of rain over the past 48 hours seemed to make run-scoring more difficult as the day progressed – big shots were almost stopping as soon as they hit the turf. Many felt however that Somerset’s 142-7 in the second semi-final was still well short of a competitive score against a star-studded Surrey line-up. Somerset’s bowlers responded tremendously, bowling tightly as a unit and giving the batters no opportunity to accelerate. Every time Surrey went for a big hit it found a fielder on the boundary and Somerset dropped nothing all day. Overton, Henry and Green shared three wickets each in what turned into a comfortable 24-run win.

Somerset batted first again in the final and posted a very similar score of 145 all out. Surely they couldn’t defend only 7 an over twice in succession? Essex raced to 27 in only 11 balls before Matt Henry struck. From there Essex never got another substantial partnership going. Sams quickly began to run out of partners and had to go for broke on his own. His 45 off 26 balls dragged Essex closer but Henry returned to bowl his final over at the perfect moment. Sams edged in the air and fell to a tremendous catch at short third-man by Tom Kohler-Cadmore. It was a fittingly dramatic end to another excellent tournament and it finally got Somerset back to winning ways after seven fruitless trips to Finals Day since their last triumph in 2005. The cider flowed into the night as persistently as the rain had 24 hours earlier.

22)Dan Brewer was at Hoylake to sample the Open atmosphere first hand.

It was fantastic to experience The Open Championship from a spectator point of view this week. Having watched The Open on television since the early nineties, it was interesting to experience the practice day on Wednesday and the first day of the tournament on Thursday from behind the ropes. Royal Liverpool Golf Club was in a lovely setting on the coast, with breathtaking views of the sea and long stretches of sand. The course appeared to be much more undulating than it did on television, having many humps and bumps, making you realise the treacherous task the players faced of landing their ball in the right spot on the green, to prevent sliding off and facing the prospect of taking many more shots to recover. The holes also looked a lot longer – I remember standing in the middle of the 18th fairway whilst walking across a walkway and looking up and down the hole, and not being able to see the tee or the green. Realising the hole was 599 yards, I wondered how many shots I would need to get anywhere near the green.Some players were considering getting on in two, which seemed remarkable. This reinforced what I had witnessed when watching the players hit their ball so crisply, which was the vast distances they can hit a golf ball, but with a smooth swing and such apparent ease. Scanning the golf course also made me realise the scale of the event, and the huge number of marquees and structures that are added to the normal course. The Open shop, food outlets, large TV screens, the ‘Swing Zone’, toilets, grandstands, scoring areas and corporate facilities make it a very different place to what members are used to.Dad and I wondered how long it must take to prepare the course and build all of this additional infrastructure. The course was even modified, with the members normally playing their first hole on what was the 3rd hole for The Open Championship apparently.

The two favourite players were definitely local boy Tommy Fleetwood and Rory McIlroy. Whispers would circulate amongst supporters in the stand about their progress, and conversations would regularly be heard about when they plan to see them during their round. It was amusing to see McIlroy come through on the 3rd on Thursday, with not only caddies for company on the course, but multiple marshals, media presenters, photographers etc, creating a group of 25+ people walking up the hole. We heard a nearby NBC on-course commentator describe it ‘like it was in Tiger’s day’ and we realized the extra pressure and scrutiny this must put on the very top players. This contrasted a few minutes later, with lesser-known players walking the same hole a while later, with just their caddies for company in a small group of 6 and far fewer fans standing behind the ropes. Wherever we were on the course, sitting in grandstands or out on the course, it was impressive to witness so many people become eerily quiet when players addressed their ball and take their shot.

As the leaderboard started to take shape over the weekend, in some ways it was unsurprising to see names like Rahm, McIlroy, Fleetwood, Day and Hovland queuing up behind Harman the leader, as these were players that supporters (including us) were clearly so keen to see. However, I had to remind myself of Justin Thomas, Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson and Justin Rose, who were also players we had on ‘our list’, but who had underperformed, missed the cut and been outstripped by players like Alex Fitzpatrick, Nicolai Hojgaard, Antoine Rozner and Sepp Straka, potential Ryder Cup heroes of the future.Perhaps these were players to whom we should have paid more attention.

McIlroy and Fleetwood slipped back, finding it hard to sink any putts, whilst Brian Harman continued to be too good for everyone else.He regularly rebounded from setbacks to maintain a clear lead and leave too much for others to do in torrential rain on the last day on Sunday. As world number 26, the AMERICAN wasn’t perhaps as much of a surprise winner as Ben Curtis, Paul Lawrie or Todd Hamilton, but he probably fooled quite a few quizzers this year. Brian Harman will take home the Claret Jug, as I dream about the potential of visiting Troon in 2024.

18)What would be the winning margin on the Puy de Dome, more or less than five seconds?

Your cycling correspondent, Edward Gilder considers the possibilities

Anticipating a shoot out between Pogacar and Vingegaard on this first really testing climb in the Pyrenees and considering last years cat and mouse race, this was always going to be a hard call. This stage, a day for the climbers, celebrated a return to the mountain for the first time in 35 years. The road up the mountain is unique in that it turns in a spiral all the way to the top rather than the usual hairpin zig1zags we are familiar with on other great climbs. The road is also unique in that it now shares its route with a narrow guage railway and has a toll gate at the bottom so spectators could be charged.

Previous combatants on this stage have included Jacques Anquetil and Raymond Poulidor who raced shoulder to shoulder to the top in 1964, along with Eddy Merckx in 1969 who surprisingly was beaten to the top by Pierre Matignon the lanterne rouge – that’s the last man in the race, who took advantage of a long distance breakaway.

But what about Cav and all our other old favourites. Surely they deserve a mention before we get to the nub of the matter. Cav now an honorary Azerbaijani and racing in the colours of Astana, crashed out the previous day and broke his collar bone – so no record winning 35th stage win for him. Geraint Thomas didn’t make it to the Tour and is racing the Vuelta de Esapana later in the year and Chris Froome, the apparent leader of Israel Premier Tech, much to the team owners clearly expressed annoyance was at home presumably watching on TV. There was still British glory as the Yates twins from Lancashire finished third and fourth.

So just what did happen at the top of the Dome on Sunday the 9th July, The top guns, Pogacar and Vingegaard, opted not to contest the stage win.. One is sponsored by a supermarket (over 600 stores in Holland and with a healthy eating app to their name) and a Norwegian software house. The other is sponsored by the United Arab Emirates; so an equal battle as these two were keeping a close eye on each other. Instead of racing to the top, a breakaway group, having not read that script, escaped while the pair fighting for the yellow jersey were being cagey. Out from the breakaway group popped Canadian Michael Woods of Israel Premier Tech at the finish with Pierre Latour coming in 28 seconds behind him.

That to me says that MORE is the winner.