1) Cricket’s coming home? The World Cup starts at The Oval, the tournament back in England for the first time in 20 years. So here’s some choice moments from previous World Cups on English soil: “It was almost as if they were having batting practice.” Richie Benaud expresses his bemusement with Sunil Gavaskar’s famous go-slow against England at Lord’s in 1975, where West Indies won the inaugural World Cup final thanks in part to Clive Lloyd’s blistering hundred against Australia. In 1979 the standout bewildering go-slow came from England in the final as West Indies retained their crown, helped by superb exhibitions of hitting from Viv Richards and Collis King. The 1983 tournament was all about India toppling West Indies and changing cricket, its iconic moment Kapil Dev catching Richards. Sixteen years later Australia were the champions, after winning perhaps the greatest World Cup game of all, the semi-final against South Africa. Australia went on to win the final easily against Pakistan, whose star of the tournament was Shoaib Akhtar. Check out this yorker to Steven Fleming of New Zealand in the semi-final.
2) Henry Olonga went to three World Cups with Zimbabwe, but has now turned his hands to singing. Watch him hit the judges for six on The Voice in Australia. He’s not the only singing World Cup veteran though – here’s the former Australia finishing expert Michael Bevan and his daughter Liv.
3) Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Jeremy Jeffress pulls off an outrageous, physics-defying catch in their MLB game against Minnesota:
🤯 #ThisIsMyCrew pic.twitter.com/wbaF1WWksu
— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) May 28, 2019
4) In the Dutch fourth division, Maurice Paarhuis bursts into the box and finishes clinically to get HSV Hoek back in the game against Harkemase Boys. Unfortunately, Paarhuis was the referee.
5) Get in the mood for the Champions League final with some previous all-English set-tos in the European Cup. Here’s Nottingham Forest beating Liverpool in 1978, and a happier occasion for the Reds against Chelsea in 2005, “ghost goal” and all. The last all-English final ended in a shootout and a Manchester United triumph against Chelsea, though there have been plenty of finals contested by sides from the same country since. Real Madrid have won two of them, in 2014 against Atlético Madrid and against the same opponents two years later, while Bayern Munich saw off Jürgen Klopp’s Borussia Dortmund in a terrific final in 2013.
6) It’s the Derby on Saturday, so here’s a rummage through the archives of some of the Classic’s greatest moments. Lester Piggott rides Nijinsky to a thrilling victory in 1970, the ill-fated Shergar wins 11 years later; Ryan Moore pilots Workforce to record-breaking glory in 2010 and Masar’s victory last year.
Our favourites from below the line last week
1) Great Britain won promotion to the top tier of world ice hockey last year, and held onto their place with a dramatic overtime win over France:
2) Staying (perhaps surprisingly) with ice hockey, here are all 31 goal horns used by NHL teams.
3) Beer and skittles, anyone? Let’s take a trip back to 1946.
Spotters’ badges: OlePonty, Graham Clayton, whobroughtoranges.
