Three weeks to the Ashes? Unleash the Bazball alpha-bears, Australia just loves them | Barney Ronay

England need to turn volume up and lean into tone of exceptionalism that continues to annoy their rivals

A few weeks ago there was a wave of newspaper interviews with the stepson of the king, Tom Parker-Bowles. These seemed at first glance to be about absolutely nothing at all, froth and chatter, a wincing man in a tweed hat talking about how he makes Sunday lunch. Why was this happening? Scanning the text for meaning, the clouds finally cleared. He was launching a cordial.

You might say, do we need … a cordial? What is a cordial? A way of ruining water. A drink that isn’t actually a drink. But this is to miss the point, and in way that is frankly embarrassing and I feel sorry for you. Because this is not any old cordial. It’s not the kind of really crappy cordial you might launch. As Parker-Bowles puts it, devastatingly: “Look, we have Belvoir and Bottlegreen. But they use concentrates. Why can’t we make a really high-end British cordial?”

Continue reading...

Kieffer Moore hat-trick brings Coventry’s unbeaten run to an end at Wrexham

Kieffer Moore downed Coventry with a perfect second-half hat-trick as Wrexham won 3-2 to inflict a first league defeat on the Championship leaders.

Coventry, the only unbeaten side in the EFL, were closing in on a club-record seventh straight league win when Ephron Mason-Clark superbly slotted the Sky Blues ahead midway through the first half. The omens were not good for Wrexham given Frank Lampard’s side had scored 34 goals in 12 games before arriving in north Wales and the home side had won only one of their previous seven.

Continue reading...