Champions League highlights: Bayer Leverkusen thrash Feyenoord in Rotterdam

Published

4 hours ago

September 20, 2024

Champions League highlights: Bayer Leverkusen thrash Feyenoord in Rotterdam

Watch highlights as Florian Wirtz inspires Bayer Leverkusen to a comfortable 4-0 win in their opening Champions League match against Feyenoord at the Stadion Feijenoord.

Watch highlights of every Uefa Champions League game on iPlayer

Available to UK users only.

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Solheim Cup: How a revolutionary club sparked a golf revolution

Published

16 mins ago

September 20, 2024

NewsAdmin

Solheim Cup: How a revolutionary club sparked a golf revolution

Six of the 10 players in that 1992 American team would go on to be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame – Betsy King, Beth Daniel, Patty Sheehan, Pat Bradley, Juli Inkster and Meg Mallon. Their players boasted 21 major titles between them, to just two on the European side – Laura Davies and Liselotte Neumann.

The US were red-and-white-hot favourites.

But they lost captain Kathy Whitworth, winner of an LPGA record 88 tournaments, who returned home on the day they arrived at Dalmahoy, following the death of her mother.

Whitworth had been inspirational in leading the US team to the first victory at Lake Nona, Florida in 1990 by pairing “personalities rather than anything directly related to golf”, according to Dottie Mochrie (formerly Pepper).

And then major winner Daniel stirred the pot, while talking to a US golf magazine. “You could put any one of us on the European side and make it better, but the only Europeans who could help us are Laura Davies and Liselotte Neumann,” she was reported as saying.

Sporting history is littered with such statements that only serve to fuel the underdogs, and while Daniel disputes she made those comments, Walker recalls it differently: “She said it.

“And, of course, what she said was absolutely right, but when somebody tells you you can’t do something, or that they’re better than you, you think ‘I’ll show you’.

“It wasn’t nice for us to hear and it made us want to beat them even more.”

Daniel was made to chew over her words on the first morning.

England’s Davies had won just one of her four major titles by 1992, but was well on her way to becoming one of the best in the world. She won all three of her matches at Dalmahoy, including the opening foursomes where she teamed up with Alison Nicholas to beat Betsy King – and Daniel, of course.

Davies and Nicholas then defeated Sheehan and Inkster on day two as Europe opened a one-point lead to take into Sunday’s singles. Davies again led the team out, winning the top match against Brandie Burton to set the platform as Europe dominated the final day 7-3 for the unlikeliest 11½-6½ triumph.

“It was Laura’s best performance playing for Europe – she was unbeatable and just brilliant, a natural leader,” remembers Walker.

The weather also played its part.

“It was October in Scotland and horrendous,” says Walker.

“It was wet, it rained, the course was waterlogged and if it had been a regular tournament we wouldn’t have played.

“It was miserable, but we were used to those conditions. The Americans absolutely hated it. They didn’t really do horrendous conditions and that played into our favour.”

In fact, it took until Loch Lomond in 2000, again in typical autumnal Scottish weather, for the Europeans to triumph for a second time.

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MMA

The best 20 UFC knockouts

Published

18 mins ago

September 20, 2024

NewsAdmin

Mixed Martial Arts is not for the faint-hearted, irrespective of whether you are fighting or watching.

Any UFC fighter worth their salt has been on the receiving end of a hefty blow or two – even Conor McGregor.

But what are the best-known knockouts? And who delivered them?

Here’s the top 20 in UFC history – decided by UFC itself.

Warning: the following video contains scenes viewers may find disturbing:

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Sport

Commonwealth Games 2026: Will Glasgow be the final host?

Published

37 mins ago

September 20, 2024

NewsAdmin

Commonwealth Games 2026: Will Glasgow be the final host?

So, why does Glasgow think it is an event still worth having?

Firstly, they believe the numbers add up. Glasgow’s calculations are that a combination of CGF funds, a financial sweetener from Victoria and private investment will avoid the use of any UK public money.

The 2026 Games programme will also be slimmed down to lighten the load on the bottom line.

The plan is to stage as few as 10 sports, compared to the 18-strong schedule in 2014, and to use existing venues rather than build from scratch.

The way Birmingham projected a feel-good face onto England’s second city shows the success the Games can be.

However, the city’s subsequent financial struggles, with its council effectively declaring bankruptcy in September 2023, also underlines the stakes involved.

Clare Hartley is the co-founder of Arc Event Consultancy and has worked with multi-sport event organisers, including Manchester 2006 and Birmingham 2022, for nearly 25 years,

“It is just very hard to put these multi-sport events on,” she says.

“They are very expensive, they require a lot of different venues and logistically they are very challenging.

“Multi-sport events are huge projects that take up so much money and time and more countries and cities are weighing up more carefully whether it is worth hosting them.”

The sporting calendar is far busier than it was in 1930, when the first Commonwealth Games took place, offering star athletes lucrative alternatives but also giving potential hosts the chance to put on events that better suit local tastes and budgets.

The Commonwealth Games – which has necessary infrastructure and a variety of venues comparable to an Olympics, without the bumper broadcasting receipts or global sponsorship deals to offset them – will always be a tricky proposition.

“You look at Singapore,” says Hartley.

“It is a sporting nation, part of the Commonwealth, a prosperous nation, and they are hosting the World Aquatics Championships next year, rather than bidding for the Commonwealths.

“There are so many sporting opportunities out there, nations can pick and choose a little bit and the Commonwealth Games has not been of as much interest.”

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MMA

What is UFC, what is MMA and what are the rules?

Published

39 mins ago

September 20, 2024

NewsAdmin

What is UFC, what is MMA and what are the rules?

The Ultimate Fighting Championship, also known as UFC, has become one of the fastest-growing sports in the US and in the last few years increasingly caught the attention of fight fans in the UK, too.

But what is it, how was it formed and what are the rules?

Here’s our guide on what you need to know.

What is UFC?

The Ultimate Fighting Championship is a mixed-martial arts promotion in which a series of fights take place around the world, also known as fight nights. It calls itself the “premier organisation in MMA”.

Mixed martial arts, of course, is nothing new dating back more than 5,000 years.

But UFC brings together some of the world’s best mixed martial artists, fighting each other at different weights with a main event taking place once a month. There are more than 40 events each year.

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