Summer of sport
Resources
Follow Matthew Engel’s incisive coverage of the best of UK sport throughout the summer - June: Twenty20 cricket, June-July: Wimbledon tennis, July: Ashes cricket
In depth
Special Report
Why the happy few skipped the fountains
In contrast to four years ago, there was no throng of fans in the square the day after the Ashes victory, and no drunken cricketers acknowledging the adulation. An open-top bus, the authorities thought, was just so 2005
Nice little earner rises from the Ashes
Stuart Broad’s inspired Ashes-winning bowling set the stage for the epic triumph and has generated commercial opportunities for his paymasters, the England and Wales Cricket Board
Delight, not hysteria, in Ashes victory
As the shadows lengthened over The Oval on Sunday, England sealed their triumph in the latest re-enactment of the never-ending joust for sport’s most myth-encrusted trophy.
Broad-side undoes Australian cricketers
Unless disaster or a deluge strikes the Ashes – won so famously in 2005 and surrendered so tamely a year later – should be England’s again
Man in the News: Freddie Flintoff
The people’s cricketer: spectators revel in the England all-rounder who is playing in his final Test
Frigid batting puts England on back foot
When the first day of the final Ashes Test ended, England’s batsmen were 307 for eight, heading for a paltry total on a traditionally high-scoring ground
Without Flintoff, victory seems a fantasy
England’s capitulation in the Leeds Test was a contest for which the words “won” and “lost” were totally inadequate, writes Matthew Engel
Appalling England need an Ashes miracle
If, or more likely now, when Australia retain the Ashes, this will have been the crucial day – in four hours of bizarre cricket, Australia took total command of the Leeds Test
England’s pig of a day gives Australia hope
An inflatable pink pig was spotted floating in front of the press box. By then, it was an appropriate motif for England’s chances of test match victory
Flintoff’s tale of toil and trouble
That time-honoured staple of cricket, the truly excruciating boring draw, has almost been eliminated from the Ashes. The last came after a deluge at Lord’s, 12 years and 33 Tests ago
