London Athletics Meet 2026

22 July 2026

On Saturday we made our annual visit to the London Stadium in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park for the Diamond League London Athletics Meet. I was looking forward to our first opportunity to see the remarkable world record-holder poll vaulter Armand Duplantis, but sadly he had to withdraw from the competition part-way through with an injury - though  he still managed to come in second place. We also saw Keely Hodgkinson beating Femke Broeders-Bol in an exciting 800m. But the highlight of a brilliant sunny afternoon of athletics was seeing Josh Kerr break the world record for the mile - a record that had stood for 27 years. His final lap was a thrilling race against the clock with the whole sold-out crowd of 60,000 on its feet cheering him on.

Wimbledon 2026

4 July 2026

We had a lovely day at Wimbledon yesterday. It was a beautiful sunny day, not a cloud in the sky, but not too hot, with temperatures going up to 25 degrees and an occasional gentle breeze. We had tickets for Court 3 where we saw three entertaining third round singles matches. We watched the No 11 seed Belinda Bencic play Anna Kalinskaya, seeded 19 (who we saw playing doubles with Sorana Cirstea at Wimbledon last year, reviewed here in July 2025). This was an enthralling three set match with both players making plenty of mistakes. But Bencic always looked the better player and ended up pulling through. 

We then watched one of the most bizarre tennis matches we've seen at Wimbledon. Jan-Lennard Struff of Germany beat the No 8 seed, Daniil Medvedev, in straight sets, despite Medvedev leading 4-1 in the second and 5-2 in the third. Medvedev seemed to lose the match by getting increasingly frustrated, going through a phase of exaggerated gestures, followed by a period of sarcastic mutterings as he struggled to beat the huge, Struff serve. But he continued to play brilliantly on occasion, and just when we thought Struff would pull ahead in the face of Medvedev's dips, Struff's first serve appeared to desert him with both players struggling to close out the third set. Arguably the match was won on one amazing moment: Medvedev appeared to have played a brilliant winner with the ball legitimately going around the side of the net and back into court. But Struff asked for a video replay and, after several minutes delay, the replay on the big screen clearly showed that the ball had gone past the other side of the net post, through a gap in the net and out the other side, giving the point to Struff. 

Finally, we watched Karolina Muchava, the No 10 seed, playing Mananchaya Sawangkaew of Thailand, the world number 164 who was appearing in her first Wimbledon, having only played one Grand Slam before this, the 2026 Australian Open where she went out in the first round. She had got through to the third round at Wimbledon having beaten Maja Chwalinska, the recent French Open finalist, on the way. At first, we feared this match might be incredibly one-sided, as Muchova took an early lead. But Sawangkaew showed no fear and played very impressively, pushing the second set to a tiebreak before departing to huge cheers.

Wimbledon 2025

16 July 2025

On our last few visits to The Championships at Wimbledon we have been on Court 1, where we have seen some great tennis. But when you are sitting near the top of the stands you feel a long way from the action and it can be distractingly noisy. So this year we were excited to have tickets for the much smaller Court 2. We did have a much better view but last Wednesday was one of the hottest days of the year and there was nowhere to shelter on this open court. Nevertheless we enjoyed seven hours of tennis, seeing three very entertaining doubles matches. We saw the men's doubles quarter final in which the reigning champions, British player Henry Patten and his Finnish partner Harri Heliovaara, were beaten in three tight sets by the all British pair Lloyd Glasspool and Julian Cash - who went on to become the first British duo to win the Wimbledon Men's Doubles title for 89 years. We then saw a very close ladies' doubles quarter final in which Su-Wei Hsieh (Taiwan) and Jelena Ostapenko (Latvia) beat the Romanian/Russian pairing of Sorana Cirstea and Anna Kalinskaya. Finally we saw an invitation ladies' doubles between Johanna Konta/Kiki Bertens and Agnieszka Radwanska/Magdalena Rybarikova - which was very much played for laughs.  

London Athletics Meet 2024

25 July 2024

On Saturday we were back at the London Stadium in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in East London for the Diamond League London Athletics Meet. We were part of a crowd of 60,000 watching some of the top athletes in the world in their final warm-up for the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games. As at last year’s London Athletics Meet (reviewed here in July 2023), the stand-out performance was Femke Bol of the Netherlands in the Women's 400m Hurdles who looks on course both to win the Olympic title and to break the world record. Among the British Olympic hopefuls, Keely Hodgkinson ran the fastest 800m time since Caster Semenya in 2018, with Jemma Reekie and Georgia Bell making a British 1-2-3. And Matthew Hudson-Smith beat his own European 400m record to move to the top of the world rankings. It’s going to be interesting to watch them all compete in Paris.

Wimbledon 2024

19 July 2024

In 2006 we saw 35 minutes of Kim Clijsters’ opening match on Number One Court at Wimbledon before spending 5 hours sheltering from the rain (reviewed here in June 2006). So last Saturday felt like long-awaited closure as we returned to Number One Court (with the retractable roof remaining open) to see Kim Clijsters win her match in the Ladies Invitation Doubles, playing with Martina Hingis against Sam Stosur and Cara Black. We had seen Martina Hingis playing in the Invitation draw in 2011, when she was barely old enough to be considered a senior player (reviewed here in June 2011) and it was lovely to see her still going strong 13 years later. We were also treated to a brilliantly entertaining Mens Invitation Doubles match between Bob and Mike Bryan & James Blake and Bruno Soares. We had previously seen the Bryan brothers win two of their Wimbledon Men's Doubles titles (reviewed here in July 2009 and July 2013) and, in retirement, they are still a formidable partnership. But this was a much less serious match, with some great clowning by all four players, all the more funny because of the incredible power and speed they brought to the trick shots and endless rapid-fire rallies at the net.

Rothesay Classic Birmingham Tennis

27 June 2024

On Saturday we were back at the Priory Club in Edgbaston, Birmingham, for the first time since our 2017 visit (reviewed here in June 2017) to see the semi-finals of the Rothesay Classic Birmingham Tennis Tournament. Compared to Queen’s Club in London (where we were the previous week), Edgbaston has a more intimate atmosphere and we were much closer to the action. It was a lovely sunny day and, although all four matches we saw were decided in straight sets, they were all more competitive than this suggests. The two ladies singles semi-finals saw Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan defeat the Italian Eilsabetta Cocciaretto, and Ajla Tomljanović of Australia beat Anastasia Potapova in a close-fought tussle. The ladies doubles semi-finals were both very entertaining. Eventual champions Belgian Elise Mertens and Su-Wei Hsieh from Taiwan trounced Asia Muhammed and Aldila Sutjiadi. The best match of the day was Miyu Kato and Shuai Zhang narrowly beating the third seeds Marie Bouzkova and Sara Sorribes Tormo. We also saw Shuai Zhang win her doubles semi-final last time we were at the Edgbaston tournament in 2017.

cinch Championships Tennis Tournament 2024 at Queen's Club, London

21 June 2024

After enjoying our first trip to the Queen’s Club in London in 2019 (reviewed here in June 2019), our plans to return were hampered by Covid but this Monday we made our second visit on the opening day of the cinch Championships Tennis Tournament 2024. It was a gloriously sunny day and we watched more than 8 hours of tennis on Centre Court. The best match was an upset win for the Australian player Jordan Thompson over the number 7 seed Holger Rune from Denmark in 3 sets. The match between Britain’s Cameron Norrie and Milos Raonic of Canada also went the distance with Raonic winning an epic final set tie break. This provided a thrilling finish to what was otherwise a strangely dull match with a fairly flat atmosphere. That might have been because we saw Raonic serve 47 aces, breaking the ATP Tour world record, but this made for a lot of very short points. The first match we saw was a fairly routine straight sets win for the Bulgarian number 3 seed Grigor Dimitrov over Adrian Mannarino of France. Sadly the last match of the day - a really entertaining encounter between Alejandro Tabilo of Chile and the Spanish player Alejandro Davidovich Fokina - was suspended because the courts were becoming too slippery as the evening wore on. Nevertheless we had a great day at Queen’s.

London Athletics Meet

25 July 2023

On Sunday we were back at the London Stadium in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in East London for the Diamond League London Athletics Meet. This was billed as the biggest one-day athletics meeting in the world and we were part of a crowd of 50,000 watching an impressive line-up of Olympic and World Champions from across the globe. We didn’t move from our seats for just over four hours of gripping competition. With continuously overlapping track and field events coming thick and fast there is always something to watch - often too much happening at the same time! It was great to see some familiar British athletes competing - including Dina Asher-Smith, Katarina Johnson-Thompson and Hannah Cockcroft. We enjoyed a very entertaining Women’s Pole Vault competition, won by Wilma Murto of Finland. It was great to be there to see Zharnel Hughes beat the British record in the Men’s 200m set by John Regis in 1993. Femke Bol from the Netherlands looked outstanding in beating the European record for the Women's 400m Hurdles, with the third-fastest time ever. And there was an incredibly exciting finale to the afternoon as Scotland’s Jemma Reekie came from third place on the final bend to win the Women's 800m.

Wimbledon 2023

21 July 2023

On the middle Saturday of the Wimbledon Tennis Tournament we were very lucky to have tickets for No 1 Court where the roof was shut for most of the afternoon as rain came and went outside. We saw the men’s 3rd seed Daniil Medvedev lose the first set to Marton Fucsovics of Hungary before going on to win in four very competitive sets. Secondly we watched the women’s 2nd seed Aryna Sabalenka beat Anna Blinkova in straight sets. Finally we enjoyed an entertaining heavyweight contest between Alexander Zverev and Matteo Berrettini with Berrettini winning in three sets but needing two tie breaks to do so.

Wimbledon 2022

13 July 2022

We had a fantastic day at Wimbledon on the middle Saturday of the Championships on Court Number One. We saw Nick Kyrgios beat Stefanos Tsitsipas in what many commentators said was the game of the tournament and was certainly the most exciting match we have ever seen in many years of going to Wimbledon. It was a high-quality, but extremely bad-tempered, battle which ended just after 9pm under the roof - making the final set even more dramatic and incredibly noisy. Our seats were high up in the stadium and at times it was quite difficult to know what was going on between the players and the umpire without consulting the BBC Sport app. But it was an electric atmosphere: a genuinely thrilling experience. Earlier we had seen the impressive run of British player Liam Broady come to an end in straight sets against Alex de Minaur. We also witnessed Alize Cornet completely outplaying the World No. 1 and No. 1 seed Iga Swiatek - which was set to have been the story of the day before Kyrgios vs Tsitsipas.

Wimbledon 2021

6 July 2021

As we travelled to Wimbledon on Saturday it felt like a very long time since we were last at the Championships - though we were actually there for the men’s singles quarter finals the last time they were played in 2019. It’s just a long time since we have been anywhere! This was my first train journey since March 2020 which felt incredibly strange. I am pleased to report that London is still there. But I am more pleased that, following a little rain on our way there, we enjoyed a rain-free day and saw almost eight hours of continuous tennis. We had tickets for No. 1 Court which meant we were lucky to see Emma Raducanu’s amazing win over Sorana Cîrstea - the most exciting atmosphere we have witnessed in many many years of going to Wimbledon. It was genuinely thrilling, but that was just the start of a stunning day. We also had an all-too-brief glimpse of a very promising match between Nick Kyrgios and Felix Auger Aliassime before Kyrgios had to retire through injury. We finished the day watching Daniil Medvedev come back from two sets down to beat Marin Čilić in five sets which was a brilliant match. I think this was our best ever day at Wimbledon.

The Anniversary Games 2019

24 July 2019

On Saturday we made our first return, seven years after London 2012, to the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in East London to watch the Anniversary Games IAAF Diamond League Athletics meeting in the Olympic Stadium. It was great to be back, and wonderful to see some high quality, competitive international athletics. Athletics competitions always seem to be meticulously choreographed, slickly alternating between track races and field events so there is always something to watch. Some of the highlights for me from Saturday were watching a magnificent Laura Muir win an impressive 1500, seeing one of the stars of the 2012 Paralympics, Jonnie Peacock, back to winning ways, Norwegian Karsten Warholm setting a new European record in the 400m hurdles, and the Jamaican sprinter Shelly Ann Fraser-Pryce running a storming final leg to dip ahead of the Great Britain team in the 4x100m relay. You can see a selection of my photos from the Anniversary Games at: https://culturaloutlook.blogspot.com/search/label/AnniversaryGames2019

Wimbledon 2019

12 July 2019

On Wednesday we were very lucky to have tickets for Wimbledon Centre Court where we saw the men’s singles quarter finals between Novak Djokovic and David Goffin & Roger Federer and Kei Nishikori. It was a hot, sunny day and we had great seats quite close to the court. After a close and entertaining first set Djokovic ran away with the first match in straight sets but the four-set tussle between Federer and Nishikori was much closer. It always looked like Federer would triumph but Nishikori never gave up and played some wonderful tennis. At the end of the afternoon we were treated to a ladies’ doubles invitation match featuring Martina Navratilova which was great fun, with Martina (now 62 years old) still playing brilliantly (and winning).

Fever-Tree Tennis Championships 2019 at Queen's Club, London

21 June 2019

On Thursday we made a first-ever visit to the Queen’s Club in West London to see the pre-Wimbledon Fever-Tree Championships. After most of the matches scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday were postponed by rain, we were extremely lucky to see more than nine hours of uninterrupted tennis on Centre Court. The Argentinian clay-court specialist Diego Schwartzman played brilliantly to beat reigning champion Marin Čilić in straight sets. We saw two extremely close matches decided by final set tie breaks, with Nicolas Mahut triumphing over Stan Wawrinka (in the best match of the day) and the top seed, Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece, finally beating Jérémy Chardy of France after both men had succumbed to nerves when serving for the match. Finally we were thrilled to see the return to competitive tennis of Andy Murray, playing doubles with Feliciano López. Murray got an incredible reception from the Centre Court crowd and he and Lopez won a thrilling match against the top seeds Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah at the end of a wonderful day of tennis at Queen’s.

Wimbledon 2018

6 July 2018

On Thursday we were lucky enough to have tickets for Centre Court at Wimbledon. It was an incredibly hot and we were quite near the front in the fierce sunshine, but it was worth it to see three really entertaining, if a little one-sided, matches. We saw Rafael Nadal, for the first time since 2011, beating Mikhail Kukushkin in straight sets to reach the third round. We then watched Johanna Konta lose to Dominika Cibulkova. Finally we enjoyed seeing Kyle Edmund defeat the American Bradley Klahn to set up a meeting with Novak Djokovic on Saturday.

Aegon Birmingham Classic Tennis

27 June 2017

On Saturday we were at the Priory Club in Edgbaston, Birmingham to see the semi-finals of the Aegon Birmingham Classic tennis tournament. It was great to see the former Wimbledon Champion, Petra Kvitová, returning to form following an enforced absence from the game after being attacked and injured by an intruder in her home at the end of last year. It was a shame her semi-final was cut short by an injury to her opponent, Lucie Šafárová, but still good to see her playing so well. The second semi-final was a thriller, with Garbiñe Muguruza – last year’s French Open winner – losing in three sets to the young Australian doubles specialist Ashleigh Barty. It was one of those tennis matches where you genuinely couldn’t tell who was going to win. Even at 5-1 down in the final set Muguruza looked as if she still might triumph. It was a really exciting match. We finished the day with an entertaining, if fairly one-sided, doubles semi-final won by Chan Hao-ching and Zhang Shuai. We had been looking forward to seeing Ashleigh Barty again in the doubles but her semi-final was a walkover after one of her opponents pulled out through injury. The problem with a pre-Wimbledon tournament is that anyone who feels the slightest twinge is clearly not to going to risk missing Wimbledon. Nevertheless we had a really enjoyable day of tennis in Birmingham.

Wimbledon 2016

15 July 2016

We made our first visit for three years to the All England Tennis Championships at Wimbledon last week. We were very lucky to get Centre Court tickets for Ladies' semi finals day and had the best seats we have ever had – just three rows from the court. It was an incredibly hot day and we had a wonderful view of the action. Unfortunately neither semi final was a great match: Serena Williams' win over Elena Vesnina was so one-sided it felt like a first round match. The second semi final, between Venus Williams and Angelique Kerber, was more competitive but the result never really seemed in doubt. We did, however, get a great men's doubles semi-final which saw the eventual champions, Nicolas Mahut and Pierre-Hugues Herbert, triumph over Max Mirnyi and Treat Huey in five tight sets. It was amazing seeing the lighting-fast rallies between all four players at the net so close-up. You can see a selection of my Wimbledon 2016 photos at: http://culturaloutlook.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Wimbledon2016

Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games

1 August 2014

We had a brilliant time at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow at the beginning of this week. It was very well organised and there was a fantastic atmosphere throughout the city. It was great to see the Clydesider volunteers making such an important contribution – and being properly recognised for it. On Monday we attended an extended morning session of athletics at Hampden Park and were lucky to see our local hero, Greg Rutherford (from Woburn Sands), in the long jump, Kenyan world-record holder David Rudisha in the 800m, the amazing David Weir in the T54 1500m, and Scotland's Eilidh Child in the 400m hurdles. The stadium was packed and, even though we were mostly watching heats rather than finals, it was a thrilling experience which finished with a fascinating decathlon pole vault competition won by Ben Gregory from Wales. Watching events like the pole vault or high jump you find yourself genuinely delighted when any competitor manages to clear the bar – regardless of which country they are representing. In the latter stages of the competition, when there are more failures than clearances, any success is truly exciting. On Monday afternoon and evening we were at a long session of badminton at the Emirates Arena. I have never watched badminton before and I really enjoyed it. We could see matches going on simultaneously across four courts and there was plenty to hold your attention, even in some fairly one-sided first round matches. The rallies in badminton tend to be lengthy and dramatic and there is a balletic athleticism to many of the shots. It was great to see some of the smallest competing nations and territories taking part in the mixed doubles – including teams from the Norfolk Islands and St Helena. On Wednesday morning we were back at Hampden Park for a second session of athletics which included the women's high jump and long jump qualifying and the heats of the men's 200m. It was great to be in Glasgow and to see the excitement generated by the games. Waiting in Glasgow Airport for our flight home we saw two young members of the Australian swimming team, being persuaded to pose for photos with their medals by fellow passengers who were thrilled to meet them. You can see a selection of my photos from Glasgow 2014 at: http://culturaloutlook.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Glasgow2014

'I Am The Secret Footballer: Lifting the Lid on the Beautiful Game' by The Secret Footballer

8 November 2013

When you hear an interview with a retired politician it's remarkable how often they seem suddenly more knowledgeable, reasonable and sensible than they ever did when they were in office, regardless of where they come from in the political spectrum. The modern media age has bred a generation of people in the public eye who work hard to never say anything of interest. Perhaps the most extreme example of this is the post-match interview with a professional football player who has been extensively trained in the art of clichés and platitudes. Even retirement is no guarantee of openness in the football world as Sir Alex Ferguson's recent, very guarded, memoirs demonstrate. So it is a refreshing change to read an insight on the sport which is genuinely honest and candid. 'The Secret Footballer' started as an anonymous column in The Guardian, exposing the inner workings of the professional game through the eyes of someone still playing at the highest level. The anonymity of the columnist has so far survived investigation, rumour and clue-hunting. Reading the book 'I Am The Secret Footballer: Lifting the Lid on the Beautiful Game' the anonymous author gives a fascinating view of what it is actually like to 'live the dream'. I loved the fact that, when he joined his first professional club, nobody told him that he was only required to train from 10 am – 12 pm each day. At noon he was sitting along in the dressing room waiting to be told what to do next, not realising everyone else had gone home. His perspective on the incredible financial rewards that football brings to a select group of young men, counterbalanced with the insecurity, boredom and depression prevalent within the profession are fascinating. Occasionally the disguise necessary to keep the author's identity secret makes anecdotes quite hard to follow but this is a small price to pay for such an unusually frank read.

Wimbledon 2013

11 July 2013

As regular readers will remember, we have been extremely lucky in getting tickets in the Wimbledon ballot over recent years. 2012 was the first time in 10 years that we didn't get to the Championships, but we were back this year, with Centre Court tickets for the Ladies' Singles Final last Saturday. It was a glorious day and we were pleased to be sitting far enough back to be in the shade. The final was a little disappointing as Sabine Lisicki failed to find the form that had helped her beat Serena Williams and Agnieszka Radwańska, but it was great to see Marion Bartoli win and, even though the match was a bit one-sided, there was some great tennis from both players. The Men's Doubles Final was more closely contested with the Bryan brothers coming from a set down to defeat Ivan Dodig and Marcelo Melo. But the most entertaining match of the day was undoubtedly the Ladies' Doubles Final in which Taiwan's Su-Wei Hsieh and China's Peng Shuai beat the Australians Ashleigh Barty and Casey Dellacqua. Hsieh and Peng have a most unconventional approach to doubles – rather than taking responsibility for different areas of the court they both seem to follow the ball (and each other) - more like a four-legged singles player! At least three times in the final they clashed racquets as they both tried to hit the ball at the same time. Nevertheless this odd system seemed to work, giving them two opportunities to reach each difficult return (despite leaving large areas of the court uncovered). It was fascinating to watch and a great way to end a fabulous day at Wimbledon. It would have been amazing to have been there the following day to see Andy Murray triumph but, knowing how nervous I got on behalf of Sabine Lisicki, I think the tension might have been unbearable. Watching the Men's Singles Final on the television the day after our visit to Centre Court felt as close as you could get to being there. You can see a selection of my Wimbledon photos at: http://www.culturaloutlook.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Wimbledon2013