Originally published inThe Times, Tuesday July 08, 1986. As at Rome’s Colosseum, Wimbledon’s centre court salutes only those of its gladiators who survive and conquer in their final encounters.A few All-England finalists return, hardened by past battles, andemerge triumphant. Most, though, receive an imperial thumbs-down andare doomed to oblivion in the history of tennis. Ivan Lendl […]
The controllers of the once-racially-segregated Augusta fairways are leaning over backwards to portray a new image. Once a bastion of racial bigotry, the club that hosts the US Masters is about to give an elderly black golfer a very special honour. And the golfing rule-makers are about to address another ill: they’re upset that most […]
As the world of sport resumes its greatest events after the Covid pandemic’s lockdowns, the most prestigious and quirky tournament in the Golfing World is currently underway – seven months later than usual: the US Masters at the Augusta National club in Georgia, USA. In golf, it seems, there’s a lot at steak! Great golfers […]
Women golfers are to take part in the richest week in female golfing history.
AB De Villiers is showing he is at least South Africa’s second-best batsman – as well as being a fine fielder and wicket-keeper. Despite a long absence from international and most local cricket, he’s been performing very well in recent weeks in the most important (and most lucrative) forum of the very short game: the […]
By Paul Martin and Anne Casimir in Bellagio, Lake Como, Italy.
By Paul Martin. The current South African president Cyril Ramaposa wore the Number 6 Springbok jersey and embraced captain Siya Kolisi as the Springboks lifted the World Cup trophy last weekend.
How Nelson Mandela looked to bring unity through sport
This is the link to the BBC radio broadcast by Paul Martin on the programme “Sunday” on July 6 2019: at 7 minutes 20 seconds into https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0006l5m
By Paul Martin in Havana “Play ball” was President Obama’s excited tweet as he made public the news that a highlight of his historic visit to this Communist-run island was to be a baseball match in March 2016 involving Cubans against an American team.