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Woman charged over fatal Wimbledon school crash
Nuria Sajjad and Selena Lau died after a car crashed into the Study Preparatory School in July 2023.
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Surrey bolster Oval security, Somerset v Yorkshire, and more: county cricket, day one – live | Cricket
Key events
Time for a sandwich, back soon!
Lunchtime scores
Division One
Southampton: Hampshire v Glamorgan 89-1
Leicester: Leicestershire v Nottinghamshire 120-1
Taunton: Somerset v Yorkshire 115-3
The Oval: Surrey v Sussex 105-7
Division Two
Canterbury: Kent 99-4 v Derbyshire
Lord’s: Middlesex 82-1 v Durham
Northampton: Northants v Worcestershire 104-4
Big Craig Overton throws his maroon Somerset cap on the ground after shelling Bairstow at second slip on 22. He’s still covering his face with his hands two balls later. Pretorius runs in. Yorks 115-3.
Stokes batting at Lord’s
Andy Bull is out and about at Lord’s and has spotted Ben Stokes batting in the nets on the Nursery ground. “He has drawn a crowd of 30 school kids and 20 men in blazers.” And looks “rugged.”
Somerset’s bowlers are currently getting schooled by Bairstow and Root – whose cover drive on one knee against Craig Overton was like a bite of a warm buttery croissant straight from a Parisian paper bag. Yorkshire 110-3.
Asa Tribe going great guns (45) in Glamorgan’s 77-0 against Hants. Ben Kellaway is back for Glamorgan after injury.
Notts have made a perky start against Leicestershire. They’ve lost HH for 42, but Ben Slater still there on 50. Notts 97-1.
Yorkshire 78-3 at Taunton, Root and Bairstow batting together, and they’ve just changed the ball.
And, oh! at The Oval, where a zillion runs have been laid down over the last few weeks, Sussex are 84 for six. Jordan Clark four for 9, Tom Clark out for 44.
Briefly gobsmacked to see Somerset selling Sabrina Carpenter and Olivia Rodrigo tickets for £10 – but just realised it is a tribute show. Still, nice idea after the Somerset and Surrey women’s game in June
A steam engine hoots as it chugs on its way behind Taunton. Somerset 70-3. Let’s skip around the grounds.
There’s a cute brown dog in the Taunton crowd that just watched Jonny drive Ogborne, feet in fourth position, standing tall, plink to the rope.
Switching streams to Taunton. The panatone colour chart has dulled in the move from east to west. And there goes Finlay Bean for 35 to Pretorius, caught low down by James Rew. On runs the water man in an anorak. Joe Root at the other end on 3. Yorks 64-3. Here comes Jonny.
Go to make a cup of coffee, when I come back the umpire is replacing the bails at Canterbury. Crawley gone for a fleeting, but lovely 44. Andersson the wicket-taker. Kent 73 for 2.
Lord’s breaks women’s Test attendance record
England women play their first (yes, really) Test at Lord’s later this summer, against India. The MCC have already sold more than the 23,207
tickets which were the previous record for a women’s Test.
Zak Crawley has just driven Zac Chappell through the covers with the sweetest sound. No-one in the field moved. But three slips wait. He reaches 29. Kent 45-1.
A catch for Ollie Robinson, who seems to have slipped out of England conversations with the rise of Jamie Smith. De Caires for eight, Middlesex 34 for one.
Warwickshire to name new stand after Dennis Amiss
Warwicks have announced that their new stand, due to open next year, will be named after their leading run-scorer.
On the Kent stream, Sam Northeast and Zak Crawley are looking good.
Thomas Rew is making his Championship debut, alongside brother James, at Taunton. Yorkshire have lost Adam Lyth, lbw Ogborne, for 8. Yorks 26-1.
And an early wicket in glorious Canterbury sunshine, Dawkins dollies a catch back to Haydon. Kent 21-1.
An early wicket at The Oval where Tom Haines has edged Sean Abbott to slip for a duck. Sussex 2 for one.
Worcestershire have also lost an early wicket against Northants, and it’s their banker, Jake Libby, for three. Worcs 13-1.
Good morning Mike Daniels!
“Sun’s shining here at Grace Road for the “Ay Up, Me Duck” Derby.
“Not sure Leics will get their first win this round, Notts look a strong side even without Josh Tongue.”
They really do.
More news has dropped from OT, where Luke Wells has signed a three-year contract.
Time to lace up your boots, the players are out around the grounds.
Division Two table
1 Lancashire P4 W2 L1 D1 60 points
2 Durham P3 W2 D1 57 points
3 Worcestershire P3 W2 L1 51 points
4 Northamptonshire P3 D3 43 points
5 Middlesex P3 W1 D1 L1 38 points
6 Derbyshire P3 L2 D1 25 points
7 Gloucestershire P4 W1 L3 24 points
8 Kent P3 L1 D2 21 points
Division One Table
1 Warwickshire P 4 W1 L1 D2 55 points
2 Somerset P3 W 2 D1 54 points
3 Nottinghamshire P3 W1 D2 44 points
4 Sussex P3 W2 D1 42 points
5 Essex P4 W1 L2 D1 40 points
6 Surrey P3 D3 37 points
7 Leicestershire P3 L1 D2 32 points
8 Glamorgan P3 L1 D2 27 points
9 Yorkshire P3 L1 D2 26 points
10 Hampshire P3 W1 L2 25 points
Kent turn off comments on social media feed
Kent, who have struggled this season, and lie bottom of Div Two, with just 21 points, have taken the decision to switch comments off the club’s social media accounts.
In a statement, coach Adam Hollioake said: “This has not been a decision that we’ve taken lightly and we are in no means stopping people voicing their opinions, but to align with our short-term strategy to allow players and staff to think and play with freedom and clarity, we feel it is a necessary one…
“There are several ways for supporters to get their views across. There is a member’s forum …on day one of this match and anyone can also contact the club with their feedback at any time….
“You are measured as a person by how you act and apply yourself when times are hard and I’d like to think that our members and supporters will be willing us to do well more than ever. We are giving our all every day to improve.”
Surrey to increase security following Golders Green attacks
Some sobering news from The Oval.
Surrey have increased security and bag checks at the Oval after the Golders Green knife attacks.
Police have charged a 45-year-old man with attempted murder following the stabbings of two Jewish men in north London on Wednesday, with the incident contributing to the UK terrorism threat level being raised to severe.
That is the second highest level on the scale and means the chance of terror attacks are considered highly likely by authorities.
Surrey’s latest first-class fixture against Sussex runs from Friday to Monday and the club have moved quickly to reflect the changing circumstances.
A club statement read: “Surrey are in regular communication with the Met police and will adjust our own security measures in line with the increased threat level. We want to ensure that all staff, spectators and players feel safe and secure at the Kia Oval and will take the action necessary to do so.
“Please note there will be additional security presence and heightened bag searches at this weekend’s Rothesay County Championship match with Sussex, so please allow additional time to enter the ground.”
Surrey have been pioneering a new scheme this season that encourages home-based workers to use the ground as their office, utilising desks and new super-fast broadband connections. Their last home match, against Essex, had a 21st-century record of 15,663 spectators in attendance. PA Media
Fixtures
Division One
Southampton: Hampshire v Glamorgan
Leicester: Leicestershire v Nottinghamshire
Taunton: Somerset v Yorkshire
The Oval: Surrey v Sussex
Division Two
Canterbury: Kent v Derbyshire
Lord’s: Middlesex v Durham
Northampton: Northants v Worcestershire
England withdraw Josh Tongue and Gus Atkinson
England have pulled Josh Tongue and Gus Atkinson from the Notts and Surrey squads to manage their workloads. Surrey are also without Tom Lawes (soft tissue injury) – a double blow for him as I’ve suddenly seen his name cropping up as a potential England bowler.
It looks as if Fergus O’Neill will play for Notts after recovering from a rib injury and Thomas Rew, brother of James, is included by Somerset for the first time in a CC match.
Preamble
Good morning! May has landed like a gentle kiss on the back of the neck, and with it round five of the Championship.
There are seven games today, with Warwickshire, Essex, Gloucestershire and Lancashire – who will lose Daniel Gidney at the end of the season (retirement) but gain Chris Green early – sitting this one out. Jamie Smith will keep wicket for Surrey against Sussex after Ben Foakes injured himself bowling in the dying dregs of the game against Essex. And Kent must plough on
Surrey, Leicestershire, Glamorgan, Yorkshire, Northants and Derbyshire are also searching for their first wins. Play starts at 11am, do join us.
Essa Suleiman, 45, is accused of attacking Shloime Rand, 34, and Moshe Shine, 76.
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Salah to miss Old Trafford trip; Newcastle ‘supportive’ of Howe; World Cup latest: football – live | Premier League
Key events
Some fans have been let loose on Sky Sports News to talk about the Premier League title race and other matters.
The Arsenal fan has surrendered, at this point:
“I’ve had four years of this and I can’t take another let-down,” he says.
“I’ve had my cry. I’ve broken down. If we win it now, I’ll be happy.”
Thanks Tom, hi everyone.
Here’s a line off Reuters about a former Liverpool, Manchester City, Chelsea and England legend:
Raheem Sterling was meant to be a marquee signing for Feyenoord as they battled for supremacy in the Netherlands, but with three games left in the season, the Dutch club are still waiting for the 31-year-old to make an impact.
Feyenoord continue their quest for second place in the league, and qualification for the Champions League, with a trip to 12th-placed Fortuna Sittard on Sunday, but it is not certain Sterling will be in the team.
The former England international, signed on a short-term contract in February, has started four league games and made three substitute appearances, and is yet to score.
He seemed a frustrated figure when left on the bench for the key clash against third-placed NEC Nijmegen last month, and came on for the final 15 minutes in last weekend’s win against Groningen.
Feyenoord cannot win the league, sitting 19 points behind the champions PSV Eindhoven, but still have much to play for, with a tenuous three-point lead over third-placed NEC Nijmegen in the battle for second place.
Coach Robin van Persie called Sterling’s signing “one of the biggest transfers in the history of the club” but his form has not lived up to the hype.
Van Persie, however, backed him despite criticism in the Dutch media and some scorn from disappointed supporters.
The coach said last week he had a positive conversation with Sterling, who he felt was getting better and fitter, but said any decision on whether the former Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester City attacker would stay next season would come later.
Sterling’s move to Feyenoord was something of a surprise but was seen as a genuine effort to resurrect his career after being sidelined at Chelsea.
Sterling had not played for nine months before his first appearance for Feyenoord, where fans gave him a rapturous reception, but he has since been jeered by supporters. Reuters
And with that, I’m handing over to Luke McLaughlin, who’ll take you through to lunchtime. Laters.
One of the biggest games of the bank holiday weekend doesn’t come until Monday night, when Hearts host Rangers knowing they could practically end the visitors’ title hopes – and massively boost theirs – with a win, turning the title race into a two-way fight with Celtic (IF the Hoops beat Hibs on Sunday). The Jambos’ manager, Derek McInnes, is trying not to think about it: “Every team in with a chance of the title will see themselves as right in it, which makes it even more exciting. We’ve got a good enough record in this fixture but we need to concentrate on ourselves and not focus too much about what the opposition are thinking.”
All sorts of rivalry-distortions are in play too – Hearts fans willing their Edinburgh foes Hibs against Celtic? Celtic fans preferring a draw for Rangers at Hearts rather than a defeat?
In case you missed it yesterday, a spot of early-summer transfer whispering with Manchester United chasing West Ham’s El Hadji Malick Diouf as possible left-back competition for Luke Shaw.
Just perusing the weekend’s Premier League and EFL fixtures, a huge number of matches have something at stake for at least one of the teams playing in them, and here’s a list:
Premier League
Leeds v Burnley
Brentford v West Ham
Arsenal v Fulham
Bournemouth v Palace
Man Utd v Liverpool
Aston Villa v Spurs
Chelsea v Forest
Everton v Man City
Championship
Derby v Sheffield Utd
Hull v Norwich
Ipswich v QPR
Millwall v Oxford
Wrexham v Middlesbrough
League One
Barnsley v Stockport
Bolton v Luton
Exeter v Bradford
Leyton Orient v Burton
Northampton v Plymouth
Stevenage v Wigan
League Two
Barrow v Newport
Bromley v Walsall
Crawley v Salford
Crewe v Cambridge
Fleetwood v MK Dons
Harrogate v Barnet
Notts County v Bristol Rovers
Swindon v Chesterfield
Tranmere v Grimsby
Gianni Infantino’s “football heals the world” schtick came off worse in an encounter with reality when his attempt to orchestrate a handshake between the Palestinian and Israeli delegates at Fifa’s congress backfired.
The Palestinian Football Association’s president, Jibril Rajoub, refused to stand alongside the Israel FA’s vice-president, Basim Sheikh Suliman, towards the end of the congress after both men had been called to the stage in Vancouver by Infantino.
Asked what Rajoub said when he refused, the Palestinian FA’s vice-president, Susan Shalabi, told Reuters: “I cannot shake the hand of someone the Israelis have brought to whitewash their fascism and genocide. We are suffering.”
Matt Hughes has the story here:
Given the horror-show of a season Leicester fans have endured, the 10th anniversary of their sensational Premier League title triumph might feel a tad bittersweet, but what a season 2015-16 was, and what a team they were. Ben Fisher has been talking to some of the key participants, including Claudio Ranieri …
It changed the lives of everybody. For my players, who can say: “I won the Premier League.” I’m a very shy man, I don’t say: “I won the title!” But I’m very proud, very happy. In Leicester there is a big Indian community and some Indian people told me: “Thank you, Claudio, because now we link more with the Leicester people, the English people. When we go to the stadium, we push together.” And that is very, very special for me. It’s bigger than football.
It’s a big weekend in the Women’s Super League too and Manchester City can move closer to the title with a home win over Liverpool tomorrow, though they have been wobbling lately. Their main challengers, Arsenal, are otherwise engaged – in WCL semi-final action against OL Lyonnes.
But as the season draws to an end, fixture scheduling remains a sore point in the women’s game, as Tom Garry reports:
Waiting for men’s broadcast picks, dodging local fun runs and even having to avoid clashing with nearby comedy gigs: welcome to the quagmire of trying to arrange the Women’s Super League and WSL 2 schedule.
The fixture list is often a bone of contention for supporters, and organisers face a painstaking task in trying to organise games in venues where other teams get first dibs.
“Stadium availability is led by the men’s game and then broadcast is led by the men’s game, so it can be really hard,” Zarah Al-Kudcy, chief revenue officer at WSL Football, says. “Some of the reasons we are given as to why fixtures have to change, you just have to laugh or you’d cry.”
Howe: Newcastle owners remain ‘supportive’
Eddie Howe says Newcastle’s Saudi Arabian owners remain supportive after meetings with PIF representatives on their trip over to the north-east this week. “I saw the owners and their representatives; it was constructive” said the manager before tomorrow’s home game against in-form Brighton. “It’s always constructive because they clearly care so much about the football club.
“There are exciting times ahead regardless of what happens in the short term. There’s no change in the level of support I’m receiving and the infrastructure but there is still an understanding of how football works and we need results.”
Howe was fairly non-commital about Anthony Gordon’s prospects of being fit to face Brighton. “He did a session on Wednesday, it was great to see him back on the pitch we’ll make an assessment closer to the game.”
Slot: Salah not fit enough to face Manchester United
Arne Slot has been up early for the press conference to preview Liverpool’s game at Manchester United and Mohamed Salah, who has scored 16 goals for the Reds against their biggest rivals, is not fit enough to make a final appearance at Old Trafford in a Liverpool shirt as he continues to recover from a hamstring injury.
Mo is always working incredibly hard during the season when he is fit and when he is injured to get back as soon as possible. Usually he is back earlier fit than other players. He has a minor injury and we expect and need him back for the final part of the season, but not for Sunday. It is a big relief that his injury is minor and he is able to play for us and at the World Cup. If a player deserves a big send off then it is Mo.”
Slot also said that Alisson is close to a return.
Preamble
Morning everyone and welcome. We’re at that stage of the season where clubs are either on the beach or deep in a world of stress/pain/excitement, each casting envious glances at the other. A hugely consequential weekend looms, starting tonight with Leeds having another opportunity to distance themselves from the relegation rabble when they host managerless and relegated Burnley. By around 3pm tomorrow we’ll know the identity of one more of the clubs replacing the Clarets, with Ipswich, Millwall and Middlesbrough duking it out for second place in the Championship, while ups, downs and playoff places in the rest of the EFL will be sorted by teatime, when everyone can chill out watching Arsenal’s bid to keep their creaking title bid on the road when they face Fulham.
There was plenty to chew on last night too. Nottingham Forest just about edged their all-English Europa League semi-final first leg against Aston Villa, but not without the inevitable VAR blow-up, Unai Emery fuming at the failure to punish Elliott Anderson for a dangerous tackle on Ollie Watkins. In the Conference League, Oliver Glasner’s chances of bowing out at Crystal Palace with a second trophy in two years were substantially enhanced in a 3-1 semi-final first leg win against Shakhtar Donetsk. The Europa League place denied them last year is now in sight.
Anyway, we’ll be across all the buildup and news going into the weekend, with pressers due at Newcastle, Liverpool and Manchester City this morning and pre-match chat from Arsenal, Spurs, Manchester United and Chelsea around lunchtime. And to get you in the mood, here’s 10 Premier League things to look out for, in time-honoured fashion.
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Crime & Safety2 weeks agoBicester man denies sexually assaulting two young girls
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Oxford News2 weeks agoBanbury cake company with 400 year history shut down
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UK News2 weeks agoStarmer says it ‘beggars belief’ he wasn’t told about Mandelson vetting failure as he faces Commons – UK politics live | Politics
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UK News1 week agoTV tonight: Shetland meets CSI in a new drama about a disgraced cop | Television
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Crime & Safety3 weeks agoLorry overturns on Oxfordshire A43 roundabout with driver trapped
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UK News2 weeks agoFears over rogue parking by sunrise-chasers at national park after overnight ban
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Crime & Safety2 weeks ago‘A red kite stole my mother-in-law’s sausage rolls’
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UK News4 weeks agoUkraine war briefing: Russian oil facilities burn as Zelenskyy tours Middle East | Ukraine