22 NEWS
THE WEEK 24 August 2019SportFootballManchester City
drew 2-2 with Tottenham.
Liverpool beat Southampton
2-1. Chelsea drew 1-1 with
Leicester City. Bayern
Munich signed Philippe
Coutinho, Barcelona’s
attacking midfielder, on
aseason-long loan.
Rugby unionFrance beat
Scotland 32-3. New Zealand
beat Australia 36-0.
AthleticsBritish sprinter
Dina Asher-Smith finished
second in the 200m at the
Birmingham Grand Prix.
TennisDaniil Medvedev
and Madison Keys won the
men’s and women’s
Cincinnati Masters titles.“In the end, it took an act of God to stop Jofra
Archer,” said Andy Bull in The Guardian. On the
final day of the second Ashes Test, as “a thick
bank of black cloud” flew over the Lord’s Grand
Stand, the umpires brought the match toaclose.
They decided it was too dark for Australia’s
batsmen to face the England bowler–“if they
ever could safely face him at all”. It meant that,
for all Archer’s efforts on his Test debut, England
failed to beat Australia, and had to settle for a
draw. But in his two innings, Archer did more
than enough to prove himself “the most lethal fast
bowler in the world”. He bowled the fastest over
by an England bowler since records began, with
an average speed of 92.79mph; his top speed of
the match wasadizzying 96.1mph.Archer is lethal in another sense, too, said Paul
Hayward in The Daily Telegraph. In the short time he has played
international cricket–hemade his one-day international debut in
May –his balls have hit no fewer than 19 batsmen in the body or
head. And on Saturday, one of his bouncers hit Steve Smith in the
neck –a“sickening” blow that left Australia’s talisman flat on
the ground. It was all too reminiscent of the bouncer that killed
Phillip Hughes, an Australian cricketer, after he was hit in the
neck five years ago. So why on earth was Smith later allowed to
return to the crease to complete his innings? His symptoms thenext day, including grogginess andaheadache,
made it clear just how serious his injury was –
serious enough to rule him out of both the second
innings and the third Test. The fault lies not with
Archer’s “controlled aggression”, but with cricket
itself: the sport needs to start putting players’
welfare first, by making them wear neck
protection on their helmets, and removing them
fromamatch ifaball knocks them off their feet.Archer’s performance was the most “startling”
Test debut inalong time, said Mike Atherton
in The Times. He is already “the most valuable
member of the England team”–and his duel with
Smith, which electrified the Test before that fateful
bouncer, has inauguratedarivalry for the ages. A
bowler like Archer isabatsman’s nightmare, said
Simon Hughes in The Sunday Times. “Extreme
pace torments the mind and makes the body do funny things.”
It’s impossible not to be intimidated: as the ball bounces as high
as your shoulder, “it becomes hard to know which ones to duck
and which to stand up to”. But it’s not just Archer’s effect on his
opponents, said Paul Newman in the Daily Mail. He inspires his
teammates, too. In their second innings, the England batsmen
produced “their best batting of this series”: Ben Stokes hit an
unbeaten century. The dynamic of this Ashes feels different now.
“Jofra Archer has transformed the biggest series of them all.”The Ashes: Archer takes aim at SmithWales’s 13-6 victory over England may only have
beenaWorld Cup warm-up, said Paul Rees in
The Observer. But it certainly “did not lack heat”.
Aweek after losing to their arch-rivals, the “quick-
witted” Welsh got their revenge in Cardiff: once
again, they showed “how difficult they are to
overcome when they are geared up forascrap”.
They limited England to just six points–the
visitors’ lowest score in six years. It was Wales’s
15th victory in 16 matches; with less thanamonth
to go before the World Cup starts in Japan, they are
now back on top of the world rankings.Despite their ranking, the Welsh aren’t favourites to
win the tournament, said Robert Kitson in the same
paper. Almost everyone is tipping the All Blacks to lift the trophy
for the third time inarow. But Warren Gatland’s side should, at
the very least, be considered “serious contenders”. They nowhave the “depth to bother all comers”, as well
as talented youngsters: Aaron Wainwright, their
21-year-old flanker, could be one of the World
Cup’s “breakout stars”. Tactically, Wales were
“sharp asatack” against England, said Ian
McGeechan in The Sunday Telegraph. When they
had the ball, their fly-half, Dan Biggar, “varied his
game superbly”; when they didn’t they were even
better, and “notably quicker to get back their
defensive alignment than England” were. The whole
performance wasadefensive masterclass. England,
by contrast, didn’t look anything like World Cup
contenders, said Owen Slot in The Times. All they
had to offer was their power game–and still they
failed to “blow Wales away”. But they needn’t
worry too much, because they wouldn’t dare to go intoakey
World Cup tie playing this way. It’s clear just how much better
they can be–and that, in its way, isa“peculiar encouragement”.Rugby union: are Wales World Cup contenders?Archer:a“startling” Test debutWainwright: breakout star?Disqualified for sportsmanship Sporting headlinesCamaraderie isaquality so
often lacking in individual
sports, said Will Humphries in
The Times. So it was hard not
to be cheered by the finale of
the World Triathlon Olympic
Qualification Event in Tokyo.
Having already swum 1.5km
and cycled 40km, two British
triathletes, Jess Learmonth and
Georgia Taylor-Brown, ended
their run hand in hand, in joint
first place. But officials were “less impressed”:
both women were disqualified, for breaking a
rule prohibitinga“contrived tie”. They were
denied their prize money–$18,000 and $12,000
–and prevented from qualifying outright for
Britain’s triathlon team at next year’s Olympics.
“It should have beenamoment of pure
triumph,” said Sean Ingle in The Guardian.Learmonth and Taylor-Brown
decided to cross the line
together because they had
“matched each other stroke
for stroke, pedal for pedal and
stride for stride”. And the
achievement was all the more
impressive because they had
to battle through extreme heat,
with temperatures rising well
above 30°C. That makes the
decision all the more
disgraceful, said Kelaine Conochan on ESPN.
The “contrived tie” rule was introduced to
prevent one athlete helping another unfairly.
But that’s not what happened here: Learmonth
and Taylor-Brown both crossed the line on
their own efforts. They were the best two
performers, yet neither of them won. “That’s
not how sports are supposed to work.”Taylor-Brown and Learmonth