There has been a lot of excellent sport today. This post is my take on the best of the day.

CRICKET

Hampshire held out for half an hour, adding 12 runs along the way, before James Fuller nicked a ball from Rahul Chahar through to Ben Foakes to be out for 33. Hampshire thus lost by 20 runs, with the Indian leggie, who had never previously taken a five-for in first class cricket, finishing with 8-51. Poor batting accounted for most of the dismissals. It seemed at this stage that Hampshire were going to be relegated, since Yorkshire v Durham was headed for a draw. Then Durham started losing wickets at an alarming rate, and their apparent policy of batting time and not bothering much about runs came back to bite them. Durham actually managed to bat for 44.5 overs in that second innings of theirs. The problem was they only managed 85 runs, which when they were facing a deficit of 129 (346 plays 475 on first innings) was not nearly enough to save them. They lost by an innings and 44 runs, which meant that they ended the season with 144 points, one fewer than Hampshire. It was the second time in a decade that Hampshire had seemed down only for Durham to go down instead of them – in 2016 Hampshire actually ended the season in a relegation position, but financial misdeeds by Durham led to the northern county being relegated and hit with a heavy points deduction for the 2017 season. Although there was first class cricket being played deep into the afternoon, with Middlesex v Gloucestershire seeing the last action of the 2025 English season my focus was elsewhere by then.

RUGBY

At 4PM the final of the women’s rugby world cup got underway at a packed Twickenham. England, on home territory, faced off against Canada, who had beaten New Zealand to claim their place in the final. Canada struck the first blow, with Asia Hogan-Rochester scoring a try on five minutes. The conversion was missed. Three minutes later a magnificent run by Ellie Kildunne saw the outgoing World Player of the Year score under the posts, and Zoe Harrison was unerring with the conversion to put England ahead. England crossed twice more before half time, with Harrison converting both, and although Canada scored a penalty the half time score was 21-8. Amy Cokayne thought she had England’s fourth try and her second, but the score was disallowed for an infringement. England and Canada each scored once, with neither try being converted to make it 26-13. Then Alex Matthews scored her second of the game and Harrison converted, and with under ten minutes left on the clock England were 20 points clear and the match was as good as done. In the dying minutes Sadia Kabeya was named player of the match, which given the utter dominance of England’s pack, of which she was a key part, was no great surprise. The final score remained 33-13. The attendance was confirmed as 81,885, not only a record for a women’s rugby match by a huge margin, but a record for any day of women’s rugby, beating the previous mark, set at a ‘sevens’ event in Paris by over 20,000. Sophie de Goede of Canada was named as the new Player of the Year.

GOLF

This year’s Ryder Cup got underway yesterday at Bethpage Black course on Long Island, New York. Europe were the holders, and by the end of yesterday they had won both the foursomes and fourballs session and were ahead by 5.5 points to 2.5. They also won today’s foursomes, by 3 points to 1 to extend their lead to 8.5-3.5. The fourballs are currently underway, with Europe bossing the top match, marginally behind in the second and the the third and fourth matches currently level. Europe are already assured of a lead going into Sunday’s 12 singles matches, and the key number for them is 14 points out of 28, since as holders they retain the cup in the event of a tie.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…