Editor’s Note

This cold snap of weather has been perfect for evenings on the couch in front of an exciting game of the Euro 2024 football tournament. The skills have been on the next level — though, sadly, my team went out last week.

It was fabulous to watch 16-year-old Lamine

Yamal became the youngest player yet to score at the European Championship when he netted a stunning goal for Spain just three days before his 17th birthday.

The drop in temperature has also been fine for drinking a cup of tea while watching the stages of the Tour de France along the way to Nice. Nice is an unusual ending for the epic event, necessitated by the preparations for the Olympic Games in Paris in a few weeks’ time.

My favourite cycle race to follow is even better this year, thanks to the fabulous Eritrean Biniam Girmay’s sprint wins on stages 5 and 8. He became the first black African to win a Tour de France stage, and by winning again this week, is on target to become the next sprint king (I was sad not to see the race’s biggest personality, sprinter Peter Sagan, in the Tour this year. He retired from road racing at the end of 2023).

Wimbledon, though lacking the characters that made headlines for all the wrong reasons, has also been a great way to while away an evening waiting for warmer weather. It’s been interesting to debate who’ll be the next major champions after the Big Four — Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and their most consistent and persistent rival Andy Murray — step aside to make way for a younger bunch.

We’ve also had conversations about whether women and men tennis players deserve the same pay, which is good for adding a little heat under the collar on these chilly evenings.

If winter’s sport offerings don’t do it for you, our music edition will. It’s great company while you’re snuggling under the covers.