[theo_luddite]

England v India has started again at Lords, with England managing to bat a whole day to grind out 251-4. √66 was 99 not out at close of play.
We now know The Ladies Finalists at Wombledon after Anisimova beat Sabalenka (1st seed) and Swiatec (8th seed) beat Bencic in the semi's. That leaves just me and Snoots in with a shout there as Sabalenka's defeat took out themaclad, SCO, jjamez & SHEP.
Collectively 3 of the 4 Mens semi-finalists have been predicted with Fritz (AmChaff) v Alcaraz (SCO, jjamez, ritchie) and Sinner (Snoots, themaclad) v Djokovic (nobody) looking to grab a place in Sunday's final today.
Group 1 of The Euro's has now completed with Finland just 4 or 5 minutes from tipping Switzerland out, only to concede 3 minutes into added time and it all ending in a tearful trip home. Norway won the group at a canter, collecting a full house.
Group B concludes tonight with Italy v Spain for top place in that Group. A draw would put both through. Portugal (GD -5) need to batter Belgium and hope Italy (GD +1) lose by enough goals to turn a 6 goal deficite around.
Group C play Saturday with Sweden and German already through. They play each other for top spot.
Group D on Sunday has the home interest. France have 6 points and you'd expect them to beat Netherlands on 3 points. England are also on 3 points and you'd expect them to beat Wales. However, all the teams can still qualify from this Group in theory, but Wales (GD -6) need to batter England (GD +3) and hope France also put a few passed Netherlands (GD -1) for their particular little micracle to work.
Le Tour is well underway with Stage 7 coming up today. Le Maillot Jaune has passed (mostly) between Pogaçar and Van der Poel this week with the Dutchman currently 1 second in front of his rival after taking amost 90 seconds out of his rival's lead yesterday. themaclads thread - https://www.sportsbabble.co.uk/showthrea...#pid284891

The F1 boys hop over The Channel to Belgium in a couple of weeks time but ....
Christian Horner's been sat in a corner,
They've taken his job away.
Handed his P45,
Hoping Red Bull with thrive,
and also that Crash will now stay.

(I already gave up my day job)

The Lions continue to be unbeaten, but were given their stiffest test to date when The Brumbies pushed them to 24-36 in Canberra in midweek. The final warm up game is against an Aussie/New Zealand Invitational side tomorrow in Melbourne before they head back up to Brisbane for the 1st Test next weekend.