Charlie Watts loved cricket, says Jim White in the Telegraph. More a “roller” than a “rocker”, the Rolling Stones drummer was entranced by the game’s pace and flow, the rhythmic knock of ball on bat. He “preferred to spend his down time with a copy of Wisden rather than a bottle of Jack Daniel’s”. On tour, instead of joining bandmates Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood in their latest bold attempt to drink a new town dry, Watts would slip off to the nearest cricket ground.
Australian broadcaster James Brayshaw remembers turning around in the commentary box at the Melbourne Cricket Ground during a Test and seeing “this old bloke, dressed impeccably, no one there with him, no entourage or anything”. Watts, who had been invited to the match by Shane Warne, spent the rest of the day quietly watching the action from the back of the box. As a Stones fan, Brayshaw constantly tried to steer any chat towards the band, hoping for stories of wild nights on the road. “Watts, though, just wanted to talk cricket.”
Sarah Storey’s latest golden chapter
When Dame Sarah Storey won her first Paralympic event, 29 years ago, “Kellogg’s and the Milk Marketing Board still sponsored cycling tours of Britain”, says William Fotheringham in the Guardian. A record-breaking 17 gold medals later, the 43-year-old is still at the top of her game – born without a functioning left hand after her arm became entangled in the umbilical cord in the womb, she has just become Britain’s most decorated Paralympian.
In her first four Games she competed as a swimmer, bagging two golds at Barcelona in 1992, when she was 14. She turned to cycling in 2005 after an ear infection made swimming impossible. Despite her late start and the use of only one hand, she was in contention to represent Team GB at the London Olympics in 2012; after missing the cut, she won four golds at the Paralympics that year.