‘Acceptance of mediocrity’: Middlesex gaze south enviously with golden years long gone

With their last title a decade ago, young players moving on and coach churn, Middlesex are no longer even the most famous team that call Lord’s homeMiddlesex is unlike every other English county in at least one very important way. It doesn’t actually exist. It was abolished by the London Government Act of 1963, persisted, in dotage, as a postal subdivision, until Royal Mail put it to sleep in 1996. Today, you’ll find it on the tiles of Swiss Cottage Tube station – which are embossed with its badge of three seaxes – the pediment of the Sessions House in Clerkenwell, the mailing addresses of people who just won’t let go, the minutes of Spelthorne council, the titles of three hospitals, a university, assorted sports teams and tournaments, and the cricket club.Those who don’t know any better will tell you English cricket is a country pursuit

Football drama awaits, F1 returns and it’s the World Snooker final – follow with us

Highs and lows aplenty on a Saturday when the season hits its tight spot. Four Premier League games to shape the title and relegation tussles, but surely the most compelling action arrives at lunchtime in the Championship with a clutch of collisions that will shape the promotion and playoff picture. Expect fireworks at Ipswich v QPR, Millwall v Oxford and Wrexham v Middlesbrough – and we will be reporting from all three games. David Tindall hosts our rolling football blog, offering breaking news and updates from around the grounds, plus readers’ thoughts and queries. Why not join the conversation? Email matchday

Zac Lomax misfires on union return despite hype over Suaalii duel

The last sanctioned duel in Sydney came in 1851 between Sir Thomas Mitchell, explorer and surveyor-general, and Sir Stuart Donaldson, future first premier of NSW. Honour was worth dying for in those days and a Donaldson gripe about Mitchell’s surveying plans was all it took for Mitchell to demand the restoration of his good name by the taking up of pistols.The two men met at dawn of 27 September on the Guriwal Trail in the Lachlan Swamps now gentrified as Centennial Park. Their “seconds” carefully selected pistols of equal potency. As the morning mist lifted, the duellists took 20 paces, then swivelled and pulled their triggers three times

Naoya Inoue is the greatest show in sports today. Now comes the fight of his life

The Japanese wrecking ball known as the Monster takes center stage at the Tokyo Dome on Saturday, facing unbeaten rival Junto Nakatani in a matchup for the agesNaoya Inoue made it to the pinnacle of his sport with a destructive upward surge through boxing’s weight classes not seen since Manny Pacquiao’s prime. And he has made it clear he plans to stay there in the final run-up to his toughest test yet against unbeaten rival Junto Nakatani in their sold-out dream fight at the Tokyo Dome on Saturday.Speaking at a press conference at the Tokyo Dome hotel on Thursday, the undisputed super-bantamweight champion struck a composed tone ahead of one of the most anticipated bouts of a sparkling career that flew past the Hall of Fame threshold years ago.“There’s only one thing: I’m determined to win in two days,” Inoue said.Athletes like Inoue do not come along often

Alfie Barbeary: ‘I try not to think about England … it gets in my head and I don’t play well’

The shortlist for this year’s Champions Cup player of the year award is an eyecatching one. There are five contenders and four of them – Louis Bielle-Biarrey, Finn Russell, Matthieu Jalibert and Caelan Doris – are established world-class operators. So who is the fifth Beatle? An uncapped Englishman who eats only toast on matchdays and is arguably most famous for parading around in his budgie smugglers.Step forward Alfie Barbeary, the shaggy-haired Bath colossus looking to smash a few holes in Bordeaux Bègles’ title defence at the Stade Atlantique on Sunday. The 25-year-old Barbeary might not yet be a connoisseur of the region’s celebrated wines – “I know there’s red and white but that’s about it” – but he makes up for that in other respects

Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu: ‘We shouldn’t be fourth. We’re the smallest F1 team’

There is no one quite like Ayao Komatsu in Formula One. Haas’s Japanese team principal, a rugby-playing Coventry City fan who left his home country to escape the constraints of conformity, is F1’s rebel without a pause.As Haas enter their first home race of the season in Miami this weekend, they are on a roll. Fourth place in the championship is the highest position held by a US team after three races in the sport’s history and Komatsu has engineered it in a sport he once viewed as his great escape.“Fortunately or unfortunately, I was very rebellious,” explains the 50-year-old, who grew up in Tokyo