Heartbreak for Team GB as Canada take men’s curling gold on last stone
The cruel truth is that sometimes the silvers you win are more like golds you lost.After four years of thinking about this Olympics, and 11 days of competing in this Olympics, there is no doubt about how Bruce Mouat and his three teammates will weigh their achievement here after they were beaten by Canada 9-6 in the final.It was an excruciatingly tense game, which twisted and turned on its way to the very final stone of the 10th end.And when it was over, two of the British players were left in tears.Great Britain’s fourth medal of these Olympics was more bitter than sweet.
“I’m heartbroken,” said Grant Hardie.“We lost that final four years ago.It took us a long time to get over it and find the motivation to go again and we found it and we were so hungry to go and deliver this time, and unfortunately it just didn’t quite happen.” His cousin Hammy McMillan felt the same way.“It took me four years to get over the first silver,” he said, “so it will probably take a lot longer this time.
”They were the better team for much of the match, but then they were the better team for much of the last four years, too.In that time they won two world championships, two European championships, and four grand slam events.Even the Canadians, led by Brad Jacobs, describe them as “the best team in the world”.Jacobs would.He and Mouat have played each other in 14 games now, and this was only the second time that Jacobs has ever won.
Mouat, who many reckon the best shotmaker in the game, has now played in four Olympic medal matches across the mixed doubles and men’s events at two Games, and lost every one of them,“I’m trying to remind myself that I would have been extremely proud of this when I was five, six, seven years old, when all I wanted was to be an Olympian,” Mouat said,“That’s what I’m going to try and just keep on telling myself,”Mouat will carry on to the next Olympics in France,“100%” he said.
“I love the sport, I love my teammates.And I’m not done yet.” But he isn’t sure whether his three friends – Bobby Lammie the third – will be with him.“I would love to play with the guys again.We’ve not actually had that conversation as four individuals, so we would need to go and have that discussion.
I know personally that I want to continue and we’ll go from there.”Hardie spoke about wanting to retire after the last Olympic final, when they were beaten by Sweden.“The pain from four years ago was that much, we thought: ‘Let’s go and give it another go,’” Hardie said.“We wanted to win it for each other.We gave ourselves a chance, too, there was so much good work to redeem ourselves.
”The British had the better start and were leading after the second end.But Jacobs is a gnarly competitor and he and his team worked their way into a 4-3 lead at halfway.By then, the crowd in the Cortina Ice Arena had fallen breathless, even the bands of mad keen Scottish curling fans who had flown over especially were too nervous to talk, except in the odd moments when their excitement at the shot just played compelled them to break out one or another of the chants they had written for the team, or else McMillan’s cousin struck up Loch Lomond on his bagpipes from his seat in the stadium eyrie.They sang loud after the sixth end, when Mouat put Great Britain back in front with a superb double take-out.But the decisive moment came in the ninth end.
Canada had the hammer and Mouat’s team seemed to get stuck in two minds about how to play it,“We were in the exact same spot in the semi-final and we said: ‘Look guys, same again,’” said Hardie,They tried to force a blank end, which would have put them one shot up with the hammer in the 10th,“We didn’t want to play it too aggressively,And unfortunately we missed four or five shots in a row, and after eight brilliant ends that flipped control of the game.
”The Canadians managed to pick up three and all of a sudden they were sitting on an 8-6 lead.In such a tight game, it was too much for Mouat to claw back, even with the hammer in the 10th end.You can only you hope that one day they will look back on all they have achieved together and think very differently about it to the way they do now.
Stephen Colbert on Andrew’s arrest: ‘Let’s hear it for British justice’
Stephen Colbert discussed the arrest of the former prince Andrew and Donald Trump’s confusing new Board of Peace.The Late Show host told the audience of Epstein pal Mountbatten-Windsor’s arrest to a sea of cheers. “Yes, finally, someone, anyone!” he said.He added: “Let’s hear it for British justice, which is better than American justice because it comes with frilly wigs.”Colbert also shared the now viral image captured by a photographer of Mountbatten-Windsor lying back in a car leaving the police station
From patriotic parody to threat: Flanders and Swann, the Likely Lads and Reform | Letter
Stuart Heritage rightly observes the satire that is inherent in For He is an Englishman, the “patriotic” song from HMS Pinafore, cropping up in popular culture (‘The rallying cry of the rich and horrible’, 17 February).For a more xenophobic but equally tongue-in-cheek exploration of the same vein of nationalism, screenwriters need look no further than A Song of Patriotic Prejudice, by Flanders and Swann. In this paean to the English, every other nation of the UK is rubbished through caricature, and the rest of Europe dismissed in a few lines (“The Germans are German, the Russians are red, and the Greeks and Italians eat garlic in bed!”).This line of reasoning is explored in Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? too, where Terry, to the derision of his friend Bob, runs through the shortcomings of every other nation. “To tell you the truth, I don’t like anybody much outside this town,” Terry adds
Salman Rushdie among 170 figures to sign open letter over Barbican arts lead departure
Salman Rushdie, John Akomfrah and Pankaj Mishra are among more than 170 cultural figures who have signed an open letter to the Barbican expressing concern over the departure of its arts director, Devyani Saltzman.Saltzman, who became director of arts and participation at the Barbican in February 2024, is leaving the institution amid a significant leadership change a few weeks after its new CEO joined.Saltzman was recently named as one of the 40 most influential women working in the arts in the UK, and was described as the driving force behind the organisation. Her departure comes months after she unveiled a five-year creative vision for the Barbican.“We are writing as a group of global majority creative and cultural leaders and allies to express our profound disappointment and alarm at the decision to curtail Devyani Saltzman’s tenure,” the letter said
Colbert on RFK Jr’s Maha workout video: ‘Senior softcore that feels like dropping acid’
Stephen Colbert was feeling under the weather on Wednesday night but didn’t pull his punches, despite being “on enough steroids to be named the secretary of health and human services”.The host focused on Robert F Kennedy Jr and Maha in his monologue, particularly a surreal workout video that the health secretary released with Kid Rock this week, which Colbert described as “senior softcore”.After playing a clip of the “Rock Out Work Out” video, which featured shark attacks, taxidermized bears and lots of American flags, the host commented: “Why does this make you feel like you dropped acid at a Cracker Barrel?”The Maha clip features RFK Jr and Kid Rock working out together in some unexpected gym apparel. “Working out in tight jeans is not what a sauna is for,” said Colbert. “Saunas are for accidentally seeing your dad’s friend’s penis and never getting it out of your head for the rest of your life
Colbert on Trump’s Epstein ties: ‘Apparently he does not know the meaning of exonerated’
Stephen Colbert spoke about Donald Trump’s bizarre reaction to more Jeffrey Epstein questions and how Americans are struggling to feel optimism.On the Late Show, the host brought up a new Gallup poll, which shows that Americans are less hopeful than ever, with optimism at a new low.The number has reached into the 50s after previously landing at 69%. “Back then the future looked … nice,” he said.Trump has also seen his approval rating fall to a new second-term low of 36%
‘He invented a style’: war chronicler Robert Capa refashioned himself and revolutionised photography
It is not often that you get to see a war photographer at work. Certainly not one who more or less defines our idea of the profession as it exists today, is widely considered to be its greatest practitioner and has been dead for more than 70 years.But as part of its new retrospective, the Museum of the Liberation of Paris has produced a short but remarkable candid film of Robert Capa on the job. He is largely unaware he is being filmed and the cameramen mostly do not know they are filming him.The researchers started with the 30 contact sheets – 24 rolls of film, about 500 photographs – the Hungarian-born photographer took on 25 and 26 August 1944, when the French capital was freed from four gruelling years of German occupation
UK migrant families face giving up vital in-work benefits to avoid being ‘punished’
‘Very dangerous’: a Mind mental health expert on Google’s AI Overviews
Local reporter ‘shocked’ over picture of his face on punchbag at UK town hall
Tech firms must remove ‘revenge porn’ in 48 hours or risk being blocked, says Starmer
NHS to spend more to settle lawsuits over negligence during childbirth after court ruling
Health support needed to tackle joblessness | Letter