Sport Update for July

What to make of the World Cup? I think most fans agree that it’s too expensive, there’s too many matches and it’s too hot! Even so it’s already producing some great underdog stories and we’ll probably get a few more before the tournament is over, but when the business end of the show starts with the last sixteen on the 4th of the month, it looks inevitable that the big guns will take over. At time of writing it looks most or all of the fancied teams will be there and we can look forward to some crackerjack matches leading up to the final on Sunday the 19th.

We had our third golf major of the season last month where Scottie Scheffler was hoping to follow Rory McIlroy into the record books as the latest player to complete the grand slam. He was thereabouts but never really looked like chasing the winner, Wyndham Clark down and he’s just beginning to lose that air of invincibility that he’s had for the previous three seasons, where he won about 4 out of every 10 tournaments he teed it up in. He’ll still be amongst the favourites for the Open Championship, which starts at Royal Birkdale on the 16th, but Rory, alongside Tommy Fleetwood and a few others who love playing links golf, will have something to say about the destination of the Claret Jug this year.

For Fleetwood, who was born in Southport and learned his trade playing this course, this will be a homecoming of sorts and he will be desperate to put up a good show in front of the local fans. He certainly has the tools to get the job done.

In Formula 1, the iconic British Grand Prix is first up at Silverstone on the 5th of the month and this followed by Belgium on the 19th and Hungary on the 26th. Lewis Hamilton won his first race for Ferrari in Barcelona last month following two runner-up spots in Canada and Monaco and he and his co-driver, Charles Leclerc are putting real pressure on Mercedes, who looked to be running away with the season having won the first six races

in the calendar. It would undoubtedly be the crowning achievement of Hamilton’s career would he to lift the drivers title and help the legendary Italian team to their first constructor’s championship since 2008.

We’ve got some other outstanding sporting events this month, including the conclusion of the Wimbledon tennis championships where the Women and mens singles are played on the weekend of the 11th and the Tour de France, which never ceases to amaze me with the sheer guts and stamina that the riders show and which could well be even more difficult if the current heatwave in Europe continues, starts on the 4th and goes on for three weeks.

That’s about for July and it looks like we’ve got some fantastic sporting spectaculars to look forward to.