Latest news with #MaidaVale
Daily Mail
11-07-2025
- Sport
- Daily Mail
Jofra Archer's England return is pure box-office as four years of frustration melt away in a beautiful moment of catharsis, writes OLIVER HOLT
Father Time, stooped over a wicket on his vantage point above the Mound Stand, is facing towards Maida Vale. The clock beneath him reads 2.45pm when Jofra Archer wanders over from mid-off, removes his cap and hands it to umpire Sharfuddoula. A cheer of anticipation rings around Lord's. An elderly man in the lower level of the Grandstand, who has been berating Chris Woakes during the first over of India 's innings, which costs 13 runs, stills and locks his hands behind his head as Archer walks back towards his mark at the Pavilion End. It has been more than four years since Archer last bowled a ball in Test cricket, against India in Ahmedabad in February 2021, four years that have been damned by serious elbow and back injuries and agonies of uncertainty and the torture of wondering what might have been. He was 25 when we last saw him in the longer format of the game, about to enter his prime, fresh from delivering the Super Over that won England the World Cup here in July 2019, a player who seemed destined to be the spearhead of the attack for as long as he wished. How different would he be now to that player? Framed by that august pavilion and its denizens, sweltering in the heat, Archer begins his run-up and gathers speed before unleashing his first ball at Yashasvi Jaiswal. It squares up India's accomplished young opener but he gets his bat on it and pushes it into the off side. England have grown used to bleeding runs in this series. They have had to accept the impotence of their bowling attack and chasing huge totals. Already, there is a different energy about this over. The ground starts to come alive. Archer, 30, glides in for his second ball. Jaiswal plays at it outside the line of off stump but the pace and the movement beat him and the ball whistles through to Jamie Smith, who catches it somewhere just below his midriff. Now the crowd is agog. The big screen between the Tavern Stand and the Pavilion shows Ben Stokes smiling. This is what England have been missing. We can already feel it. This sense of danger that Archer brings. This pace. This sense that we are watching a duel between a batter and a bowler. As he runs up for his third delivery, the crowd claps and cheers and hollers as he quickens his stride. Archer arrows the ball at Jaiswal's stumps and it beats him for speed. The ball finds his leading edge and flies towards Harry Brook at second slip. Lord's holds its breath for a split second. Brook takes the catch. The crowd erupts with joy. And Archer wheels away, his face full of elation. It is a moment of sheer release. A moment when four years of frustration and pain and worry fall away in one beautiful rush of catharsis. Archer runs into the outstretched arms of Shoaib Bashir at backward square leg. And soon he is mobbed by the rest of his team-mates, who are celebrating and rejoicing and laughing at the glorious theatre of it all. His third ball after four years and now this. Only sport can do this. Archer wheels away, his face full of elation - it is a moment of sheer release for the bowler Eventually, Archer returns to his mark. Spectators who have taken a break from the heat after the end of England's innings are thronging the walkways behind the Grandstand to try to get back to their seats to witness this. Usually, it is batters who are supposed to clear out bars but Archer's return is pure box-office. A gasp goes around the ground. It shows that Archer's wicket ball was measured at just shy of 90mph. Archer runs in for his fourth ball. More clapping, and even louder cheering. The new batter is Karun Nair, who is not in the best of form. He plays at the ball outside his off stump and misses it. There is a fever inside this grand old arena now. Everyone is gripped. It is taking us back six years to when Archer made his Test debut here and engaged Steve Smith in what turned into a battle for survival for the former Australia skipper. This over is a spectacle, too. It contains that element that England's attack has often been missing since Archer's injury woes began: fear. Fear and intimidation, those great friends of fast bowlers everywhere. Mark Wood can call on them, too. He has also been unlucky with injuries. The big screen flashes up in big figures that Archer's fourth ball was measured at 93mph. There is another gasp of delight and awe. The ground is in tumult. Archer runs in. The applause is even more raucous. Nair tries to fend the ball away to the off side but it squirts away towards midwicket. One more ball of the over to go. The heat is unsparing but Archer is relishing every moment. Even when he was clean bowled by Jasprit Bumrah towards the end of England's innings, he raised his eyes to the sky and smiled at the craft of his opponent. He is back in the arena, back in the thick of it, back on the biggest stage, back in the hearts of the England fans who have been longing for his return. Nair gets behind his sixth ball and prods it nervously into the leg side. The over is done. It is a wicket maiden. Archer turns and takes his cap from umpire Sharfuddoula. Up on his plinth, Father Time has turned to face St John's Wood, but he is still removing the bails from his wicket.
Telegraph
11-06-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Tory MP chases down would-be thief
A Tory MP has been praised for getting 'stuck in' after he chased a suspected thief down a London high street and secured his arrest. Gareth Davies, a Conservative shadow minister, witnessed a man taking an item from a vehicle in north-west London on Saturday morning. He followed the man for 15 minutes through the streets of Maida Vale, an affluent area of the capital, in the hope he could be arrested. The suspect did not know he was being watched during the low-speed pursuit, but Mr Davies had called the police to report what he'd seen and tell officers where the man was located. The man tried to board a bus but was apprehended by officers at the bus stop. A Metropolitan Police spokesman told The Telegraph that a 'member of the public' had called the police to report a man had stolen an item from the back of the car. 'Officers quickly attended and a 48-year-old man was arrested near the scene,' the spokesman said. 'He was taken into custody and has since been bailed while further inquiries are carried out.' The victim's belonging was later returned. It comes after a series of vigilante law enforcement stunts in London, including from Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary. Mr Jenrick filmed a video chasing fare dodgers through a Tube station, asking them why they had not paid for tickets. One would-be fare evader told the Tory MP to 'f--- off', while another claimed he had a knife. Mr Jenrick accused Sir Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, of ' driving a proud city into the ground ', adding: 'Lawbreaking is out of control. He's not acting. So, I did.' Reacting to Mr Davies' pursuit of the suspect, he told The Telegraph: 'Good for Gareth. Sometimes you have to get stuck in and sort things out.' Other campaigners have taken to the Tube to clean off graffiti, after reports that Bakerloo line trains in London had been defaced and not cleaned by Transport for London (TfL) staff. TfL said last month that the uptick in graffiti was caused by the breakdown of an automatic train washer. 'We were only able to clean trains by hand, which takes a significantly longer amount of time,' a spokesman told the BBC.
The Independent
15-05-2025
- Business
- The Independent
National Grid boss: Heathrow and TfL outages not ‘systemic' network issues
The boss of National Grid has said recent outages at Heathrow airport and the London Tube are not evidence of reliability issues in the UK's power network. John Pettigrew told the PA news agency the two incidents were 'isolated and unconnected' and added that the resilience of the power grid is 'very robust'. Heathrow was forced to close for most of the day on March 21 because of a fire at a nearby electrical substation which started the previous night, disrupting more than 270,000 air passenger journeys. And on Monday, Transport for London (TfL) was forced to close the Elizabeth, Bakerloo, Jubilee and Northern lines after a fault on National Grid's transmission network. The malfunction also caused a blaze at an electrical substation in Maida Vale. Mr Pettigrew said on Thursday: 'In terms of broader resilience for network, I'd say that these incidents are not pointing to anything systemic.' Power networks are being more closely scrutinised across Europe after a massive outage hit vast swathes of Spain last month. The country's energy minister Sara Aagesen said earlier this week that the blackout was triggered by a sudden loss of power at a substation in Granada. However, investigations are ongoing into what caused the failure, and why it triggered such a huge power cut. Mr Pettigrew said: 'It will be important to look at the outcome of that investigation and see what it means for us.' National Grid, a company listed on the London Stock Exchange, owns vast swathes of the power grid across Britain. It is partway through a £60 billion investment programme across the energy networks it manages, including the so-called Great Grid Upgrade in England, Scotland and Wales. The works are a large part of the Government's plans to decarbonise the power grid by 2030, which also involves building vast amounts of new wind and solar farms. Mr Pettigrew said the switch to renewable energy sources and the fast changes to how the energy grid works would not raise the risks of blackouts in the UK. He said: 'The UK, we have world class reliability. We invest massively in the asset health and resilience of the network. 'If you look at some of the core indicators of the overall condition of the network (such as unplanned unavailability of assets) that actually continued to improve over the last decade.' He added: 'There's no evidence of any deterioration in the reliability of the network. We just have to keep focused on it.' Mr Pettigrew is to step down later this year after nearly a decade in the job, to be replaced by Shell executive Zoe Yujnovich.
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Most Underground lines normal after power failure
Normal service has resumed on most lines on the London Underground network after a power failure caused major disruption on Monday afternoon. The Elizabeth, Jubilee, District, Northern, Waterloo & City, Circle and Piccadilly lines are now operating a good service, according to Transport for London (TfL). However, Metropolitan line passengers face severe delays due to the "late finish" of engineering works at Baker Street and the Mildmay line on the London Overground is partly suspended due to a points failure. TfL said disruption on several lines on Monday was caused by a short power outage in south-west London at about 14:30 BST, which caused caused knock-on problems across the network. The malfunction also caused a fire at an electrical substation in the Cunningham Place and Aberdeen Place area of Maida Vale, a London Fire Brigade spokesperson said. Firefighters were called to the substation and brought the flames under control, but three metres of high voltage cabling were destroyed, the fire service said. The National Grid has apologised for the disruption caused by the power failure. A spokesperson said: "The fault was resolved within seconds and did not interrupt supply from our network, but a consequent voltage dip may have briefly affected power supplies on the low voltage distribution network in the area. "We once again apologise for any inconvenience and ongoing travel disruption." Listen to the best of BBC Radio London on Sounds and follow BBC London on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to Power failure knocks out London Underground lines Transport for London
BBC News
13-05-2025
- General
- BBC News
Underground service mostly normal after power failure
Normal service has resumed on most lines on the London Underground network after a power failure caused major disruption on Monday Elizabeth, Jubilee, District, Northern, Waterloo & City, Circle and Piccadilly lines are now operating a good service, according to Transport for London (TfL).However, Metropolitan line passengers face severe delays due to the "late finish" of engineering works at Baker Street and the Mildmay line on the London Overground is partly suspended due to a points said disruption on several lines on Monday was caused by a short power outage in south-west London at about 14:30 BST, which caused caused knock-on problems across the network. The malfunction also caused a fire at an electrical substation in the Cunningham Place and Aberdeen Place area of Maida Vale, a London Fire Brigade spokesperson were called to the substation and brought the flames under control, but three metres of high voltage cabling were destroyed, the fire service National Grid has apologised for the disruption caused by the power failure.A spokesperson said: "The fault was resolved within seconds and did not interrupt supply from our network, but a consequent voltage dip may have briefly affected power supplies on the low voltage distribution network in the area."We once again apologise for any inconvenience and ongoing travel disruption."
