Surrey into women's T20 final after Durham washout
Surrey are currently 12 points clear of The Blaze in second place and have dominated the group stage.And sealing their passage straight through to the final is reward for that, according to captain Bryony Smith."We'll take it," she said. "It's obviously not the way we would have wanted to do it, but I think we've almost earned the right to have it this way."It was all in our hands, and we're buzzing to only be playing one game at Finals Day. We're very excited."
Wednesday fixtures
Chelmsford: Essex v Lancashire ThunderTaunton: Somerset v The BlazePlay starts 18:00 BST
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Wawickshire residents urged to support national cycle race
Warwickshire residents are being urged to take to the streets to support a national cycling race returning to the county after a five-year four of the Lloyds Tour of Britain Men will visit the area for a third time on 5 will set off from Atherstone in north Warwickshire and wind their way south, finishing with a 700m (2,296ft) climb to the top of Burton Dassett Hills Country race begins in East Suffolk on Tuesday 2 September. A detailed route map will be published later this month. The race last came to Warwickshire in 2019, with Dutch cyclist Mathieu van der Poel crowned the local stage county council is running a competition for primary school children to design a flag that will start the local leg, and a trophy to be presented to the stage leader George Finch said the race's return was a "fantastic boost" for the county, taking in North Warwickshire, Nuneaton and Bedworth, Rugby, Warwick and Stratford-on-Avon districts."I hope the people of Warwickshire will take to the streets and the hills, as they always have, to give the Tour the support it deserves," he added. Jonathan Day, managing director of British Cycling Events, said Warwickshire had a "long and proud history" of hosting the Tour of has also welcomed the women's race five times in the last decade, and the men's and women's Commonwealth Games road races in August 2022."We are delighted to be returning, especially with such a challenging finale at Burton Dassett Hills Country Park, that will draw spectators from right across the heart of England," Mr Day opening leg of the Tour runs between Woodbridge and Southwold, followed by a second stage at Keynes and Central Bedfordshire will host the third stage on 4 announcements about the host venues of remaining stages between 5-7 will be made in the coming weeks. Follow BBC Coventry & Warwickshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
Why so many penalties are being missed at Euro 2025
An incredible nine penalties were missed in England's quarter-final shoot-out with Sweden. Some were saved, while some missed the target completely. That game was not an outlier. Missing penalties has been a theme of Euro 2025. Of the 41 spot-kicks taken at the tournament so far, only 24 have been scored, a conversion rate of only 58.5 per cent – and before Saturday night's shoot-out between France and Germany, it was as low as 48 per cent. Spain missed two against Switzerland, with Mariona Caldentey firing wide before Alèxia Putellas's effort was saved. Ada Hegerberg, meanwhile, put two penalties wide in separate fixtures for Norway. Germany's Sjoeke Nüsken also had her spot-kick saved against France in normal time on Saturday before finding the net in the shoot-out. A golden chance missed for Norway 🇳🇴 Ada Hegerberg misses her second penalty of the tournament. #WEuro2025 — Match of the Day (@BBCMOTD) July 16, 2025 The low conversion rate is intriguing given players have had considerably greater success in previous tournaments. In Euro 2022, eight of the 10 penalties taken during 90 minutes were scored, a conversion rate of 80 per cent. There were no shoot-outs at that tournament. The average was slightly lower at the 2023 World Cup. Of the 70 penalties taken during both 90 minutes and shoot-outs, 48 were scored, a conversion rate of 68.6 per cent. The 2015 World Cup has the highest conversion rate of the past eight tournaments, with 84.4 per cent of penalties scored in both matches and shoot-outs, while Euro 2025 so far has the lowest percentage. So what are some of the possible explanations for the significant drop this year? Pressure takes toll in latter stages Statistics show that conversion rates decrease after the quarter-final stage. At Euro 2017, seven of eight penalties taken during 90 minutes were scored while eight from nine during shoot-outs were converted. But once the two semi-final games and final were taken into account, the overall conversion rate for the tournament dropped to 73.1 per cent. In fact, that is the case for every tournament since 2011, which does not bode well for this Euros as it heads to the semi-final stage. It is perhaps not surprising, given that the stakes increase further into the tournament. There is also the impact of the increased attention on and exposure of women's football. Geir Jordet, a professor in football and psychology, and the author of Pressure – Lessons from the Psychology of the Penalty Shootout, tells Telegraph Sport: 'Our research on penalties with men show that with increased pressure comes reduced shot performance. 'With the explosive interest in the women's game these past four to five years, these players are now asked to perform on behalf of their countries with a level of expectation and outside investment in the outcome that they may not have experienced at this level before. 'While Premier League players on the men's side are used to this type of interest every weekend, the women players are not, and it is possible that this makes it harder and that some of these players underperform as a result.' Putellas, Caldentey and Hegerberg have all taken high-pressure penalties before. But it is interesting that all three missed against the host nation, Switzerland, who had the majority of fans in the stadium. Hegerberg also missed in Norway's quarter-final with Italy. Goalkeepers improving Poor penalties are often linked to good goalkeeping and Jordet believes the increased professionalism in the women's game has given goalkeepers an analytical edge. Sweden's Jennifer Falk had information about England's penalty-takers on her water bottle, a technique Jordan Pickford has used in numerous shoot-outs for England's men's team. Ann-Katrin Berger had similar on her bottle for Germany's shoot-out against France. Those notes said dive left for the decisive last penalty; she did and she saved, having pulled off another spectacular stop in extra-time. England goalkeeper Hannah Hampton also referenced the importance of data, joking that she did not have any on Falk when the Sweden goalkeeper surprisingly stepped up – and missed – in the shoot-out. There are undoubtedly greater resources available to female goalkeepers now than in 2011 and the standard of players in that position has increased significantly. There is also much more data and research available. 'In the England v Sweden shoot-out, the goalkeepers moved to the correct side more than 70 per cent of the time, indicating that they had successfully figured out the penalty-takers,' Jordet says. 'A correct guess will increase the chance of a save by 30 to 40 per cent. 'Under pressure, people – and penalty-takers – tend to fall back to what is known and many will then lean on the shots they are most comfortable with, making them predictable for goalkeepers.' Players should consider flexible approach While goalkeepers do their homework, a way for penalty-takers to combat this is to employ a more flexible goalkeeper-dependent technique. This is where they look at the goalkeeper moving to one side before the shot, and then roll the ball to the other side. 'Very few female penalty-takers actually use this technique,' Jordet says. 'None of the players in the England v Sweden shoot-out did so, and those goalkeepers were successful because they moved very early to a side, and hence could quite easily make their saves because the penalty-takers rigidly stuck to their pre-decided corner. 'However, Spain's Mariona Caldentey actually used the goalkeeper-dependent technique against Switzerland, looking at the goalkeeper as she moved towards the ball. 'The Swiss goalkeeper had definitely studied Caldentey because she came equipped with the antidote against this type of strategy by standing still for an extremely long time, forcing the forward to just go for a side – and the shot was not particularly strong.' Not one, but two missed penalties 😬 It didn't matter in the end, but a couple of moments to forget for Spain! — ITV Football (@itvfootball) July 18, 2025 It is interesting that the conversion rate at the men's Euro 2024 tournament was up by nearly 10 per cent from the 2022 World Cup and 17 per cent from Euro 2020. That perhaps has to do with the increased use of the goalkeeper-independent technique. 'In the men's game, the best penalty- takers are now fully flexible and unpredictable,' says Jordet. 'Specialist penalty-takers such as Harry Kane and Robert Lewandowski alternate technique, sometimes goalkeeper-independent – pre-decided corner – and sometimes goalkeeper-dependent – react to goalkeeper. I expect we will see this also in the women's game going forward.'
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Leeds star insists Daniel Farke's side must aim to be 'the fittest team in the Premier League' in order to avoid immediate Championship return
Sam Byram has stressed that Leeds United must aim to be 'the fittest team in the Premier League ' if they are to have a chance of staying in the top-flight this season. Leeds have spent most of the first fortnight of pre-season at their Thorp Arch training base, before drawing 0-0 against Man Utd in a friendly in Stockholm on Saturday. Daniel Farke 's side now travel to Germany for a week, where they will play two friendlies behind closed doors as part of a warm-weather training camp. 'The intensity (in pre-season) has been a lot harder this year, which you'd expect coming back to prepare for the Premier League,' said Byram. 'There's obviously not as many games as there is in the Championship but for us, fitness is going to be huge. If we can be the fittest team in the league, then it can only help us. So it's something that everyone's been working really hard on - there's a lot of tired legs and tired bodies but we're through the second week and looking forward to the camp,' the Leeds defender added. Tactically, Byram insists that Farke's style will be similar to the possession-based football that saw Leeds win the Championship last season, with a record-breaking 100 points. 'It (the football) will be very similar to last season,' he said. 'The style of football we want to play - possession based, that's in our DNA and that's how we want to play. It's a huge step up and it's obviously a much more competitive league so there's obviously areas that you can't play the same as in the Championship but it's something we've been working on since day one,' added Byram. And with the last six promoted teams all going straight back down to the Championship, Byram stressed that he and his teammates are already aware of the challenge that lies ahead. The 31-year-old signed a new one-year deal with his boyhood club earlier this month. 'We're not under any illusion. We know how hard it is to stay in the Premier League,' said Byram. 'This season, we've got a lot more time to prepare for each game so to have for the most part, a full week to prepare will be very beneficial. Every single point matters and we'll do everything to get as many points as we can.' Leeds begin their return to the Premier League with Everton travelling to Elland Road on Monday August 18.
