
Two dead after ‘catastrophic' 11-man crash at British Superbikes event
Two riders have died after an 11-man crash at the British Superbikes Championship in Cheshire on Monday.
The 21-year-old Briton Owen Jenner and Shane Richardson, 29, of New Zealand, were tragically killed in the incident that occurred on the first corner of the first lap at Oulton Park that was being televised by TNT Sports. The event was cancelled immediately after the crash.
Jenner, in his second season in the championship, died from a catastrophic head injury having been taken to the circuit medical centre. Richardson was transferred to Royal Stoke University Hospital with severe chest injuries but died before arrival.
Tom Tunstall, 47, is also in Royal Stoke University Hospital with significant back and abdominal injuries. A further five riders — Carl Harris, Max
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Telegraph
11 hours ago
- Telegraph
TNT Sports brands rugby rebel league ‘delusional'
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Times
12 hours ago
- Times
R360 league delusional and commercially unsustainable — TNT chief
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At stadiums, there have been 30 sold-out matches this season — compared to 18 last year and 13 the year before that — and this weekend's Gallagher Premiership final between Leicester Tigers and Bath at Twickenham has long been a sell-out. The Bath-Bristol play-off semi-final last weekend had the most viewers of any Friday night match in TNT Sports history, with hundreds of thousands of fans tuning in. Therefore, they are not prepared to engage with R360 as they believe in the strength of their product on and off the field, and think they have drawn a line under a period of instability that resulted in three top-flight clubs — Worcester Warriors, Wasps and London Irish — going bust in 2022. While some Premiership executives have welcomed the disruption R360 is causing, they will not entertain any conversations with a new competition that threatens to devalue theirs. Particularly scathing about R360's plans was Andrew Georgiou, the president and managing director of Warner Brothers Discovery — the company that owns TNT Sports. 'I've been involved in sport for 25 years. I can't tell you how many of these PowerPoint presentations I've come across my desk with people who were absolutely certain that what they had on that page was going to be the new thing,' Georgiou said. 'No one's come to us and made a presentation, no one's told us what the new format is, no one told us what the new schedule is. But the one question that I think should be asked is, how are they going to grow the revenue by putting this event on? 'Where's the money coming from? The media industry is going through a massive generational change. So if these folks believe that they are going to grow the revenue by putting this thing on, I think they're delusional. 'What it will do is further complicate what is already a well-functioning rugby ecosystem. The fact that it's being likened to LIV Golf, I think is a perfect analogy. It's a perfect comparator to what this is really going to be. Commercially unsustainable. Lions preview show This Thursday, Owen Slot, chief sports writer at The Times, will host an unmissable discussion about rugby's most iconic touring team. Joining him will be former Lions legends Lawrence Dallaglio and Sam Warburton, alongside Times journalists Stephen Jones and Mark Palmer. 'I think you've got to park what players have to do versus actually, what's the long-term sustainable model that this thing's going to create and does it actually grow the ecosystem or not? And I'm thoroughly unconvinced.' Asked if TNT would therefore not consider broadcasting R360 if it came to life, Georgiou said: 'You bet.' R360, run by a group including the England World Cup winner Mike Tindall and former Bath director of rugby Stuart Hooper, plans to launch in 2026. It takes inspiration from F1 and cricket's Indian Premier League, and wants to establish a grand prix-style travelling league that would feature eight men's franchises and a four-team professional women's competition. They have signed players to contracts already, including a number of those selected by Andy Farrell for the British & Irish Lions squad, which will be activated if the R360 franchise owners can meet broadcasting rights and team ownership targets. They intend to pay the world's top 40 players more than £1million. The organisers have received bids for their teams from Premier League, Formula 1 and NFL team owners and are looking to tap into the expertise of franchise owners and investors from some of the biggest sports competitions in the world in order to transform rugby. Simon Massie-Taylor, the chief executive of Premiership Rugby, believes that the work his organisation has done to right itself — from establishing financial monitoring groups and more stringent salary cap regulations, to signing a better Professional Game Partnership with the RFU and improved marketing, branding and promotion of the league — means the league can see off this attack from R360. 'The R360 thing is a distraction, sure, but it's not grounded in the same amount of work and detail that we've been doing,' he said. 'Rugby needs roots, it doesn't need pop-ups. Without those roots, it's very difficult to understand how their system could ever work. 'That one person who's going to turn up on a go out on the field, there's a whole system, a whole team, a whole grassroots network that needs to develop that person beyond just rocking up. 'I'd be worried if players are counting on that [contracts they have signed] because they may miss out on genuine opportunities that exist within their club. Things need sanctioning for a start and things need money coming through the door before these people can actually get paid.'


Wales Online
13 hours ago
- Wales Online
BBC snub Emma Raducanu at Queen's as presenter explains the situation
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