England beat France in the Women’s Rugby World Cup to reach the final next Saturday, where they will face Canada 🏉

France 🇫🇷 v 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 England in the second Women’s Rugby World Cup semi-final 🏉

Canada knock out six-time champions New Zealand to reach the Women’s Rugby World Cup Final. The best match of the tournament so far, outstanding performance 👏 🏉

25 minutes gone and Canada seem to be dominating New Zealand in the Women’s Rugby World Cup semi-final. Very impressive 🏉

… but 26 minutes and New Zealand score!

Released today, LSD is the sixth and final studio album by Cardiacs

Also available as double LP, double CD and on Bandcamp

🔗 Posthumous LP of the Week: Cardiacs’ LSD - review on The Quietus 🎵

Glamorgan are promoted to Division One of the County Championship 👏

🔗 Glamorgan Cricket 🌼 🏏

Glamorgan secured promotion this afternoon into Division One of the Rothesay County Championship for 2026 as they claimed enough bonus points in their rain-ravaged draw at Derby to give them a sufficiently large cushion ahead of the teams in third, fourth and fifth place in the Division Two table. As such, the teams below them cannot leapfrog above the Welsh county during the final round of matches next week.

Welsh National Opera: Tosca

Tosca review – Natalya Romaniw is riveting in WNO’s season-opener

This was emphatically Romaniw’s night, every inch the absolute diva, in ravishing voice and investing her characterisation with such fine nuances of gesture and colouring of the words as to hold one riveted. It was certainly worthy of Sarah Bernhardt, for whom Victorien Sardou wrote his original play and whose performance inspired Puccini to compose his opera.

🔗 🎵

Film log - watched: The Godfather Part III, 1990 - ★★★★ - Letterboxd link 🎥

Film log - watched: The Godfather Part II, 1974 - ★★★★★ - Letterboxd link 🎥

Audiobook opinions 📚

I only infrequently listen to (read?) audiobooks. I usually find myself getting distracted, drifting off, losing concentration, and missing parts of the reading.

Ultimately I find that I really need to be doing nothing else other than just listening; it’s difficult for me to listen whilst performing other tasks. In practice, then, I may as well just read the books! There are a couple of exceptions though. I can listen whilst out on longish, quiet walks and I can listen on public transport, again as long as it’s a relatively quiet environment.

However, I have recently had more success. I’ve listened to Robert Graves’ I, Claudius read by Derek Jacobi and have nearly finished Lawrence Durrell’s Balthazar read by Nicholas Boulton.

These books have worked for me in audio format. It helps that both have excellent narrators in Jacobi and Boulton but also, I think, that the novels themselves are written as if narrated by their main characters. This works well. Another plus is that Durrell’s very descriptive language is very enjoyable to hear read aloud.

Additionally, it is probably of relevance that I have some familiarity with the content of both books. I know something of the events told in I, Claudius from remembering a little of seeing the BBC TV series in the late 1970s, as well as some general knowledge of Roman history. Balthazar is familiar because it is essentially an elaboration and expansion of Durrell’s first novel of The Alexandria Quartet, Justine. I have read this twice and the characters and events have stuck in my mind. This familiarity with the books made the readings easier to follow and more difficult to lose track of their threads.

So, my plan is to persevere with the format. Next up will probably be the remaining two books of The Alexandria Quartet. As I often only listen in 15-20 minute sessions that will take some time!