Sports Calendar

Hail Venter the rules fiasco whistleblower

The Saracens director of rugby has exposed a fundamental problem with the game: that referees have power without responsibility

Cheats opening gates to sport’s graveyard

The year’s three landmark sporting scandals were not crimes of passion but organised, cold-blooded, and premeditated

Magic numbers — centuries, heroes and zeroes of the sporting year 2009

It was a year to remember for England’s cricketers, sporting mothers and pie-loving Chinese snooker players

Thomas drags sport’s secret out of closet

Most capped player in Welsh rugby deserves praise for courage in coming out, even if it is troubling that courage was necessary

My perfect weekend: Whitaker clearing final hurdles

London International Horse Show guarantees a great show to dispel a year of controversy for equestrianism and dominant family at its core

Ten sporting highlights of 2009 to cheer the soul

Forget cheats and scandals, writes Simon Barnes, the year has contained more than enough drama and excellence to celebrate

Woods's footsteps will prove impossible to fill

You think no player is bigger than the game? Ask Woods’s sponsors. Ask the television companies, says Simon Barnes

My perfect weekend: vote for Tweddle the medal

The world champion champion gymnast is unlikely to be crowned BBC Sports Personality of the Year but she deserves our support

Sports Personality is game of trivial pursuits

The nature of the award may have changed, but our choice still says more about us than it does about the winner

South Africa states case in black and white

Non-white players now play as a matter of course, and somehow the team hasn’t foundered on the rock of politics

The stars sworn to the Hypocrisy Oath

Athletes are rarely put on the spot by the media in the modern age and even more of a rarity is a straightforward honest answer

Fore! And there goes Tiger’s image...

How a hydrant, a tree and a wife helped to reveal that the world’s greatest golfer is human after all. By Simon Barnes

My perfect weekend: Perils lurk on approach to final fence

It has been a war of attrition at the O2 and the last man standing will be the one to finish the tennis season with a victory

Federer sees value of male order

Whether we like it or not sport — and particularly among men — is governed by hierarchical lists. Being No1 really does matter

Rivals in perfect harmony — for a while

From the first point, which lasted 23 strokes, a series of prolonged exchanges marked the latest meeting of Federer and Murray

Referees must start playing to the camera

Officials will invite opprobrium if they refuse to use the technology that has helped their counterparts in other sports

Snobbery drove England's chariot into ditch

The English game has paid a high price for failing to safeguard its winning culture while allowing self-interest to prevail

My perfect weekend: time for England to come good

With South Africa turning nasty, it would be nice to see an end to England’s failure to improve at one-day internationals

What’s in a name? Lord’s may yet find out

Selling out to a sponsor’s dollar is demeaning and self-defeating (unless it involves me and a whisky producer)