England face stern Azteca test on weekend packed with British sport

It has been 40 years since England last played a World Cup match at what all but the dullards in the Fifa commercial department still call the Azteca Stadium. This time it would be nice if God could keep his hands to himself. England will struggle enough with oxygen deprivation at 2,200m (7,220ft) without their hosts getting the sort of divine intervention that Diego Maradona once claimed.

Mexico have lost at the ground only twice in 89 competitive matches, so England need to up their game to support the captain. So far, it has been a tale of Kane and Unable. Given the kick-off time, it is tempting to misquote Des Lynam when he teased those bunking off work to watch the World Cup in 1998: shouldn’t you be in bed? (Tomorrow, BBC One, 1am.) The winners face Brazil or Norway in the quarter-finals (Saturday, channel TBC, 10pm).

Long before Kane’s men kick off, England could have lifted a World Cup in another sport. Nat Sciver-Brunt’s women compete against Australia today in the World T20 final at Lord’s (Sky Sports Cricket, 2.30pm). There is also the centenary British Grand Prix, with Lewis Hamilton seeking an astonishing 10th win (today, Sky Sports F1, 3pm).

Wimbledon continues this week with the women’s singles final on Saturday (BBC One, 4pm). What the sport would give for the emergence of a rivalry half as good as that of Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova. Between November 1975 and August 1987 they were No 1 and 2 in the world for all but 23 weeks. Both won 18 Grand Slam singles titles and faced each other 80 times, including a great Wimbledon final in 1978. An excellent new Netflix documentary, The Final Set, tells the story of a bitter rivalry that turned into a close friendship as they helped each other through cancer treatment.

Another tale of beating adversity was heard this week in Henley-on-Thames, which is celebrating 175 years of having a royal regatta (for 12 years before Prince Albert’s benediction it was a mere oik). The event may feel like an anachronistic garden party, but the sport is top drawer and has entered the 21st century, with all races filmed by drones and streamed online. For Tony Purssell, who turns 100 today and is Britain’s oldest living Olympian, the final of the Grand Challenge Cup between the Great Britain and Italy men’s eights brings back memories (YouTube, from 10.30am). Eighty years earlier, Purssell won the Grand with Leander, pipping the Swiss eight despite one of his crew-mates having spent five years in a prisoner-of-war camp. There are worse things than playing football at altitude.

As someone with a real tennis world ranking (No 9,493 since you ask), I admire journalists who find obscure ways to claim that they are elite athletes. Last year Neil Squires, an old press-box pal, represented Great Britain at the age of 56 in the niche game, Mölkky. It’s a Finnish version of skittles and Neil pulled together a side from his native Nidderdale to compete at the World Championships. He has just published a book about their adventure, The Fall and Rise of the Mölkky Bar Kids. If you fancy seeing the sport, the European Championships are held in Nottingham from Saturday (@GBMölkkyFederation YouTube channel).

Photograph by Natacha Pisarenko/AP