TV Guide: In memory of Dickie Bird’s final Test – and the ever-forgotten British boaties

Bird, gloriously eccentric but thoroughly respected, died this week at 92. When he retired, the BBC made a documentary on him, Dickie Bird: A Rare Species, which has just been put on iPlayer and is a charming watch. It begins with him returning to Barnsley, where he used to open the batting with Michael Parkinson, while a certain Geoffrey Boycott came in at No 6. “He had a failed career [as a player], you must be brutally frank,” Boycott says, all charm as ever.

Among the kinder tributes is a memory from Atherton about a match when Bird dropped the glass balls that he used to hold to count an over. “I’m losing my marbles,” he wailed. “Dickie, you did that years ago,” Athers replied. And that was why they loved him.

The second matchday of this season’s Champions League will bring happy memories for some fans on Tuesday as Liverpool return to Istanbul 20 years after their miraculous comeback against AC Milan to play Galatasaray (Amazon Prime, 8pm), while Tottenham Hotspur go back to the Arctic Circle to face Bodø/Glimt the same day (TNT Sports 2, 8pm). Spurs were there only four months ago, where victory took them to the Europa League final.

The World Rowing Championships in Shanghai have passed almost unnoticed here this week. No sport delivered more golds at the Paris Olympics for Team GB last year than rowing’s three. Only cycling and aquatics receive more lottery funding for 2028 than rowing’s £24.85m. Yet no British broadcasters are showing it.

After a rather disappointing Athletics World Championships this month, are the boaties doing better? A bit. The new-look men’s coxless four won gold for the third straight World Championships, while there were para-rowing golds for the mixed coxed four and Benjamin Pritchard in the men’s single sculls.

The men’s and women’s quads both got silvers, to which Britain added a bronze yesterday in the women’s eight – their first such medal since 2011 – and a silver in the men’s event, with both golds won by the Dutch. A golden finish is possible today after Lauren Henry won her semi-final in the single scull.

Henry, part of the quad which won the Olympic title in Paris with the last stroke of the race, goes in the final at 7.17am. All the finals can be rewatched on worldrowing.com if you want to see how your lottery money is being spent.

Photograph by Rebecca Naden/PA Images