Wimbledon reaches climax following England-Norway showdown

England have had a poor record in World Cup matches against Norway, winning only one of their four qualifying games for the 1982 and 1994 finals and losing twice, so I write this with trepidation, not knowing how last night’s quarter-final went. Did it end with them singing “fotball kommer hjem” in Tromsø or can we adapt Bjørge Lillelien’s famous commentary when Norway won in 1981 and cry: “Roald Amundsen, Edvard Munch, Morten Harket, Henrik Ibsen, Monty Python’s parrot… your boys took a hell of a beating”? Anyway, if England lost, remember that Erling Haaland was born in Leeds. He’s essentially a tall Alan Bennett.

With six European nations in the quarter-finals, there is a good chance of it being an all-UEFA final next Sunday, like nine of the previous ones. The first semi-final is on Tuesday in Arlington (ITV1, 8pm), while England or Norway will play Argentina or Switzerland in Atlanta on Wednesday (BBC One, 8pm). At least the matches are all at helpful hours from now.

If you struggle in a heatwave, Wimbledon fortnight will have been hell this year. Oh for those happy, soggy days in 1991, when the Championships had 118 rain delays, leading to play being arranged on the middle Sunday for the first time. In 2022 they scrapped that traditional day off, which has left the second week feeling a bit threadbare. It concludes today with the men’s singles final (BBC One, 4pm).

Another summer sport affected by weather is the Open Championship, which this year is at Royal Birkdale. When last held there in 2017, the sun shone and Jordan Spieth won with a score of 12 under par. Nine years earlier, the wind roared, making the course’s Art Deco clubhouse look like a beached ocean liner, and 12 over par was enough to claim seventh place, nine strokes behind the winner, Pádraig Harrington. It would be a surprise if Spieth, now ranked outside the top 50, defends his Birkdale crown. For the Southport fans, there would be no more popular winner than local hero and world No 9 Tommy Fleetwood (starts on Thursday, Sky Sports Golf, 7am).

Women’s Test matches are a rarity and ones at Lord’s were unknown until Friday. There have been 150 men’s Tests at the ground - but only three more for women in total around the world since the first in 1934. It wasn’t long ago that England’s women played Tests at places like Guildford, Blackpool and Wetherby. Finally allowed to walk through the Long Room, where until 1999, the Queen was the only woman permitted, let’s hope the Test with India is a great one (day three, today, Sky Sports Cricket, 11am).

The Tour de France left the Pyrenees on Friday and has a fairly gentle series of stages broken by a tough one on Bastille Day (Tuesday, TNT Sports 1, 12.10pm). The course in the Massif Central, starting from Aurillac, has seven climbs, two in category one. Last time a stage finished at Le Lioran, Tadej Pogačar made a long-range solo attack but was ultimately reeled back in by Jonas Vingegaard, who outsprinted him to the line. As the Tour hits its halfway point, the stage could again be crucial for the yellow jersey’s main rivals.

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