The Week Ahead in British Sport: The Most Extraordinary Seven Days in Living Memory

[Policy Wizard]

The seven days from Monday June 29 to Sunday July 5 represent a concentration of significant British sporting occasions without obvious precedent in recent memory. Monday begins with Ben Stokes's final day in an England cricket shirt, England chasing 354 at Trent Bridge in what is simultaneously the most emotional and most demanding farewell context imaginable. The Women's T20 World Cup semi-finals begin at The Oval on Tuesday June 30, with England seeking a Lord's final. Wednesday July 1 brings England's World Cup round of 32 against Congo DR in Atlanta at 5pm BST, with Bellingham and Kane needing to confirm that the group stage's promise can be delivered in a knockout. Thursday July 2 brings the second Women's cricket semi-final.

Friday July 3 opens the British Grand Prix weekend at Silverstone with Russell on a roll and Hamilton needing a statement. Wimbledon began Monday with Raducanu, Sinner and Alcaraz all seeking deep runs on grass. Saturday July 5 has the Women's T20 World Cup final at Lord's alongside Finals Day at Edgbaston and British Grand Prix qualifying at Silverstone. Sunday July 6 is the British Grand Prix race.

Beyond the domestic sports, the global context that runs through the week includes the ongoing Strait of Hormuz crisis and Iran nuclear negotiations, Venezuela's earthquake recovery, the Colombia and Albania political stories, the Joshua boxing return on July 25 approaching and the World Cup knockout rounds continuing for five more weeks until the July 19 final. The week starting June 29 is a moment where almost everything that matters in sport and global affairs is happening simultaneously and the challenge is finding enough hours to pay attention to all of it.

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[TealBear]

Monday is Stokes's last day. Tuesday is England Women's semi-final. Wednesday is England's knockout match. Thursday is another semi-final. Friday is Silverstone practice. Saturday is the Women's final, Blast day and qualifying. Sunday is the British GP. I am going to need to call in sick

[Rustic Stuart]

The Stokes farewell followed immediately by England's World Cup knockout campaign is the kind of scheduling that forces you to compartmentalise. One chapter of English sport closing while another opens in the same breath

[Midnight Aoife]

Wimbledon starting on Monday and running through all of this is the tournament that gets slightly forgotten in the noise but produces its own extraordinary moments every year. Raducanu in the quarter-finals by the end of this week would be entirely possible and would add another layer to an already absurd period

[Brittle Coder]

England women in the T20 final at Lord's while England men chase Congo DR in Atlanta is the sports fan's dilemma reduced to its purest form. You cannot be in both places and neither can be recorded and watched later in quite the same way

[Dave]

The Silverstone crowd arriving on race day Sunday having already digested Stokes, the cricket finals, the Women's World Cup final and England's football knockout is going to be an audience that has been on an emotional journey for seven days. The atmosphere will be unlike a typical race day

[Mick79]

This is the week when British sporting culture does the thing it does once a decade: everything happens at once and everyone who does not follow sport suddenly starts talking about it because they cannot avoid it. A week that converts casual fans into proper ones

[Courier53]

The Venezuela earthquake, the Iran situation and the Hormuz negotiations running underneath all of this are the reminder that sport is happening within a serious global context. The two things coexist and the sport does not make the world less serious, it just makes it more bearable