With the flood of recriminations about its cost and suitability yet to subside, work begins today on the aquatics centre at the Stratford Olympic site. Despite final blueprints yet to be agreed, concrete piles for the building's foundations are being installed, nearly two months ahead of schedule. The centre, with its distinctive sloping roof, has gone from being the darling of the design community to a metaphor for Olympian overspend, an initial projected cost......

Lowly Charlton Athletic have raised the hackles of officials in Tehran. How so? Through military brinkmanship and the threat of sanctions if the country doesn't start toeing the official nuclear line? Nope. They've cancelled a football match against the Iranian national team. The friendly was scheduled to be played this Saturday in Spain, but Charlton pulled out at the last minute. We can't help think their decision may have been influenced by Iran's spectacular......

Pipe smoking relay What, no free gin and tonic? Wah! After last year's G&T-fuelled shenanigans we were looking forward to more free booze and silly games in the sunshine at the fifth annual Chap Olympiad, but, alas, were limited this year to what we could carry, all the way to Hampstead Heath. The semi-secret location didn't appear to have hit attendance, which was at the very least comparable with last year, and possibly even higher.......

Tings are lookin proper bad for footballer Ashley-Paul Robinson, ya get me? The 19-year old Crystal Palace winger is in a spot of bother after he inadvertantly revealed his plans to move to Fulham on his Facebook profile. In an update on Saturday, the strikingly erudite Robinson alerted chums about his potential move to Craven Cottage with the following gnomic status update: "Ashley-Paul is goin fulham on Monday. If I pull dis off im......

Er, so OK, perhaps that should read 'Briton wins Wimbledon'. But the fact is that after a summer of pretty dire sports news for the UK, we have our first British junior Wimbledon champion for 24 years. AND she’s from Wimbledon. Laura Robson, at 14, is the youngest winner for 14 years, and her victory will surely fill diehard British tennis fans with hope for years to come. With even our Andy (Murray) still just......

We've always romanticised what our first Lucha Libre would be like. Running from both gangsters and the law through the mean streets of Mexico City, we duck down a back street only to discover the most magnificent fighting arena imaginable. We quickly buy our ticket to become lost in the crowd, adrenaline still coursing through our veins from our crafty escape. Wrestlers fly through the air and crash down to the mat in an......

With their acrobatic leaps and iconic masks, Mexican wrestlers are known all over the world. As one would expect, witnessing one of their wildly energetic matches generally involves buying a plane ticket to Mexico. For three days this weekend, however, you can experience all the thrills of a true Lucha Libre just by taking the Northern Line up to Chalk Farm. Lucha Libre London brings sixteen of the best luchadores in the whole of......

Kate Hoey, former Labour sports minister and controversial aide to our new Conservative mayor, has admitted that Boris is not certain where some fairly large and important things are. That in itself might not be much of a revelation, but according to her interview with the Metro he's not the only one searching behind the sofa: Some boroughs cannot even tell you what [sports] facilities they have...We haven't even got a proper absolute plan......

We've been keeping a close eye on the London Roller Girls for a good while now and we're pleased to report that it seems these girls can party as hard as they can roll. This Saturday the girls will be taking over Barden's Boudoir in Stoke Newington for one of their semi regular fundraisers. Non skaters amongst us shouldn't be scared for this evening is deemed as a 'non skating event'. Those of you......

We all know the Wombling song; that they're tidy and clean and make good use of the things the everyday folks leave behind. A lesser known line in the full version of the popular Wimbledon Common song is Wombles are "incredibly, utterly devious" and hey ho, that's been borne out today as locals living close to the All England Club are flogging their special Tournament resident parking permits on eBay. These were special yellow......

If you're reading this, then it's already too late to get in line for a show court ticket to the opening of this year's Championship at the All England Club, otherwise known as Wimbledon 2008. The good news is you still have eleven further chances to witness start of play on Centre Court, which this year has its roof back in place, as well as many other opportunities to experience a grand day's tennis......

Private funder of Olympic athletes village, Lend Lease, having trouble getting a wee loan Tube cleaners to strike over living wage campaign Campbell gets community service for T5 lost luggage strop Mr Catt loses cattery Wimbledon starts on Monday and tennis fans rejoice as London's just bagged the Masters Cup for 2009 too Image of Woolwich Fire Clouds courtesy of Short Sharp Shot via the Londonist flickr group.......

Over the last few years it has become popular to enjoy football matches in the pub, rather than at the stadiums themselves. This is even more true of the often far-flung international summer tournaments and increasingly people want to watch each match alongside supporters who have a vested interest in its outcome. Two years ago we were one of several sites offering tips on where to go around London to watch Iran, Argentina, Ghana......

Sport is sometimes accused of taking itself too seriously, but Saturday evening will see a historic London landmark welcoming elite athletes, dogged semi-professionals and high-spirited amateurs alike to the second running of the Smithsfield Nocturne cycling event. Last year's occasion attracted 5000 spectators to the bars and barriers around the 1km course despite heavy rain and was such a success that further similar events around the UK, including perhaps one in Canary Wharf, are......

The DCMS finally launched a 2012 Legacy Action Plan today. State sponsored swimming is the central thrust, the headline catching whiz of an idea that's made the news. By 2012, it's planned that all local authority swimming baths will be free to use, starting soon with the over 60s, then the under 16s and rolling out to all comers by the time the Games begin. £140m is going to local authorities to scrap swimming......

As the country dangles on the brink of European Championship fever we ride that wave of euphoria in bringing you some updates on football pieces we featured a few months ago. Our first priority here must be to praise the winner of this season's Londonist Fantasy Football League title, so let's hear it for the redoubtable Diaby Does Gallas FK who, having snatched top spot from Hopeless XI as we reported in January, held......

After two years of training, the London Rollergirls are ready to take on their first international competition this Saturday when the pick of their players line up for London Brawling as they take on Team Canada at the Tottenham Green Leisure Centre in a matchup entitled "Mutiny on the Mountie." As the team's press release says: Roller derby involves two teams of four blockers skating round an elliptical track, while a point scorer from......

In a move that came as a surprise to nobody in football, Chelsea yesterday rewarded manager Avram Grant for getting them within a goalpost's width of their first European Cup by terminating his contract. According to a statement released on the club's website Saturday afternoon, the Israeli coach, and sometime rodent disturber, was dismissed following a series of meetings over the past two days. Peter Kenyon prefigured the decision earlier in the week, when......

FA Cup final day dawns and, as supporters representing the competition's former temporary home in Cardiff return the visits made by Arsenal, Chelsea, West Ham and Millwall they are joined by fans of Portsmouth, the club who have retained the trophy for the longest time courtesy of beating Wolverhampton Wanderers 4-1 in the last pre-war running of the world famous tournament. Many devotees of both teams are exiled in the capital and one such......

For the first time since Tottenham Hotspur dashed Nottingham Forest manager Brian Clough's dreams of FA Cup glory in 1991 the final is being contested without a representative from English football's current Big Four. Just before 3pm on Saturday the fans of Portsmouth and Cardiff City will watch their teams stride out at Wembley for a match which will decide which of them will parade the famous trophy that neither has lifted since the......

Wembley Stadium is a modern marvel - Conde Nast in particular were mightily impressed by it - and it is surely one of the finest footballing cathedrals in the world today. So how come it hasn't yet been given the glad-eye from UEFA when they choose the venue for the Champions League final? Turns out that a somewhat arcane tax law has thus far presented Wembley being considered. Our government currently taxes overseas players......

With 2008 racing from winter to summer with nary a hint of spring to be scented, mid-May finds us enjoying glorious weather and turning our thoughts to happy days at the local lido. Despite dozens of closures over the years since the lido's post-war heyday - inspiring such evocative imagery of lost sites in books like Paul Talling's Derelict London - many of London's lidos are still going strong, and some, like London Fields,......

As we supped a coffee in a Wembley Stadium cafe with the landmark venue's Head of Music and New Events, Jim Frayling, we admired a large photo of the May 1975 attempt by daredevil motorcycle ace Evel Knievel to launch himself over thirteen single-deck AEC Merlin buses in the old stadium. Knievel succeeded, but crashed on landing and promptly announced his (brief) retirement. Last New Year's Eve his 21st century successor, Australia's Robbie Maddison,......

It's considered the most lucrative game in world football. The team that wins the Championship playoff final earns entry into the Premier League and all the trappings of fame and money that come with it. Some estimate that promotion can earn a club upward of £60 million, so for the managers, chairmen, players and fans, the next two weeks are likely to see nails bitten down to the quick. Things kick off tomorrow, and......

"Everything is better with a bit of humour." So said Roberto Donadoni, as Italian football manager the incumbent of one of the most pressurised posts in the world, last Monday night in a special seminar organised by Birkbeck College Sport Business Centre. A healthy dose of self-deprecation is a useful asset in a job where your public always let you know who you're working for and what you should be doing: "This happened just......

The NFL are coming back, the Rugby League Challenge Cup final is a permanent fixture and last week's announcement of a December 3rd clash at Wembley Stadium between Australia and the Barbarians added Rugby Union to the portfolio of sports staged there since it was officially opened only a year ago. As the travails over its construction and funding recede ever deeper into the public memory the Stadium is earning a reputation as an......

In football, as everywhere else in 21st century life, the issue of "local versus global" is coming increasingly to the fore. This week the Birkbeck College Sport Business Centre in Bloomsbury, renowned for its research into the business of sport in general and football in particular, is providing a week packed full of education and debate on subjects of pressing concern to all those devoted to the game. Tonight from 6:30pm at the Brunei......

After yesterday's news about Eurostar settling well into its new home, here's another cheery account of a London landmark that has us thinking we might not be as bad at this construction thing as T5 would suggest. Though it may have opened years late and countless gajillions over budget, Wembley Stadium has been selected as one of the New Seven Wonders Of The World by the discerning critics at Condé Nast Traveler. Sitting among......

Over the last couple of years Londonist has been privileged to bring you tales from the life and times of Buster Martin, the centenarian Pimlico plumber who first came to fame after being ordered, under duress, to take a day off work on his 100th birthday. Now, having completed the London Marathon in just under ten hours - and collecting some £20,000 for the Rhys Daniels Trust in the process - Buster was expected......

If you want to see title-challenging Chelsea entertain Wigan at Stamford Bridge on Monday night you can expect to fork out between £40 and £65 for the privilege, but tonight you can watch a cup final there for free as Chelsea host Manchester City in the first leg of the climax of the FA's youth tournament. The second leg will take place in Manchester on 16th April. If you can make it in time......