{"id":544732,"date":"2026-07-16T17:47:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T17:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/544732\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T17:47:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T17:47:08","slug":"a-world-cup-that-england-could-actually-win-england","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/544732\/","title":{"rendered":"A World Cup that England could actually win | England"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">I recommend the immediate launch of a new <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/football\/world-cup-football\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">World Cup<\/a> competition, the Hindsight Trophy. Given the vast number of England TV experts and fans who know afterwards what should have happened, the trophy should be ours permanently.<br \/>Jim Traynor<br \/>New Brighton, Merseyside<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\"> The haywain in Constable\u2019s famous painting is not standing in \u201cFlatford mill pond\u201d (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/artanddesign\/2026\/jul\/10\/the-hay-wain-walking-constables-landscape-christchurch-mansion-ipswich\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The Hay Wain: Walking Constable\u2019s Landscape review \u2013 a masterpiece for the climate crisis age, 10 July<\/a>). The millpond is the water upstream of a mill which is held back and then released to drive the mill wheel. It is deep and still, hence \u201ccalm as a millpond\u201d. The haywain is standing in the shallow mill pool, downstream from the mill.<br \/>David Wilkinson <br \/>Dorchester on Thames, Oxfordshire<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\"> In his final interview, answering Guardian readers\u2019 questions (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/film\/2026\/jul\/13\/sam-neill-final-interview-readers-question-jurassic-park\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">13 July<\/a>), Sam Neill \u2013 who was the same age as me \u2013 said \u201cI\u2019ve had to overcome the ordinariness of my appearance.\u201d To my eyes, he had one of the handsomest, kindest faces of his generation of actors: quite the opposite of ordinary.<br \/>Susan Treagus<br \/>Manchester<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\"> Sofie Jenkinson mentions Count Binface\u2019s manifesto plan to restore the price of 99 Flakes to 99p (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2026\/jul\/13\/count-binface-silly-sausage-britain-mr-blobby-liz-truss-boaty-mcboatface-clacton\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Count Binface represents the Silly Sausage Britain I know and love, 13 July<\/a>). Any chance he could also restore the average price of a pint to \u00a31.50, its cost in the mid-1990s, when a 99 Flake was 99p?<br \/>Michael Fuller<br \/>Ampthill, Bedfordshire<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\"> I don\u2019t know how high a labrador can get either (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/environment\/2026\/jul\/14\/puggled-scumfished-or-utterly-shrammed\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Letters, 14 July<\/a>), but I am certain that there\u2019s no way of differentiating the munchies from normal labrador behaviour.<br \/>Stephen Bassey <br \/>Porthtowan, Cornwall <\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\"> Have an opinion on anything you\u2019ve read in the Guardian today? Please <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/football\/2026\/jul\/16\/mailto:guardian.letters@theguardian.com?body=Please%20include%20your%20name,%20full%20postal%20address%20and%20phone%20number%20with%20your%20letter%20below.%20Letters%20are%20usually%20published%20with%20the%20author%27s%20name%20and%20city\/town\/village.%20The%20rest%20of%20the%20information%20is%20for%20verification%20only%20and%20to%20contact%20you%20where%20necessary.\" data-link-name=\"in body link \" https:=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">email<\/a> us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/tone\/letters\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">letters<\/a> section.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I recommend the immediate launch of a new World Cup competition, the Hindsight Trophy. Given the vast number&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":544733,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-544732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=544732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/544733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=544732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=544732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=544732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}