My new year’s resolution is to raise my badminton game to high art

Having rediscovered his love for the best of all racquet sports, Will Gore won’t let a dodgy knee stop his quest for glory

I can still slice a low serve that deceives my opponent at least as often as it falls short of the service box (Getty/iStock)

Sport is all about artistry; or at least it should be. That’s why cricket is plainly the greatest sport of all, a thing of beauty as well as skill, the batter wielding their willow wand against spells cast by bowlers of various stripes. Admittedly it’s not always obvious when watching England, but hey ho.

By contrast, F1 isn’t really a sport at all, but an engineering competition. Rugby has moments of high art, but is mostly low thuggery. And while it’s no doubt impressive that some people can swim quickly, essentially it’s just a lot of splashing about.

Football falls somewhere in the middle of the artistic spectrum. It can, in the phrase popularised by Pelé, indeed be “the beautiful game”; but I have watched too many matches at Cambridge United’s Abbey Stadium to be under any illusion about football’s capacity for turgidity. As for playing it, my overriding memories are of feeling cold and angry.