Weekly Roundup 08.10.2025

We had a brief break last week, but we are back with a vengeance and a host of wonderful visits to look through today.

Before we get onto the roundup, my sporting reflections from the past week have to start with the incredible climax to the India vs England test match series. I don't think anything quite summed up the nature of that series—the unpredictability, the drama—than Chris Woakes walking out to bat with one arm in a sling. The fact England couldn't quite pull off the victory, I don't think, matters too much, because securing a 2–2 draw against a strong India side with all the back and forth that series had is certainly a fair reflection of the results.

As cricket begins to die down on the international stage, things ramp up when it comes to football. We have a multitude of pre-season friendlies, transfer debates, and some leagues beginning to get going. What I will say is it’s such a shame that we’re already talking about clubs in financial difficulties—namely, Morecambe and Sheffield Wednesday. A tragedy, and often the result of too much money being put into football in unsustainable ways.

Even at the level I watch football—National League South—we see ridiculous amounts of money come into the game, and the debate about how this has happened is long and complicated. Some people blame the 'Wrexham effect' and the subsequent cascade of money filtering down the pyramid, some feel COVID had a big part to play, as people realised they could watch more local teams when they couldn’t travel as far. As with everything, there are many different reasons why something happens. But certainly for those fans of Sheffield Wednesday and Morecambe, it’s very sad times indeed, because football—like many other sports—is more than just a simple day out. It becomes a community, almost a religion, where people congregate around their respective churches and temples each week.

Let's move on to the round-up and start with a view of the recently completed Tour de France from David Rudkin, showing how Tadej Pogačar managed to become successful, especially in his battle against main rival Jonas Vingegaard. What’s interesting here is, as each of the stages is plotted out along the top, we can see where all of the riders are placed. What stands out among the array of dots are where the two main rivals for the championship sat—with the blue and orange dots. It’s very clear to see just where Pogačar managed to eke out those vital few seconds, namely in stages five, 12, and 13. It’s a fantastic view, really drawing out the detail of just how close this tour was. With all those kilometres travelled and all the hours ridden, just four minutes separated these two great rivals.

The Hundred cricket competition in the UK has divided opinion somewhat in terms of its relevance and whether it’s a competition that’s needed. But one thing that can’t be denied is that it’s certainly a very different way of trying to capture and engage a new audience. For young fans, it does seem to be a very popular way of viewing the game.

Rob Taylor has produced this view, which looks at all the matches of The Hundred in the previous year and gives us a sense of whether it’s more advantageous to bat first or second. One consensus suggests that batting first sets a target, which puts scoreboard pressure on and makes the chase for the second team more difficult. Others think it's better to bat second, where the chasing team knows the target and can pace the innings accordingly.

It’s a pretty mixed bag as we look at this viz from Rob, with the pink area charts representing the batting-first winners and the purple areas representing those that chased the target. What I love about this is how the areas build up as the first team bats, compiling their totals, and then reduce as the second team attempts to chase. The height of the shapes equals the number of runs scored, and the longer the width, the more balls the team faced. A fantastic view, with much to explore.

It seems as though a week never goes by without us talking about the great work of Naresh Suglani, and this is no exception with his view of Liverpool’s recent Premier League campaign. So much to admire from the design: the lovely timeline of fixtures down the centre, showing just how consistent they were—just one loss in the first handful of games, followed by a few towards the end as they wrapped up the title. On the left and right of the design, Naresh has highlighted the key players who were the bedrock of this successful season—defence, goalkeeper, attack and midfield—and also included a touching tribute to the recently deceased Diogo Jota. I also love the little trophy icons at the bottom, and the nod to Jürgen Klopp, who many feel laid the foundations for this success. Fantastic work again, Naresh.

For those still looking to finalise your Fantasy Premier League teams, this may come in handy. Arek Urban has built a fantastic resource, looking at all the different players that might be picked and selected in your squads. You can filter by position and compare players you’re considering. I’m not a participant in fantasy leagues these days—I just don’t have the time—but there’s much to explore here, with a great deal of interactivity as you browse through players.

Regular readers will likely have seen the collaboration between Rob Taylor and Chris Westlake around the British and Irish Lions tour of Australia this year—a successful tour, I might add. They wrap things up with this summary of results from that tour, starting with the first loss in game one, through the warm-up games, before the first test against Australia in game seven, then the thrilling game nine win, and finally game ten, where Australia took a consolation victory. Great to see the Lions win, though perhaps a little disappointing they couldn’t get the clean sweep. What was a clean sweep was the quality of work Chris and Rob have produced throughout this campaign.

The final viz to showcase this week is less of a viz and more of a comprehensive profiling tool created by The Football Economist. This is essentially a catalogue of players you can search, analyse, compare, and generate reports on. It covers a huge number of metrics—creativity, defending, duelling (and much more)—and allows you to compare players, view age distributions across leagues, and much more. It’s all packaged nicely within a self-contained app and is a fantastic resource for those interested in football analysis.

Finally, CJ and I had a wonderful time last week talking about our favourite vizzes from July, so be sure to check that out on the YouTube channel. A really fun conversation, sometimes digressing into other topics, but hopefully enjoyable nonetheless. If you were selected or mentioned, congratulations—well deserved. We’re looking forward to looking at the August selection in a few weeks.

And that wraps things up for this week. Hopefully, you enjoyed looking through the collection of quality vizzes we had on the show. I look forward to seeing you again next week. In the meantime, have a fantastic week, whatever you’re up to, and keep those sporting vizzes coming using the hashtag #SportsVizSunday. See you later.

Simon & the #SportsVizSunday team