Andy

Ireland’s 40-29 win in Chicago nine years ago was one of the apogees in the team’s history, while the intensity and stakes of the World Cup quarter-final extracted herculean efforts from both sides in what is widely considered the rivalry’s apex.

But Saturday’s entry did not resemble either of those games.

Neither team reached anywhere near their maximum, and with a raft of protracted stoppages for tackle reviews and injuries, it failed to deliver an interest-generating spectacle in a country which is hosting the World Cup in six years.

Ultimately, New Zealand will not care. For them, a long-awaited fifth Grand Slam of the northern hemisphere remains in play after a second-half surge that yielded three tries in 15 minutes.

Ireland, however, have much to stew on.

Last year, they opened their autumn campaign with a loss to the All Blacks. Their performance in Dublin that night was one of the flattest of the Farrell era and they were not much better here.

There were, at least, some positives. They responded strongly to Tadhg Beirne’s highly controversial early red card to lead 10-0 thanks to a Jack Crowley penalty and Tadhg Furlong’s first try since 2021.

Elsewhere, Stuart McCloskey, a surprise inclusion at inside centre, shone in his first appearance against the All Blacks before being forced off injured, while Ryan Baird staked his claim to be a regular fixture in the back row.

But while they led for 57 minutes, Ireland never seemed fully in control. Having lost a tenacious operator in Beirne, they were bested at the breakdown and missed crucial tackles, while a creaky lineout blunted their ability to create opportunities and ramp up scoreboard pressure.

After taking his normal round of infield grounders during the Dodgers’ off-day workout Sunday, Kiké Hernández jogged to center field and spent a noticeable amount of time fielding fly balls there.

On the eve of Game 3 of the World Series, it might not have been a coincidence.

After using the same nine players in their starting lineup in six straight games since the start of the National League Championship Series, the Dodgers have been considering a change for Monday — one that could drop struggling second-year slugger Andy Pages to the bench.

While the Dodgers’ overall offense has been inconsistent this postseason, Pages has endured the most glaring slump. He has collected just four hits in 43 at-bats, registering a .093 average. He has 11 strikeouts, no walks, and only one extra-base knock, providing little pop or spark from the No. 9 spot.

Manager Dave Roberts acknowledged before Game 2 that he was mulling whether to keep Pages in the lineup. And though the 24-year-old outfielder, who had 27 home runs and 86 RBIs in the regular season, had a hit and run scored on Saturday, Roberts reiterated Sunday that making a move with Pages was “still on the table” and “front of mind.”

“Just trying to figure out where he’s at mentally, physically,” Roberts said. “The performance hasn’t been there. So thinking of other options, yeah.”

One reason the Dodgers have stuck with Pages is because of their limited defensive alternatives — including, first and foremost, utilityman Tommy Edman being restricted to only second base this October because of a lingering ankle injury.

Edman, who split time last postseason between center field and shortstop, did say this weekend that his ankle was feeling better (even though he didn’t close the door on potentially needing surgery this offseason). But Roberts noted that Edman “hasn’t taken a fly ball out there in a month,” casting continued doubt over his ability to play anywhere else.

Without Edman, Hernández is the only other true center-field option for the Dodgers to use in their starting lineup, having also played there during the team’s World Series run last year. This postseason, Hernández has been a fixture in left (while also mixing in at third base). But if he were to slide to center field for Game 3, it could open left field for someone like Alex Call.

Call, a trade deadline acquisition who was a part-time player down the stretch in the regular season, does not represent as much of a power threat as Pages, but is a better contact hitter with more on-base ability.

Of course, the Dodgers’ offensive inconsistencies have gone beyond Pages.

They have not topped five runs in a game since the wild-card round. They have hit just .216 as a team since the start of the division series. Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman are still batting under .225 in the playoffs. Mookie Betts is batting .136 since the start of the NLCS.

During their Game 2 win, Roberts felt the club missed a lot of hittable pitches against Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman, before Will Smith and Max Muncy finally broke through with home runs in the seventh.

That, Roberts felt, was a sign his lineup was “a little bit in between” in its approach, squandering opportunities to do damage against fastballs over the plate while also trying to protect against breaking stuff out of the zone.

“They have made good pitches, but we have missed pitches as well,” Roberts said. “I do think that coming home, I feel that we’re back into a little bit of a rhythm offensively.”

Perhaps shaking up the lineup will help, as well.

Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu said Horner had “approached” the US-based team but added: “Nothing has gone any further. It is finished.”

Alpine managing director Steve Nielsen said the French team’s executive adviser and de facto boss Flavio Briatore was “old friends” with Horner.

Nielsen added: “I don’t know what they talk about. Everything I know is there are no plans for Christian to come to Alpine but that doesn’t mean it won’t happen.”

Williams team principal James Vowles said Horner had not approached them.

“We’re very happy with the structure we have and it’s working,” Vowles said. “I don’t see any reason to change from that.”

Horner is free to return to F1 by the middle of next year after finalising a severance package with Red Bull on 22 September.

The 51-year-old was fired as Red Bull team principal after the British Grand Prix in July.

Multiple sources at Red Bull have told BBC Sport the settlement package was worth 60m euros (£52m).

Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid told reporters not to “make too much” of the sideline spat between him and star tight end Travis Kelce during the second quarter of the team’s 22-9 win over the New York Giants on “Sunday Night Football.”

NBC’s cameras caught the two men yelling at each other, with Reid at one point appearing to intentionally give Kelce’s shoulder a hard bump with his own shoulder. The Chiefs were up 6-0 at the time, but the offense had just failed to capitalize on a Giants turnover.

Going into halftime, as the confrontation with Kelce played on viewers’ screens, NBC’s Melissa Stark asked Reid what his message was to the team after seeing “a lot of frustration and emotion from your key players, star players on the sideline.”

“That’s OK, we need some juice,” said Reid, whose team had entered the game 0-2. “So that’s good.”

During his postgame news conference, Reid was asked what he had been trying to get across to Kelce during the exchange.

“I love Travis’ passion, and so I’m OK with that. We didn’t have enough of it,” Reid said. “That second quarter wasn’t where we needed to be. So within reason, you know, he knows — he knows when to back off the pedal, and knows when to push it too. So that’s part I love about him, the guy’s all in. Just sometimes I have to be the policeman.”

Reid added: “Listen, he’s an emotional guy. He’s Irish.”

Asked if the exchange was him telling Kelce to back off a bit, Reid answered: “Don’t make too much of it. He’s a passionate guy, and I love that part. So I’ve been through a lot of things with him, so that’s all part of it. I love that he loves to play the game. That’s what I love. And it’s an emotional game. So I’ll take it.”

Kelce wasn’t made available to speak to reporters after the game.

It’s not the first time the two men made contact during a sideline dispute. Early in the second quarter of Super Bowl LVIII against the San Francisco 49ers on Feb. 12, 2024, Kelce was seen yelling in his coach’s face, grabbing his arm and bumping into him, which appeared to cause Reid to stumble a bit.

After the Chiefs’ 25-22 overtime win in that game, Reid brushed off the incident, telling CBS that Kelce had hugged him and apologized after the incident.

“There’s nobody that I get better than I get him,” said Reid, who was 65 at the time. “He’s a competitive kid and he loves to play.”

Days later, on the “New Heights” podcast, Kelce expressed regret.

“It’s definitely unacceptable,” he said, “and I immediately wished I could take it back.”

On the same podcast, Kelce said: “Unfortunately, sometimes my passion comes out where it looks like it’s negativity, but I’m grateful that [Reid] knows that it’s all because I wanna win this thing with him more than anything.”

The Chiefs hadn’t started 0-2 since 2014, which was Kelce’s first year as a starter and Reid’s second as the team’s coach. The team has since played in five Super Bowls and won three.

This season is off to a slow start also for Kelce, a 10-time Pro Bowl selection. He has 10 catches in 17 targets for 134 yards and one touchdown. During the Chiefs’ 20-17 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 2, a pass from quarterback Patrick Mahomes bounced out of Kelce’s arms at the goal line and resulted in a game-changing interception by the Eagles’ Patrick Mukuba.

Also during the Philadelphia game, Kelce appeared to point to his crotch as part of a crude gesture aimed toward the opposing sideline after making a 23-yard reception. He was later fined $14,491 by the NFL for unsportsmanlike conduct.

NEW YORK — If Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear vaults into national prominence as a Democratic leader, he may one day look back at Thursday as a key step in that direction.

SiriusXM announced that it was giving Beshear’s new podcast a national platform starting this month, along with featuring him in a regular call-in show on its Progress network.

President Trump’s appearances on podcasts were a pivotal media strategy in his successful 2024 Republican campaign. Moving forward, mastering a personal podcast could replace soft-focus biographies or wonky books as a way for politicians to increase their profiles.

Beshear said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” this summer that he will “take a look” at running for president in 2028. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, also in the circle of potential presidential nominees, started his own podcast earlier this year.

Speaking to the anxiety of Americans

In an interview, Beshear said a motivating factor in his own podcast was people who have come up to him, especially during the Trump administration, to talk about their anxieties.

“That’s how Americans feel,” he said. “They feel like the news hits them minute after minute after minute. And it can feel like chaos. It can feel like the world is out of control. With this podcast, we’re trying to help Americans process what we’re going through.”

He’s already done nearly two dozen podcasts, with his audience heavily weighted toward Kentucky residents. His guests have included some potential Democratic presidential rivals, including Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar. Entrepreneur Mark Cuban, former Kentucky basketball coach John Calipari and Kentucky-born actor and comic Steve Zahn have also appeared.

Beshear, the son of a former governor who’s been leading Kentucky since 2019, talks issues himself. Two of his friends, a Republican and a Democrat, are regular guests, and his 16-year-old son helps Dad navigate some youthful lingo.

Newsom attracted attention — some of it negative among Democrats — for interviewing conservative guests Steve Bannon, Michael Savage and Charlie Kirk on his podcast.

“I did disagree with him on certain guests because I don’t like to give oxygen to hate,” Beshear said. “But Gavin is out there really working to communicate with the American people, and he deserves to be commended for it.”

Newsom’s podcast started slowly in the marketplace but has caught fire in recent weeks, his regular audiences jumping from the tens of thousands to the hundreds of thousands, said Paul Riismandel, president of Signal Hill Insights, an audio-focused market research company.

The California governor’s increased visibility, particularly on social media, is likely a factor in the growing popularity of the podcast, Riismandel said. But it’s also a function of how podcasts often catch on: Many tend to be slow burns as audiences discover them, he said.

Learning to master the format of podcasts

Whether ambitious politicians start their own podcasts or not, they’re going to have to be familiar going forward with what makes people successful in the format.

“With a podcast, the audience expects a more unfiltered, authentic kind of conversation and presentation,” Riismandel said. If politicians come across as too controlled, looking for the sort of soundbites that will be broken out in a television appearance, it’s not likely to work, he said. They have to be willing to open up.

“That is something that is probably new for a lot of politicians,” he said, “and new for their handlers.”

Beshear’s first podcast for SiriusXM will feature an interview with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), conducted in the company’s New York studio and debuting Sept. 10. The Progress network will air Beshear’s podcasts regularly on Saturdays at 11 a.m. Eastern.

The first live call-in show will be next Tuesday at noon, with Beshear joined by Progress host John Fugelsang.

Beshear stressed that his work for SiriusXM is “not just aimed at a Democratic audience.”

“We’re aiming,” he said, “at an American audience.”

Bauder writes for the Associated Press.

With his starting place no longer assured, left-back Robertson had chosen to stay on at Anfield before Jota’s death and explained he felt a strong responsibility to help others as an experienced member of the squad.

“It’s the toughest thing we’ll ever go through,” he added. “Losing one of your closest mates for me was hugely difficult and it’s something we’ll probably never get over but it’s just something that we have to carry with us.

“We have to carry the memories we’ve got with us and as long as we continue to do that, then it’ll always be in our thoughts. He will always be in our hearts.

“It didn’t influence my decision. The decision was already made before the tragedy but I knew in that moment that the club needed me.

“I know I am one of the leaders in the team and I have obviously been made vice-captain now.

“It’s going to take a lot this season. I know football was irrelevant but if you take the football out of it, even as lads in the changing room, we are all going to need help during the season.

“We’ve already had difficult moments in terms of the first time in front of fans, having to go to your team-mate’s funeral which is absolute madness to even say, and everything else that followed.

“I know the leaders in that changing room have got a big job to do in terms of trying to help everyone as a club and even Diogo’s family through this massively difficult moment.

“It won’t get easier but maybe we can numb the pain a little bit as time goes on. It’s up to as leaders to try and guide us guide us through that.”

SÃO PAULO, Brazil — Turns out, the marquee matchup Friday night between the Chargers and Kansas City Chiefs isn’t just a season-opening showdown between two premier quarterbacks and legitimate Super Bowl hopefuls.

It’s also a family feud — minus the bad blood.

Devin Woodhouse, head strength and conditioning coach for the Chargers, is the son-in-law of Chiefs coach Andy Reid, an under-the-radar connection that further hems these AFC West rivals.

“In our first game last year, I was a little anxious playing them,” Woodhouse told The Times. “It felt weird rooting against him at times.”

Reid understands, and he loves the fact that before bringing Woodhouse with him from the University of Michigan, Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh called his Kansas City counterpart and asked him if that would be OK.

“I said, ‘Heck, yeah, I’m honored that he’s got an opportunity to work for you,’” Reid said. “I got the biggest kick out of that, that Jim would even think of that. … What a class act.”

Chargers strength and conditioning coach Devin Woodhouse instructs players during practice at The Bolt in El Segundo on Dec. 13, 2024.

(Los Angeles Chargers)

Woodhouse, modest and focused on his Chargers responsibilities, was initially reluctant to sit down for an interview. But Harbaugh and Reid nudged him to talk, as did his direct boss, Ben Herbert, executive director of player performance.

“I don’t want to dim that light on him,” Herbert said. “I want that light brighter.”

Woodhouse, 34, who grew up in Rancho Cucamonga, met his future wife, Drew Ann Reid, when they were members of the same ward of their church in Provo, Utah. They had mutual friends, an instant connection and were married in 2013.

The couple was further bonded by tragedy. Drew Ann’s older brother, Garrett, who struggled with drug abuse for years, died in 2012. The twin brother of Woodhouse, Chaz, who was confined to a wheelchair with cerebral palsy, died a year later.

“As our relationship was growing, her brother passed away,” Woodhouse said. “We grew even closer together.”

The two now have four children, two boys and two girls, all of whom refer to Reid as “Gramps.” Woodhouse doesn’t call his father-in-law anything but “Coach.”

“I would say he’s a better man than he is a coach, and he’s a pretty dang good coach,” Woodhouse said. “And [mother-in-law] Tammy is the head coach of the head coach, so that’s how good they both are. I just love them, and not just the people they are for my wife, but for my kids and their grandkids.

“One of the things I love most about Coach Reid is how much I feel people love to play for him. It’s a cool thing to witness and I respect it a lot.”

Woodhouse feels the same way about Harbaugh, for whom he and Herbert worked at the University of Michigan.

“Ben Herbert found Dev,” Harbaugh said. “When Herb recommends somebody, I already know it’s going to be good. He doesn’t bring in anybody who doesn’t have a tremendous work ethic. Devin came in, and Herb was right.”

Herbert is meticulous down to the smallest detail. For instance, each dumbbell at the Chargers facility is emblazoned with the club’s lightning-bolt logo. Not only is that wall of weights always precisely arranged, but every lightning bolt is arched in an identical way. To ensure there’s never a speck of dust on the floor, Herbert and his crew use electric leaf blowers each day to clean the massive space.

Helping oversee the physical well-being of so many elite athletes is a challenging assignment, particularly for a franchise that has an unfortunate history of losing key players to injuries — as the Chargers did in August with left tackle Rashawn Slater, who sustained a season-ending knee injury.

Chargers strength and conditioning coach Devin Woodhouse helps quarterback Justin Herbert with his jersey during training camp in El Segundo on July 21, 2025.

(Ty Nowell / Los Angeles Chargers)

The way Harbaugh sees it, no one is better equipped to train an NFL team than Herbert.

“We are the tip of the spear,” said Herbert, who is not related to Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert. “Our job is to impact the mental and physical capability of the players. The physical part is much easier. The mental part — emotional stability, consistency — that’s the separator. And trust is everything.”

Woodhouse has a knack for building and maintaining those trusts.

“He has an ability to build relationships across a melting pot of personalities,” Herbert said. “He’s also versatile across range-of-motion, tissue and joint, strength, power and movement traits. So much so that with my 14-year-old, twice a week I want Coach Woodhouse to work with him.”

Woodhouse has a particularly keen eye when it comes to evaluating the tiniest aspects of a person in motion, helping players make subtle adjustments to the way they run in order to improve their speed.

Chargers strength and conditioning coach Devin Woodhouse works with Chargers wide receiver Ladd McConkey before a game at SoFi Stadium against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Dec. 15, 2024.

(Ty Nowell / Los Angeles Chargers)

“Dev’s someone who’s going to support you, but he’s going to tell it like it is,” Chargers receiver Ladd McConkey said. “I’ll be running a route, and Dev’s over there with his phone recording me. Then we’ll look at it in slo-mo and break it down.”

During games, Woodhouse is on the sideline as a “get-back” coach — a term he doesn’t particularly like — making sure players and coaches keep a sufficient distance from the field.

As for his own emotions, he figures he will have them in check, even with his father-in-law on the opposite sideline.

Family is family, true. But football is football.

Britain’s Alfie Hewett began his bid for a third straight US Open wheelchair singles title with a commanding victory over American Charlie Cooper.

Second seed Hewett needed just 61 minutes to record a 6-0 6-2 win against the 17-year-old.

Wheelchair tennis is making its return in New York after conflicting schedules with the Paralympics meant the competition was not held last year.

Hewett, who won the title in 2022 and 2023, is chasing a second Grand Slam singles title this season after triumphing at the Australian Open in January.

His long-term doubles partner Gordon Reid won later on Wednesday, claiming a hard-fought 7-6 (7-4) 4-6 6-1 victory over Spain’s Daniel Caverzaschi after two hours and 33 minutes.

Fellow Britons Greg Slade and Andy Lapthorne also made it through to the second round of the quad singles.

Slade saved three match points before wrapping up a 6-3 4-6 7-6 (11-9) win against Brazil’s Leandro Pena, while Lapthorne – a two-time winner at the US Open – beat South African Donald Ramphadi 6-2 6-3.

In the women’s wheelchair singles, Lucy Shuker fell to a 6-3 6-0 defeat by Dutch 23-time Grand Slam champion Diede de Groot, who has yet to win a major title this season after making her comeback from hip and shoulder surgery.

The Dodgers continued their season-long celebration of last year’s World Series triumph by handing out championship rings Monday. The 49,702 people who bought tickets got replicas while Gavin Lux, who played for the Dodgers last season and is now with the Cincinnati Reds, got a real one.

If the team hopes to win more jewelry again this fall, the next five weeks will be key. Because after Monday’s 7-0 win over the Reds, the Dodgers lead San Diego by a game in the National League West with just 30 more left in the regular season for both teams.

However, if the Dodgers (75-57) continue to play as they did Monday, when Andy Pages homered twice, driving in four runs, and Emmet Sheehan threw a career-high seven scoreless innings, they’ll be tough to catch.

“The defense was just engaged, every single guy out there. The at-bats, one through nine, were great,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “It’s probably one of the better games, complete games, that we’ve played in months. I’m really, really excited about the way we played.”

Excited, too, because what started as a marathon six months ago is now a different kind of race.

“We’re in a sprint now,” said Michael Conforto, who had two hits and made two outstanding plays in left field. “We’re in a race for the division.”

And they’re a step ahead in that race with the Padres, who, like the Dodgers, have 10 series remaining, five at home and five on the road. But San Diego has the easier schedule, based on the combined winning percentage of its opponents (.474) entering the week. The Dodgers have the fourth-easiest schedule.

For Roberts, his team’s narrow margin for error is something to be embraced since it has the potential to steel his team for the postseason, as opposed to simply coasting into the playoffs.

“Competition should bring out the best in you,” he said. “So where the margins are smaller and everything matters more versus you have a big lead and you’re not playing with urgency because you don’t need to, and then have to kind of flip the switch, that’s tough.”

The Dodgers also are rapidly adding reinforcements for their playoff push. Over the weekend, relievers Tanner Scott and Kirby Yates returned from the injured list and utility player Kiké Hernández was activated Monday. Third baseman Max Muncy and infielder/outfielder Hyeseong Kim could be back by the next road trip, if not before. Utilityman Tommy Edman and pitcher Roki Sasaki likely aren’t far behind.

Then there’s Sheehan (5-2), who was brilliant Monday, pitching a career-best seven innings and matching a career high with 10 strikeouts to win his third straight decision. Sheehan gave up just two hits and walked one.

“I definitely have to build on it. Try to just keep the same progress we’ve been doing, keep that going for the next one,” Sheehan said. “It’s pretty fun. It’s a lot more fun than watching the ball go over the fence, for sure.”

For Roberts, it’s as if his team acquired a half-dozen new players.

Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts, left, celebrates with right fielder Teoscar Hernández after hitting a home run in the seventh inning against the Reds on Monday.

(Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times)

“Those are kind of deadline trades in themselves,” he said. “I do appreciate the guys that have been here, kind of grinding through. But it’s nice looking out on the horizon, seeing the guys that we got coming.”

Pages put the Dodgers in front to stay in the third Monday, driving a 102-mph fastball from Hunter Greene into the bullpen in left field. He hit another in the fifth inning for his 23rd homer of the season, second-most on the team behind Shohei Ohtani’s 45.

In the sixth, a double by Freddie Freeman and walks to Will Smith and Teoscar Hernández loaded the bases for Pages, whose two-out grounder to short got under Elly De La Cruz for a two-run error. A Mookie Betts’ homer, his second hit of the game, with one out in the seventh and a Pages’ sacrifice fly in the eighth closed out the scoring.

Relievers Jack Dreyer and Anthony Banda followed Sheehan, pitching an inning each to complete the shutout, the team’s fourth in the last 23 games.

The Dodgers had only three shutouts in the first 109 games.

Now come the reinforcements, although Kiké Hernández said he almost didn’t make it. After going on the injured list July 6 with left elbow inflammation, he tried three injections and non-invasive rehab procedures, but nothing seemed to work.

“I got to a point where I didn’t know if it was going to happen. We were pretty close to it not happening,” he said of his return. “There are some procedures that I went through that didn’t do anything. I went through four shots in a month, and [the] first three didn’t do anything, and luckily the fourth one was the answer.

“After the last shot, I was pain free.”

Hernández said he expected to start in left field Tuesday. He joins the Dodgers just in time for their sprint to the finish.

“It’s playoff-atmosphere games from here on out,” he said. “Hopefully it brings out the best in people and also teaches the younger guys that when the time comes and we’re in October, the moment doesn’t get too big for them.”

Handy Andy – real name Andy Kane – was a hugely popular member of the Changing Rooms team with viewers. But what has he been up to since he left the show in 2004?

Popular 90s DIY show Changing Rooms was a firm favourite on our screens, but the cast look very different to nowadays.

Viewers of the BBC show tuned in weekly to see the team take on some major home transformations, making the stars of the show household names in the process.

Hosted by Carol Smillie, Changing Rooms drew in a whopping 10 million viewers at its peak on BBC One and created some iconic moments – who can forget when a £6,000 teapot collection was destroyed in one fell swoop by a floating shelf in series 8?

Designers Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, Linda Barker, and Anna Ryder Richardson were the ones tasked with helping members of the public transform a room in someone else’s house – be it a friend, family member or neighbour. And then to help them make it a reality, the show’s handyman, Handy Andy (Andy Kane) swooped in.

READ MORE: Where is Heartbeat’s Nick Berry and the rest of the cast now? From tragic deaths to co-star romance

DIY expert Andy appeared on the show from 1996-2004 and was a key player in the transformation process. But what has he been up to in the years since?

After the show ended, Andy landed a role on the American version of the programme, named Trading Spaces, and he also presented three shows for UK Style, Room Rival , Garden Rivals and Streetcombers.

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One of his biggest programmes was Increase Your House Price By Ten Grand, which saw Andy work with a team to increase a house’s value by £10,000 in just three days with a £1,000 budget.

Andy has also appeared on I’m Famous And Frightened, Cirque de Celebrite and The Adam And Joe Show, and he has hosted a number of BBC Primary Geography programmes since 2008. He is happily married to his wife Geraldine and together they have four children.

Andy was a popular member of the team and the chatty Cockney proved to be a big hit with viewers too. While he frequently impressed with his DIY, it didn’t always go to plan, and he later spoke about his most major mishap – when the teapot collection was destroyed.

Designer Linda had commissioned a floating shelf to house them but weighed it down with heavy books, causing the shelf to collapse overnight.

Andy told the Metro: “It went wrong because they put too much weight on it. The shelf was obviously just for show and just the teapots on it would have been fine, but then they started loading up with books at the bottom.

“I did say at the time that books are very heavy but they carried on and you know, it’s one of them things. When it happened, it was really, really awful, everyone felt really bad, but now you just laugh about it. But it was good entertainment, wasn’t it?

“In other episodes of the show they’d mount chairs on the wall or hang chairs from ceilings and as a builder, you’re like ‘really?!’, but that’s interior design for you.”

EX-England footie ace Andy Carroll has revealed he is back with girlfriend Lou Teasdale after a stormy split — and vowed to cut down on booze to save their relationship.

Opening up about his feelings for stylist Lou in an exclusive interview with the Sun on Sunday, Andy said: “I love Lou and I love her family. We row like any couple.”

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The pair have been dating since his split last summer from ex-wife and former Towie star Billi Mucklow, 37. They are currently divorcing.

The 36-year-old former Premier League star said: “Things have been difficult for me and I’m going through a divorce.

“Some of our rows have been about alcohol, as Lou has been teetotal for 14 years and I have a beer or wine at dinner and a drink after the game, but it’s not a problem in my life.

“I’m a professional footballer and that’s not the case. I play sport every single day so my level of fitness is really good. I play football every day so I’m fit.”

The Sun revealed on Wednesday the couple had split, with Andy unfollowing celebrity make-up artist Lou, 41, on social media.

But now he has told The Sun on Sunday that after a misunderstanding in Spain, he and Lou have patched things up.

Former Liverpool and Newcastle striker Andy, who now plays for non-league Dagenham & Redbridge FC, said: “We’re better off together and we’re trying to work through our difficulties.”

In June, we reported Carroll was twice quizzed by police over bust-ups with Lou during a break on Greek party island Mykonos.

He was questioned about rows with her at a packed beachside restaurant and then at their hotel.

He was taken to the police station after the second incident.

Speaking about the restaurant incident now, Andy — pictured with Lou, above, as he signed for his new club last month — insisted: “There was no alcohol involved. We argued about me having three coffees in the morning. She was worried I was addicted to coffee and it went from there.”

A joint statement from them at the time said: “Whilst having a private dinner in a restaurant on a quiet holiday in Mykonos, we had a heated discussion of the sort that most couples have had on occasion.

“It quickly became apparent to the police that there was no reason for them to be there.”

It added: “As far as we are concerned, the situation has been blown out of all proportion by an interested member of the public.

“No one was arrested and no one was charged with anything.

“We are very happy, in love and looking forward to our future together and we are disappointed that a private disagreement has become a public matter.”

I don’t want to be with Lou anymore… she gives me ultimatums about everything

What Andy told us last week

Andy returned to England last month, having left French fourth-tier side Bordeaux to play for Dagenham & Redbridge and to be close to his children, who live in Essex.

He said: “I just want to focus on my kids. They’re more important than anything. I’m loving life back in England.

“Obviously when I was working in France, I was there alone, and I was out with the lads a lot. Now I’m back home with the kids and it’s just a different way of life.”

Last September, the Sun on Sunday reported Andy and Billi, who have three children, were divorcing after two years of marriage.

The couple started dating in 2013, soon after he joined West Ham.
And he popped the question during a romantic holiday in Rome in 2014.

That year Billi said: “He is one of the most genuine and caring people I have ever met.”

Gateshead-born Carroll, who has two children from a previous relationship, has often been in the news over his romps, brawls and court cases.

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He said meeting Billi turned his life around.

Carroll’s boyhood dreams came true when he began his professional football career with Newcastle United in 2006.

The big centre-forward was soon a hit with Toon fans, following in the footsteps of another local idol Alan Shearer.

In 2009-10, Carroll scored 17 goals in 39 games, and 11 in nine games the following season.

In 2011, he earned a £35million transfer to Liverpool, a then record fee for a British player.

At his peak he was picked for England in nine games between 2010-2012, including scoring against Sweden at Euro 2012.

I love Lou and I love her family, we row like any couple

What he told us this week

He was sold by Liverpool to West Ham but struggled with a series of injuries.

His career saw him moving on to a succession of clubs including back to Newcastle, later to Reading and then West Brom.

Carroll’s career, although full of ups and downs, has brought him enormous sums of money.

In May 2019, he was listed as the 14th wealthiest sports person aged 30 or under in The Sunday Times Rich List.

His fortune at the time was said to have increased to £19million.