Bell

MONDAY’S RESULTS

CITY SECTION

Bell 24, South East 0

Birmingham 46, Chatsworth 0

Diego 12, TEACH Tech 7

Dorsey 45, Dymally 0

Dorsey 19, Washington 6

Eagle Rock 60, Roybal 0

El Camino Real 18, Taft 0

Fremont 30, Hawkins 8

GALA 7, Fremont 0

GALA 13, Hawkins 6

Garfield 18, Bell 8

Jefferson 40, West Adams 0

Jefferson d. Stella, forfeit

L.A. Marshall 47, Bernstein 21

Lincoln 20, Roybal 0

Panorama 39, Chavez 0

Panorama 28, Chavez 0

San Pedro 13, Narbonne 6

San Pedro 19, King/Drew 0

Santee 10, Manual Arts 0

Santee 29, Los Angeles 0

South East 18, South Gate 6

West Adams d. Stella, forfeit

Wilmington Banning 12, Carson 0

SOUTHERN SECTION

Alemany 26, Village Christian 12

Anaheim 26, Estancia 0

Anaheim Canyon 19, Crean Lutheran 12

Antelope Valley 26, Knight 0

Beckman 34, Aliso Niguel 32

Bellflower 20, Fairmont Prep 6

Bishop Amat 26, Ontario Christian 0

Brentwood 41, Immaculate Heart 0

California 25, Santa Fe 12

Canyon Springs 32, San Gorgonio 6

Channel Islands 38, Fillmore 0

Chaparral 8, Murrieta Mesa 0

Chino 12, Don Lugo 0

Chino Hills 27, St. Lucy’s 12

Compton Early College 32, Compton Centennial 0

Corona del Mar 26, El Modena 12

Corona Santiago 24, Eastvale Roosevelt 22

Covina 13, Hacienda Heights Wilson 13

Dominguez 24, La Mirada 14

Eastside 27, Littlerock 0

Edison 21, Los Alamitos 6

Etiwanda 13, Rancho Cucamonga 0

Fullerton 43, Tustin 7

Gabrielino 40, Arroyo 18

Great Oak 13, Temecula Valley 6

Hart 14, Saugus 0

Hemet 46, Riverside North 0

Highland 6, Quartz Hill 0

Huntington Beach 40, Fountain Valley 12

Indio 18, Palm Springs 7

Keppel 20, Bell Gardens 6

Lancaster 45, Palmdale 0

La Serna 24, Whittier 0

La Palma Kennedy 19, Laguna Hills 13

Loma Linda Academy 24, La Sierra 19

Los Amigos 25, Magnolia 0

Millikan 48, Long Beach Cabrillo 0

Newport Harbor 45, Marina 6

Norco 32, Corona 14

Norte Vista 14, Ramona 8

Northwood 33, Rosary Academy 12

Ontario 33, Montclair 19

Orange 54, Pomona 0

Palos Verdes 46, Peninsula 6

Portola 33, Irvine University 0

Redlands Adventist Academy 20, Patriot 7

Riverside King 25, Corona Centennial 19

Rowland 21, Northview 12

Saddleback 46, Western 8

San Dimas 38, Colony 6

San Marino 20, La Canada 19

Santa Ana Valley 13, Bolsa Grande 12

Santa Paula 41, Hueneme 0

Schurr 32, Montebello 0

Segerstrom 13, Westminster 7

South El Monte 20, El Monte 0

South Hills 7, Alta Loma 0

Tesoro 27, Capistrano Valley 0

Upland 53, Los Osos 25

Valencia 13, Golden Valley 6

Vasquez 13, Castaic 6

Warren 46, Norwalk 0

West Covina 30, Charter Oak 6

Western Christian 18, Linfield Christian 12

Woodbridge 33, Sage Hill 7

TUESDAY’S RESULTS

SOUTHERN SECTION

Ayala 18, Glendora 0

Burbank Burroughs 13, Paramount 6

Cajon 30, Beaumont 14

Camarillo 38, Royal 7

Canyon Springs 32, Lakeside 6

Citrus Valley 27, Yucaipa 0

El Modena , El Dorado

El Toro 18, Mission Viejo 12

Eitwanda 19, Upland 18

Indio 18, Palm Desert 14

Inglewood 38, Beverly Hills 0

JSerra 25, Mater Dei 0

Lakewood St. Joseph 26, St. Mary’s Academy 6

Lawndale 32, Leuzinger 13

Los Osos 34, St. Lucy’s 12

Newbury Park 39, Thousand Oaks 20

Nogales 14, Rowland 0

Norte Vista 14, Loma Linda Academy 13

Nuview 13, California Military Institute 6

Ontario 21, Chaffey 7

Orange Lutheran 28, Santa Margarita 2

Oxnard 38, Buena 0

Patriot 52, La Sierra 0

Ramona 20, Redlands Adventist Academy 6

Rancho Cucamonga 25, Chino Hills 6

Redlands East Valley 33, Redlands 0

Redondo Union 20, Mira Costa 0

Riverside North 19, Riverside Poly 6

San Clemente 38, Tesoro 25

San Marcos 40, Oxnard Pacifica 0

Santa Fe 21, Orange 6

Santa Monica 33, Culver City 0

SEED: L.A. 6, Providence 0

Segerstrom 19, La Palma Kennedy 12

South Torrance 25, North Torrance 15

Temecula Prep 18, San Jacinto Valley Academy 7

Torrance 40, West Torrance 6

Trabuco Hills 25, San Juan Hills 13

Workman 19, La Puente 6

INTERSECTIONAL

Chaminade 26, El Camino Real 7

Bell’s main strength when she first emerged in international cricket was her ability to swing the ball extravagantly into the right-handed batter, but she spent most of 2024 remodelling her action to add more strings to her bow.

Now swinging the ball both ways and with canny variations in pace, Bell is England’s strike powerplay bowler and her confidence when bowling in that phase – often seen as one of the most difficult – shows the belief and strength in her mental approach to the game.

“You’re obviously bowling at the best batters, but I look at it the other way in that I’m the new-ball bowler, I get to swing the ball, so you know it’s a huge chance for wickets,” said Bell.

“In my head, it’s the best time to bowl. My mindset is that this is an opportunity for me to set up a game.

“I love opening the bowling, I love that it presents me with an opportunity for wickets rather than fearing that they might see it as an easy time to score boundaries.”

Head coach Charlotte Edwards left experienced seamer Kate Cross out of England’s squad, meaning extra responsibility has shifted to Bell’s shoulders in the pace attack with Em Arlott and Lauren Filer as the other frontline seamers, and captain Nat Sciver-Brunt playing as an all-rounder.

The conditions in Guwahati, where England will play their opener against South Africa, have been extremely humid and will be challenging, as all teams experienced during last year’s T20 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates.

For Bell, who could be opening the bowling with spinners and therefore having little time for rest, this has been a consideration.

“We’ve done so much work on that behind the scenes that nobody would’ve seen,” she said.

“During The Hundred we did all these running sessions, top-up sessions after games and that’s the bit nobody will see.

“Especially for me as a seamer, I want to make sure that I’m bowling as fast as I can in the last over of the tournament as I am in the first.”

It may be Bell’s first World Cup, but she could be one of England’s most important players in it.

From the boredom in quarantine to the first ball in Guwahati, it has been a remarkable rise.

HIGH SCHOOL FLAG FOOTBALL

WEDNESDAY’S RESULTS

CITY SECTION

Bell 58, Bernstein 6

Cleveland 26, San Fernando 0

Eagle Rock 35, Sylmar 8

Fremont 20, Santee 13

Jefferson 24, Bell 12

Jefferson 32, Bernstein 7

LA Marshall 27, Verdugo Hills 13

LA Wilson 18, Hawkins 0

LA Wilson 42, Manual Arts 0

Narbonne 61, Fremont 6

Narbonne 50, Santee 0

North Hollywood 13, LA Hamilton 0

Panorama 64, Monroe 0

Roosevelt 25, Crenshaw 8

Roosevelt 21, Sotomayor 0

San Fernando 25, Arleta 0

San Pedro 25, Marshall 6

San Pedro 26, Verdugo Hills 7

SOUTHERN SECTION

Alemany 20, La Palma Kennedy 18

Aliso Niguel 33, Sunny Hills 7

Anaheim Canyon 57, La Mirada 0

Azusa 20, Pomona 0

Banning 31, Indian Springs 6

Beaumont 45, Redlands 6

Beckman 44, Sunny Hills 13

Bishop Amat 12, La Serna 6

Bonita 26, Northview 2

Bolsa Grande 40, Saddleback 18

Burbank Burroughs 19, Ramona Convent 0

California 56, Baldwin Park 7

Cajon 20, Burbank Burroughs 6

Camarillo 53, Thousand Oaks 6

Castaic 12, Saugus 6

Chaffey 33, Colony 6

Compton 18, Compton Early College 0

Corona Santiago 20, Great Oak 0

Costa Mesa 37, Los Amigos 0

Crean Lutheran 38, Paramount 12

Cypress 27, Lakewood 6

Desert Hot Springs 34, Rancho Mirage 6

Downey 34, La Serna 0

Duarte 10, Workman 6

Eastvale Roosevelt 24, Rancho Cucamonga 18

Edison 52, Anaheim 2

El Monte 24, Arroyo 0

Elsinore 33, West Valley 7

El Toro 33, Corona Centennial 6

Etiwanda 21, Corona Santiago 6

Fullerton 14, Placentia Valencia 8

Garden Grove 25, Westminster La Quinta 0

Glendora 7, Hacienda Heights Wilson 0

Hart 18, Saugus 0

Highland 34, Knight 6

Immaculate Heart 7, Village Christian 0

JSerra 26, Warren 12

Jurupa Hills 39, Fontana 6

Kaiser 32, Colton 0

Laguna Hills 25, Westminster 19

La Habra 26, El Dorado 6

Lancaster 20, Eastside 6

La Palma Kennedy 28, Tustin 6

Linfield Christian 52, Claremont 13

Long Beach Poly 28, Long Beach Jordan 0

Long Beach Wilson 25, Long Beach Cabrillo 8

Montclair 12, Rowland 6

Montebello 12, South El Monte 0

Newbury Park 32, Simi Valley 7

Newport Harbor 19, Huntington Beach 13

Norco 14, Murrieta Valley 7

Norwalk 18, Sacred Heart of Jesus 0

Ontario Christian 25, Anaheim 19

Orange 32, Garden Grove Santiago 6

Orange Lutheran 40, Fullerton 0

Palos Verdes 40, Bishop Montgomery 0

Placentia Valencia 25, Segerstrom 13

Portola 27, Rosary Academy 12

Quartz Hill 19, Palmdale 0

Rancho Alamitos 21, Ocean View 6

Redlands East Valley 52, Citrus Valley 6

Riverside Poly 28, Arlington 0

Rosemead 6, Gabrielino 0

San Gorgonio 61, Rim of the World 0

San Jacinto Valley Academy 18, Nuview Bridge 0

San Juan Hills 7, El Modena 0

San Marcos 47, Buena 0

San Marino 52, Alhambra 12

Santa Ana Foothill 32, Godinez 6

Santa Fe 13, Bell Gardens 6

Sonora 12, Garden Grove 6

South Hills 13, Los Osos 6

St. Bernard 12, Culver City 0

St. Lucy’s 55, Edgewood 0

St. Paul 26, Buena Park 20

Summit 25, Rialto 0

Tahquitz 19, San Jacinto 0

Temecula Prep 35, California Military Institute 6

Tesoro 46, Corona 14

Upland 19, Bishop Amat 14

Vasquez 18, Castaic 12

Villa Park 46, Katella 0

Vista del Lago 36, Lakeside 0

Warren 20, Schurr 7

Western Christian 25, Upland 20

West Ranch 21, Hart 6

Woodbridge 44, Laguna Beach 8

INTERSECTIONAL

Bishop Alemany 20, Granada Hills Kennedy 18

Eagle Rock 53, Keppel 0

Sylmar 32, Keppel 0

THURSDAY’S RESULTS

CITY SECTION

Eagle Rock 28, Bell 0

Elizabeth 19, WISH Academy 14

Sherman Oaks CES 40, AMIT 0

Sun Valley Magnet 60, Valor Academy 0

SOUTHERN SECTION

Anaheim Canyon 28, Aliso Niguel 13

Antelope Valley 19, Quartz Hill 6

Brentwood 38, Shalhevet 0

Chino 12, Vista del Lago 0

Culver City 20, Beverly Hills 13

Dos Pueblos 15, San Marcos 14

Foothill 21, Rosary Academy 6

Godinez 19, Westminster La Quinta 0

Hacienda Heights Wilson 26, La Canada 12

Highland 20, Lancaster 18

Inglewood 9, Leuzinger 6

Knight 47, Littlerock 0

Lakewood St. Joseph 32, Corona del Mar 6

Lawndale 50, Hawthorne 12

Long Beach Wilson 14, Santa Ana 13

Newbury Park 40, Oaks Christian 0

Orange Lutheran 53, Northwood 0

Oxnard 32, Oxnard Pacifica 6

Palmdale 6, Eastside 0

Santa Paula 39, Del Sol 0

Saugus 31, Fillmore 6

Torrance 27, South Torrance 0

Ventura 41, Buena 0

West Ranch 27, Canyon Country Canyon 6

INTERSECTIONAL

Ayala 20, Tuscaloosa (Ala.) Northridge 6

Ayala 18, Tuscaloosa (Ala.) Northridge 0

Merced 24, Bellflower 12

Wilmington Banning 32, Gahr 19

Gogglebox fan favourite Georgia Bell has had fans sending their support after she shared an emotional announcement online

A cherished Gogglebox favourite has received overwhelming support from devoted viewers following her heartfelt family revelation.

Georgia Bell initially appeared on the Channel 4 programme in 2018 alongside best mate Abbie Lynn. It’s safe to say the pair quickly won over audiences with their infectious charm.

Throughout the years, Georgia and Abbie – who reside in Durham – have left viewers in hysterics with their brilliant quips and amusing commentary on television’s finest moments.

Beyond the programme, hairdresser Georgia is a devoted mother to two boys, Hugh – who arrived in July 2022 – and Ralphie – who was born in November 2024 – with partner Josh Newby, reports the Manchester Evening News.

Recently, Georgia expressed her melancholy in a touching family revelation. Posting to her Instagram account, the Channel 4 personality shared multiple photographs of baby Ralphie.

In her message, she disclosed to followers: “Maternity leave comes to an end tomorrow. An absolute rollercoaster it’s been, transitioning to a family of 5 welcoming our little Ralphie into the world.

“I feel like l’ve learnt so much more to motherhood this time round and I couldn’t feel any luckier to have our perfect little family.

“There’s been so many highs, absolute chaos, laughs, tears, tantrums and most importantly unconditional love.”

Delivering a relationship update, Georgia continued: “Even having more time with Hugh has been so special we have two happy and healthy boys and that’s all I could ever wish for. Onto the next chapter.”

Supporters quickly filled the comments section with messages of encouragement for Georgia. One fan penned: “It will be difficult you got this you have a beautiful family love watching your stories.xx.”

Another chimed in: “All the best in your new chapter, it will be worth it as you have an evening of family time together, with new conversations and new routines. You will be fine.”

Her Gogglebox colleague Abbie also expressed her admiration, stating: “Extremely proud of you Ge! You are the bestest mama to the most beautiful boys!”.

Gogglebox series 26 is scheduled to begin on Friday, September 5th, 2025, on Channel 4.

PA Media

PA Media

‘Sidestepped scrutiny’

There was perhaps no better reaction than that of Dobson, who appeared stunned after coming from seemingly nowhere with 100m remaining to beat world-class competition.

Olympic and world silver medallist Hudson-Smith crossed the line second in 44.27, ahead of South Africa’s Zakithi Nene, who has run the fastest time in the world this year with 43.76.

“I don’t know what happened,” Dobson told BBC Sport.

“I got to the last 100m and I felt great. I was catching everyone. I thought to myself, ‘If I just dig really deep then I can get them’ – and I did!”

Having already clinched victory in the women’s high jump with her second-time clearance at 1.96m, Lake thrived under the gaze of the entire crowd and went close to breaking her British record with three solid attempts at 2m.

While Kerr could not deliver the record-breaking finale he hoped to, he will take lessons from his loss to Koech and has time on his side with two months until his world title defence in Tokyo.

“I should be winning those so I am frustrated,” said Kerr.

“I really wanted to show up and win for this crowd but all I can promise to them now is in a few months’ time I will be battling for a gold medal for this country. I’ll bring it home and then everyone can see what we were working towards today.”

Former 200m world champion Asher-Smith overhauled Hunt as she crossed the line in 22.25 seconds, with the ever-improving Hunt, 23, clocking 22.31.

But Olympic 100m champion Alfred proved a class above, recording the joint-ninth fastest 200m of all time as she stormed to victory in 21.71.

Ireland’s Rhasidat Adeleke was fourth in 22.52, with Daryll Neita sixth in 22.69.

OKLAHOMA CITY — On the day that the U.S. Senate publicly spurned gay and lesbian activists, Helen and Tina Stiefmiller straggled home from their jobs, exchanged embraces and office news and began the usual litany of domestic chores and pastimes.

Over a dinner of takeout chicken, they discussed an unexpected plumbing problem and its impact on the household budget. They agreed to spend the weekend fishing with Tina’s mother and stepfather at a nearby lake. They watched a television documentary about one of Helen’s personal and professional passions: Native Americans. As Helen patiently sewed beading onto a Native American doll outfit, Tina mused happily about the prospect of the two raising children together.

Only hours before, the Senate had narrowly defeated a bill that would have made it illegal for most employers to discriminate against gay men and lesbians. And in an even more resounding message to homosexuals, the upper chamber overwhelmingly approved the Defense of Marriage Act. The legislation, which President Clinton signed into law early Saturday morning, would allow states to disregard gay and lesbian marriages performed in other states. It defines marriage, for federal purposes, as a union between a man and a woman.

*

On the floor of the Senate, lawmakers had brandished Bibles, invoked historians, cited legal scholars and thundered about the sanctity of heterosexual marriage, the preconditions of the nation’s greatness and the responsibilities of lawmakers to preserve and protect the traditional family.

But for Tina and Helen, the Senate’s rhetoric, the subsequent votes and Clinton’s signature are strangely irrelevant. Three years ago this November, the Stiefmillers legally merged their names (from Tina Stief and Helen Miller), exchanged matching rings and recited vows of commitment in a ceremony attended by 300 guests. Today, the couple look forward to the possibility that Helen could be pregnant as a result of a donor-insemination procedure that she underwent only days before the Sept. 10 Senate vote on the marriage measure.

“In many ways it hasn’t changed anything,” Tina said of the measure. “I didn’t lose the right to legally marry because I didn’t have it before. We’ve known all along that if we waited for some type of societal or governmental recognition of our marriage, we might never be married. For us, regardless of what the Senate does, we’ve made those vows; we’re married.”

In places such as Oklahoma City, where homosexuals are a quiet presence rather than a political force, gay and lesbian couples took the news with a measure of both resignation and equanimity. For now, about the best they can hope for is that the Defense of Marriage Act is but a temporary setback in the gradual assimilation of same-sex couples into mainstream culture.

Judging from the experiences of same-sex partners here in America’s heartland, that process is proceeding with or without the nation’s political consent.

“History is very helpful to me in this: I don’t know of any social-change movement that hasn’t had some losses,” Tina said after the vote. “People keep trying–they get knocked back, and they get up and keep going. I can look at the struggles of lots of groups and know that nobody ever had immediate success.

“I want to be a happy person, have a fulfilling relationship, have children,” she continued. “So I’m going to go ahead and do those things regardless.”

Helen and Tina are products of the heartland, and they want all of the heartland stuff–the marriage, the kids, the white picket fence. Long after the years of car-pooling and soccer games and PTA are over, the Stiefmillers envision their lives together in retirement: an RV and a fishing boat, a garden and kids–lots of grandkids–to complete and carry on their family.

“In 30 years, when we’re still together, maybe we’ll be role models for straight and gay couples,” said Helen, 33, a museum curator and historian in Guthrie, Okla. By then, she added hopefully, “we’ll be obsolete as activists.”

Enactment of the Defense of Marriage Act ensures that, for the foreseeable future, Tina will get no health insurance through Helen’s state-funded job. It means that there will be no implicit understanding about inheritance and no legal certainty that each woman could make medical decisions for the other in an emergency. If the law stands, it mandates that neither will have a right to survivor benefits accrued by her mate during a lifetime of work.

As the nation’s tolerance of gays and lesbians has increased over time, activists had hoped, at least, for these things. More subtly, they have longed for the acceptance into mainstream American life that they believe legal recognition would bring.

That is something that even the defeat of the Defense of Marriage Act could not have given them. But its approval is a stark reminder of how far from that goal they are.

“Some people are very frightened by us, and I’ve yet to figure it out,” said Jack Wozniak, a 44-year-old Oklahoma City resident. He and partner Don Hanks, who have been together for 13 years, celebrated their relationship six years ago in a garden ceremony that brought family and friends together.

“I forget,” Wozniak said. “I’m so fortunate in my life, my work situation, my circle of friends.

“I forget that it’s an issue with people, that there are people who hate me or are frightened by me,” he said. “And when something like this happens, it’s like I’m looking at it all over again for the first time.”

Wozniak, managing editor of the Gayly Oklahoman, a weekly newspaper for gays and lesbians, sees the gay-marriage issue as a simple matter of civil rights.

“We should be able to use the same terms for our relationships that everybody else uses for theirs,” he said. “If we accept another term for the same thing, we’re separating ourselves. And we all know that separate-but-equal doesn’t work.”

*

Since the introduction of the Defense of Marriage Act four months ago, gay and lesbian activists have watched, disheartened, as it moved steadily toward becoming law. In July, the measure won approval in the House on a 342-67 vote, with almost two-thirds of Democrats voting in favor. It was approved by the Senate on an equally lopsided 85-14 vote. As he signed the bill at 12:50 a.m. EDT Saturday, Clinton noted that he has always opposed legal recognition of same-sex unions.

The legislative success of the Defense of Marriage Act owes much to the American public’s deep discomfort with same-sex marriage. In a poll conducted for Newsweek magazine in May, 58% of respondents said they opposed extending legal recognition to such unions, while just 33% approved of such state recognition. About 44% agreed with the argument made by the bill’s authors that legal recognition of gay marriage would undermine traditional marriage between heterosexuals.

Supporters of the legislation said it is needed because a Hawaii Supreme Court case threatens to redefine marriage throughout the nation. Still awaiting final resolution, the Hawaii ruling tentatively concluded that to deny gay and lesbian couples marital rights would be discriminatory and contrary to the state’s constitution. If the court ultimately holds that same-sex marriages are allowable, other states might have been obliged to honor such unions performed in Hawaii. The Defense of Marriage Act states that no state is required to recognize homosexual marriages performed outside their borders.

*

In places such as Oklahoma City, where gay men and lesbians live and work and form couples against a backdrop of conservative values, the Hawaii case has encouraged longings that many had never dared entertain before.

“I never considered marriage a possibility in my life–it was never going to happen,” Wozniak said. “All of the discussion about marriage now has made me excited about it, and I’ve really become adamant about it. I not only want it, I damn well want it. Because now there’s a glimmer of hope. Now we might be able to be accepted.”

Some gay and lesbian activists have argued that the Defense of Marriage Act is not an issue on which the homosexual community should make its stand, but others say it is a fight from which they cannot walk away.

The right to marry–and to have one’s commitment recognized by the state–is a right too fundamental, they say, to be subject to further compromise. And the respect they hope that right would bring is a hope too cherished now to give up.

“You have to do it,” said John Doneti, a 33-year-old Oklahoma City social worker who considers himself married to 36-year-old Terry Dennison. “You have to wake up and yell and scream and fight and fight. You may get set a of couple steps back in the process, but you have to do it.”

Doneti and Dennison send each other red roses on the anniversary of their first date. They have been together since that date 12 years ago. While the two have made no public commitments to each other, they are so much a couple that they have outlasted many straight friends’ unions. They often cannot agree on where to go out to dinner when neither wants to cook, but they have an agreed tiebreaker– a friendly neighborhood restaurant–when the bickering threatens to become too intense. They have an uneasy truce over who mows the lawn (John) and who does the laundry and cleans the kitchen and bathroom (Terry).

In their quiet, tree-lined neighborhood, straight neighbors lounge with them on the hood of their car on languid summer weekends, sharing neighborhood gossip. An elderly neighbor gratefully accepts Doneti’s offer to mow her lawn and clear the ravenous bagworms, sending over a pot-roast dinner in appreciation.

In the Stiefmillers’ neighborhood, 79-year-old retiree Dale Webster used to amble off his front porch every now and then and, in a grandfatherly way, ask Tina and Helen when they were going to go off and get married. He did not, of course, mean to each other.

*

As the women’s relationship became more evident, Webster halted the misguided inquiries. But he and his wife, Wanda, have remained friendly. Wanda, who is 69, declines to comment on the Stiefmillers’ lifestyle. But she volunteers that she and her husband “get a kick out of them” as the two “buddies” come and go on their camping trips, play with their dogs and tend the garden between their houses. Helen regularly mows the Websters’ lawn, Wanda noted. “They’re very good neighbors,” she said.

Doneti sees such acceptance as a measure of progress. But the overwhelming popularity of the Defense of Marriage Act bears witness to the difficulties still facing gays and lesbians in their battle for acceptance.

“You’ll know we have arrived,” Doneti said, “when gay people can live in suburbia and just be people–not the two fags, but the couple down the street.”

Bell will return to Waratahs after his sabbatical, with his contract running through to the end of 2027.

Waratahs head coach Dan McKellar said the club were “supportive” of his decision to join Ulster to continue his “personal growth”.

“He’s a young man, who came straight out of school into the Waratahs system, and we think the time at Ulster will be good for his development on and off the field, which ultimately will help the Waratahs long term,” he said.

Bell’s arrival later this year will continue the trend of southern-hemisphere players joining Irish provinces on short-term deals.

New Zealand international Jordie Barrett is nearing the end of his stint with Leinster having joined in December, with his All Blacks team-mate Rieko Ioane set to arrive at the end of 2025.

The announcement of Bell’s short-term deal comes on the same day Ulster confirmed the departure of New Zealand-born fly-half Aidan Morgan by “mutual consent”.

Ulster have already signed South African back row Juarno Augustus from Northampton Saints before next season, while loose-head Andy Warwick was among several departures at the end of the 2024-25 campaign.

The province pulled off a major coup in 2022 when they landed South Africa’s World Cup-winning loose-head Steven Kitshoff, but he left after just one season.

Murphy’s side are hoping to bounce back after a miserable season in which they missed out on the United Rugby Championship (URC) play-offs and qualification for next season’s Investec Champions Cup.