Phil

The sight of the fit-again Ollie Rathbone – last year’s player of the season – in the matchday squad for the first time since early pre-season adds weight to those sentiments.

At the same time, Parkinson is unlikely to be swayed in ignoring the steady progress so far, even if many fans saw the Stoke display as a step backwards.

While the run of games will bring pressure, it also brings opportunity, with Kieffer Moore among those adamant that Wrexham are not far from clicking and that they will be a real threat when they do.

Before the next international break – and all inside the space of three weeks – Wrexham also have games against Portsmouth and Charlton Athletic, even if the Addicks have done eye-catchingly well since their own promotion.

And then there is the small matter of the chance to reach the quarter-finals of the EFL Cup when they welcome Welsh rivals Cardiff City.

Get it right and Wrexham will have people talking for all the right reasons. Something Parkinson will know full well.

“We need to just analyse the performance and not get too down about it,” Parkinson said.

“It says something about how far we’ve come that we come to Stoke in front of 25,000 and are disappointed not to get something from the game.

“But we have got to look at ourselves. I think it’s good to be frustrated, I think it’s good to be a bit annoyed and that we don’t have pats on the back and say ‘Oh, we’ve come to Stoke and done okay’.

“They are a good group of lads who are working really hard and I’m excited about what we’ve got in the building, I really am.

“We have taken a knock, but we’ll come back fighting on Wednesday.”

And with plenty looking hard at Wrexham – and maybe even looking for them to fail – a win would do much to wrestle back control of that narrative.

British vloggers Dan Howell and Phil Lester — known for their gaming and comedic slice-of-life style videos — are taking ownership of their long-rumored romance after more than a decade of incessant fan “shipping” online.

The longtime collaborators revealed Monday that they have been dating for more than a decade, pretty much since they gained popularity in the late aughts. The YouTubers confirmed they have been an item in a 46-minute video titled “Are Dan and Phil in a Relationship?”

“We fell into it hard and fast in 2009,” Howell, 34, said. “And here we are almost 16 years later.”

Before Howell and Lester, 38, spoke about the origins of their couple-dom, the YouTubers— who both came out as gay in 2019 — talked extensively about why they waited go public with their relationship. First, they tackled some fans’ obsessive behavior.

Howell and Lester began appearing in each other’s YouTube videos in the late aughts and eventually, in 2014, launched their shared gaming channel — that page currently boasts 2.95 million subscribers. The pair documented their lives together, opening the door for fans to speculate on their relationship and foster a parasocial connection, Howell explained in the video. Among the most prominent internet personalities at the time, Howell and Lester often became the subject of fan fiction and fan edits on Tumblr.

“Some think that shipping real-life people is problematic. I think that humans cannot stop this natural tendency,” Howell said, later adding that “a line gets crossed” when fan speculation turns into investigation.

The pair recalled fans combing through their old social media posts, reaching out to their loved ones and filming them out in the real world. “If all this digging, investigating was small it could’ve been ignored,” Lester said.

“The problem is this became so big we could not ignore it,” Howell continued.

Howell and Lester also recalled fans dissecting their on-camera interactions and spreading the romance rumors during live events. Ultimately, the rumors became “too loud to ignore,” Lester said.

Howell said he was wary about how going public with Lester would impact their professional dynamic and spoke candidly about how his struggles with his sexuality affected their relationship.

“I had an extremely homophobic childhood,” Howell said, adding that the constant fan pressure to address the rumors took a toll on his mental health. He said that when he and Lester gained popularity he felt he “had to hide the relationship because I was still hiding who I was to my friends, family, myself.”

Online chatter didn’t help and “hit a nerve,” he said. Howell said Lester was “like a literal ray of light in my life back then” and committed to protecting their relationship.

“So when other people tried to grab it and drag it into the light, I felt completely violated,” Howell continued. “Having all of these people trying to out us and being so hostile to me when I tried to hide it was so triggering. Honestly, it could’ve killed me.”

Lester added: “It’s sad because those should’ve been the happiest times of our life. It was so amazing and we were having so much fun personally.”

Invasive fan behavior hung over their success “like a curse” and that led to anxiety and panic attacks, Howell said. Lester also recalled a “breaking point” in their relationship where a personal video leaked on YouTube and spread online, with re-posters refusing to take it down.

As they acknowledged the negative impact of some fans’ invasive behavior, the YouTubers said they don’t hold a grudge. Howell said the skeptics “were just young people that had absolutely no idea what the effects of their actions were.”

“In the same way that we all want people in our lives to give us patience and grace and benefit of the doubt if we ever make a mistake, I have to extend that to the world in regards to this story,” he added. “So I understand and I forgive.”

Howell and Lester, whose work also includes BBC Radio programming and several live tours, ended their video announcing the launch of a new podcast.

Gustavo Dudamel has begun his tale of two cities.

As Dickens prophetically reminds us, ours is hardly the first age of wisdom and of foolishness, the first epoch of belief and of incredulity. Dudamel’s great challenge is to make his 17th and final season as music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic — and his prelude season before taking over the New York Philharmonic (in September he officially became designate music and artistic director) — the best of musical times for both cities.

The opening concerts for the two orchestras were two weeks apart, the Big Apple having come first. The main works on the New York-centric program were by two great 20th century composers, Bartók and Charles Ives, who were treated as outsiders by the city’s musical establishments during their lifetimes.

The performances were impressive. An orchestra that has a reputation for being difficult was responsive. If I read the room right, there was a genuine, if somewhat guarded, sense of optimism from a welcoming crowd.

Following a tradition he started with his first season in L.A., Dudamel opened with a newly commissioned work, Leilehua Lanzilotti’s “of light and stone.” He struck instant sonic gold with this mystical evocation of Hawaii, wondrous in sound, Lanzilotti, a hopeful good start.

Dudamel has a different look these days when he walks out on stage for an L.A. Phil concert after he’s been away for a while. Thursday night at Walt Disney Concert Hall, he again seemed ever so slightly hesitant, as if not knowing what to expect now that his leaving has become manifest. But greeted by a full house’s demonstratively embracing thankful enthusiasm, he beamed, the hesitant posture turning into ownership.

The conductor opened his farewell season with Ellen Reid’s “Earth Between Oceans,” a joint commission bridging his two orchestral families.

(Timothy Norris / Los Angeles Philharmonic)

The new work this year is Ellen Reid’s “Earth Between Oceans,” and it is Dudamel’s first effort at bringing together what he calls his two families.

Reid, who is herself bicoastal between L.A. and New York, narrates, through astonishing orchestral properties and powers, an environmental tale of her two cities. The work is a joint commission with the New York Philharmonic; Dudamel will take it east in the spring.

Earth, air, water and fire are Reid’s subject matters, which she translates into four movements that cover a New York winter, an aerial approach to Manhattan’s noise and quiet, the Altadena and Pacific Palisades conflagrations, ending on a sort of surfboard ride over crashing blue waves. With the help of a wordless Los Angeles Master Chorale, Reid tells the story through ever-surprising instrumental evocation.

Nothing, however, sounds like you might expect in Reid’s massive orchestral soundscape capable of holding a listener in tight grip for 30 minutes. Is that percussive pounding in earth the ground moving under our feet and the cello solo snowy Central Park? I don’t know how she does it, but I immediately bought into weird sounds from the chorus indicating something words can’t express about what those New York skyscrapers are up to. The effect of what sounded like ticking clocks going astray felt like an inviting dip in the lake.

Dudamel ended the concert with Richard Strauss’ “Alpine Symphony,” 125 orchestral musicians schlepping up the mountain, finding spiritual ecstasy at the summit and getting drenched on the way down, a self-satisfied drinking in of nature with every step. It is an astonishing, so to speak, over-the-top score, which you either love or abhor for its instrumental vulgarity.

Love was in order Thursday. Dudamel first performed “Alpine Symphony” at Disney in 2008, a year before beginning as music director. He jogged up the mountain and back, full of beans, showing off but also sharing his enthusiasm and demonstrating a skill that gave confidence that this 20-something conductor had the chops.

Dudamel’s performance of Strauss’ “Alpine Symphony” demonstrated the L.A. Phil’s distinctive immediacy compared with his more formal European interpretations.

(Timothy Norris / Los Angeles Philharmonic)

Last summer, I heard Dudamel conduct the “Alpine” with the Vienna Philharmonic at the Salzburg Festival. The playing was sumptuous but formal and distant. These were the Alps as seen from a comfortable gondola taking in the view, and what a view, indeed.

The L.A. Phil sound, on the other hand, reveled in being-there, huffing-and-puffing immediacy. A rainstorm was a rainstorm: wet. The pastures replete with cowbells weren’t so much scenic as earthy, the real thing.

The orchestra sounded rapt and ready for ecstasy Thursday. There are two new first-chair players. A member of the orchestra’s second violin section, Melody Ye Yuan, has become her section’s principal. Ryan Roberts is the new principal oboe, and he had a luminous solo in the “Alpine.”

It was only after Roberts, who grew up in Santa Monica, won the L.A. Phil blind audition for principal oboe that Dudamel discovered he had just hired away a rising star in what is about to become his New York Philharmonic. But it’s all in the big new family.

Salt, dismissed for a golden duck in Cardiff on Wednesday, was quickly out of the blocks on home turf, hitting 18 runs off his first three balls to set the tone for England’s onslaught.

With Buttler also in fine form, England reached 100-0 after six overs, only two shy of South Africa’s 102-0 against West Indies in 2023 – a powerplay record for a match between Test nations.

“I want to put that stamp on [an innings],” Salt said. “In order to knock a man out of possession, you have to do something they can’t do.

“From early in my career, I looked at that and if I can be the most dangerous in the first 10, 15 balls of the game, that’s a unique tool. It’s something I’ve always worked on.”

While Salt’s innings stole the headlines, England captain Harry Brook and Jacob Bethell played valuable supporting knocks while Buttler was on course for a blistering century of his own before being caught for 83 from 30.

He was the early pace-setter in England’s innings, dominating the first-wicket partnership of 126 from 47, and bringing up his half-century off just 18 balls in the fifth over.

“I can’t turn into Jos Buttler overnight but the way he thinks around the game, that’s what I’ve tapped into the most,” Salt said.

“His consistent performances over the course of his career, that’s what I’ve aspired to be.”

Brook hailed Salt’s performance and said his side’s performance showcased their capability of being “the most dominant team in the world”.

“His ability to go out there and hit the first ball for four which is a risky shot and aerial after a golden duck the other night sums up the type of player he is,” Brook told Test Match Special.

“He is selfless and knows exactly what his role is – to go out and look to put their bowlers under pressure form the get go.

“That is an extreme but it is another little snippet of how dominant we can be. We can be the most dominant team in the world going forward. If we do everything we have done tonight, there is no reason we can’t beat any team.”

In “The Paper,” the much anticipated mockumentary spinoff to “The Office,” Alex Edelman plays intrepid accountant/reporter Adam Cooper, part of the team tasked with reviving local newspaper “The Toledo Truth-Teller.” Edelman was also a writer and consulting producer for the show, which premieres on Peacock on Sept. 4 with all 10 episodes, and says the project gave him “the thing that is rarest in Los Angeles”: routine.

“It was a really wonderful routine,” he adds.

In Sunday Funday, L.A. people give us a play-by-play of their ideal Sunday around town. Find ideas and inspiration on where to go, what to eat and how to enjoy life on the weekends.

Of course, routines must end and new routines must be created. Edelman, who won an Obie and a Special Tony for his stand-up show “Just For Us,” about attending a meeting of Nazis as an Orthodox Jew (it became the HBO original comedy special “Alex Edelman: Just For Us,” for which he won an Emmy), is back on the road and adding new dates for his current show, “What Are You Going to Do.” In his spare time, he’s working on a nonfiction book, “I Don’t Belong Here.”

The perfect Sunday, for Edelman, is always a little bit different, with currents of consistency woven through. (He calls himself a “recommendation machine,” which feels accurate.) There’s always a hike. There are always friends involved. There’s always food. There are plenty of laughs. But for all the tried-and-true recs, novelty is important too. “I guess my headline is, Sunday’s the day to try new things,” he says.

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for length and clarity.

7 a.m.: Wake up and go on a coffee walk
On the weekends, I like to walk. The only thing left to do on planet Earth apparently is to get coffee. Do you know that our whole lives revolve around a series of silly little coffees? I only drink espresso drinks, which is a fact about me, which is very boring. I might walk between coffee stations, like a man journeying between oases. I’ll walk down and I’ll get to All Time and be like, do I want a coffee here or can I make it to Maru? And when I get to Maru, do I get a coffee here? Or can I make it to Camel? And then I’ll make it to Camel, which apparently is now called Handles? And I’m like, do I get a coffee here or do I go to Dinosaur? And then, do I do a coffee here or do I go to Tartine or LaLo in Silver Lake or Lamill, which is also in Silver Lake. It feels like a long time, but that’s only about an hour walk.

I might get some breakfast too. I like Telegrama or Friends and Family — a favorite there is the olive oil eggs. I spend a lot of my money at All Time. I like to get the thing they call “the B.O.A.T.” I don’t know exactly what it is, but it’s really good.

8 a.m.: Get in a bit of writing
I like to park myself at Telegrama or Maru; you can find a little corner and really groove.

10 a.m.: Hike and have an adventure
I’m a keen weekend hiker. And I have hiking buddies. My friend [TV writer] Jenji [Kohan] and I started to do a thing in the pandemic where every weekend we would go hike somewhere and eat somewhere. I’ll hike with Jenji or my friend Rebecca or my friend Morgan. We’ll get after it. You hike with someone, you complain. It’s a lot of fun.

There are some really, really gorgeous hikes around Los Angeles. I use AllTrails to keep track of them. If we’re doing a hike out of town, we’ll go up to Santa Barbara or down into Orange County for one of the heavy beach hikes. Or any hikes with the word “Punchbowl” in them. And we’ll go to Charlie Brown Farms right afterwards.

We hike and eat and there’s always an adventure in there. We use the Atlas Obscura and go check out things, like, I heard there’s this weird store where this guy who makes things out of pop tabs or whatever it is. One of my favorite things is just getting to look at a little midcentury modern house I’ll never be able to afford. If there’s a house by Lautner or Neutra or Frank Lloyd Wright, sometimes we’ll take a schlep just for the house, to even just see from the street. One of the hikes in Malibu, Solstice, has an old Paul Williams house. It’s like a ruin.

1 p.m.: Lunchtime
We like going into the San Gabriel Valley and eating at Chengdu Taste in Alhambra or Bistro Na’s. I can’t eat pork or shellfish, so whatever falls within the electric fence, my lapsing Judaism. Whenever we drive south for a hike, we like to go to Pho 79 in the Anaheim area, or Garden Grove maybe. And I get something vegetarian or chicken or something like that.

2:30 p.m.: Thrifting and a snack
The thrift stores in Pasadena, those places are so good. Downtown, we always stop at the old mochi spot, Fugetsu-Do. They’ve been around for 117 years, even longer. I think they opened in 1903. On Sundays, sometimes the line can be long, but it’s worth waiting in. I like the regular rainbow-colored, strawberry-stained stuff. A thousand percent fruity or candy and no gelatin because of my Judaism.

4 p.m.: Catching up on books
Since we’re downtown, I’ll stop by the Last Bookstore. I also really love Skylight. And I love a used bookstore. I love a browse.

I like reading and listening to music on a Sunday. For a while, I was rationing out my friend Taffy Akner’s last book, “Long Island Compromise.” I’d read a couple of chunks every Sunday until I ran out. I just bought a couple of plays by Kimberly Bellflower and Noah Haidle. And I am reading Carrie Courogen’s “Miss May Does Not Exist” about Elaine May, who I worship and actually met once at a friend’s house.

7 p.m.: Pizza and movie night at Phil’s
I have a friend, Phil, who sometimes makes Sunday his movie night. His house has a little pizza oven. Phil will have pizza made in the style of the pizza from Mozza, which he loves. And we’ll watch movies on a projector. I watched “A New Leaf” there and enjoyed it very much, speaking of Elaine May.

9:30 p.m.: A stand-up set
Late in the day, my favorite thing to do is stand-up comedy. There are a lot of good places to perform in Los Angeles. So I’d do a late spot at the Comedy Store, the Lyric Hyperion, Laugh Factory or Dynasty Typewriter.

11 p.m.: Late-night meal
I’m out late, especially for Los Angeles. And there’s nowhere to eat very late at night in Los Angeles, unless you’re going to venture into Koreatown, where there’s Dan Sung Sa. I love to eat late and hey, we’re four meals deep, but that’s fine. Or Canter’s is open until 11:30 on Sunday. And Same Same Thai on Sunset is open until 11. They do something called khao soi, which is really hard to find in a lot of places. So I’ll sometimes get a really late night khao soi.

12 a.m.: Scrolling, reading, maybe a phone call or two
I’m up for a bit. I watch, I’ll scroll. I’ll scroll until I drift off, which I shouldn’t. Or I’ll call friends in London who are just waking up, stand-up comics. My friend Josie Long was in Glasgow, and sometimes I’ll call her, or I’ll catch my friend Isobel, who’s a composer, who’s in Europe all the time. But in my ideal situation, I’m asleep by 1. I’ll read this book by Lizzy Goodman called “Meet Me in the Bathroom,” or I’ll listen to this podcast called “Search Engine” by PJ Vogt, and sort of drift off.

PHIL TAYLOR has broken down the blueprint that he believes is needed to topple Luke Littler.

The Nuke is one of the best at the oche at the moment and could become a legend of darts if he continues his current success.

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Littler, 18, is the current world champion and has won multiple major honours since his stunning breakthrough in 2023.

The Warrington thrower is seen as one of the most destructive players at the oche for his sky-high averages.

The world No2 is the youngest player to ever claim the triple crown as he won the Premier League, World Matchplay and World Darts Championship.

But legend Taylor, 65, reckons he knows the secret to disrupting Littler’s flow, which his rivals should take note of.

The Power has insisted that Littler’s rivals need to “slow down” matches with Littler.

Taylor claims that due to young stars practising by themselves are not used to a slower-paced match.

He revealed the blueprint during an interview with the MODUS Super Series of Darts.

He said: “Yeah, a lot of that [throwing the darts quickly] comes because youngsters practice on their own.

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“So, they don’t have that person slowing them down.

“I used to try and practice with somebody if I could to keep me in that rhythm of playing.

“So, that is why a lot when a player plays a younger player [like Littler], they start slowing them down to put them off because they are not used to it.

“Anybody who plays Luke Littler will slow their throw down.”

This year has been a success for Littler as he has already won the World Darts Championship, World Matchplay, Belgian Darts Open and UK Open among others.

Littler will be back in action at the Flanders Darts Trophy which begins TODAY.

He takes on Irish ace Dylan Slevin in round two on Sunday in the evening session.

Last season: Championship winners

Someone has got to buck the growing trend of ‘three up, three straight back down’ from the Championship’s promoted sides, so I am going to say Leeds United will break that glass ceiling.

A club of huge stature, Elland Road will be a bearpit this season and will be a difficult environment for any visiting side. This will hold the key to their survival hopes.

Daniel Farke has a new keeper in Lyon’s Lucas Perri – signed for £15.6m. It may finally be the time Illan Meslier pays the price for too many high-profile errors.

In Dominic Calvert-Lewin – close to signing on a free transfer after leaving Everton – Leeds are acquiring a striker who has proven Premier League pedigree but has been troubled by long injury absences in recent years.

If he can stay fit, Leeds will have a very valuable asset.

Sean Longstaff provides experience and a competitive edge after arriving from Newcastle United, while additions elsewhere have come in the shape of left-back Gabriel Gudmundsson from Lille, centre-back Jaka Bijol from Udinese, and centre-back Sebastiaan Bornauw and forward Lukas Nmecha from Wolfsburg.

It will be tough – but Elland Road may just sway it.