Go Unlimited with Magzter GOLD
Get unlimited access to 10,000+ magazines, newspapers and Premium stories for just
Try GOLD - Free
I screamed, I clapped, I found my perfect game
The Observer
|November 23, 2025
In her bid to find a sport to fall in love with, Marie Le Conte is won over by ice hockey
-
Look, you'll laugh when I tell you this. I'm aware. Still, I have to write it down: the white wine at Sapphire Ice & Leisure centre in Romford wasn't very good. Somehow, it tasted both of syrup and vinegar. Before you say or think anything, there is some crucial information I need to add at this stage.
As I'd booked my ticket to the game, a waiver informed me that “ice hockey can be a dangerous sport — please keep your eye on the puck at all times”. If we were to try to rank ourselves as a species, from least to most anxious, I doubt I'd make it to the top 6 billion.
I'd had to travel for an hour on a Sunday night in the cold and the dark all by myself, to watch something I knew little about, and apparently I was also about to lose a tooth, or maybe get my nose broken. Wouldn’t you have gone for a hideous glass of plonk too, in my shoes?
This story is from the November 23, 2025 edition of The Observer.
Subscribe to Magzter GOLD to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 10,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
MORE STORIES FROM The Observer
The Observer
I wouldn't touch Starmer with a barge pole. He's completely untrustworthy
In the first of a new weekly series in which we ask a public figure to take us on a walk of significance, Rachel Sylvester, our political editor strolls through London's Stoke Newington with Zack Polanski. The leader of the Greens talks about tax hikes, leaving Nato and why former Labour politicians are welcome to join his party
8 mins
November 23, 2025
The Observer
Short-beaked echidna
Old does not mean primitive. Let's get that straight at once. Sure, we're mammals and sure, we lay eggs, which makes us unusual in the late Holocene but that doesn't mean we're backward.
2 mins
November 23, 2025
The Observer
Help with cost of living to make tax smorgasboard easier to swallow
These have been the leakiest, most fevered pre-budget weeks in modern British political history.
4 mins
November 23, 2025
The Observer
It's not easy being green: high energy costs threaten UK's net zero business endeavours
Missed decarbonisation targets, high prices and political uncertainty are seeing Labour's bid to make the nation a clean utility 'superpower' drift off into the ether.
8 mins
November 23, 2025
The Observer
The trail of bad decisions and delays that led to 23,000 avoidable deaths
As the second official report into Britain's Covid response is made public, a story emerges of a government failing to heed warnings and a first lockdown that was too little, too late.
4 mins
November 23, 2025
The Observer
Europeans rush to foil Ukraine deal favouring Kremlin
Kyiv's allies seek to thwart Trump negotiator's peace plan that gives in to Russian demands and turns the screw on embattled Zelensky
4 mins
November 23, 2025
The Observer
'We saw so many bodies that we lost count': uncovering the hidden horror of El Fasher
Using eyewitness reports, satellite images and social media videos, Isabel Coles and Fred Harter record the carnage when RSF fighters seized the famine-stricken capital of Sudan's North Darfur
10 mins
November 23, 2025
The Observer
It's not easy being green: high energy costs threaten UK's net zero business endeavours
Missed decarbonisation targets, high prices and political uncertainty are seeing Labour's bid to make the nation a clean utility 'superpower' drift off into the ether.
6 mins
November 23, 2025
The Observer
My lost afternoon with Elisabeth Lederer
I will come on to the eye-watering price shortly, but let's start with the art. Is the painting any good?
1 mins
November 23, 2025
The Observer
The Lords they are a-leaping as vandals in ermine do their damnedest to frustrate ministers
Andrew Rawnsley
4 mins
November 23, 2025
Listen
Translate
Change font size