The Australian women’s cricket team will face New Zealand in the Commonwealth Games semi-finals this weekend, but most Aussie supporters won’t be awake for the must-win contest in Birmingham.
The semi-final fixtures were unveiled on Friday morning AEST, with hosts England scheduled to take on powerhouse nation India on Saturday at 11am local time.
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Meanwhile, world champions Australia will battle their trans-Tasman rivals in the evening timeslot, meaning fans back home hoping to cheer on Meg Lanning’s side will need to set an alarm for 3am AEST on Sunday morning.
Kiwi viewers have been treated to a slightly less painful 5am start time.
Swapping the fixtures would have given three of the competing nations a prime broadcast timeslot for their respective audiences, but accommodating India’s massive fanbase has seemingly been prioritized.
Australia was undefeated in the group stage, defeating India, Barbados and Pakistan to cruise through the knockouts.
New Zealand, meanwhile, suffered a horror collapse in their final group stage match against England on Thursday, managing just 9/71 from their 20 overs after winning the toss and electing to bat first at Edgbaston.
Maddy Green top-scored for the Kiwis with 19 as veteran seamer Katherine Brunt rattled the New Zealanders with a classy spell of 2/4 from three overs in the Powerplay.
“We were well below par and it wasn’t through lack of effort or lack of planning or anything like that, I think you just get days like that,” New Zealand captain Sophie Devine said.
“It’s never nice to be a part of but we’ve got to flush it down the dunny pretty quickly and move on to something that’s actually really exciting for us, playing in a semi-final against Australia at a Commonwealth Games.”
England chased the 72-run target with more than eight overs to spare and seven wickets in hand.
Regardless, Australia remain firm favorites to return home with the coveted gold medal around their necks, having not lost a 20-over match since March 2021.
“I think a lot of the pressure is going to be on Australia,” Devine said.
“They’ve certainly come into this competition as favorites and hopeful of taking that gold medal whereas a lot of people didn’t think we’d maybe make the semi-finals.
“We can really take that on board and just play with a bit of freedom and take it to the Aussies. We obviously know them really well, so I think our plans are going to be pretty spot on and likewise they know us really well too. It’s always just a great battle against the Australians.”
Aussie T20 specialist Chris Lynn admits he is feeling “nervous” ahead of his foray into a new domestic cricket tournament.
This weekend the explosive batter is taking part in the Brisbane Premier League (BPL) — a local cricket event with a few innovative twists.
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The BPL sees eight teams compete across two pools, with the tournament culminating in the semi-finals and final, which will be played on Sunday afternoon.
“Hopefully there’s a bit of a festival happening and we’re able to see some quality cricket,” Lynn told news.com.au.
Dubbed ‘The Century’, the games will see 20 balls bowled from each end five times with the aim of speeding up the game without having to break for overs across the 100-ball innings.
“For the seniors this weekend, the rules are based around The Hundred from England but it’s called The Century,” Lynn said.
“So we’ve got a bit of a twist, we try to spice things up.”
All the action is available to stream via Kayo Freebies and the BPL has created a concept called the ‘Kayo Call’, where Lynn and former Queensland teammate Nathan Reardon will be the two VIP batters for the 6pm games on Friday and Saturday night.
“It’s all on Kayo Freebies,” Lynn said.
“With that, myself and Nathan Reardon will be commentating tonight’s game at 6pm and tomorrow night’s game at 6pm. Whoever wins the toss gets to choose either myself or Reardo, that’s a little bit of a novelty.”
How the ‘Kayo Call’ works
— Both players (Lynn and Reardon) are available to bat.
— The winner of the toss can either choose the player they want to bat for them or whether they bat or bowl first.
— If the winner of the toss chooses a player, the loser of the toss gets the other play and decides whether they want to bat or bowl first.
— If the winner of the toss chooses to bat or bowl, the loser of the toss gets to choose which player they want.
— The player not on the field will be in the commentary box.
Lynn, who is a part-owner of the Northern Kings, said the Kayo Call could even see him playing against his own local side.
“I could actually be playing against the Kings… so it’s going to be quite funny,” he said.
Lynn’s future in the Big Bash is up in the air after he was cut by the Brisbane Heat, but he is hoping to continue his strong from the T20 Blast in the UK into this weekend’s action.
“I’m looking forward to getting out in the middle,” he said.
“I haven’t played local cricket for a while now so I’m keen to see how the juniors are travelling.”
“There’s going to be some buzz around Norths cricket club and we’re going to see some local talent on display. I’m probably a bit nervous because you’re expected to score runs.
“It’s all about scoring runs, I’m going to try and entertain. For those who can’t get down to Norths, it’s on Kayo so it’s a great endorsement from them to allow the Brisbane Premier League on that.”
The 32-year-old said the aim of the BPL is to showcase junior local talent to top level cricket.
“We’re trying to get some youngsters some exposure in men’s cricket,” Lynn said.
“We’ve just seen Adelaide starting their league as well. Ideally we’d love to have teams in every state. The world’s your oyster after that. The winners can play against each other, there’s a number of options that we’ve got.
“The guys have put a really good foundation in Brisbane. Having this festival century tournament is really going to make its mark in Brisbane Premier Cricket.”
The Brisbane Premier League (BPL) is available to stream live and free via Kayo Freebies. No credit card details are required to sign up.
The swimming is officially over at the Commonwealth Games and while Australia dominated with a towering medal tally, there was plenty of attention on the Dolphins over what was happening outside the pool.
Kyle Chalmers slammed the media for delving into a reported “love triangle” between himself, Emma McKeon and Cody Simpson, saying all the attention and “clickbait” focused on his personal life might drive him out of the sport.
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Chalmers was romantically involved with McKeon before she started dating Simpson, whose incredible comeback to swimming from his music career has been one of the biggest storylines in Birmingham.
The swimmers involved have repeatedly denied there’s any bad blood between them, while Chalmers went on the offensive and ripped into the media. His father Brett did the same, blasting the national obsession with Simpson as he complained not enough credit was being directed to other swimmers and their achievements in Birmingham.
Kyle Chalmers’ outstanding results were overshadowed by his angst with the media. Picture: Glyn KIRK / AFPSource: AFP
Candice drops truth bombs on Kyle
Ex-Aussie swimmer turned popular TV presenter Johanna Griggs said earlier in the week Chalmers was “feeding” the media frenzy by constantly engaging with it, and former Ironwoman Candice Warner is on the same page.
Warner said she was “really surprised” by how Chalmers handled the headlines, saying she expected someone who dealt with the attention thrust upon him in 2016 when he won gold in the 100m freestyle at the Rio Olympics to be better prepared for the media barrage.
“He knows how to deal with the pressure. Why is he allowing the media to make these comments?” Warner told Fox Sports program The Back Page this week.
“Why hasn’t he put a self-imposed media ban (on himself) until the Games are over? I’m just really a little bit confused by the situation and why he’s engaging with the media.
“He’s not in the wrong, but he also has the power and ability to stop it and also just to focus on his swim events.
“Should I know how to deal with this pressure? Should I know how to deal with this completely?”
Reports of possible friction between Chalmers and Simpson first emerged at this year’s national championships in Adelaide, leading Warner to question why the 24-year-old wasn’t more prepared for the questions he’d face in Birmingham.
“Would there not have been a strategy put into place before these Games? We haven’t just started talking about this now, we’ve been speaking about this love triangle before the Commonwealth Games,” Warner said.
She adding Chalmers’ team and Swimming Australia should have “put some sort of strategy into place knowing this could have been a possibility”.
Warner also said Chalmers — who she described as an “alpha male” — would understandably be affected by McKeon’s relationship with Simpson given their history, suggesting “his ego would be burnt a little bit”.
Candice Warner believes Chalmers needed to come into the Commonwealth Games with a smarter strategy. Picture: Michael Errey/AFPSource: AFP
‘He likes the attention but not the scrutiny’
Chalmers has been irked by attention being lavished on Simpson and his personal life at the expense of other swimmers whose feats also deserve praise. Courier Mail chief sports writer Robert Craddock suggested Chalmers craves positive headlines about himself but can’t handle it when coverage isn’t so rosy.
“It appears to me as if he likes the attention but not the scrutiny — and there is just a fine line between them and they often overlap,” Craddock told The Back Page.
“I think he’s one of those guys who can’t live with it and can’t live without it and finds it very awkward.
“He’s on Instagram, he’s out there, he’s happy to put himself front and center but like a lot of swimmers, when it’s big time, when it’s Games time, the force of the coverage hits them hard.”
Australian swimming legend Susie O’Neill had a different take on how the situation has affected the national team in Birmingham.
O’Neill — who was in Tokyo for last year’s Olympics — was adamant there is no rift among the Dolphins and said it’s harder for athletes these days to block out negative publicity because of social media and the insatiable news cycle.
“I think what they’re struggling with is, if you think about swimmers, they spend 30-40 hours a week trying to improve one one-hundredth of a second — such specific, objective goals,” she told The Back Page.
“So when they get asked subjective questions not even to do with their sport, you know, reality TV stuff, they’re confused and I think get offended by that.”
The sprint king wanted to silence his critics. Picture: Clive Brunskill/Getty ImagesSource: Getty Images
Why Chalmers is kicking up a stink
Meanwhile, SEN boss Craig Hutchison believes Chalmers is struggling in adjusting to the added scrutiny because he’s been so used to positive coverage for the majority of his career.
“He has had a charmed run as a young man with the media. That rarely happens to the bulk of society and you get a disproportionate comfort that you are … a figure that gets a lot of adulation,” Hutchison said on his media podcast The Sounding Board.
“So when things go wrong, you’re not emotionally equipped to necessarily handle the negativity.
“Then it often sways the other way because you overreact, or react to a certain way.”
Journalist Damian Barrett told The Sounding Board: “What he (Chalmers) doesn’t get… you can’t control media. No matter who you are and what run you’ve got.”
Alex Winwood has been left shocked and devastated, after his boxing quarter-final was stopped early in the second round against Zambia’s Patrick Chinyemba.
After four of the five judges awarded Winwood the first round, the Australian was floored by a right-shot from his opponent. Winwood got up moments later, but his bout was waved off despite the 25-year-old appearing stable and his eyes still.
“I find that impossible to believe, absolutely impossible to believe. That fight should not have been stopped. That’s not a stop page. That’s an outrage,” Jon Harker said in commentary for Channel 7.
Harry Garside, who took bronze during last year’s Olympics in the boxing, agreed.
“That’s heartbreaking for Alex. No way that’s a stoppage,” Garside said.
Alex Winwood reacts following defeat in the men’s 48kg-51kg (Flyweight) Quarter-Final fight at NEC Arena on August 04, 2022 in Birmingham. Photo: Getty ImagesSource: Getty Images
Winwood was close to tears as he wrapped up his interview, believing the fight was called off too quickly.
“It was a pretty fast call. I won the first round, and I thought I won it pretty easily,” he said.
Garside reflected the fight was called off too early, but Winwood had left the decision open as he looked away after getting up off the ground.
“He wasn’t hurt, he did turn his back which gives the referee some empathy, but you’ve got to wait for the person to get up and give them eight seconds,” he said.
“She waved it off way too soon.”
Patrick Chinyemba punches Alex Winwood on day seven of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games at NEC Arena on August 04, 2022. Photo: Getty ImagesSource: Getty Images
Social media agreed, with many raising their eyebrows at the early stoppage.
Jamaica has defeated Australia for the first time in Commonwealth Games netball history, springing a shock 57-55 upset to shake up the race for gold.
Both nations went into the hotly anticipated clash undefeated and faced their first proper test to decide the winner of Group A.
There was nothing in it in the first half as the Diamonds and the Sunshine Girls went goal for goal, and Australia took a 30-29 lead into halftime.
Australia dominated the third quarter and took a six-point lead into three quarter time, largely thanks to their control of the midcourt and Gretel Bueta and Steph Wood firing on all cylinders in the shooting circle.
But just as the Aussies looked home and hosed, Jamaica somehow found another gear in the final term and chewed up the deficit in just a handful of minutes to hit the lead.
Bueta was silenced in the last quarter — she finished with 36 goals from 39 attempts, while Wood had 19 goals at 86 per cent shooting.
“How quickly this game has been turned on its head,” legendary Diamonds shooter Cath Cox said in commentary on Channel 7.
“It looked like Australia had taken control and it was all over.”
Jhaniele Fowler was superb at goal shooter for Jamaica in a physical duel with her West Coast Fever teammate Courtney Bruce.
Adelaide Thunderbirds duo Shamera Sterling and Latanya Wilson were outstanding in defense and secured ball at will for Jamaica with countless deflections.
“Extraordinary scenes, the Diamonds defeated for the first time this tournament,” Sue Gaudion said.
Cox said Jamaica’s performance “screamed ‘we can medal at these Games’,” adding Australia appeared to “shut up shop” in the last quarter.
“Australia couldn’t win the ball back — it was some brilliant defensive work from Jamaica. They really just lifted another level in the fourth quarter,” she said.
The two-point victory was Jamaica’s first over Australia in Commonwealth Games history and will seriously shake up the race for the medals.
It’s far from disaster for Australia, but they will now likely come up against England in the semi-finals on a more difficult path to the gold medal match.
Australia’s last Commonwealth Games netball gold medal came in Glasgow in 2014. The Diamonds claimed silver on the Gold Coast in 2018 after losing a thrilling final to England.
England’s Commonwealth Games hockey match against Canada was marred by a wild fight — and one player was sent off after “choking” a rival during a fit of rage.
The hosts were leading the match in Birmingham 4-1 when the fight broke out, The Sun reports.
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An England player appeared to tackle a Canadian rival with his hockey stick before receiving a yellow card.
But a melee swiftly ensued between England’s Chris Griffiths and Canada’s Balraj Panesar in the aftermath.
Griffiths appeared to pull on Panesar’s stick, sending his opponent into a blind rage. Panesar lashed out by grabbing Griffiths’ shirt as the two men’s butted heads.
However, Panesar took things up a notch when he then took hold of Griffiths’ neck, appearing to choke the England ace momentarily.
Griffiths responded as such, grabbing Panesar’s shirt while shoving him away.
Players from both sides then stepped in to defuse the situation.
Griffiths picked up a yellow card for his troubles but Panesar did not get off as lightly. He was shown a straight red card for his actions on the pitch.
England took advantage of the extra man as they went 5-1 up almost instantly.
They then ended the game on a high, winning 11-2. The result means England will play Australia in the semi-finals.
This story first appeared on The Sun and was reproduced with permission
The Queen has been dealt another devastating blow with the loss of a close childhood friend just months after the death of her husband Prince Philip.
Lady Myra Butter, a cousin to the Duke of Edinburgh, was a childhood friend of the Queen and part of her inner circle. She died aged 97 in her London home de ella on July 29, according to a death notice published in UK newspaper The Daily Telegraph.
speaking to The Telegraph In 2021, Lady Butter revealed how she first came to know the Queen as a child and opened up about their time together in the 1st Buckingham Palace Company of Girl Guides, when it launched in 1937.
“(Buckingham Palace) got hold of some girls to be part of the thing to make it more fun,” she said.
“In the Guides and the Brownies it was a real mixture, which was really nice, some friends, friends of (the family), and all the people in the Royal mews, their children, they were Brownies and Guides. Just a normal sort of pack really.”
According to the article, the Queen also used to swim with Lady Butter, who once described the monarch as having a “very good sense of humor which has gone on for all her life”.
Lady Butter was born in Edinburgh in 1925 to Sir Harold Wernher and the great-great granddaughter of Russia’s Nicholas I, Countess Anastasia “Zia” Torby.
Her death notice read: “Myra Alice, Lady (CVO) died peacefully on Friday 29th July 2022 in London aged 97. Beloved wife of the late Major Sir David Butter. Adored mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. Private family funeral in Scotland”.
Ingrid Seward, author of the book Prince Philip Revealed, told magazine Newsweek: “Lady Butter was wonderful. She is a daughter of the Wernher family and the Queen and Philip were very, very friendly with them and so she was ella the Queen Mother”.
Her death is understood to come as another devastating blow to the Queen who lost her husband in 2021.
The Duke of Edinburgh, who had been married to the Queen for 73 years, died at Windsor Castle in June last year.
Following the Duke’s death, Lady Butter – who also had a longstanding friendship with her cousin, the prince – described Her Majesty’s sense of loss as “incalculable”.
He had dedicated his life to the Queen and sadly died just before his 100th birthday.
In the past the Queen regularly called the Duke her “constant strength” and “guide”.
The pair was described as “love matched” and married in 1947 at Westminster Abbey.
Ariarne Titmus has said the focus on the so-called swimming “love triangle” at the Commonwealth Games was taking its toll on the entire squad.
“It’s affecting us emotionally,” she said on Channel 10’s The Project on Thursday.
The Aussie team’s success in Birmingham has been overshadowed by speculation about relations between Kyle Chalmers, Emma McKeon and Cody Simpson.
Chalmers and McKeon dated for a few months. Their relationship first became common knowledge in September.
But it was revealed in May that Simpson and McKeon had become a couple and had even moved in together during a training camp.
Rumors of bad blood between the three surfaced when sprinting king Chalmers and Olympic legend McKeon appeared to avoid each other as the 4x100m mixed relay team celebrated their gold medal swim on the pool deck and during the medal presentations on Saturday morning.
Aussie swimming great James Magnussen described the sight of McKeon and Chalmers politely keeping their distance from each other as “awkward”.
All three have said there is no friction between them at all.
‘Affects us emotionally’
Swimming superstar Titmus appeared on The Project on Thursday after picking up four golds in the pool and helping break the world record in the 4x200m freestyle relay.
She was asked if the attention on the “love triangle” was hurting the team’s performance.
“We all certainly hear about it and it’s affecting our teammates so it affects us emotionally,” she told host Georgie Tunney.
“But I think we try to block it out. We’re such a close unit and we want to have each other’s backs and I think we did that this week.
“We want everyone to be happy and not going through those things so it did affect us but we certainly got through it.”
Titmus: ‘really proud’ at wins
Titmus said she was “low key confident” she would nab four gold medals in Birmingham but was nonetheless elated at her win.
“It’s crazy. I really feel proud and I’m so happy,” she told the hosts.
Grant Hackett revealed earlier this week that the trio at the center of the “love triangle” had sat down together over the storm that has swirled around them at the games.
He said media frenzy had indeed had an impact on the three swimmers, who all wanted to move on from it as soon as possible.
“They’re professionals, they’re teammates, they get along with each other, they respect each other where they need to, and they go out there and they execute performances for the country and they support one another,” he said on Nine’s TodayShow.
“This was a story that was back at the Commonwealth Games trials a couple of months ago, and the three of them put it to bed.
“Kyle’s come out very openly and said, this is a bunch of rubbish,” Hackett said.
“No one had any problems. They couldn’t believe the fuss around it.”
Meanwhile Simpson’s mother said she believed the swimmer is more than equipped to deal with the media scrutiny.
During an interview on Channel 7’s SunriseAngie Simpson claimed that the relentless media attention won’t bother her son, who previously dated American singer Miley Cyrus.
“I think he has been lucky because he has had so much history with press and media before, performing on stage for thousands of people,” she said on Wednesday morning AEST.
“I think the pressures of what he has dealt with in camp and at the Commonwealth Games has been pretty easy for him.
“It has given him an advantage to deal with a lot of those pressures and not let that stuff bother him.”
Tourists coming to Australia are often baffled by many of our place names and commonly mangle the pronunciation of some of the country’s most popular destinations, new research has found.
Sydney’s Bondi may be Australia’s most famous and busiest beach – with 1.7 million international visitors a year in 2018 according to Destination New South Wales – but a huge proportion of them are saying it wrong.
To Aussies it is of course pronounced “Bon-die” but many tourists, unfamiliar with the area, pronounce it phonetically as “Bon-dee”.
The pronunciation of Bondi is an example of a type of shibboleth, a word that can instantly distinguish whether someone is part of one group or another. In this case, saying “Bon-dee” would show the person wasn’t local or even resided in Australia.
The research was compiled by Preply, an online language learning platform that connects links up tutors with students.
The firm came to its conclusions by picking 68 major destinations where it’s known visitors can sometimes struggle over the correct pronunciation. It then analyzed Google search data to see how many instances there were of people inquiring about how to correctly say the places’ names and ranked them by the volume of searches.
In Australia, Brisbane and Melbourne were two other places where tourists found their tongues in a twist.
Melbourne sees three million international visitors a year. But you won’t make friends in Australia’s second biggest metropolis if you say “Mel-BOURNE” rather than “Mel-buhne”. Equally, it’s “BRIS-buhne” and definitely not “Bris-BAYNE” as some tourists will insist on saying.
“There’s nothing more embarrassing than arriving at a new holiday destination and mispronouncing its name in front of a local — especially if you butcher the regional accent,” said Preply learning success manager Amy Pritchett.
“When you learn to say these place names correctly, you’ll sound like a native — or at least a savvy tourist.”
Top five mangled global destinations
However, Australian place names were far down the global list of mispronounced metropolises, museums and other destinations.
It seems visitors find saying French place names are particularly mouthful with three of the five most butchered names in the land of the Gauls.
Topping the rankings was the beachside city of Cannes. And – just like most other visitors -Australians commonly get the pronunciation of this stylish French resort wrong.
It is definitely not pronounced “Carn” or “Cans” or “Cann-ess”. Rather, you drop the “es” at the end and simply say “Kan”. Short and sweet is a perfectly acceptable way to go. But if you want to sound really French you can do a distinctive semi linger at the end of the word by adding an “uh,” so “Kan-uh”.
One most Australians probably do better on, as so many have been to London, is the name of the river that runs through it.
Americans commonly think the Thames is pronounced as it looks and verbalizes a “Th” sound to produce the very oddly sounding River “Thaymez”. “Temz” is the way to go and will keep you in the good books of Londoners.
Third on the list is California’s Yosemite National Park. It’s not “Yoh-se-might” but “Yoh-seh-muh-tee” or “Yoh-she-muh-dee”.
The Louvre museum in Paris is definitely not the “Loop” or “Loo-ver” but “Loo-vruh” with a bit of a roll of the tongue on the second syllable.
Rounding out the top five of cringeworthy pronunciations is another French hotspot – the Place of Versailles where the French royals lived in pre-Revolution times.
Tourists coming to Australia are often baffled by many of our place names and commonly mangle the pronunciation of some of the country’s most popular destinations, new research has found.
Sydney’s Bondi may be Australia’s most famous and busiest beach – with 1.7 million international visitors a year in 2018 according to Destination New South Wales – but a huge proportion of them are saying it wrong.
To Aussies it is of course pronounced “Bon-die” but many tourists, unfamiliar with the area, pronounce it phonetically as “Bon-dee”.
The pronunciation of Bondi is an example of a type of shibboleth, a word that can instantly distinguish whether someone is part of one group or another. In this case, saying “Bon-dee” would show the person wasn’t local or even resided in Australia.
The research was compiled by Preply, an online language learning platform that connects links up tutors with students.
The firm came to its conclusions by picking 68 major destinations where it’s known visitors can sometimes struggle over the correct pronunciation. It then analyzed Google search data to see how many instances there were of people inquiring about how to correctly say the places’ names and ranked them by the volume of searches.
In Australia, Brisbane and Melbourne were two other places where tourists found their tongues in a twist.
Melbourne sees three million international visitors a year. But you won’t make friends in Australia’s second biggest metropolis if you say “Mel-BOURNE” rather than “Mel-buhne”. Equally, it’s “BRIS-buhne” and definitely not “Bris-BAYNE” as some tourists will insist on saying.
“There’s nothing more embarrassing than arriving at a new holiday destination and mispronouncing its name in front of a local — especially if you butcher the regional accent,” said Preply learning success manager Amy Pritchett.
“When you learn to say these place names correctly, you’ll sound like a native — or at least a savvy tourist.”
Top five mangled global destinations
However, Australian place names were far down the global list of mispronounced metropolises, museums and other destinations.
It seems visitors find saying French place names are particularly mouthful with three of the five most butchered names in the land of the Gauls.
Topping the rankings was the beachside city of Cannes. And – just like most other visitors -Australians commonly get the pronunciation of this stylish French resort wrong.
It is definitely not pronounced “Carn” or “Cans” or “Cann-ess”. Rather, you drop the “es” at the end and simply say “Kan”. Short and sweet is a perfectly acceptable way to go. But if you want to sound really French you can do a distinctive semi linger at the end of the word by adding an “uh,” so “Kan-uh”.
One most Australians probably do better on, as so many have been to London, is the name of the river that runs through it.
Americans commonly think the Thames is pronounced as it looks and verbalizes a “Th” sound to produce the very oddly sounding River “Thaymez”. “Temz” is the way to go and will keep you in the good books of Londoners.
Third on the list is California’s Yosemite National Park. It’s not “Yoh-se-might” but “Yoh-seh-muh-tee” or “Yoh-she-muh-dee”.
The Louvre museum in Paris is definitely not the “Loop” or “Loo-ver” but “Loo-vruh” with a bit of a roll of the tongue on the second syllable.
Rounding out the top five of cringeworthy pronunciations is another French hotspot – the Place of Versailles where the French royals lived in pre-Revolution times.
