Birmingham's 35 miles of canals is said to be more than Venice.

Only London has more Michelin Star restaurants in the UK than Greater Birmingham, with the latter boasting six.

Famous chocolate brand Cadbury was founded in the city, with its dark chocolate bar “Bournville” named after the village of the same name.

Approximately 90 per cent of the UK population can reach Birmingham within four hours of driving.

Although Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit were set in Middle Earth, many of the characters and locations were based on Birmingham, where author J.R.R. Tolkien grew up.

Sutton Park in Birmingham is one of the largest urban parks in Europe.

The modern version of lawn tennis can be traced back to Edgbaston in Birmingham.

Inventor James Watt developed his steam engine in Birmingham, putting into motion the start of the Industrial Revolution in the United Kingdom.

Birmingham is one of the most diverse cities in Europe, and is reportedly home to 187 nationalities.

Birmingham’s Black Sabbath are often considered as the first heavy metal band.

The Hippodrome in Birmingham is the busiest theatre in the UK, with more than 520,000 visitors a year.

Approximately 40 per cent of the UK’s jewellery comes from Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter.

Birmingham is Europe’s “youngest” major city, with around 40 per cent of the population under the age of 25.

Indian and Pakistani immigrants created the famous Balti curry dish in Birmingham in 1971, with the city boasting more than 100 Balti Houses.

Athletes like Formula One world champion Nigel Mansell and Paralympic swimming champion Ellie Simmonds have called Birmingham their home.

Arena Birmingham - which will host the gymnastics at the 2022 Commonwealth Games - hosted the 1998 Eurovision Song Contest.

Birmingham’s iconic Bullring shopping centre is the biggest of its kind in a UK city centre.

Birmingham’s famous multi-road interchange called “Spaghetti Junction” connects motorways and other parts of the city.

The Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery has the world’s largest collection of Pre-Raphaelite paintings.

The anchor of the Titanic was created in the Black Country, part of the West Midlands.

The FA Cup, the oldest national football competition in the world, had its trophy made in Birmingham, with the original stolen in 1895 and never recovered.

Murder mystery board game Cluedo was invented in 1943 in Birmingham, by Anthony E. Pratt.

The first-ever hole-in-the-heart surgery took place in 1950 in Birmingham’s Children Hospital.

Birmingham is home to five universities - University of Birmingham, Aston University, Birmingham City University, Newman University and University College Birmingham.

The nearby town of Solihull was given its name as it was the hill where Birmingham residents dumped their soil, known as “Soily Hill”.

The Library of Birmingham is the biggest in the UK.

With a large Asian population, Birmingham has the biggest Bollywood cinema centre in Europe, with six of the 30 screens at the Star City complex dedicated to Bollywood.

The city’s nickname “Brum” is thought to come from the name Brummagem.

97 councillors sit on Birmingham City Council.

Birmingham’s St Patrick’s Day parade is thought to be the third largest in the world behind New York City and Dublin.

Birmingham is the most “inland” major city in the UK and is nearly two hours drive away from the nearest beach.

Birmingham is the second most visited english city outside London for overseas visitors.

Birmingham has 571 parks - more than any other European city of similar size.

Birmingham has the highest Muslim, Sikh and Buddhist populations in the UK outside London.

The longest-established “building-based” theatre is in Birmingham - the Birmingham Repertory Theatre.

The UK’s largest two-day LGBT festival is Birmingham Pride.

The Football League - the world’s first league football competition - was founded by Birmingham resident and Aston Villa Football Club director William McGregor in 1888.

The city has hosted the World Indoor Athletics Championships, the World Half Marathon Championships, Diamond League Athletics and the British Athletics Championships, with UK Athletics based at Alexander Stadium.

The Electric in Birmingham is the oldest working cinema in the UK, dating back to 1909.

Birmingham has nine sister cities including Lyon, Frankfurt, Milan, Chicago and Johannesburg.

Birmingham has a Chinese Quarter which was officially recognised in the 1980s, following a few decades of migration from Hong Kong.

Popular UK drama Peaky Blinders is based on a gang from the city, who roamed Birmingham in the late 19th and early 20th century.

Birmingham was the United Kingdom’s candidate city for the 1992 Summer Olympics, which eventually went to Barcelona.

Birmingham has close ties with athletics and some big stars train or come from the city or surrounding areas. Mark Lewis-Francis was born in Birmingham while Olympic heptathlon champion Denise Lewis is from neighbouring West Bromwich.

Although Birmingham City and Aston Villa are the only major football clubs in the city of Birmingham, Premier League clubs Wolverhampton Wanderers and West Bromwich Albion are within 15 miles of the city centre - as is the Football League’s Walsall.

Inventor and pioneering industrialist Matthew Boulton, who lived in Birmingham in the 1700s, was richer than Bill Gates when adjusted for inflation.

The author of the popular children’s book and television series Thomas the Tank Engine, Wilbert Awdry, invented the famous characters while working at Birmingham’s St. Nicholas’ Church to amuse his son Christopher who was ill with measles.

From 1986 to 1990, Birmingham held an annual motorsport race in the city centre - which featured future Formula One drivers including Ferrari’s Jean Alesi.

Country
Australia	67	57	54
England	57	66	53
Canada	26	32	34
India	22	16	23

View full table

Men's doubles Squash
8 Aug 2022 14:33

		James Willstrop and Declan James
		Adrian Waller and Daryl Selby
		Greg Lobban and Rory Stewart

View all results

Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games: Day five of competition

Tuesday, 2 August 2022

insidethegames is reporting LIVE from the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games

By Duncan Mackay, Geoff Berkeley, Dan Palmer, Michael Houston, Patrick Burke, Owen Lloyd, Mike Rowbottom, Ali Iveson and Philip Barker in Birmingham

Timeline

1 year ago: Day five of competition at Birmingham 2022 comes to a close
1 year ago: Australia combine to win thrilling relay gold while Gaziev stars for Canada
1 year ago: Cockcroft earns first Commonwealth gold in T33/34 women's 100m
1 year ago: Looty the calm down dog on display at Victoria Square
1 year ago: Home sprinter Oyinbo-Coker takes men's T45-47 100m title
1 year ago: New Commonwealth Games record set by Titmus
1 year ago: Nigeria's Onyekwere takes women's discus title
1 year ago: Malaysia regain mixed team badminton Commonwealth Games title
1 year ago: Te-Biasu scores at death as Canada snatch women's 3x3 basketball gold
1 year ago: Greenwood goes for gold in women's 200m individual medley SM10
1 year ago: Uganda's Kiplimo takes men's 10,000m gold in Games record time
1 year ago: New Zealand and England through to cricket semi-finals
1 year ago: Hometown hero Hesson is England match winner in men's 3x3 basketball final
1 year ago: Pearse picks up first Commonwealth Games gold in S10 100m butterfly
1 year ago: Peaty takes thrilling gold in front of ecstatic crowd
1 year ago: Cikamatana sets Games records on way to women's under-87kg weightlifting gold
1 year ago: Ng beats Kidambi to put Malaysia 2-1 in front in mixed team badminton final
1 year ago: Canada thrash Australia to win women's 3x3 wheelchair basketball gold
1 year ago: Australia's Kennedy takes women's pole vault title from home athlete Caudery
1 year ago: Breen shocks Hahn to win first athletics gold of Birmingham 2022
1 year ago: Silver shared in men's 50m freestyle after Liendo Edwards takes gold for Canada
1 year ago: Mollie O'Callaghan leads Australian podium sweep in women's 100m freestyle
1 year ago: Australia bag men's 3x3 wheelchair basketball gold
1 year ago: Scotland win men's pairs B6-B8 Para bowls gold
1 year ago: New Zealand set Sri Lanka target of 148 to keep medal hopes alive
1 year ago: Dekkers secures first Australian gold of the night in women's 200m butterfly
1 year ago: Williams clinches gold by the skin of his teeth in men's 200m backstroke
1 year ago: Decathlon legend Thompson "blown away" by Birmingham 2022 atmosphere
1 year ago: Lara van Niekerk bags second Birmingham 2022 gold medal in 100m breaststroke
1 year ago: More tickets available for Closing Ceremony as Birmingham 2022 aim to "close out in style"
1 year ago: Moorhead flips Gauthier Drapeau to take men's under-81kg gold
1 year ago: England's Tokyo 2020 pole vault bronze medallist Bradshaw not fit to compete
1 year ago: Opening Ceremony star the raging bull set to feature in Birmingham's Pride Parade
1 year ago: Coughlan pushes Drysdale Daley to shido, pushes herself to gold
1 year ago: CGF President delight at start of Birmingham 2022
1 year ago: European champion Howell loses women's under-63kg final to Beauchemin-Pinard
1 year ago: Gambia heartbreak as Powell wins judo gold for England in golden score
1 year ago: Nigerian boxer guarantees at least bronze without fighting
1 year ago: Emotional Kinsella leads English one-two in women's floor exercise
1 year ago: Singer Hill to perform at beach volleyball
1 year ago: Ilias Georgiou takes remarkable victory in men's horizontal bar
1 year ago: Royals watch on at the artistic gymnastics
1 year ago: Opeloge siblings add third Commonwealth title with Don victory in men's under-96kg
1 year ago: India retain men's team table tennis title
1 year ago: Members of royal family attend Birmingham 2022
1 year ago: Joe Fraser wins third gold medal with huge parallel bars score
1 year ago: Kate McDonald snatches gold from compatriot Godwin
1 year ago: India win first lawn bowls gold in women's fours
1 year ago: Singapore clinch mixed team badminton bronze
1 year ago: England make it two wins from two in T20 cricket
1 year ago: Jake Jarman wins fourth Birmingham 2022 gold medal in men's vault
1 year ago: England win men's team table tennis bronze
1 year ago: Teenager Capsey reaches maiden international 50
1 year ago: Laylor takes women's under-75kg gold
1 year ago: Gold Coast 2018 champion Yadav out of women's under-75kg
1 year ago: Wales beat England to win men's pairs gold in lawn bowls
1 year ago: Hurdler to miss athletics competition due to "admin error"
1 year ago: Gold Coast 2018 champion Makwala withdraws from Birmingham 2022
1 year ago: Two-time mountain bike medallist Cooper misses competition with COVID-19
1 year ago: Welcome to the fifth day of competition at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games

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Fact of the day

When British skaters Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean won the Olympic gold medal in ice dance at Sarajevo 1984 with 12 perfect 6.0s from every judge, for their interpretation of Maurice Ravel's Boléro, an important member of their team was singer-actor Michael Crawford. Crawford, who had played Frank Spencer in British sitcom Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em and the title role in the musical The Phantom of the Opera, had become a mentor to the pair in 1981 and went on to help them create their Olympic routine. Crawford said he “taught them how to act". He was present with their trainer Betty Callaway at the ringside at Sarajevo as they created one of the most iconic moments in Olympic history.

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Pierre de Coubertin once said cricket has "practically no appeal for those who are not British". While he expressed doubts about the Olympic viability of cricket, lacrosse and baseball, Philip Barker wonders how the man who helped revive the modern Games would have reacted to new sports at Los Angeles 2028.

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News

About Birmingham 2022

The Games

Birmingham 2022: Opening Ceremony

Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games: Day one of competition

Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games: Day two of competition

Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games: Day three of competition

Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games: Day four of competition

Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games: Day five of competition

Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games: Day six of competition

Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games: Day seven of competition

Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games: Day eight of competition

Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games: Day nine of competition

Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games: Day 10 of competition

Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games: Final day of competition