THREE THINGS TO DO THIS BANK HOLIDAY WEEKEND

It’s set to be a real scorcher this bank holiday, so get planning now to avoid disappointment. Here are some ideas to inspire you, by Adam Bloodworth

GO TO A FESTIVAL

The Gala festival returns to Peckham Rye Park this weekend. The independent festival is a celebration of dance music, with incredibly high quality sound across the site. It’s not all music: there’s an array of talks and street food and drinks, too.

GO TO A NEW ROOFTOP BAR

The Cavo Mediterranean rooftop bar is freshly opened in that new development at the junction where Oxford Street meets Tottenham

Court Road. The design is pleasingly smart, and they say the cooking combines “rustic charm with fearless modernity.”

GET TO KNOW A LONDON PARK

It’s (finally) set to be a scorcher this weekend, with temperatures reaching 20 Celsius and clear blue skies on Friday and Saturday. If you want to try something new, there’s a Walking Book Club in Greenwich Park at 11.45am on Saturday morning, no prep required. Hear extracts read out while you watch and split into small groups to discuss.

Ed Warner

IF YOU stick a betting company logo on a young man’s shirt, beam his image around the world for 90 minutes every week and prop up the media coverage for his sport with a welter of gambling ads, then be prepared to shoulder your share of the blame if he can’t resist the temptation to break the rules and have a flutter himself. Whichever side of the gambling debate you sit on, you can still view Ivan Toney’s eight-month ban from football as excessive.

Brentford FC’s owner, Matthew Benham, made his fortune in trading sporting odds. He has rightly been lauded for doing things differently – on and off the pitch – in building a community-focused club. His team even retained its kit from last season to this, a rarity in an era of rotating temptation for kids wanting to mirror their idols.

Young Bees fans can’t exactly replicate the Premier League look however, as Brentford sport Hollywoodbets as their front-of-shirt sponsor. The South African betting company was said by the club to be aiming to bring “a personalised entertainment experience to its international customers” when the shirt deal was struck two years ago. How’s that going now? Just ask the kids to look away, as per the regulations.

We don’t yet know what matches Toney bet on in his 232 agreed breaches of the non-gambling rules between 2017 and 2021. Were they games he participated in, or in competitions his teams played in? Could they have been contests he had special insight into through his network of contacts in football?

Or were they simply matches he put his feet up to watch while relaxing at home – midweek European footy or international fixtures, perhaps? Or like Kieran Trippier and Daniel Sturridge before him, was “inside information” such as player transfers at stake?

Context will be all in judging the severity of the punishment dished out by the independent commission on behalf of the Football Association. If the Brentford striker was betting on matches he played in then, for me, eight months wouldn’t be long enough.

But if at least some of the education given by Toney’s nine professional clubs sunk in, and he is guilty of simply behaving like any fan who adds financial jeopardy to their experience of a game on TV, then preventing him training with his club until mid-September carries more than a hint of vindictiveness. Do we need him to be a pariah?

HANDS UP, PUNTERS

When the commission publishes its findings, and depending on the facts, Toney would do well to consider a statement such as that made by Joey Barton on his own 18-month ban back in 2017.

In it he called out the FA for football’s dependence on the gambling industry’s money. It is worth reading in full.

“I am not alone in football in having a problem with gambling,” wrote Barton. “I grew up in an environment where betting was and still is part of the culture. From as early as I can remember my family let me have my own pools coupon, and older members of the family would place bets for me on big races like the Grand National.

“To this day, I rarely compete at anything without there being something at stake. Whether that’s a round of golf with friends for a few pounds, or a game of darts in the training ground for who makes the tea, I love compet-