It is a rare treat to see something that never happened before. My nine-year-old son and I had this on Tuesday at Flamingo Park (next to Sidcup Dino Golf on the A20) when Cray Wanderers, London’s oldest football club, qualified for the first round of the FA Cup for the first time in their 166-year-history after beating Bedford Town in a shootout. Jakob Lowe, 17, who had been on the pitch for all of 131 seconds, hit the winner to earn a home tie against Stockport County of League One.
I suspect a bigger crowd at Tropicana Field in Florida where two less ancient teams also chase the unprecedented. The Tampa Bay Rays meet the Milwaukee Brewers in the first World Series between two baseball teams who have not won it before since 1980. It started in Milwaukee on Friday and Saturday and the best-of-seven series now moves south (Tuesday and Wednesday, TNT Sports 1, 12am).
History will also be made in Paris this afternoon. The NFL has been taking regular-season American football matches to other countries since it began an annual residency at Wembley in 2007 and this year makes its debut at the Stade de France. The New Orleans Saints are the home side and may expect to be favoured in the country of old Orléans, but the Pittsburgh Steelers have the better record this season (today, Sky Sports NFL, 1.30pm).
Back to romance in English football, the Carabao Cup has reached the round of 16 and while six of the ties are between Premier League sides, impartial observers will surely favour Fleetwood Town against Arsenal at Highbury. Not that Highbury, of course – Arsenal’s old stadium has long been turned into flats – but Fleetwood, of League Two, play at a ground of the same name with a capacity of 5,327. One assumes it will be sold out (Tuesday, Sky Sports Football, 8pm).
[The Test series between Australia and South Africa](https://observer.co.uk/news/sport/article/eight-years-after-sandpapergate-australians-struggle-to-shake-off-scandal) has turned into a thriller. After being walloped in the opening match and slipping to 92 for five at the start of the second, Temba Bavuma’s daddy hundred turned things round for the hosts, who won by an innings in Gqeberha. It is a pity that the sides who contested the latest World Test Championship final have only one more match, in Cape Town this week (Tuesday, Sky Sports Cricket, 8.30am).
England, who go to South Africa in December, followed a heavy defeat by Pakistan with a high-scoring loss to Sri Lanka in their ODI tri-series on Thursday. [Harry Brook](https://observer.co.uk/news/sport/article/slow-summer-will-live-long-in-memory-for-wrong-reasons) hit 202 in Rawalpindi, beating Ben Stokes’s England ODI record, as they made 429 but still lost by two wickets. Today they face Pakistan again before a Sri Lanka rematch on Thursday and a possible (albeit less likely now) final on Saturday (all on Sky Sports Cricket, 8am).
Finally, the European Curling Championships are in Ostrava this week. Scotland have traditionally done well and will hope to be in the semi-finals of both men’s and women’s events (Saturday, TNT Sports 4 and 2, from 1pm).
Photograph by Ben Roberts/Getty Images