A Roy of the Rovers-inspired story will feature a female lead and women’s football for the first time.

Rocky of the Rovers: France 2019 will be written as a “live” comic starring Roy’s sister and will be published during the FIFA Women’s World Cup this summer.

It will be released chapter by chapter as the Lionesses make their way through this year’s tournament.

The Roy of the Rovers football comic series was first published in 1954.

The National Literacy Trust, The FA, and Oxford-based publisher Rebellion have teamed up to launch the new story for free online. More

Emily Maitlis will become the new lead presenter of BBC Two’s Newsnight after Evan Davis’s departure.

Kirsty Wark will have an “enhanced” role on the programme while 5 Live presenter Emma Barnett joins as a new presenter, the BBC confirmed.

The announcement comes a month after Maitlis won network presenter of the year at the RTS TV Journalism Awards.

Davis left the programme last year to take over from Eddie Mair as the lead presenter of PM on BBC Radio 4.

Maitlis said she was “delighted to be moving into this role at a time when Newsnight feels so pivotal to our understanding of this extraordinary moment in British history”. More

England international Toni Duggan secured a 2-0 victory for Barcelona in front of a world record crowd of 60,739 fans for a women’s football club match.

Duggan scored Barca’s second in the second half at the Wanda Metropolitano stadium to shake up the title race.

The 27-year-old tweeted after the match: ‘So that’s how it feels to score against your rivals, in front of 60,000 people!!!! Wow, What a day, more importantly what a WIN! Today we made history…’

Atletico were leading Barca by six points at the top of the Liga Iberdrola heading into the game but saw that deficit halved following goals from Asisat Oshoala and Duggan. There are six games left to run this season.  More

A new online channel – telegraph.co.uk/tws – has been launched and you can follow TWS on Twitter @WomensSport and on Instagram @ TelegraphWomensSport.  More

Dozens of firms, including Domino’s Pizza, JD Sports and Greene King have been told to put more women in their boardrooms.

The Investment Association, a financial sector trade body, and the government-backed Hampton-Alexander review wrote to 69 companies.

They have called on them to have 33% of their boards made up of women by 2020.

The review has threatened to brand them “red tops” as a warning to investors about their lack of gender diversity.

They said it was “unacceptable” that one in five of the UK’s biggest companies in the FTSE 350 index are falling short on gender diversity.

Of the firms singled out, 66 have only one woman on their board, while three firms – property investor Daejan Holdings, Millennium & Copthorne Hotels and TR Property Investment Trust – have an all-male board.  More

Five years ago, a unique all-female orchestra was formed in Afghanistan, a nation where only a few years previously music had been outlawed and women barred from education. Now Zohra is visiting the UK for the first time.

No-one claims that in Afghanistan, the Taliban influence has been rooted out entirely. Violence continues. But two decades ago, the Afghanistan National Institute of Music would have been unthinkable.

ANIM was founded in 2008, with international support, to bring music education to young Afghans. Not long before that, the Afghan capital Kabul had finally been wrenched from the grasp of the fundamentalist Sunni Muslim Taliban.

In the Taliban years, music – once a thriving and rich part of Afghan culture, admired around the world – had all but disappeared.

Today in Kabul, ANIM teaches music skills to some 250 young people, both male and female. That figure is about to rise to 320 and there are plans to expand to cities such as Herat, Mazar-e Sharif and Jalalabad.  More

Jockey Bryony Frost made Cheltenham Festival history as she became the first woman to ride a top-level Grade One winner over jumps at the meeting when Frodon landed an emotional triumph in the Ryanair Chase.

Frost, 23, the daughter of Grand National-winning jockey Jimmy, punched the air with delight after victory on the 9-2 chance, trained by Paul Nicholls.

“He’s Pegasus,” said a tearful Frost after her bold-jumping mount finished ahead of Aso and Road To Respect.

As the jockey and her mount returned to a rapturous reception in the winner’s enclosure, 10-time champion trainer Nicholls said it was “one of the best days ever”.  More

For decades, unlike almost every other sport, male and female jockeys have competed on level terms, but in Ireland some men find themselves feeling less than equal.

Admittedly, it’s a guy – former champion Paul Townend – who leads the riders’ title race for the 2018-19 jumps season – but very much hard on his heels is Rachael Blackmore following a prolific run.

However, to steal a favourite phrase from the horse racing formbook, it’s a case of ‘pair well clear’ of the pack, a group headed by Davy Russell and Mark Walsh; after an injury-hit time of it, perennial leading contender Ruby Walsh is further behind.

And, as a jockey very much in favour with aviation tycoon Michael O’Leary’s vast, highly-influential Gigginstown House Stud racing operation, managed by his brother Eddie, the odds on Blackmore winning are nothing fancy.

Were the 29-year-old, who held a decisive advantage through the early months of the campaign, to end up in front when the season concludes at the Punchestown Festival in May, she’d be racing’s first female professional jump jockey champion. Such a result would be a landmark for racing.  More