Around 100,000 homes in the Bristol area were left without TV or internet services yesterday after two cables were "maliciously damaged".

Subscribers to the NTL:Telewest service lost their service at around 3pm yesterday afternoon - just an hour before England's crucial World Cup match against Ecuador.

By around 4am this morning engineers had managed to restore services to around half of those affected. The rest should be back up and running later today.

As one hacked off reader put it: "So all those customers who remortgaged their homes to buy that HD Plasma screen with surround sound to watch Beckham vomiting or the Portuguese pushing and shoving their way to victory may feel a bit upset this morning."

In a statement a spokesman for NTL:Telewest said: "Two major cables in the Bristol area were maliciously damaged at approximately 3pm yesterday afternoon.

"The damage affected the TV and broadband internet services of around 100,000 customers in Bristol and the Cotswolds.

"We would like to apologise for the inconvenience and disappointment caused and we are now investigating the incident with the police." ®