Otago's top moments, El Diego's Golden Ball and Iain O'Brien ...
Greatest hits!
Never let it be said that New Zealand's regional newspapers lack commitment to their community. Our friends at the Otago Daily Times are compiling a list of the province's greatest sporting moments. How big is their list? Would 20 be too ambitious? How about 50? A flat 100
would be lunacy!
Try 150. One-hundred-and-fifty Great Otago Sporting Moments. Please email us your suggestions for what cataclysmic events of blue-and-gold glory should appear between #25 and #150 and we'll forward them on.
Like this:
No 127: 7 March, 1962: Mr Wilson meets the future Mrs Wilson in a Mataura dance hall.
And this:
No 103: 18 August, 1982: John Speights-Nomates (BA/BCom/BEd/Llb) invents the double-jug Nasal-scull technique.
Or this:
No 92: 24 October, 1962: The future Mrs Wilson accepts Mr Wilson's offer of "a trip to the flicks".
But possibly not this:
Incidentally, no reply from the ODT as yet about where David Latta getting penalised under his own sticks in the final seconds of a Ranfurly Shield challenge at Lancaster Park in 1994 fits into all this. We salute you, Dave.
Image is everything
Signs the NRL has an image problem: Police are looking for a man who bashed a stranger to death in Sydney. He's described in the press as having "hair cropped in the spiked fashion favoured by flashy young NRL players".
Tweet of the Week
"The more I listen to Danny Morrison on commentary the more I hope Australia claim another Kiwi as theirs ..."
Follow Iain O'Brien @iainobrien.
El Diego's ball
Diego Maradona has finally learned the truth about the fate of the Golden Ball he won at the 1986 World Cup.
Mafia boss Salvatore Lo Russo revealed under cross-examination in an Italian court that, when El Diego was based in Naples, the Golden Ball was stolen by the Mob and then melted down into gold bars.
"I did give him back four watches that were stolen," Lo Russo added. "But one of them was not his so he gave it back to me."
Taking a bath
Riddle us this: Why do two of the five people - all presumably leaguies - wandering gormlessly along a beach in Sky's NRL promos wear bathrobes? Is it one of those beaches? ...
"The best hangover cure in my experience was having to bat against the West Indies in the 1980s. The prospect of any one, or all four, of Holding, Marshall, Garner and Roberts coming at you at 90mph at 10am is enough to shake you out of any lethargy."
Former England batsman David Gower has just the ticket for shaking off the night before.
"Well, the batsmen are better placed to tell you about that. I was the one doing the damage, not the one being damaged."
West Indian legend Michael Holding. Better than a cup of coffee and an aspirin.
"I tried to limit my running and it worked out nicely."
Aussie opener Shane Watson after belting 15 sixes and 15 fours in an innings of 185 not out off 96 balls against Bangladesh.
"I think seven of his sixes were mishits."
Bangladesh bowler Shahriar Nafees claims a rather pyrrhic victory.
"What we've done is provide a mathematical method in a non-mathematical world. One must expect that there will be cynicism."
Cricket head-scratcher Frank Duckworth on the method he calculated with Tony Lewis.
"I imagine there will be a moment when you have to decide: do you win things or not?"
Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas on the club's policy of developing young players and the lack of trophies under Arsene Wenger.
"I was just feeling my thigh while I watched the tear gas. I had a twinge."
Palmeiras midfielder Jorge Valdivia after being caught on telly apparently having a whizz on the advertising hoarding mid-match.
GOOD WEEK
Canadian patients
Doctors in British Columbia have been told to stop talking about ice hockey during surgery, after patients under local anaesthetic became worried that the surgeons weren't concentrating.
BAD WEEK
Andy Powell
The Wales No 8, who once drove a golf cart on the motorway, was beaten up at the Walkabout in London. "He makes Ma'a Nonu look like Einstein," said one informed source.
THE NUMBER
16
The number of shots Kevin Na took to find the hole on a par four at the Texas Open. That's a PGA Tour record.
