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Your support makes all the difference.A woeful week for WAGs. First serial footballers' squeeze Danielle Lloyd, currently stepping out with Jamie O'Hara of Spurs, has to undergo surgery after being thrown through a glass table at a nightclub. Then Alex Curran, aka Mrs Steven Gerrard, confesses she is beginning to watch the pennies. "I think people – especially WAGs – are becoming more conscious of spending now. I'm not bothered with pampering," she says while managing to keep a straight face. "I do my nails myself." It happens that Danielle is a qualified "nail technician", so perhaps she and the Gerrards could do a deal: she could teach them the finer points of cuticle care, while they could teach her how to avoid barroom brawls. Oh, hold on a minute...
9th
Hole at Abbey Hill Golf Club in Milton Keynes where last Sunday morning players encountered a man sunbathing naked apart from his socks. He had his terrier with him, but no word whether the 9th is a dogleg.
Beastly contests of the week
Hot on the heels of our recent mention of cat racing comes news that the annual World Hen Racing Championships will be held on 1 August this year at the Barley Mow pub in Bonsall, Derbyshire. Entry open to all (bring your own hen), more details at barleymowbonsall.co.uk. One of last year's entrants was named Obama, but no she couldn't, coming nowhere in the final, run over a 30ft track, after winning her heat. Further afield, 20 June sees the Loews Dog Surfing Competition at Imperial Beach, California. Seems the Americans aren't listening to the other Obama; they've even taken to waterboarding their pooches.
Good week for
Jenson Button, won his fifth GP of the season for Brawn... Burnley FC, promoted to the Premiership after beating Sheffield United in the play-offs... Pep Guardiola, won league, cup and Champions' League treble in his first season as Barcelona manager.... and Sunderland FC's A Love Supreme, named the Best Overall Fanzine in the New Football Pools Awards.
Bad week for
Ronaldo, former World Footballer of the Year, suspended after pulling an opponent's hair in a Brazilian league match... Shane Lowry, winner of golf's Irish Open as an amateur a fortnight ago, shot a six-over par 78 on his professional debut... Andrew Flintoff, lost his battle to be fit for England's World Twenty20 side... and Ken Judge, an Australian Rules commentator, sacked for describing a colleague on-air as "bigger than Hitler's gas bill".
Mascot mayhem of the week
WHEN YOU play against a football club called Odd Grenland perhaps you should be prepared for the unexpected. But Gardar Johannson, the striker for fellow Norwegian side Fredrikstad, seemed surprised to be punched on the chin by the opposition mascot, Brodd the Bee. What makes it odd of Brodd is that his team had just won 2-0. In the US, a college basketball game was temporarily halted after Utah State's Big Blue Bull yanked off the moustache of his rival mascot, New Mexico State's Pistol Pete, having been egged on to do so by an offer of $100 from a fan. Fisticuffs ensued before play resumed and Utah won the game in the last second. Sounds like a close shave.
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