Inside Lines: 'Sonny' looks an easy Dutch for Harrison

Audley Harrison's return to Wembley Arena, where he made his professional debut against the truly awful Michael Middleton three years ago, is proving something of a hard sell. Fourteen fights on from that inauspicious night, the public have grown increasingly sceptical about shelling out up to £100 to watch the Olympic super-heavyweight champion hone his undoubted skills on opposition which has ranged from the hapless to the hopeless. Whether Richel Hersisia, aka the Dutch Sonny Liston, comes into either category remains to be seen on Saturday night when Harrison challenges for his first "title", officially the WBF, although it might just as well be the BBC. He insists that the unbeaten Hersisia, whose record of 16 KOs in 21 fights seems to have been assembled in Legoland, is a worthy opponent, but the short, immobile Dutchman seems ideally tailored for Harrison's rangy punches. With Herbie Hide sidelined following his cut-eye defeat on Friday, and Michael Sprott and Matt Skelton due to settle a d

Audley Harrison's return to Wembley Arena, where he made his professional debut against the truly awful Michael Middleton three years ago, is proving something of a hard sell. Fourteen fights on from that inauspicious night, the public have grown increasingly sceptical about shelling out up to £100 to watch the Olympic super-heavyweight champion hone his undoubted skills on opposition which has ranged from the hapless to the hopeless. Whether Richel Hersisia, aka the Dutch Sonny Liston, comes into either category remains to be seen on Saturday night when Harrison challenges for his first "title", officially the WBF, although it might just as well be the BBC. He insists that the unbeaten Hersisia, whose record of 16 KOs in 21 fights seems to have been assembled in Legoland, is a worthy opponent, but the short, immobile Dutchman seems ideally tailored for Harrison's rangy punches. With Herbie Hide sidelined following his cut-eye defeat on Friday, and Michael Sprott and Matt Skelton due to settle a domestic dispute in Reading on 24 April, Harrison says he is even more convinced that he is right to concentrate his anticipated ascension via the international route. Watching him work out at Aldershot last week - he is giving the forces free broadcasting rights to the fight - he has never looked fitter, or sharper. "This shows how seriously I am taking this fight," he said. Yesterday he was going through his paces at a Watford shopping arcade, and on Wednesday he and Hersisia will trying to whip up interest at the local leisure centre in somewhat less salubrious Stonebridge, Middlesex, where he grew up and where no doubt local schoolkids, like the squaddies, will be recipients of a few free tickets. They are likely to have an early night, or I'm a Dutchman...

Greeks seek help on security after Madrid

Madrid, a candidate city alongside London in the bidding for the 2012 Olympics, will be very much on the minds of the IOC delegation led by president Jacques Rogge, who are now in Athens for crucial talks with the new Greek prime minister, Costas Karamanlis. With the Games obviously a prime target for terrorist attack, Rogge will be observing Operation Hercules, the 20-day security anti-terrorist exercise being conducted jointly by Greek and United States security forces. The bomb horror in the Spanish capital has caused the freshly elected right-wing Greek government to seek assistance from Nato to supplement their £500m security operation in August, when, for the first time since Montreal in 1976, armed troops will accompany athletes from "high risk" countries such as the US and Britain whenever they travel to venues outside the Games village. "We are determined not to be Munich 1972," says the Athens mayor, Doris Bakonyani. Or Madrid 2004.

Esher 'tackled pink' over gay rugby

You'd think one of the most eye-catching international sports events to be held in Britain this year would also be likely to raise a few eyebrows in Esher, deep in ultra-conservative Surrey. It is there that the 2004 gay and bisexual Rugby World Cup will be held in May. However, the local newspaper reports that the Esher club and community are "tackled pink" to be involved. First held in San Francisco two years ago, it is known as the Bingham Cup in memory of a gay American rugby player, Mark Kendall Bingham, who died on board one of the planes in the 11 September atrocities. It was hoped that the BBC presenter John Inverdale, an occasional Esher player, would be able to help host proceedings, but he is otherwise engaged in fronting the World's Strongest Man competition.

Among the things upon which London's 2012 Olympic bid team are pinning their hopes is... a pin. The little lapel badge has been around for only a couple of months, but already it is becoming a collectors' item.

The simply designed oval-shaped logo adorns the jackets (and the odd anorak) of those pushing London's prospects, among them the Prime Minister and Ken Livingstone, and is also given away in all publicity packs. Visitors to the London 2012 Canary Wharf headquarters can grab a fistful from the reception desk if so inclined. Yet they are now turning up on internet auction sites as far afield as the United States and Norway, and fetching around £10 from collectors of Olympic memorabilia. Says a bid spokesperson: "Originally the pins were made available in limited numbers to help launch the bid, but they have proved immensely popular among collectors." So what might they be worth should London win? Rather more than pin money, surely.

Simon Clegg, the cheery chief executive of the British Olympic Association, remained unfazed when announced as 'Norman Clegg' by BBC commentator David Mercer at a badminton writers' lunch in Birmingham on Friday.

Norman Clegg, of course, is more usually associated with Summer Wine than Summer Olympics. But Simon Clegg, fresh from completing a deal with Weetabix to sponsor Team GB in Athens, laughed off this dog's breakfast of an introduction when he might well have exclaimed: "Bloody Nora!" Guffaws, too, at the Sports Journalists' Association awards dinner, where first prize in the draw was announced with an "ahem" by Barry Davies as a trip for two - to La Manga...

insidelines@independent.co.uk

Exit Lines

In any sport, some you win, some you lose. But when padding up to go out in front of a capacity crowd in the West Indies, human emotion takes over and the philosophy becomes a load of bunkum. Geoffrey Boycott, back in full voice... It would be Thierry Ruud not to look at the goals again. BBC presenter Ray Stubbs plays the punmeister after the Arsenal and Manchester United FA Cup quarter-finals... I am like a tired old man in his slippers, shuffling along nicely. Frank Bruno on retirement.