Outside Edge (23/05/10)
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Your support makes all the difference.Britannia may rule some of the waves, but not all of them. A £3 million artificial surfing reef installed off the coast of Bournemouth, the first in Europe, has been called a failure because it produces the wrong type of waves: smaller and fewer than those produced by a normal beach, according to a report by Dr Mark Davidson of Plymouth University. But an Englishman's home is still his castle. Three men in a very odd boat, Jack Watkins, Chris Hayes and Dave Sibley of Clapham, have become the first to sail across Italy's Lake Garda in a bouncy castle. Their five-mile trip took two hours and went straight through an international sailing regatta. Beware, all you Germans hogging sun-loungers.
1,800
Laps of the inside of Storridge village hall by 83-year-old Moira Starkey in Herefordshire – equivalent to a marathon – in aid of the local charity Breast Cancer Haven. She has two replacement hips and knees. Time to zimmer down.
Furry pants of the week
It sounds like some old-fashioned form of punishment for naughty boys, so it seemed highly appropriate that retired headmaster Frank Bartlett, 67, should set a world record for "ferret-legging" – sticking a ferret down your trousers – beating the previous mark of five hours 26 minutes by just four minutes in Whittington, Staffordshire. The endurance event has raised the hackles of James McKay, the director of the National Ferret School in Chesterfield, who says it causes the animals unnecessary distress. Bartlett counters that the trousers were baggy and his ferrets "like nothing better than a dark, warm tunnel". Since one of the rules is that you mustn't wear underwear, it is a bit of a bum deal.
Good week for
Greg Searle, rower wins a seat on the Great Britain Eight for the World Cup aged 38 having quit after Sydney 2000... Bonita Norris from Wokingham in Berkshire, youngest British woman to climb Everest aged 22... and Stephanie Brimacombe, 26, of Yeovil in Devon, becomes fastest woman to reach the North Pole.
Bad week for
Jerry Rice, NFL's Hall of Fame wide receiver abandons plans for a golf career after carding a 92 on Nationwide Tour at Brights Creek, the worst-ever score at the event... Gareth Raynor, Crusaders winger jailed for 15 months for selling fake printer ink on eBay... and James Neal, ex-Nascar racer, 56, whose Corvette engine blew up after a 50-mile chase with police at 140mph in California.
Naked ambition of the week
He has been playing out of his skin and now LeBron James, the NBA Most Valuable Player, is a free agent after leaving the Cleveland Cavaliers, and is being lured to the New York Knicks. Well, by a New York strip club that wants him to sign for them. The Scores club offers free lap dances and dinners for life, and a special day when every girl will wear his "strip" on stage – briefly. Now Sailen Tudu can dream of such perks. The 20-year-old from the slums of Calcutta was spotted by a British diplomat playing rugby barefoot in the street. He contacted former England captain Phil Vickery, who has secured Tudu a £40,000 scholarship at Hartpury College. Watch out for the Scrumdog Millionaire.
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