Outside Edge

Hull City's veteran striker Dean Windass may no longer command an automatic first-team place but he still inspires great loyalty from Tigers fans, as an e-petition to No 10 calling for the Prime Minister to erect a statue to the 39-year-old indicates. It has attracted an impressive 528 signatories so far – including one Dean Windass. And why not: if you don't ask, you don't get. Petitions that'll be getting nowt, though, include: "Close down Arsenal football club"; "Repeal the offside law"; and "Get Mark Lawrenson off the telly". They've all been rejected as being either too frivolous or "outside the remit or powers of the PM". Join in the fun at petitions.number10.gov.uk. It's democracy in action.

$3,200

The amount visitors have donated to Amy Borkowsky via her website, superbowlsinglegirl.com. Just $2,996,800 to go, then, before the Manhattanite can action her plan to find the perfect fella by buying a personal-ad TV spot during the Super Bowl on 1 February; the going rate is $3m.

Different strokes of the week

Good golf shots can cost money, as anyone who has had to buy drinks all round after a hole in one will testify. So when Curt Hacker managed five aces in one week at El Paso GC recently he was relieved that the club offer "hole-in-one insurance", and picked up all five tabs. Bad shots can be expensive, too; a Korean court has fined a golfer £600 for hospitalising his caddie by propelling a ball into his midriff. The caddie was standing 25ft behind him. Will the clumsy one shout "Back!" not "Fore!" in future?

Good week for

Pat Richards, scored three tries against Samoa to propel Ireland to a rugby league World Cup semi-final qualifier... Paula Radcliffe, romped to her third New York Marathon win... Sébastien Loeb, clinched his fifth consecutive World Rally crown... Diego Maradona, confirmed as new head coach of Argentina... and Donald Trump, US tycoon, had plans for a $1bn golf resort in Aberdeenshire approved.

Bad week for

Paul Gascoigne, taken to the High Court for non-payment of income tax... Herschelle Gibbs, South Africa batsman, dropped from the one-day side against Bangladesh after breaking a team curfew... Marius Tincu, Perpignan rugby union forward, given an 18-week banfor gouging... and Lucas Leiva, Liverpool midfielder, had his Olympic medal and souvenir shirts stolen in a break-in.

Cup commentary of the week

To honour the minnows in the first round proper of the FA Cup this weekend, we recommend "Twenty things you always see or hear at non-League football" from midfielddynamo.com. According to them, these include: "A half-time raffle where the prizes are mostly things like four cans of Mackeson, a box of out-of-date Terry's All Gold or a half-empty can of Lynx; and an annoyingly intermittent Tannoy system given to the club in 1974 by the local bus corporation." It is said that one Cup tie had an attendance so small the man on the PA nipped down just before kick-off, collected the names of the spectators and announced the "crowd" to the team rather than the other way round. Our research (10 minutes on Google) has failed to confirm this, but then facts have never been our strong subject.

s.redfern@independent.co.uk