Inside Track: Curiosity Corner

KNOW YOUR INITIALS

This week: GB

1: He loves playing in Croke Park
2: If your team is playing like this it’s making the right sounds
3: He made the save of the century.......
4:.....and often played against this wayward star at club and country levels
5: They go hunting in the West of Ireland
6: One of these will help a greyhound win a race
7: It will be played at Croke Park if Pádraig’s team win the All-Ireland football title
8: David Beckham
9: He gets preferential treatment from his manager and is sometimes white-haired and at other times another colour
10: One of England’s all-time cricket greats

PRE-CHAMPIONSHIP PREDICTION
“Monaghan: Survived another year in Division One, but their championship performances have been poor for a while now.
Lots of new faces, particularly in defence, where Ryan O’Toole and Thomas McPhillips look like fine additions.
If nothing else, the league format of the All-Ireland series should suit them.
The newest face of all was Vinny Corey, who took control late last year as the chase to find a replacement for Seamus McEneaney reached a frantic stage.
The Clontibret O’Neills clubman can be more than pleased with his first year and his team’s performance.

THE NAME’S THE SAME
A race track in Scotland and a city in Australia

HE SAID
“Jake LaMotta was asked to name the three greatest fighters he ever fought. Sugar Ray Robinson, Sugar Ray Robinson and Sugar Ray Robinson, he replied.
He said he fought Sugar Ray so often he thought he had diabetes.
He did have him off his feet once – when Sugar Ray stepped over his body to get out of the ring.” John Conteh, when recalling the funniest thing he had heard in boxing.
The English fighter was no dud himself, beating Jorge Victor Ahumada, of Argentina, to win the world light-heavyweight title.
He had three successful defences before being stripped of the title for failing to fulfil an engagement.
It wasn’t all bad for LaMotta in his jousts with Robinson. He won one of six meetings, bringing to an end the champion’s run of 40 consecutive wins.

WHO AM I?
My county was down in the lower reaches before making the breakthrough at the beginning of the 1960s.
This was the first of my three major title wins, and I was chosen on Gaelic football’s best-ever team. A son of one of my colleagues was manager of our county team on a couple of occasions.

THEY PLAYED PREMIERSHIP FOOTBALL THERE
Hen Wheat Trail (5, 4, 4)

ANSWERS
Know Your Initials: 1 Garth Brooks, 2 German Band, 3 Gordon Banks, 4 George Best, 5 Galway Blazers, 6 Good Break, 7 Galway Bay, 8 Golden Balls, 9 Golden Boy, 10 Geoff Boycott. Name’s The Same: Perth. Who Am I? Seán O’Neill (Down). Premiership Football: White Hart Lane.