Inside Track: Curiosity Corner

KNOW YOUR INITIALS

This week: SD

1: 1-1, 2-2, 3-3

2: Mothercare and nifty forwards are good at it

3: Give him a cue and a World title and he might smile.......

4: ........his namesake and compatriot was good in the Olympic pool

5: They play on the Friary field

6: They should build a statue of him in Offaly

7: At one time, a grade in the English League, Louth football, and the League of Ireland

8: Referees are often accused of making them

9: A bad run of results saw him get the heave-ho at Goodison Park

10: Without it, you mightn’t get to see much sport on TV

HE SAID

“It wasn’t pretty at times; it was tough to watch that last 20 minutes. Torturous in many ways. Maybe the fact that it was ugly like that makes it even better.

“The quarter-final and semi-final were some very good performances from the team, and it was a completely different type of performance today.”

Leo Cullen, in 2018, giving his thoughts immediately after his Leinster side beat Racing 92 to win the European Champions Cup for the fourth time.

Leinster didn’t go to the front until two minutes from time. A match report said the game was ‘rugged”, while someone tweeted, ‘May not be the prettiest, but the physicality is brutal.’

The win gave Cullen the distinction of becoming the first to take the title as a player and coach.

THERE’S SOMETHING WRONG HERE

Stephen Roche won worldwide acclaim for his win in the 1987 Tour de France. The Dublin-born rider was in the vanguard from early on, and only had to avoid catastrophe on the final stage to make it a triumphant spin up the Champs-Élysées.

There to greet him on the podium was Taoiseach Bertie Ahern. Roche also won the Giro d’Italia that year.

WOULD YOU BELIEVE IT?

A Kerry senior team’s first All-Ireland win was in hurling. In 1891, club team Ballyduff represented the county in a 2-3 to 1-5 win over Wexford champions, Rossabeg. Since then, the footballers have won 39 titles, along with losing 24 finals......

A chap called Fred Everiss holds the record for the longest-serving manager of the same club in the English League. Fred looked after WBA from 1902 to 1946, and doubled as secretary.

The one with the shortest reign is Bill Lambton, who hardly got time to take his coat off at Scumthorpe United; his reign, in 1959, lasting just three days.

Brian Clough and Jock Stein, both European Cup winners, lasted the same number of days at Leeds United, 44......

The 1987 match between Kilkenny and Antrim was not the first All-Ireland senior hurling final to be played in Dundalk.

Way back in 1907, Dublin met Antrim in the last four, and won by 5-10 to 2-5. Five years earlier, Dublin beat Derry 6-19 to 0-6 in another semi-final played in Drogheda.....

Dundalk’s lamented Athletic Grounds hosted games played by Louth seniors, Dundalk FC and Dundalk Rugby Club before its closure in 1960. The last game at the venue was a junior rugby match between Dundalk and Skerries.....

A new schedule, introduced in 2018, had the All-Ireland hurling final played on August 19 that year. The last time there was such an early date was in 1888. It’s even earlier now....

Aside for his distinctive voice and precise knowledge of the game, former BBC commentator, John Motson, was renowned for his sheepskin coats. In his 49-year career with the Beeb, he went through 10 of them.....

ANSWERS

Know Your Initials: 1 Score Draw, 2 Selling Dummies, 3 Steve Davis, 4 Sharon Davis, 5 St Dominic’s, 6 Stephen Darby, 7 Second Division, 8 Strange Decisions, 9 Seán Dyche, 10 Satellite Dish. There’s Something Wrong Here: It was Charlie Haughey who greeted Roche after his Tour de France win.