25 Sports Thursday, December 26, 2019 Sport in 2019: Ten offbeat stories Sue Barker Lewis Hamilton PARIS: Matches held up by wildlife and underwear for leaving a pair of red women’s underwear on the The incident took place when a brood of chickens protests, chickens in danger in Croatian football and empty bench of rivals Olympiakos before a game. EDDIE’S NOT HAVING A BALL ran onto a pitch in the eastern part of the country. offside armpits. AFP Sport looks back at 10 of the best “It was an act that defamed the sport,” said the — British golfer Eddie Pepperell’s Turkish Open bid Ivan Gazdek from the home team NK Jelengrad, ran offbeat moments in sport in 2019: sports judge who handed down the ruling. came to an abrupt and early end when he ran out of after the birds, kicked one with his foot and then Giannakopoulos made the move after Olympiakos — golf balls. chucked it over the fence in a flurry of feathers. OH DEER! who play in red — failed to show up for a February Pepperell put five balls into the water at the fourth “I ran towards the chickens to chase them away, — The kick-off in a Scottish football match was contest in Athens. hole before telling playing partners that was quitting swung my foot and accidentally killed one,” said delayed after a herd of wild deer left excrement all over the course. Gazdek. the pitch. STANDING ROOM ONLY “Kick off suspended due to the ref being delayed, — Players of Mexican football club Veracruz went OFFSIDE — BY AN ‘ARMPIT’ POPE AND GLORY the pitch currently waterlogged — and covered in deer on strike in the opening minutes of a league game, — Liverpool maintained their lead at the top of the — The New Orleans Saints got a surprise shout-out faeces,” Nairn County, who play in the Highlands allowing grateful opponents Tigres to walk in two goals Premier League with a last-gasp win over Aston Villa from Pope Francis, with fans and at least one player tak- League, tweeted ahead of the game at Fort William. unchallenged. but came perilously close to being denied a result — ing the inadvertent tag as a good omen for the NFL team. The match in April eventually ended in a 6-2 defeat Veracruz decided on the radical action of standing by an offside armpit! Francis created five new saints in October in a for hapless Fort William, their 29th loss in 31 games. — instead of running — about the pitch to protest over Jurgen Klopp’s side, who took all three points at canonisation ceremony at the Vatican. unpaid wages. Villa Park thanks to Sadio Mane’s 94th minute winner, “Today we give thanks to the Lord for our new SUE ARE YOU? As a result, Eduardo Vargas and Andre-Pierre were trailing to Trezeguet’s opener when Roberto #Saints,” he posted on Twitter — with the combination — When Sue Barker won the Roland Garros Gignac put Tigres 2-0 ahead inside three minutes on Firmino thought he had tapped home the leveller seven of a hashtag and the capital letter of Saints apparently women’s title in 1976 she became Britain’s most recent their way to a 3-1 win. minutes later. adding the New Orleans team’s fleur-de-lis logo. champion in Paris — or did she? At the end of the games, Veracruz sarcastically However, the linesman raised his flag and a VAR Saints linebacker Alex Anzalone put a screenshot of An eagle-eyed photographer spotted that Barker is applauded their opponents who they claim reneged on check confirmed the decision to the rule the goal out, Francis’ tweet on his own Twitter feed. listed as Australian and not British on the list of champi- a promise to respect their strike. with the Premier League revealing that Firmino’s armpit “Wow, are we blessed or what?!??” Anzalone ons whose names are engraved on the Suzanne Lenglen “They knew that we were going to stay still for three “was marginally ahead of the last Villa defender”. wrote. trophy presented each June to the French Open minutes,” said Veracruz defender Carlos Salcido. The decision looked like it would lead to Liverpool women’s champion. losing their first league match of the season, before BEES STOP PLAY “Last time I checked, Sue Barker was British - are CUT! HAMILTON TOO BUSY FOR ‘TOP GUN’ Andy Robertson headed home an equaliser in the 87th — A swarm of bees sent players taking cover on the my eyes deceiving me?” tweeted Ella Ling who — Lewis Hamilton had to put his ambitions to be a minutes and Mane snatched the points deep in stop- pitch during a Cricket World Cup game between South snapped a photo of the cup which has classed Barker Hollywood movie star on hold because he was too busy page time. Africa and Sri Lanka in Durham. as ‘AUST’ rather than ‘GBR’ for the last 43 years. winning Formula One world titles. “It’s not right that we laugh about it. Managers get “It’s very funny. Looks like someone’s just had a “I mean seriously....how has no one noticed!” The six-time world champion revealed he had to turn sacked over it,” Klopp said after the game. machine-gun through all the players on the field and down a role in “Top Gun: Maverick” due to lack of time. everyone is down on the ground,” said South Africa RED ALERT The 34-year-old’s role in the film was expected to be FOWL PLAY skipper Faf du Plessis. — Dimitris Giannakopoulos, the owner of Greek bigger than in his previous movie appearances in — A Croatian footballer kicked a chicken to death “You are not brave enough when there is a swarm of basketball club Panathinaikos, was fined 3,000 euros “Zoolander 2” and “Cars”. during a soccer game. bees flying. I’m brave, but not that brave.” — AFP Sport in 2019: Best quotes Sports deaths in 2019 RUGBY UNION cinctly summing up his thoughts after his “We have so many problems in our Tiger Roll put his name alongside the leg- PARIS: From the tragic death of Argentine member of the celebrated 1995 Rugby World gold medals, six world titles and the World country but a team like this, we come from endary Red Rum by winning back-to-back footballer Emiliano Sala to motor racing leg- Cup winning squad, died of a heart attack on Cup four times. He made headlines after his different backgrounds, different races but Grand Nationals end Niki Lauda and South Africa’s 1995 Rugby July 10. Small was famed for keeping rampant sporting career as a pop singer and stripper we came together with one goal and we “He is a little like myself. He likes the World Cup champion Chester Williams, AFP Jonah Lomu at bay when the Springboks won and did repeated stints in prison for assault. wanted to achieve it” good things in life — eating drinking and Sport looks at some of the notable sporting the World Cup final in Johannesburg, a historic — Siya Kolisi, the Springboks’ first sleeping, though he is a little more athletic figures who passed away in 2019: moment for the country just a year after the HIDEKICHI MIYAZAKI, 108 black Test captain. “In South Africa pres- than me!” end of white-minority apartheid rule. — A Japanese centenarian who set the sure is not having a job. Pressure is one of — Tiger Roll’s trainer Gordon Elliott EMILIANO SALA, 28 100-metre sprint world record for the over- your close relatives being murdered.” comparing himself to his Aintree hero. — The Argentine footballer was killed on GORDON BANKS, 81 105 age category died January 23. Miyazaki, — Rassie Erasmus, South Africa’s World January 21 when the plane he was in crashed — England’s goalkeeper during their tri- dubbed “Golden Bolt” after eight-time Cup winning head coach, eloquently TENNIS into the English Channel. He was on his way to umphant 1966 World Cup campaign, Banks Olympic gold medallist Usain Bolt, clocked explaining the nature of pressure in his “These kind of matches, you work for, join Cardiff after they agreed a club record 17 passed away on February 12. A legendary save 42.22 seconds in his home city of Kyoto in homeland. you live for, they give sense and they give million-euro transfer fee with Nantes. he made from Pele at the 1970 World Cup 2015. value to every minute you spend on the came to define his career. “The save was one FOOTBALL court training and working to get yourself NIKI LAUDA, 70 of the best I have ever seen,” Pele recalled. KELLY CATLIN, 23 “I think I’m particularly, uniquely and in this position and play the match with — Austria’s three-time Formula One world — The American three-time world champi- very deeply American” one of your greatest rivals of all time” champion died on May 20, eight months after MARTIN PETERS, 76 on cyclist took her own life on March 7 after a — Megan Rapinoe, USA’s World Cup — Novak Djokovic, after defeating a lung transplant. Lauda suffered severe burns — The forward was part of the West Ham battle with depression. Catlin was part of the winning superstar, a warrior on the pitch Roger Federer for his fifth Wimbledon on his face and hands, and inhaled toxic fumes trio of captain Bobby Moore and Geoff Hurst, US team pursuit squads that captured world and off it where her unflinching advocacy title in the longest final in the tourna- which damaged his lungs when his vehicle who scored a hat-trick in the 4-2 victory over titles in 2016, 2017 and 2018 and also won a for social justice brought her into conflict ment’s history.