The week in numbers: w/e 11/9/11

Marsh scored 141 on debut, surpassing his father's Test best

141 – In his debut Test innings Australia’s Shaun Marsh scored 141, surpassing his father Geoff’s top score of 138, which he accumulated over a 50-Test career.

13 – The top four men’s singles seeds at the US Open (Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Andy Murray) all reached the semi-finals, only the 13th time in history this has been achieved at a Grand Slam tournament in the Open era.

4 – Andy Murray reached the semis at all four Grand Slams this year, the first time he has achieved this. Having reached the final in Australia, he lost his semi-final matches at the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open.

0 – Sets lost by Serena Williams in reaching the US Open final. However, she lost 6-2 6-3 to Australian Sam Stosur.

2 – Stosur became only the second Australian woman to win the US Open singles title. (Margaret Court won five times between 1962 and 1973.) She is also the first Australian winner of any of the four Grand Slam women’s singles titles since Evonne Goolagong at Wimbledon 1980

Vettel has already all but clinched his second F1 title (image courtesy of Wikipedia)

112 – Points advantage of Sebastian Vettel over his nearest challenger, Red Bull teammate Mark Webber, after the German clinched his eighth win of the season at the Italian Grand Prix at Monza. There are only 150 points still available, meaning Vettel could clinch his second consecutive Formula 1 drivers’ title in Singapore in two weeks’ time.

5 – The five world champions currently on the F1 grid occupied the first five places at Monza: Vettel, Jenson Button, Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton and Michael Schumacher.

9 – Overall Vuelta a España winner Juan José Cobo was the ninth different rider to wear the red leader’s jersey during this year’s race, one more than the previous record of eight in 2008.

19 – Runner-up Chris Froome actually completed the 21-stage course 19 seconds faster than Cobo, but the Spaniard had a net 32-second gain in time bonuses to take victory by 13 seconds.

1 – Ashley Young‘s goal in England‘s 1-0 win over Wales was the only shot on target of the entire match.

0 – England are the only side yet to concede a goal from inside the area in Euro 2012 qualifying.

Toseland was forced into retirement after his hand injury (image courtesy of Wikipedia)

30 – Age of double World Superbike champion James Toseland, who retired last week after being left permanently disabled by a crash which damaged his right wrist in March.

500 – Mark Cavendish‘s victory at stage one of the Tour of Britain was the 500th win for HTC-Highroad since the team’s formation in 2008. The most successful squad in the sport during that period is disbanding at the end of this year.

3 – Three Warwickshire batsmen scored centuries in the same innings (Ian Westwood 171, Jim Troughton 151, Rikki Clarke 126) as Nottinghamshire were defeated by an innings and 114 runs at Liverpool.

11 – Ryan Sidebottom recorded match figures of 11 for 98 in Yorkshire’s six-wicket win over Somerset at Headingley.

2 – Alistair Brownlee secured his second world triathlon title in three seasons after winning the event in Beijing. Brother Jonathan was third, but finished as the overall runner-up.

Rookie Cobb made an immediate impact with an NFL record-tying kick return (image courtesy of Wikipedia)

108 – In the opening game of the 2011 NFL season on Thursday night, Green Bay Packers rookie wide receiver Randall Cobb returned a kickoff 108 yards for a touchdown, tying the all-time NFL record. He also caught a 32-yard touchdown pass as the Packers defeated the New Orleans Saints 42-34.

12 – Green Bay‘s win means the defending Super Bowl champions have won their last 11 season openers. The last opening day loss was by the Denver Broncos in 1999.

422 – Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton passed for 422 yards (with two TDs and one interception) in the 28-21 loss to the Arizona Cardinals. This was a record total for a rookie quarterback on his NFL debut, and tied the best single-game total by a rookie.

59 – Seconds between the San Francisco 49ers’ Ted Ginn Jr returning first a kickoff 102 yards and then a punt 55 yards for touchdowns in the 49ers’ 33-17 win over the Seattle Seahawks.

The Premier League in numbers

15 – Tottenham‘s 2-0 win at Wolves broke a run of 15 winless away games in the Premier League in the month of September, dating back to 2001.

Six goals in two games for Rooney

4 – Wayne Rooney‘s hat-trick in Manchester United’s 5-0 win at Bolton made him the fourth player in Premier League history to score consecutive hat-tricks (after Les Ferdinand, Ian Wright and Didier Drogba).

18 – Manchester United have scored 18 goals in their opening four league game, a new Premier League record.

7 – Chelsea‘s 2-1 win means they have now won on each of their last seven visits to Sunderland.

6 – Sergio Agüero‘s hat-trick in Manchester City’s 3-0 win over Wigan gave him six league goals so far this season, the same as teammate Edin Džeko. 15 of the 20 Premier League teams have scored fewer than six goals.

4 – Norwich have now conceded a penalty in four successive Premier League games. Declan Rudd saved it, but West Bromwich Albion nonetheless won 1-0.

The Rugby World Cup in numbers

4 – Jonny Wilkinson missed four successive kicks during England’s 13-9 win over Argentina.

6 – Argentina’s Felipe Contepomi and Martín Rodríguez combined to miss six of nine kicks in the same match.

Winger Goneva got off to a flying start with four tries

4 – Tries scored by Fiji winger Vereniki Goneva in his country’s 49-25 victory over Namibia.

3 – Namibian fly-half Theuns Kotze kicked three drop goals against Fiji. No other player has yet kicked one.

21 – New Zealand-born James Arlidge scored all of Japan’s points in the 47-21 defeat by France (two tries, one conversion, three penalties). At one point in the second half Japan closed to 25-21 before France pulled away.

815 – Defending champions South Africa fielded the most-capped starting XV in rugby union history in their narrow 17-16 victory over Wales, with a combined total of 815 caps.

(Some statistics courtesy of Opta Sports, The Times, StatManJon, Infostrada, nfl.com and rugbyworldcup.com.)

The week in numbers: w/e 14/8/11

Cook's 294 is more than the entire Indian team have scored in any single innings

294 – Alastair Cook scored a career-high 294 in England‘s third Test victory over India, more than the tourists have managed as a team in any of their six innings to date in the series. (Their highest score is just 288.) Victory guarantees England the world number one ranking at the end of the series, regardless of the result of the fourth and final Test. They currently lead 3-0.

2 – India’s Virender Sehwag was out first ball without scoring in both innings.

710 – England‘s total of 710/7 declared was their third-highest Test total ever (and their highest against India).

3 – India‘s margin of defeat (an innings and 242 runs) was their third-worst ever in Tests.

Imogen Bankier and Chris Adcock won an unexpected silver at the World Badminton Championships (image courtesy of Badminton England.co.uk)

18 – World ranking of British mixed doubles badminton pair Chris Adcock and Imogen Bankier, who reached the final of the World Badminton Championships at Wembley Arena, beating the number eight, four and two seeds en route. They lost to world number ones Zhang Nan and Zhao Yunlei 21-15 21-7 in the final.

77 – Tiger Woods‘ first round score at the US PGA championship, his worst ever opening round at a major. He followed it with a second round 73 to miss the cut by six shots.

3 – Keegan Bradley won the US PGA after a three-hole play-off against Jason Dufner, making him only the third player in golfing history to win the first major he has entered (Francis Ouimet, 1913 US Open and Ben Curtis, 2003 Open Championship).

5 – Dufner had led by five shots after the 15th before a bogey-bogey-par finish.

13 – Bradley became the 13th different winner in the last 13 majors, and the seventh consecutive first-time winner.

5 – World number one Novak Djokovic beat Mardy Fish 6-2 3-6 6-4 in the final of the Montreal Masters to become the first player ever to win five Masters events in the same season (in addition to the Australian Open and Wimbledon).

2 – Serena Williams won the final of the Rogers Cup in Toronto, her second consecutive tournament win since returning after a year’s absence through injury.

Ainslie was in dominant form in the Finn class event (image courtesy of Wikipedia)

5 – Three-time Olympic champion Ben Ainslie won five out of six races to ease to overall victory in the Finn class at the Olympic regatta test event at Weymouth.

1 – Britain’s Mark Cavendish took victory in the London-Surrey Cycle Classic – the test event for the Olympic cycling road race – winning the final sprint on The Mall.

10 – Durham’s Phil Mustard has won the toss on all ten occasions he has captained the County Championship first division leaders this season.

11 – Darren Stevens took match figures of 11/70 in Kent’s 265-run win over Surrey at Canterbury.

557,000,000 – Amount in pounds for which the London 2012 Olympic Village was sold to a partnership including the Qatari Royal Family’s company. It will be developed as private housing after the Games.

The Premier league in numbers

1 – Wolves‘ 2-1 win at Blackburn was the first time they have ever won a Premier League away match after conceding the opening goal.

36 – Arsenal‘s 0-0 draw at Newcastle was the first time their opening game of the season ended goalless since 1975 (vs Burnley), a gap of 36 years.

Gervinho was sent off on his Arsenal debut (image courtesy of arsenal.com)

2 – For the second straight season, Arsenal had a player sent off on debut on the opening weekend of the season after signing from a French Ligue 1 club. Last season it was Laurent Koscielny (Lorient) – this year it was Gervinho (Lille). It was also the third straight league meeting between the two sides in which Arsenal have been reduced to ten men.

31 – Norwich‘s 1-1 draw at Wigan marked their 31st consecutive Premier League away game without a win.

5 – Bolton‘s 4-0 win at QPR ended a run of five straight losses and was only their second away win in 19.

8 – Manchester United‘s 2-1 win at West Bromwich Albion was their eighth consecutive top-flight win at the Hawthorns, equalling the top division record for consecutive wins at an opponent’s ground.

13 – Chelsea only drew 0-0 at Stoke, but this was nonetheless their 13th consecutive opening day fixture without defeat since a 2-1 loss at Coventry in 1998.

5 – With two games still to play, there have been five draws in the opening round of Premier League fixtures. Last season there were only four draws in the first seven rounds combined.

(Some statistics courtesy of Opta Sports, The Times, StatManJon and Infostrada.)

The week in numbers: w/e 31/7/11

3 – Eoin Morgan was dismissed for a third-ball duck in England’s first innings of the second Test against India at Trent Bridge. In the first innings of the first Test, he also fell for no runs to the third ball he faced.

Broad's hat-trick was the first ever by any bowler in a Test against India

1 – Stuart Broad became the first bowler ever to take a Test match hat-trick against India. He took five wickets for no runs in 16 balls and ended with his best Test figures of 6/46.

2 – Ian Bell was given out twice during England’s second innings. He was controversially given run out to the last ball before tea when on 137, only for India to withdraw their appeal allowing him to be reinstated. He was eventually caught at slip for 159.

200 – Jenson Button celebrated his 200th Formula 1 race with victory at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

2 – This was only the second Hungarian GP ever to be affected by rain. On the first occasion in 2006 the race was also won by Button, giving him his maiden F1 win.

85 – Despite finishing second, defending champion Sebastian Vettel extended his points lead in the drivers’ championship to 85.

Another one-day classic, another Gilbert win

4 – Omega Pharma-Lotto’s Philippe Gilbert won the Clásica San Sebastián with a solo attack less than 4km from the finish to record his 14th UCI win of 2011, more than any other rider this year.

90 – Places Serena Williams has risen in this week’s WTA rankings as a result of her 7-5 6-1 victory over Marion Bartoli in the final of the Bank of the West Classic in Stanford, California. In claiming her first title since Wimbledon last year, she jumps from 169 to 79 as she continues her return from an absence of nearly a year through injury.

1,204 – In New Zealand’s 40-7 Tri-Nations defeat of South Africa, Dan Carter reclaimed the all-time Test points record from Jonny Wilkinson as he scored ten points to move him to 1,204, nine clear of the England fly-half.

3 – Gold medals won by the Great Britain swimming team at the World Championships in Shanghai. Double Olympic gold medalist Rebecca Adlington claimed her first career world title in the 800m freestyle, while Liam Tancock won the 50m backstroke. Keri-Anne Payne had already won the women’s 10km open water race the previous weekend.

Yani Tseng confirmed her dominance of women's golf with he British Open win (image courtesy of Wikipedia)

5 – Taiwanese world number one Yani Tseng won the Women’s British Open to claim her fifth major title at the age of just 22. She has won four of women’s golf’s last eight majors.

186 – Geelong defeated Melbourne 233-47 in their AFL Aussie rules match at the weekend. The 186-point winning margin was the second largest in AFL history – the largest ever defeat was also suffered by Melbourne, who lost to Fitzroy by 190 points in 1979.

34 – Leicestershire were bowled for just 34 runs in their second innings – the lowest score in the County Championship this season – as Essex beat them by 280 runs at Southend.

8 – In that same innings Essex’s David Masters took eight wickets for a cost of just ten runs.

203 – Marcus Trescothick scored 203 as Somerset beat Worcestershire by an innings and eight runs. It marked the sixth time he has passed 100 this season.

222 – Northamptonshire’s Stephen Peters scored 222, his maiden double century, as his side drew with Glamorgan at Swansea.

(Some statistics courtesy of Opta Sports, The Times and Infostrada.)

My sporting month: June 2011

With Saturday’s Champions League final in the can, and the Football League promotion playoffs also completed, the football season is finally over – although the transfer window and the current controversy swirling around FIFA will no doubt keep the back pages full over the next few weeks. However, the ‘summer season’ is now well and truly upon us. The month of June includes several traditional summer events, such as Royal Ascot (14th-18th) and the Henley Regatta (which starts on the 29th). But here are five key dates which I’ve marked in my calendar for the month of June.

1. French Open finals (4th & 5th)

The second of tennis’s Grand Slam tournaments concludes next weekend, with the top four men’s seeds still on target to meet in the semi-finals. Defending champion Rafael Nadal is scheduled to meet Andy Murray, while the currently unbeatable Novak Djokovic would take on Roger Federer.

In the women’s draw, however, none of the top three seeds qualified for the quarter-finals – only the third time ever this has happened at a women’s Grand Slam tournament. That has opened up the draw for Maria Sharapova, seeking her first Grand Slam win since the 2008 Australian Open, who could face Belarus’s Victoria Azarenka (at four, the highest-ranked player left in the draw). Meanwhile, home hopes rest on the shoulders of Marion Bartoli, who will face defending champion Francesca Schiavone after the pair won their respective quarter-finals.

2. Critérium du Dauphiné (5th-12th) and Tour de Suisse (11th-19th)

With the Tour de France barely a month away, the Dauphiné and Tour de Suisse are the two key tune-up events in advance of the biggest race of the year. While one shouldn’t read too much into the overall results – last year’s races were won by Janez Brajkovič (RadioShack) and Fränk Schleck (now Leopard-Trek) – the nature of the mountain-heavy courses do provide some clear indications of form ahead of the Tour. Alberto Contador was restrained at the Dauphiné but showed flashes of his trademark acceleration in the mountains, while Andy Schleck tested himself with a couple of stinging attacks in Switzerland.

The Tour de Suisse is perhaps more likely to attract the top sprinters, with three stages looking flat enough to end in bunch gallops (the Dauphiné has two). But expect the top GC contenders to be split more or less evenly across the two, with each race featuring four mountain stages, a prologue and a longer individual time trial to provide a good all-round test. The winner of the Tour de Suisse is likely to have been decided before the closing time trial, whereas the Dauphiné concludes with a tough mountain stage which starts with a Tour favourite, the Col de la Croix de Fer, and finishes on the summit of La Toussuire.

3. Canadian Grand Prix (12th)

On the same weekend as the Le Mans 24 hour, the Canadian Grand Prix has long been a favourite on the Formula 1 calendar. An unforgiving circuit which is notoriously tough on engines, brakes and tyres, it has always been one of the better tracks for overtaking. And with the introduction this year of both the DRS drag reduction system and lower-endurance Pirelli tyres, this year’s event should provide plenty of close racing, overtaking moves and accidents as drivers slither around on worn tyres trying to fend off faster cars behind.

The chasing pack will be desperate to prevent defending world champion Sebastian Vettel – who has won five out of six races already this year – from extending an already commanding 58-point lead. Vettel has never won in Canada before, but Lewis Hamilton took his second victory here last year, and Michael Schumacher (a record seven times) and Fernando Alonso are also previous winners.

4. US Open (16th-19th)

Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell had a stunning 2010 season, winning his first major in this tournament at Pebble Beach – the first European to win since Tony Jacklin 40 years previously – and going on to seal the point which won the Ryder Cup for Europe. This year the Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Maryland hosts the second major of the year, with McDowell joined by fellow Brits Luke Donald and Lee Westwood, the current top two in golf’s rankings, looking to continue foreign success on American soil after South African Charl Schwartzel won the Masters in April. McDowell’s compatriot Rory McIlroy will also be looking to put his Masters experience behind him, when he shot a disastrous 80 after taking a four-shot lead into the final round.

5. Wimbledon (starts 20th)

For many Britons, this is the unofficial start of summer – and often the cue for two weeks of torrential rain.

The 2010 tournament was arguably most memorable for the world record 11-hour, 183-game match between John Isner and Nicolas Mahut, which eventually finished 70-68 in Isner’s favour in the fifth set. Ladies’ champion Serena Williams has not played in nearly 11 months, since suffering a foot injury and subsequently undergoing emergency surgery for a blood clot on her lung. She has not yet confirmed whether she will be present to defend her title. Meanwhile, Federer, Djokovic and Murray will all have their eye on unseating defending men’s champion Nadal.

My sporting month: January 2011

Happy New Year! A new year dawns, and with it the promise of great sporting battles to come over the next twelve months. The month of January sees much of the major sporting action occurring on the other side of the world, with three of my top five events for the month taking place in Australia.

That’s a bit of a pain for the dedicated sports fan who lives in the GMT time zone. But with the Ashes coming to an end and the 2011 tennis and cycling seasons kicking off with their first major events, it should be worth setting the alarm clock – or at the very least the Sky+ box – for.

1. 5th Ashes Test, Sydney (3rd-7th)

With their win in the fourth Test in Melbourne, England ensured their first successful Ashes defence in 24 years. Nonetheless, they will want to ensure they finish with an overall series victory at the SCG (the score is currently 2-1).

The Sydney Test often has a more light-hearted ambience than others, with many travelling fans having seen in the New Year with hundreds of thousands of other revellers around Sydney Harbour. And with the pressure off England now, there will be an added air of celebration in the atmosphere too. It should make for an open and flowing match.

2. NFL playoffs (8th/9th, 15th/16th, 23rd)

After the 17-week regular season – and with it the hopes of 20 of the 32 NFL teams – concludes this weekend, the playoffs will begin in earnest next week. The four lowest-ranked teams in each conference will square off against each other in the wild card round next Saturday/Sunday, with the winners of those games facing the top two teams in the AFC and NFC in the divisional playoff round the weekend after.

The two conference championship games will then take place on Sunday 23rd to determine who earns the right to go to Super Bowl XLV at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas on February 6th. One of the few things we know for sure at this point is that the Dallas Cowboys will not be there to enjoy home-field advantage – something which has yet to happen in the Super Bowl era.

3. Carling Cup semi-final (12th, 25th)

As many factions in the popular press are quick to remind us, Arsenal have not lifted a trophy since the 2004/05 season. However, they are the only team in England still in with a chance of winning four trophies this season. They are right in the Premier League title race, have qualified for the knockout stages of the Champions League, and will face Leeds United in the FA Cup third round this weekend.

For now, however, the Carling Cup – the one domestic trophy Arsène Wenger has still to win – remains their first opportunity to clinch silverware. With Ipswich Town of the Championship their opponent in the semi-final, they are short-odds favourites to progress to the final on February 27th, where they would face the winner of the other semi-final between West Ham and Birmingham City. There are (hopefully) three matches still to play before the six-year drought can be broken, but this represents by far their biggest opportunity to do so during this spell. Will class out against Ipswich, or will stage fright get the better of Wenger’s side?

4. Tour Down Under, Adelaide (16th-23rd)

The first major stage race of the year is usually a sprinters’ paradise, and this year promises to be no exception. 2008 and 2010 winner André Greipel will be seeking to defend his title in the colours of his new team, Omega Pharma-Lotto. But his old team, HTC-Columbia, are sending a strong squad spearheaded by Britain’s Mark Cavendish, acknowledged as the best sprinter in the business. They will be joined by Tyler Farrar of the newly-merged Garmin-Cervélo team – the American is one of only a small handful of sprinters capable of challenging Cavendish in a straight head-to-head finish.

With all three sprinters determined to lay down an early season marker on one of the few occasions they will be racing against each other ahead of July’s Tour de France, we can expect some explosive racing in and around Adelaide. The long road to Paris begins here.

Official website

5. Australian Open, Melbourne (17th-30th)

The first of 2011’s four tennis Grand Slam events will take place in Melbourne over the last two weeks of January, with Roger Federer (a four-time winner in Australia) and Serena Williams (five times the ladies’ champion) seeking not only to add to their 2010 singles triumphs, but also to close the gap to Rafael Nadal and Caroline Wozniacki at the top of the men’s and ladies’ rankings.

Britain’s Andy Murray will be hoping to go one step further than last year, when he lost in straight sets in the final to the former world number one.

Official website