• Form? Just another meaningless buzzword
Cricket is probably the sport that obsesses over form the most, but football would be a close second.
In cricket, armchair selectors debate long and hard over the relative form of batsmen, in particular. How the batsman is striking the ball and how he LOOKS striking the ball are often given equal weight to how many runs he's been scoring.
In football, form tends to relate to how often a striker is scoring goals, or how a side is performing away from home.
Turns out it could all be bunkum. According to a new book, the concept of form in football is a myth. The book, Myths and Facts About Football, uses academic research from a variety of sources to challenge widely held notions about the beautiful game.
One of the major findings is that there is no such thing as goal-scoring form. The scoring runs of even the hottest strikers are no more attributable to a "form streak" than they are to chance.
An example used was former England and Newcastle striker Alan Shearer. In the season used in the research, Shearer scored in 34 home games out of 43 (79%). But when he had failed to score in his previous home game, his scoring rate was 85% (17/20).
Interestingly, the same research found teams that celebrate goals collectively achieve better results. And penalty takers who shoot down the middle have the best chance of scoring.
• Garish, chic or downright ugly?
It's completely legitimate. Stade will play in this outfit in this year's Heineken Cup competition.
The design depicts the face of Parisienne 13th-century heroine Blanche de Castille, the wife of Louis VIII, in a multi-coloured design described by club publicists as "in the fashion of Andy Warhol".
Stade, which leads the French competition, has always looked colourful in the reign of flamboyant millionaire owner Max Guazzini. Its signature look is fluorescent pink, and it has also played in light brown with turquoise stripes and pink flowers.
• Rebuilding work continues
I'm all for the interesting use of the loan system that has allowed the Highlanders to protect Manawatu (Hayden Triggs and Johnny Leota), Hawkes Bay (Clint Newland) and Taranaki (Jayden Hayward) players next year.
It helps the Highlanders get some continuity. And it means those provinces are not being plundered by a franchise base.
All of a sudden, the Highlanders have built the guts of a team: Newland and Jamie Mackintosh, Triggs and Tom Donnelly, Adam Thomson, Tim Boys and Steven Setephano, Jimmy Cowan and Daniel Bowden, Hayward and Leota, Fetu'u Vainikolo and Karne Hesketh.
All that's desperately needed is a hooker and a fullback and they're in business.
• Tough week for watersport fans
First the Daniels sisters retire, then the Evers-Swindell twins pull the pin.
Use of the phrase "golden girls" is going to plummet.
• Joke of the day
Question: What's the difference between Tottenham Hotspur and a triangle?
Answer: A triangle has three points.
• Till death do us part
Now here's an idea for Carisbrook.
Hamburg SV, in Germany, has became the second football club to open its own cemetery.
Hamburg supporters will pay up to 2400 (NZ$5400) for the privilege of being buried near the stadium in a coffin decked out in the club's traditional blue-and-white colours and bearing the club's logo.
They can also choose to have their ashes buried in an official club urn, which will cost about 395 (NZ$895).
Argentina's Boca Juniors is the only other club in the world that caters for lifelong fans in such a way.
• Bowls - the sport of kings
It really wasn't one of my better trips home to North Otago last weekend. The Old Golds played poorly in a loss to Mid Canterbury, which was bad enough. Then I heard the Weston Bowling Club had sadly closed its doors.
My grandparents, who celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary just two months ago, are long-time bowlers and members of the Weston club.
It was where I learned the game as well. I have a photo, about 20 years and 70kg ago, of me delivering a fierce drive on a dry-looking Weston green.
The most interesting thing about the photo is you can also spot three future North Otago rugby players: Mike Mavor, Barry Fox and the late James Mavor.
• Lollipop, lollipop, oh lolli-lollipop
Formula One powerhouse Ferrari says the team will ditch its electronic pit-stop system in the wake of a costly blunder at last month's Singapore Grand Prix.
In Japan tomorrow night, the Italian team will return to its old system, the traditional lollipop, which held the car in the pits during refuelling and tyre stops.
In Singapore, it implemented a "traffic light" that turns green when it is safe for the driver to move off, but the system was found wanting when Felipe Massa was given the signal to leave the pits while the refuelling hose was still attached.
