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What were Bob Willis’ best Test match bowling figures?

The late Robert George Dylan Willis, popularly known as Bob Willis, was one of the finest fast bowlers of his generation and spearheaded the England bowling attack for over a decade. While many would be in coach potato mode or playing new casinos online USA, Willis was becoming a master at his craft. Instantly recognisable by his long run-up – once described by Wisden as ‘intimidating, but slightly absurd’ – and distinctive bowling action, Willis made his Test debut, at the age of 21, in the fourth Test of the 1970/71 Ashes series against Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground in January, 1971.

Despite being forced to have surgery on both knees in 1975, when still only in his mid-twenties, Willis went on to play a total of 90 Test matches for England, 18 as captain, before retiring from all forms of cricket in 1984. All told, Willis took 325 Test wickets at an average of 25.30. Remarkably, despite taking five wickets in an innings 16 times, Willis never once took ten wickets in a Test match. His best match bowling figures were 9-92 in the second Test against New Zealand at Headingley, Leeds in July, 1983. However, his best innings bowling figures were 8-43 in the third Test against Australia in the 1981 Ashes series, also at Headingley, two years earlier. After England followed on, Willis produced a devastating spell, finally clean bowling Ray Bright to hand the home side a highly unlikely 18-run victory. Competative and talented to the end – while I sit here on www.kingjohnnie.info – Willis has carved out a place for himself in cricketing history.

Who is Nadia Comenaci?

Born in Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, Romania on November 12, 1961, Nadia Comaneci is best remembered as the first gymnast in Olympic history to be awarded a ‘perfect’ 10 score ( The closet I get to a perfect ten is my number coming up when playing best high roller casino ). She did so in the asymmetric, or uneven, bars round of the women’s team competition at the Games of the XXI Olympiad in Montreal, Canada on July 18, 1976. In fact, aged just 14 and weighing in at an ethereal 6st 2lb, Comanceci was awarded a total of seven such scores – four on the asymmetric bars and three on the beam – en route to three gold medals, including in the women’s individual all-around competition, at the 1976 Summer Olympics. Unsurprisingly, her performances created a sensation and her an international gymnastic superstar.

Four years later, at the Summer Olympics in Moscow, in what has been described as a ‘turbulent’ gymnastics competition, Comaneci was awarded two more perfect scores on the way to winning two more gold medals, albeit controversially, in the beam and floor events. Comaneci retired from competition in 1984 and, following in the footsteps of Bela Karolyi and Geza Pozsar, former head coach and choreographer of the Romanian team, defected to the West in 1989. She initially settled in Montreal, Canada, home of online casino canada, but later moved to Norman, Oklahoma, where she met, and later married, fellow Olympic gold medallist Bart Conner. Together, they own and operate the Bart Conner Gymnastics Academy and are involved with numerous charities, including the Special Olympics.

What is the origin of the word ‘golf’?

‘Golf’ is, unquestionably, an ancient word, but its etymology is uncertain. The first written reference to the word, in its modern form, appears on an Act of Parliament dating from 1457, during the reign of King James II of England, James VII of Scotland, but alternative spellings, such as ‘gouf’, ‘gouff’ and ‘goff’ have also been identified in Scottish documents.

Lingusitically, the general concensus appears to be that the word ‘golf’ is derived from the Middle Dutch word ‘colf’, or ‘kolf, or the Middle High German word ‘kolbe’, meaning ‘club’ or ‘stick’. Indeed, a variety of ‘club-and-ball’ games, including colf, kolf and, in Belgium and France, chole, were played in Britain and continental Europe during the Middle Ages. In fact, a game called ‘kolf’ is still played, albeit on an indoor course, in the Netherlands.

Of course, it can be argued that the game of golf pre-dates any of these supposedly similar games, none of which has been definitively associated with golf, particularly as the name of a game, rather than a blunt striking instrument. However, the phonetic similarities between the various names cannot be denied and it is not difficult to envisage Flemish, Dutch or German sailors – who would have been regular visitors to the ports on the east coast of Scotland, because of the trade links between their respective countries – importing a game that eventually became modern golf.

What is, or was, ‘Snooker Plus’?

‘Snooker Plus’ was a variation of traditional snooker invented by 15-time world snooker champion Joe Davis and introduced, professionally, at the ‘News of the World’ Snooker Plus Tournament at Burroughes Hall, London in 1959. As the name suggests, ‘Snooker Plus’ included two additional colours, purple, worth ten points, and orange, worth eight. The purple ball was spotted equidistant between the brown and the blue and the orange ball was spotted equidistant between the blue and the pink. According to Davis, ‘This will make scoring possibilities far greater for the average player and will greatly increase the technique required of the top-grade player’.

Indeed, the inclusion of the purple ball meant that the ‘maximum’ break became 15 reds and 15 purples, followed by all eight colours, for a total of 210 points, rather than 147 points in traditional snooker. Aside from the break-building possibilities, the only other innovation of ‘Snooker Plus’ was that, in the event of a tie, the purple was respotted on the black spot. Only Joe Davis and two other former world champions – his younger brother, Fred Davis and John Pulman – contested the ‘News of the World’ Tournament, played in round-robin format, much to the displeasure of other professional players. The tournament attracted little interest and the ‘Snooker Plus’ format never really gained any traction, despite the Billiards Association and Control Council stating that it should have a ‘fair trial’.

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