Gunners ‘fire’ in seven, England beat Scots, Goodbye Dundee

Soccer Shorts – John Terry, whose racial abuse trail begins in July, after Euro 2012, has been stripped of the England captaincy.

Former skipper Rio Ferdinand said “I’m not interested in having it back” while boss Fabio Capello isn’t at all happy…

Darren Bent (Aston Villa) has joined the 100 Premiership goals club…

Manchester United ‘scored’ four penalties in five days last week…

Relegation games this weekend are Blackburn-QPR, Bolton-Wigan and Wolves-WBA…

Manchester United play Liverpool… the African Cup of Nations semi-finalists are Ghana, Ivory Coast, Mali and Zambia… and Nottingham Forest Chairman Nigel Doughty (54) has died, having put £100m into the club.

FOOTBALL –There were wins for Manchester City (v Fulham), Arsenal (7-1 v Blackburn with another Robin van Persie hat-trick), Swansea at WBA (bringing the Swans a first-ever PL double), Newcastle (v Villa), Sunderland (at Stoke), Norwich (v Bolton) and Wolves (at QPR) at the weekend.

Manchester United (3-0 down) drew 3-3 at Chelsea (the first time the Blues have lost a three-goal PL lead) and are two points behind City at the summit.

Liverpool who welcomed back Luis Suarez after his nine-match ban, were held 0-0 by third placed Tottenham at Anfield. In the Championship, it’s West Ham, Southampton and Cardiff (1-2-3); Charlton and Cheltenham top Leagues 1/2 and Celtic, Dundee United, Hibs and Motherwell reached the Scottish Cup quarter-finals but Rangers are out!

CRICKET – England lost the third Test in Dubai by 71 runs as Pakistan claimed their first-ever whitewash. Ian Bell (51 runs in the series) and Kevin Pietersen (67) both struggled; is it time for a change?

In fact, Bell has been dropped from the 20/20 squad.

There were 17 LBW dismissals in the final match, the second highest tally in Test cricket history, while a record 37 occurred in the three-match series.

The record for most LBWs in a single Test is 20 – West Indies v Pakistan, May 2011. The total of LBWs in all Test cricket is 8,895 in 2,034 matches (1882-2012).

OLYMPICS – British long distance runner Mo Farah has begun his pre-games build-up by winning the 1500m at the Aviva Indoor tournament in Glasgow.

The cost of staging London’s Summer Olympic & Paralympics will be £12bn.

RUGBY – The 2012 Six Nations tournament started last weekend…. England beat Scotland 13-6 (their first win at Murrayfield since 2004), France thumped Italy 30-12 and Wales (with Leigh Halfpenny’s last minute penalty) defeated Ireland 23-21.

AMERICAN FOOTBALL – 65,000 inside the Indianapolis stadium and 200 million worldwide watching saw NY Giants beat New England Patriots 21-17 to win Super Bowl 46.

HOCKEY – GB’s women, after defeating Germany in the semis, lost 1-0 to hosts Argentina in the Champions Trophy final.

SNOOKER – Ronnie O’Sullivan, struggling with glandular fever, cued out Stephen McGuire 9-7 to win the German Masters last Sunday.

QUESTIONS ANSWERED

• The three undisputed world heavyweight boxing champions in the 1960s were: Floyd Patterson (1960), Sonny Liston (1962) and Mohammad Ali (1964 & 1967). Ali (1965) & Joe Frazier (1968) won the WBC title; Ernie Terrell (1965) & Jimmy Ellis (1968) were WBA champions.

DID YOU KNOW?

Notts County, the oldest ‘League’ club anywhere in the world, celebrated its 150th birthday last week (first started playing in February 1862)…

And fifty years ago, Rochdale, competing in the League Cup, became the first Fourth Division club to reach a final of a major competition.