Sporting Q&A
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Your support makes all the difference.Q. I have heard that the maximum theoretical break in snooker is 162. Anyone know how this is achieved?
Has anyone ever made a break greater than 147 in competitive professional play?
A. After committing a long series of fouls, Player A is 159 points behind and no balls have been potted. Player B then commits a foul, conceding four points and leaving Player A snookered on the reds. Player A pots a colour as a free ball for one point then a black for seven, then all 15 reds with blacks and all the colours, accumulating a break of 155 and tying the frame at 159-159. The black is respotted Player A wins the toss and pots it first go off its spot, technically a break of 162. I know this because... I was that Player A.
DAVE BRAZELL
Walthamstow, London
A. No professional player has ever made a break larger than 147. Alex "Hurricane" Higgins did make the first recorded "16-red" clearance after a free-ball in 1976, but failed to take blacks with every red and finished with a break of 146.
TIM MICKLEBURGH
Grimsby
Q. Wasim Akram took two hat-tricks in consecutive Test matches in a series for Pakistan? Has this ever been surpassed at Test level, for example by a hat-trick in each innings of a match, or surpassed at first-class level in general?
A. Five bowlers have taken a hat-trick in each innings of a first-class match. Only one, however, did so in a Test. Jimmy Matthews, a leg-break bowler, performed the feat for Australia against South Africa at Old Trafford in 1912 during the triangular Test series which also included the hosts England. He took no further wickets during the match and only 10 more in his eight-Test career.
CLIVE PORTER
Editor of the Journal of the Cricket Society, Maidstone
Answers please
Q. Does anyone have any facts about the effect of a very early goal in a football match? My impression is that the team that scores in the first minute, or very soon after, rarely goes on to win the match. I am sure that this is true, over the years, for my team Preston North End, but I feel that it applies at all levels. Do any statistics back up this theory and if they do, why does this happen?
LEON DAVIES
Fulwood, Preston
Q. At their recent home match against Macclesfield, the Bournemouth substitute Steve Lovell was introduced by the Dean Court stadium Tannoy announcer as [the Bournemouth central defender] "Eddie Howe's younger brother". Have any other footballing brothers with different surnames played in the same team in the same match before?
JOHN CLARK
Christchurch, Dorset
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