Month: September 2019

The annual ‘Six Nations‘ rugby union championship began in 1883 as the Home Nations Championship contested by England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland. It was a turbulent beginning with abandoned competitions in 1885, 1887 and 1889 amidst administrative disputes and occasional crowd pitch invasions.

In 1910, France gained entry and it became the ‘Five Nations’ (except for 1932-39, during which time France was expelled). In 1972 the championship was abandoned again, as two teams refused to play in Dublin. In 1973, there was a unique tie result, when all five teams won two games and lost two games. In 2000, Italy was admitted, making it the ‘Six Nations’.

There are several single-match cups under the umbrella of the Six Nations ~ the ‘Triple Crown’, the ‘Auld Alliance Trophy’ and the ‘Calcutta Cup’, for example. Until 2017 the points system was simply: two for a win, one for a draw. Now, it is:-

• four for a win
• two for a draw
• one bonus point for scoring four or more tries
• one bonus point for losing by seven or fewer match points
• three bonus points for winning all your matches, called the ‘Grand Slam’, in order to avoid a team topping the table through maximum bonus points but losing one match, thereby earning twenty-two points.

(Image: Dan Dyer at Flickr.com / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Ronnie O’Sullivan, nicknamed ‘The Rocket’, was born in the West Midlands in 1975 and grew up in Essex, where he was soon making his name in the snooker halls. This video of his first televised match, with praise by the great Steve Davis, shows his extraordinary talent at just 14 years of age:-

He became a professional two years later and in 1993 won the UK Championship a few days before his 18th birthday, the youngest player ever to do so. He has gone on to win more than 70 titles to date, including 7 World Championships, and an unequalled 8 Masters and 8 UK Championships, also becoming the oldest player to win those competitions! He is widely regarded as the best snooker player in the history of the game and has been officially ranked no.1 six times.

His playing style is flowing, fast, beautifully precise and attacking and he holds the record for the fastest 147, at 5 minutes 20 seconds. In March 2019 he became the first player to reach one thousand centuries, playing the 100th point with his left hand (he is right-handed!). Ronnie Antonio O’Sullivan is quite a character and attracts many appreciative fans. He has written three crime novels and co-written a cookbook, all popularly received.

(Top image: DerHexer at Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0)