According to Guinness World Records, the highest partnership in Test cricket is 624, achieved in the first innings of the first Test of the South Africa tour of Sri Lanka at the Sinhalese Sports Club Ground in Colombo, Sri Lanka between July 27 and July 29, 2006. South Africa won the toss and elected to bat first, but scored only 169 all out in the first innings, with Abraham Benjamin (AB) de Villiers top-scoring on 65.
In reply, Sri Lanka lost both openers Sanath Jayasuriya and Upul Tharanga cheaply to feared fast bowler Dale Steyn, the former trapped lbw for 4 and the latter caught at the wicket for 7. Thus, Sri Lanka were 14-2 after 3.3 overs when Kumar Sangakkara and captain Mahela Jayawardene came together at the crease. However, both batsmen remained unbeaten at close of play on the second day and, remarkably, also at the end of third day, having scored 229 and 224, respectively. They still weren’t finished, though; by the time Sangakkara was caught at the wicket, off lively medium-pacer Andrew Hall, for 287 on the third day, the pair had been in the middle for exactly 157 overs and taken the score to 638-3.
Jayawardene batted on for another 25 overs, bar two balls, and was, in fact, the last man out – cleaned bowled by Andre Nel for 374 – as Sri Lanka declared on 756-5, with a colossal first innings lead of 587 runs. Understandably, South Africa were always fighting a losing battle, but made a much better fist of their second innings, with Jacques Rudolph (90), Andrew Hall (64), captain Ashwell Prince (61) and wicketkeeper Mark Boucher (85) all making significant contributions. Nevertheless, the tourists were dismissed for 434, giving Sri Lanka victory by an innings and 153 runs.
The youngest player to appear in an English Football League match was Reuben Noble-Lazarus, who was aged 15 years and 45 days when he made his debut for Barnsley, of the Championship, on September 30, 2008. Born in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire on August 16, 1993, but of Grenadian descent, Noble-Lazarus replaced midfielder Martin Devaney after 84 minutes during a 3-0 defeat by Ipswich Town at Portman Road. In so doing, he beat the previous record, 15 years and 158 days, set by Bradford Park Avenue outside right Albert Geldard against Millwall at the Old Den on September 16, 1929 and subsequently equalled by Wrexham winger Kenneth Robertsm, coincidentally, against Bradford Park Avenue at Park Avenue on September 1, 1951, by the better part of four months.
Following a brief, but promising, debut, Barnsley manager Simon Davey said of Noble-Lazarus, ‘He is a talent and we need to nurture him in the right way. We need to look after him. He has got to be dipped in and dipped back out [of the first team].’ The young striker did go on to make 46 league appearances for the Tykes, but scored just three goals and his career, which was blighted by a succession of injuries, never really blossomed in the way that might have been anticipated.
Brief loan spells at Scunthorpe United and Rochdale followed, before Noble-Lazarus signed permanently for the Dale on January 13, 2015, only to be released by the club at the end of the 2015/16 season and re-sign, on a twelve-month contract, on July 14, 2016. He scored two goals in 34 appearances, mainly as a substitute, for Rochdale but, after leaving the club on August 7, 2017, made just two appearances for Golcar United, of the North West Counties Football League. He was released by Halifax Town, of the National League, on July 1, 2021, having never played for the first team.
The Black Sox Scandal was a Major League Baseball (MLB) scandal, which resulted in eight members of the Chicago White Sox being banned from professional baseball for life after they were accused of accepting bribes to lose the 1919 World Series to the Cincinnati Reds. One of the accused was star outfielder Joseph Jefferson Jackson – nicknamed ‘Shoeless Joe’ after batting in his socks, while nursing blistered feet, as a youngster – although his personal complicity has been hotly debated ever since.
Before the Cook County Grand Jury, on September 28, 1920, Jackson confessed to having received $5,000, of a promised $20,000, to throw the World Series in favour of Cincinnati, although he also testified that he had made no intentional errors during the whole series. In fact, his overall batting average, .375, was the highest on either side during the World Series.
Likewise, he attested that he never met, or spoke to, any member of the gambling syndicate allegedly bankrolled by New York racketeer Arnold Rothstein. Neither did he attend any meeting of White Sox players, with or without the gamblers, at which the’fix’ was discussed, as later corroborated by his fellow accused players. Pitcher Claude ‘Lefty’ Williams revealed that Jackson was named as a participant to increase the players’ credibiliy in the eyes of the gamblers.
The following August, Jackson stood trial and, despite his grand jury confession being read, in full, to the jury, he was acquitted, along with all seven team-mates, through lack of evidence. Neverthless, the newly-appointed Commissioner of Baseball, Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, banned all eight players from playing professional baseball in perpetuity. Later, Jackson repeatedly denied having confessed his guilt to the grand jury and pointed towards his World Series statistics as proof of his innocence.
According to Guinness World Records, the longest drive recorded on the PGA Tour since the introduction of ShotLink, which employs survey-grade lasers to precisely measure yardage, in 2003, was 476 yards. That distance was achieved by American professional Davis Love III on the seventy-second and final hole of the Mercedes Championship on the Plantation Course in Kapalua, Hawaii on January 11, 2004.
However, in the history of the PGA Tour, there have been several longer drives, before and during the ShotLink era, that could not be officially confirmed, have been expunged from the record books or deemed unofficial for one reason or another. American Dustin Johnson, for example, hit a 489-yard drive from an elevated tee on the twelfth hole at Austin Country Club during the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play in March, 2018. Compatriot Tiger Woods likewise recorded the longest drive of his career, 498 yards, on the same downhill par-five on which Love III set the official record at the Mercedes Championship in January, 2002.
Although no longer recognised by Guinnes World Records, in September, 1974, the late Michael Hoke ‘Mike’ Austin hit a 515-yard drive on the fourteenth hole at Winterwood Golf Course in Las Vegas, Nevada. Notwithstanding the fact that he had the assistance of a tailwind, estimated at 25mph, Austin was 64 years old at the time and achieved his feat with a steel shafted persimmon driver.
The grandaddy of them all, though, was the 787 yards achieved by journeyman American professional Carl Cooper on the third hole at Oak Hills Golf Club, San Antonio, Texas during the 1992 Texas Open. Cooper, 31, let fly on the 456-yard par-four, only for his ball to land on a downhill concrete cart path, which eventually carried it 300 yards or more beyond his intended target and, rather unfairly, cost him a double bogey.
Interestingly, and incorrectly, Guinness World Records states that the fastest time in the history of the 2,000 Guineas was the 1 minute and 35.08 seconds clocked by Mister Baileys on April 30, 1994. Trained in Middleham, North Yorkshire by Mark Johnstone – who was participating in a Classic for the first time – Mister Baileys became the first northern-trained winner of the 2,000 Guineas since Rockavon, trained by George Boyd in East Lothian, Scotland, in 1961. He did beat the previous course record, 1 minute and 35.32 seconds, set by Zafonic on May 1, 1993 but, despite the Guinness assertion, his record no longer stands.
In 2020, horse racing in Great Britain was suspended on March 18, initially until the end of April, because of the coronavirus pandemic. The suspension was subsequently extended to June 1, such that the 2,000 Guineas was run a month later than usual, on June 6, but still over the traditional course and distance, on the Rowley Mile at Newmarket. Quite why the fact has been overlooked, or excluded, by Guinness World Records is a mystery, but numerous reliable sources – including the ‘Racing Post’ and ‘Encyclopaedia Britannica’ – note that the race was won by Kameko in a time of 1 minute and 34.72 seconds, thereby setting a new course record.
Owned by Qatar Racing Limited, trained by Andrew Balding and ridden, throughout his ten-race career, by Oisin Murphy, Kameko had comfortably won the Vertem Futurity Trophy, over a mile, at Newcastle on his final start as a juvenile. Making his seasonal debut at Newmarket, Kameko was sent off 10/1 fourth-favourite behind the hitherto unbeaten Pinaturbo, but knuckled down well in the closing stages, despite drifting right, to win by a neck.