The first Premier League season officially kicked off on August 15, 1992 and, in a little over three decades, the team that has been relegated most often is Norwich City. The Canaries were one of the original 22 teams that broke away from the Football League and defied expectations by finishing third in the inaugural Premier League season, 1992/93, 12 points behind champions Manchester United.
However, after a calamitous second half to the 1994/95 season, in which they won just once after the turn of the year and lost seven of their last eight games, Norwich were relegated to Football League Division One for the first time. There they remained, for the next nine seasons, until promoted back to the Premier League, as champions, in 2003/04. They won just seven games, though, none of which were away from home, and were immediately relegated back to the second tier, by then known as the Championship.
Four seasons later, in 2008/09, the Yellows suffered the ignominy of being relegated to the third tier, League One, for the first time in 49 years. However, under new manager Paul Lambert, who replaced the previous incumbent, Bryan Gunn, on August 18, 2009, they bounced back in style, winning successive promtions to the top flight. Away form was, once again, the problem in the second half of the 2013/14 season, which saw Norwich relegated to the Championship after winning just one point away from home between New Year’s Day and the end of the season.
Norwich won the Championship play-offs in 2014/15, but were immediately relegated again in 2015/16 and have continued their ‘yo-yo’ existence in recent seasons. They were promoted, as champions, in both 2018/19 and 2020/21, only to be immediately relegated again on both occasions.
Born in Orlando, Florida on January 5, Shaun Micheel turned professional in 1992 and joined the PGA Tour in 1994. At the time of writing, he has made 401 appearances on the PGA Tour – albeit that his last full season was in 2011 – but won just once. Indeed, his improbable victory at the 2003 PGA Championship, played on the East Course at Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, New York, came after 163 previous, unsuccessful starts on the PGA Tour, at a time when he was officially ranked number 169 in the world.
Reflecting on his triumph two decades later, Micheel said, ‘Leading into the tournament I hadn’t played very well. I figured just making the cut would have been adequate.’ Despite his modest expectations, Micheel shot 68-69 in his first two rounds to lead by two strokes at halfway. On the Saturday, he bogeyed his last three holes but, even so, his one-under-par total of 69 was sufficient to remain tied for the lead with Chad Campbell.
On the seventy-second, and final, hole, Micheel lead Campbell by a single stroke. His approach shot, a 174-yard seven iron from the semi-rough on the left of the hole, was judged perfectly, landing softly and rolling to within inches of the hole. The resulting ‘gimme’ putt gave Micheel a final round total of 70 and a two-stroke victory over Campbell.
Micheel later fondly remembered his memorable approach, saying, ‘For it to come off, to have a walk off putt where I didn’t have to think about it for my first win was pretty spectacular’. However, he did express a tinge of regret when he added, ”I think winning a major changed my expectations to a degree that it almost derailed my career. Winning a major as my first win proved to be so difficult, I just couldn’t get over the hump again.’
According to Guinness World Records, the highest number of runs scored off a single over, albeit under contrived circumstances, was 77. In February, 1990, Wellington faced Canterbury in a three-day Shell Trophy match at Lancaster Park, Christchurch, needing to win to secure New Zealand’s domestic first-class cricket championship. At tea on the third and final day, Canterbury were showing little interest in chasing the 291 runs they needed to win the match, which looked to be heading for a draw.
However, Wellington coach John Morrison, captain Ervine McSweeney and batsman Bert Vance concocted a plan whereby they might be able to win the match after all. According to Morrison, they agreed that they would attempt to bowl the opposition out but, failing that, concede enough runs to tempt them into trying to win the match in the final over. In the penultimate over, Vance, who had not previously bowled in the match, came on to bowl, as agreed.
As Morrison put it, ‘It’s fair to say Bert embraced the instruction rather more than we imagined.’ Of his first 17 deliveries, just one was legitimate. Otherwise, Vance deliberately overstepped the popping crease, time and time, and sent down a series of inviting full tosses, which the Canterbury batsmen gleefully dispatched to boundaries all around the ground. Lee Germon, batting at number eight, scored 160 not out, including 16 fours and eight sixes. In a farcical climax, no-one really knew what the score was and, despite Canterbury needing just two runs off the last ball to win, the match ended in an thoroughly confusing draw. For the record, Wellington won the Shell Trophy in any case.
The most prestigious cup competition in English football, the Football Association (FA) Challenge Cup was inugurated in 1871 and the first final was staged at Kennington Oval – better known as the home of Surrey County Cricket Club – in Lambeth, South London on March 16, 1872. Indeed, in the early days of the competition, long before the completion of the original Wembley Stadium, or ‘British Empire Exhibition Stadium’, as it was originally known, in 1923, all bar two of the first 21 FA Cup finals were played at Kennington Oval.
In fact, it was during one of these preliminary FA Cup finals, contested by Blackburn Rovers, of the Football League, and Sheffield Wednesday, of the doomed Football Alliance, on March 29, 1890, that Rovers’ outside left William Townley became the first player to score a hat-trick. Townley’s three goals were supplemented by three more, by forwards John ‘Jack’ Southworth, Joseph ‘Joe’ Lofthouse, and Nathaniel ‘Nat’ Walton, as the Riversiders hammered Wednesday 6-1 to win the FA Cup for the fourth time in their history.
Wednesday defender Albert Mumford scored what turned out to be just a consolation goal in what is still, jointly, the highest scoring FA Cup final in history; Black pool beat Bolton Wanderers 4-3 in the so-called ‘Matthews Final’ at Wembley Stadium in 1953 to equal the record. Coincidentally, in that latter match, Blackpool centre forward Stanley ‘Stan’ Mortensen became the first and, so far, only player to score a hat-trick in an FA Cup final at Wembley Stadium. Likewise, Blackburn Rovers still, jointly, hold the record for the most goals scored in an FA Cup Final; Bury routed Derby County 6-0 in 1903 and, much more recently, Manchester City treated Watford with similar contempt in 2019.
According to Guinness World Records, the oldest football ground is Sandygate, a small, 1,000-capacity stadium situated in the suburb of Crosspool, to the west of Sheffield city centre. The ground was originally built in 1804, but has been the home of Hallam Football Club, which currently in the Northern Counties East League Premier Division, since its foundation in 1860.
Sandygate may be the oldest football ground in the world, but Hallam FC is not, in fact, the oldest football club in the world. According to the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), that honour belongs to nearby Sheffield Football Club, who currently play in the Northern Premier League Division One East. Sheffield FC was founded in 1857, three years before Hallam FC, but encouraged the formation of the latter club, leading to a challenge match between the two, at Sandygate, on December 26, 1860.
The ‘Rules Derby’ – so-called because it originally played under a code of rules drawn up by Sheffield FC in 1858, prior to the formation of the Football Association (FA) in 1863 – is no longer a regular fixture, not least because Sheffield FC currently compete in the tier above their neighbours. However, the teams routinely meet in pre-season friendly matches, both at Sandygate and at the aptly-named Home of Football Stadium in the town of Dronfield, seven miles or so down the A61 from Sheffield city centre, where Sheffield FC is based. Richard Tims, Chairman of Sheffield FC for over 25 years, said of the fixture, ‘It’s a great derby and a great tradition, one which has forever been based on football’s original values of integrity, respect and community.’