QUESTIONS…
Q: Martina Hingis recently annouced her retirement owing to a positive test for cocaine use. When was the first incident of doping recorded in sports?
J Hopes , via e-mail
Q: Kimi Raikkonen and Mika Hakkinen are two of the three Finnish drivers to have won the F1 title. Who’s the other?
Ranjith, Karama
Q: Which country has the hosted most number of football World Cups?
Ahmed, via e-mail
…and ANSWERS
Q: How did love in tennis relate to a zero score? And why is tennis scored 15, 30, 40, etc, rather than 1,2,3 and 4, for example?
A: The origin of the use of love for zero is disputed; it is possible that it derives from the French word for an egg (l’oeuf) because an egg looks like the number zero. The origins of the 15, 30, 40 scores are also believed to have medieval and French roots. It is possible a clock face was used on court, with a quarter move of the hand to indicate a score of fifteen, thirty, and forty-five. When the hand moved to sixty, the game was over.
Farhat Ali, Abu Dhabi
Q: Who has been the most cost-effective Premier League player bought on a transfer fee, in terms of price-per-goal?
A: It has got to be Arsenal’s Ian Wright who scored 113 goals for £2.5m. That works out at £22,125 per goal.
Andy Stiles, via e-mail
Q: Has there every been a Scottish singles winner at Wimbledon or could Andy Murray be the first?
A: Andy Murray would be the first Scottish singles winner if he won, although his brother Jamie won the mixed doubles title this year.
K Rahman, via e-mail
Gothia Cup: Swede dream>
