TALK about extra time…the BBC reports on what is claimed to be a new world record for the longest ever football match.
The 102 hour long charity game involved 36 players from the Testlands Support charity, who staged the marathon match at St Mary’s Stadium, the home of Premier League club Southampton.
The players took turns to take breaks to eat, get physiotherapy and sleep and over 1,600 goals were scored in the 11-a-side contest in which the Reds beat the Whites 910-725.
Player and event manager Ryan Ship said: “It’s been one of those challenges where you just think, you’re only going to do it once, so you’ve got to just live it.”
It is believed between £20,000 and £25,000 was raised for Testlands’ summer activities for the city’s underprivileged children.
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Eileen Collins from Rochdale, who has worked as a florist for 40 years, has discovered she has an allergy – to flowers.
The Daily Express reports that Eileen has only recently realised she suffers from hay fever but is refusing to give up the job she loves.
She said: “I was getting worse and worse until I ended up with a chest infection. I was astonished when I was told it was hay fever, and the doctor gave me an inhaler and some antihistamines.”
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The Sex Pistols were a legendary British punk band in the 70s, railing against consumerism and the establishment but now, says The Guardian, the band’s name and artwork are to feature on a range of credit cards.
Virgin Money, the bank backed by Sir Richard Branson, has launched a series of Sex Pistols credit cards.
The company explained that it was “time for consumers to put a little bit of rebellion in their pocket”.
Michele Greene, the bank’s director of cards, said: “In launching these cards, we wanted to celebrate Virgin’s heritage and difference. The Sex Pistols challenged convention and the established ways of thinking – just as we are doing today in our quest to shake up UK banking.”
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A glass, taken from the West Hoe pub in Plymouth, Devon, in 1941, has finally been returned 74 years later.
A Daily Mirror article says the glass was borrowed by Cyril Smeeth, who popped into his local to get his wife Rosalie a shot of port before heading off on Home Guard duty.
He had intended to return the glass the following day – but that night the pub was flattened by German bombers.
Faced with the ruins of the venue the morning after the raid, Cyril took the glass – engraved with the pub’s name – back home and it has remained in his family ever since. But now his daughter has returned it after finding it in a clear-out.
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The Daily Mail informs us that England’s favourite wildflower is the Bluebell.
A poll of 7,000 nature lovers but a conservation charity has warned that the British variety is on the wane as a tougher Spanish invader is increasingly taking over.
Bluebells are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, and it is forbidden to sell their bulbs.
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Spooky! According to the Daily Mirror, a mysterious photo appears to show a pair of UFOs, hovering above the home of Loch Ness monster in Scotland.
It seems that holidaymakers captured the image of two mysterious disc-shaped objects flying over the freshwater loch in the Scottish Highlands.
Reference list:
The Express (www.express.co.uk)
Daily Mail (www.dailymail.co.uk)
Daily Mirror (www.mirror.co.uk)
BBC (www.bbc.co.uk)