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/ 17 October 2003

The dog ate my homework

The Washington Post’s Style Invitational once again asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it and supply a new definition. Over a few bottles of Klippies, we thought of a few of our own. How about Butchelezi: A homophobic Zulu, or Baitress: A female table-attendant in a sushi restaurant?

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/ 17 October 2003

Cue nervous laughter

Matt Dawson and Richard Hill are out of England’s side to play South Africa tomorrow. After a week of misinformation and rumour, coach Clive Woodward finally admitted defeat on the injury front yesterday, though he was masterfully upbeat about it all.

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/ 17 October 2003

Banyana beaten at Games

Nigeria had to wait until four minutes from the end to grab the winner and beat South Africa in the final of the women’s football tournament at the eighth All-Africa Games on Thursday. Midfielder Blessing Igbojionu’s scrambled effort on 86 minutes earned the hosts a deserved victory as well as the gold medal.

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/ 17 October 2003

Some people are never happy

The omens were there after the first day: a flat pitch, an attack for which the word modest would be hyperbole, and the undisputed batsman of the decade in his pomp and already closing in on a double century. Now Matthew Hayden stands at the top of the mountain, having eclipsed Brian Lara as Test cricket’s highest individual scorer.

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/ 17 October 2003

Strange days indeed

Before last week an educated guess would have offered a script something like this: the South Africans, buoyed by their unlikely triumph, go eagerly into their first Test at Lahore reinforced by the arrival of Gary Kirsten, and out-bat the brittle (and Inzamam-less) Pakistani top six, winning by four or five wickets halfway through the last day.

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/ 17 October 2003

Unmatched but unloved

So now Michael Schumacher stands alone at the summit of grand prix racing, his sixth world championship finally taking him clear of Juan Manuel Fangio and a 46-year-old record that few who were alive in Fangio’s time ever thought to see equalled. But Schumacher will never unite the sport’s followers in the way that Fangio did.