The first recorded reference to cricket dates back to 1272.

The highjump method of jumping head first and landing on their back is called the Fosbury Flop.

Clay pigeon shooting was once known as Inanimate bird shooting.

The American dart game 'Cricket' is known in Britain as 'Mickey Mouse'.

Australian Ron Clarke set 18 World Records as a long distance runner but never won an Olympic title.

The motto for the Olympic Games is Citius - Altius - Fortius (Faster - Higher - Stronger).

The 180m sprint of the776 BC Olympics (the earliest recorded) was won by Coroebus .

Cricketer Dennis Lillee once tried to use an Aluminium bat of his own design called 'The Combat'.

The large disk used in Tiddlywinks is called a Squidger.

A racehorse which has never won a race is refereed to as a Maiden.

Orienteering originated in Sweden.

Snooker originated in India.

The first reference to a money prise in a horse race is a prise offered by Richard I in 1195.

Darts is the most popular sport played in Britain.

The word 'love' meaning 'no score' comes from the word ' L`oeuf ' which means 'egg'.

A soccer ball has 32 panels.

Draughts is older than chess.

To a yachtsman, a fresh breeze is about 20 knots.

The first automobile racetrack in America was the 'Indianapolis Motor Speedway', which consisted of 3 million cobblestones.

There are only 7 possible opening moves in draughts.

The collecting of Beer mats is called Tegestology.

When driven from a tee, a golf ball travels at over 270 km/h.

Harry Drake fired an arrow 1871.8 metres, from a crossbow, on 30 July 1988

In August 1985, Thelma Pitt-Turner set a womens record by completing a marathon at Hastings, New Zealand, in 7 hours 58 minutes. She was 82 at the time.

The first perfect nine innings baseball game (pitcher pitches 27 out, no hits, no runs) was achieved by John Lee Richmond on 12 June 1880.

The largest crowd for a basketball game was 800,000 people at the Olympic Stadium, Athens, Greece on 4 April 1968.

The odds on dealing 13 cards of one suit are 158,753,389,899 to 1. The odds on dealing the perfect hand (13 cards of one suit) to a particular player is 635,013,559,559 to 1 and the odds on dealing a perfect game (4 players receiving a perfect hand) are 2,235,197,406,895,366,368,301,599,999 to 1.

Garry Chapman scored 17 runs off a single delivery (all run with no overthrow) in a game of cricket on 13 October 1990. (he hit the ball into a patch of 10 inch high grass)

The most expensive commercial boardgame is the Deluxe version of Outrage!, which retails at £3995.

The world's largest gambling win was US $111,240,463.10 in the Powerball lottery on 7 July 1993

Grabatology is the collecting of ties.

The highest paid odds on a horserace are 3,072,887 to 1. For a 5p accumulator bet on 5 horses, an unnamed woman won £153,644.40 (which was paid out by Ladbrokes, the world's largest bookmaker).

On the 24 April 1993, Charles Servizio completed 46,001 push-ups (press-ups) in 24 hours, at Fontana, California, USA.

When new, a regulation cricket ball weighs 5.5 ounces.

Trevor Francis was the first soccer player to be transferred for £1 000 000 ( Birmingham City to Nottingham Forest 1979 )

The flights on a dart are made from turkey feathers.

The first major car rally won by a woman was in Rome, 1960. (Pat Moss)

The minimum number of darts required to finish a single in, double out game of 501 is 9.

The Roman Emperor Nero killed his wife after she 'scalded' him for going to the races.

The Australian term for extras in cricket are 'sundries'.

In the 1950's the hula hoop was banned in Tokyo due to the large number of traffic accidents it caused.

Max Baer once shouted out in the middle of a world title boxing fight 'Ma, he's killing me!'.

The yo-yo originated in the Philippines, where it was used as a weapon in hunting.

Boules, or Petanque, is France's second most played sport.

In 1935 Jesse Owens broke 4 world records in 45 minutes.

On 15th May 1948, the Australian touring team scored a world record total of runs in one day. In just under six hours they made 721 all out against Essex, at Southchurch Park, Southend.

The most common injury in ten pin bowling is a sore thumb.

Mick Jaggers favourite game is cricket.

Round arm bowling in cricket was invented by Christina Wells.

Baseball star Babe Ruth was born George Herman Ruth. During his sporting career he played in 2503 games and had a lifetime batting average of .342.

English batsman, Arthur Shrewbury, shot himself believing he was afflicted with an incurable disease.

Shrove Tuesday is the day the Pancake races are run on.

The first rugby club was formed in 1843.

In charades, pushing away means you're cold.

The Ancient Greek name for a racecourse is the Hippodrome.

What is black, frozen and measures 3 inches by 1 inches? An ice-hockey puck.

When kicked in the groin, a soccer player has been 'banjoed'.

US President, Richard Nixon, tried to offer tactics to an American Football team.

Johnny Weissmuller, the Hollywood Tarzan won swimming gold medals in the Olympics in 1924.

Marcellus, is the middle name of Cassius Clay.

The 1970 World cup football match between El Savador and Honduras was so highly charged that it resulted in the two countries embarking on a 3 day war.

Karate, often considered Japan's national sport, didn't come to Japan until 1916.

The nickname of the New Zealand Rugby team is 'The All Blacks',which came about through a newspaper printing error.

Joe Davis, former world Snooker champion, only had one good eye.

In Thailand, kite-flying is a major sport with teams of up to twenty people competing against each other.

John L. Sullivan, a famous bareknuckle boxer, once took 75 rounds to knock out his opponent, Jake Kilrain

Pistols were first used in the Olympic games shooting events in 1984.

There are over 10 000 golf courses in the United States.

Australian meteorologist Nils Lied, while in Antartica, drove a golf ball 2414 metres.

Cystallite is the material snooker balls are made from.

At Darts, a score of 26 is called 'bed and breakfast'.

If you were at the Brickyard you would be playing Motor racing (it’s the nickname for the Indianapolis circuit).

Ferdie Adoboe set a world record on 28 July 1983 by running 100 yards in 12.8 seconds … backwards.

The average age of a female Olympic competitor is 20.

A golf green hole in a minimum of 4 inches.

The bar used for weightlifting weighs 20 kilograms.

It is forbidden for an Olympic wrestler to twist his opponents toes.

The board game Monopoly was originally rejected by Parker Brothers, who claimed it had 52 fundamental errors.

Formula One Driver, Jackie Stewart, who won three motor racing world championships, also has been the British clay pigeon shooter five times.

Rugby was discovered by accident. A student during a game of football decided to pick up the ball and run to the opposition goal - thus the formation of rugby.

Ray Ewry, the American athlete, won three gold medals at the 1900 Olympic Games had been paralysed and confined to a wheelchair as a child.

The first man to swim the English Channel without a life jacket was Captain Matthew Webb, who died trying to swim the rapids above Niagara Falls.

Football was played in the twelfth century, though without any rules.