Compiled by JOHN O'SULLIVAN

Gunners set sights on hat-shop owner

IT SEEMS Arsenal Football Club have been pursuing Alicia Simon with a zeal that has perhaps been lacking in their exploits on the pitch in recent seasons. The lady in question opened a hat shop in the Spanish city of Seville, which she called Arsenale in 2007.

The English club might have enjoyed a little extra motivation in the pursuit based on the fact the local club, Sevilla, sold the Gunners two players in Jose Antonio Reyes and Sebastien Squillaci who failed to make the desired impact in north London: maybe they were looking for a little economic retribution based on the hefty transfer fees doled out.

Arsenal have apparently pursued Simon through legal avenues to try to get her to change the name of the shop to no avail until recently. The club has managed to persuade the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office to force the owner into changing the name of the store.

Arsenal released a statement that read: “We make every effort to ensure that, where possible, we do not unnecessarily impact on other businesses. However, it is important that Arsenal Football Club protects its global name when and where appropriate.”

Simon named her shop after the Italian word “arsenale”, which was the name given to the shipbuilders’ yards in medieval Pisa and Venice. Her premises are located in Seville’s Arenal de Sevilla district, where Seville’s ancient shipyards were located – hence her choice of name.

Her shop offers self-designed hats, but she also sells shoes – bringing her under the umbrella of “clothes, hats and shoes” as seen by the patent and trademark office, and thus causing the infringement.

She is refusing to back down and has appealed the decision. A Madrid tribunal will have the final say. “I will fight this to the end,” she insists, something that’s been beyond Arsenal in the Premier League of late.

Dublin fans will be wary of minor omen

THE OLD adage suggests that statistics are akin to a lamppost, there to illuminate rather than lean on but some historical trivia might leave the Dublin fans at tomorrow’s All-Ireland senior and minor football finals in Croke Park a little queasy.

It might also question their allegiance to the blue jersey, or more accurately, whether they might have to sacrifice minor success for senior glory.

On the two occasions Dublin have met Tipperary in an All-Ireland minor football final, 1955 and ’84, the former have proved victorious. However in those same years the Dubs have lost the senior final and on both occasions their conquerors were Kerry: a bit Twin Peaks-ish.

The three counties will once again contest the minor and senior finals and it’ll be interesting to note how the boys on Hill 16 will react if the Dublin minors – they are strong favourites – go on to claim the title.

In 1955 a then record attendance of 87,102 paid gate receipts of £10,667, 19s, 6d to see Kerry beat Dublin by 0-12 to 1-6 in the senior final while in the curtain raiser the Metropolitans won 5-4 to 2-7. An unnamed Irish Times reporter wrote of the minor final: “Dublin played very cleverly against the wind and in spite of a strong Tipperary defence, clever forward work helped Dublin turn over with a slender lead of 2-2 to 1-2. Tipperary played splendidly against the wind after Dublin had landed two further goals.

“Splendid work by Condon, King, Burke, Boland, Ryan and Ferris to narrow the gap to a goal. Dublin put in a very fast finish and a fine swinging goal by Burgess gave the title to Dublin for whom Denigan, McSweeney, Graham, Lenihan and Joyce played grand football.”

In 1984 Kerry once again beat the Dubs in the senior final (0-14 to 1-6) while in the minor decider Tipperary came off second best losing by 1-9 to 0-4 in a game that didn’t really captivate Irish Times reporter Pat Roche.

He observed: “Present-day minor footballers are stifled by the occasion of an All-Ireland final. The whole thing seems too big for them to handle and this final was another example of nerves and tension disrupting cohesion and concentration as Dublin regained the under-18 football title at the expense of a badly affected Tipperary team at Croke Park.

“Uncertainty reigned from the start as both teams tried, under seemingly intimidating circumstances, to produce what they had aimed to do after months of preparation and training. What came out was an untidy, mistake-riddled match that fell well short of the standards of which these boys are normally capable and which they produced in their previous matches.”

Niall Clancy converted a penalty for the winners while the Dublin midfield that day contained future senior stalwart Paul Clarke and Aussie Rules legend Jim Stynes. It also marked the last occasion that the Dubs won that particular underage title.

It’s interesting to note that in both of the aforementioned senior finals the Dubs managed an identical tally of 1-6 so for those on Hill 16 tomorrow, a victory in the minor match will leave them hoping that the senior team race past a tally of 1-6 long before the final whistle.

1955 Minor Final – Dublin 5-4 Tipperary 2-7

DUBLIN: S Denigan; V Murphy, D Sweeney, D Hearns; R Doherty, S Graham, C Jones; P Heron, L Foley; E Burgess, S Linehan; C McSweeney, J Joyce, G Wolfe.

TIPPERARY: S Ryan; G King, S Condon, P Burke; S Connolly, T Walsh, D Stapleton; P Tobin, L Boland; A Danagher, E Casey, M Moroney; M Ryan, S Ferris, S Brennan.

1984 Minor Final – Dublin 1-9 Tipperary 0-4

DUBLIN: M Broderick; G Walsh, J Barry, C Walsh; A Martin, J Power, B McKeon; J Stynes, P Clarke; D de Lappe, A McClean, J Fahy; N Clancy, M Crowley, C Crowley.

TIPPERARY: G Enright; D Walsh, R Quirke, D Williams; J Owens, F Howlin, M Holland; B Burke, G Ryan; M Goonan, J O’Meara, K Farrelly; T Sheehan, A Crosse, S Brett.

Glamorgan in the pink but not quite in same ball park as 007

GLAMORGAN ACCEPTED a request from the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to play with a pink ball in their final four-day, day-night county championship match at Kent during the week. The move is part of an International Cricket Council proposal to introduce day-night Test matches. It is not the first time a pink ball has been used in cricket as the MCC beat Scotland in a 50-over game at Lord’s in April 2008 in the first game played in England with a ball of that hue. The first international match to feature a pink ball was England women against Australia women in July 2009.

Soccer used orange-coloured balls as early as the 1950s for snow-clad pitches while the All Blacks once pioneered, unsuccessfully, a yellow Adidas ball, to which former outhalf Andrew Mehrtens took a particular dislike.

On a tangential note, distinctive markings on a ball provided one of the great cinematic moments of the James Bond genre. In Goldfinger (1965), Sean Connery as Bond takes on Auric Goldfinger (Gert Frobe) in golf at Stoke Park Golf Club, Stoke Poges. Goldfinger tries to cheat leading to the following exchange on the home green. James Bond: “You play a Slazinger 1, don’t you?” Auric Goldfinger: “Yes, why?” JB: “This is a Slazinger 7. Here’s my Penfold Hearts. You must have played the wrong ball somewhere on the 18th fairway. We are playing strict rules, so I’m afraid you lose the hole and the match.”

By uttering the words “Penfold Hearts”, a massive market for that ball – they had a unique way of branding using a number and a playing card suit motif – was created for the British company. It was the uber-cool ball of the time. After all if James Bond was using it . . . Penfold also manufactured the one-piece Commando ball, a cheap, seemingly indestructible ball that was beloved of the pitch and putt cognoscenti.

Statistics show now’s the chance to impress in PRO12 League

THERE ARE 104 players from the RaboDirect PRO12 away in New Zealand at the Rugby World Cup, the highest representation of any league in world rugby.

It represents a great opportunity for some of the younger players to make their mark in the league and a further inspiration is the likes of Chris Cusiter, Dan Parks, Lee Byrne, Luke Charteris, Fergus McFadden, Seán Cronin,

Max Evans, Rhys Priestland or Jonathan Davies who, having made their debuts for their respective franchises during previous World Cups, are now playing their part for their countries in New Zealand.

Looking back four and eight years ago a total of 33 players, who went on to become Test players, made their debuts in the tournament when the 2003 and 2007 World Cups were being played. Of those 19 are participating in the 2011 RWC, whilst just two have failed to play in at least 40 games in the tournament now known as the RaboDirect PRO12.

TOURNAMENT DEBUT DURING RWC2003

Name (Debut for, total tournament appearances) total test caps.

IRELAND: Bernard Jackman (Connacht, 100 games) 9 caps, Mike McCarthy (Connacht, 78) 2, Matt McCullough (Ulster, 93) 4, John Muldoon (Connacht, 116) 3, Barry Murphy (Munster, 50) 4, Niall Ronan (Leinster, 95) 4, Roger Wilson (Ulster, 86) 1, Bryan Young (Ulster, 99) 8.

SCOTLAND: Kelly Brown (Borders, 99) 47, David Callam (Edinburgh, 58) 11, Geoff Cross (Borders, 111) 7, Chris Cusiter (Borders, 53) 54, Ross Ford (Borders, 114) 50, Sean Lamont (Glasgow, 58) 57, Rory Lawson (Edinburgh, 44) 28, Scott Lawson (Glasgow, 65) 29, Graeme Morrison (Glasgow, 117) 30, Matt Mustchin (Ulster, 85) 5, Dan Parks (Glasgow, 119) 63, Sam Pinder (Glasgow, 81) 2, Hugo Southwell (Edinburgh, 84) 59, Alasdair Strokosch (Edinburgh, 51) 20.

WALES: Lee Byrne (Scarlets, 77) 44, Luke Charteris (Dragons, 96) 26, Rhys M. Thomas (Dragons, 112) 7, John Yapp (Cardiff Blues, 97) 21.

CANADA: Ander Monro (Edinburgh, 14) 26.

TOURNAMENT DEBUT DURING RWC2007

IRELAND: Seán Cronin (Munster, 48) 13, Fergus McFadden (Leinster, 42) 5.

SCOTLAND: Max Evans (Glasgow, 46) 21

WALES: Jonathan Davies (Scarlets, 46) 15, Rhys Priestland (Scarlets, 63) 5

SAMOA: Ofisa Treviranus (Connacht, 11) 16.

$2,000 fine for abuse ‘like dinner for Serena’

WHEN is a reprimand not a reprimand?

It appears when the US Open tournament referee Brian Earley decided to fine Serena Williams $2,000 (€1,460) for her verbal outburst to umpire Eva Asderaki during her final defeat to Australia’s Samantha Stosur.

It is a paltry sum when factored against the $900,000 (€657,000) cheque that Williams received as runner-up. Former tennis women’s icon Chris Evert summed it up not when suggesting she “was so surprised how disrespectful and rude” Williams was to Asderaki but in calling the $2,000 hit “like dinner for Serena”.

There was a view amongst some of the Grand Slam and US Tennis Association officials with whom Earley discussed the matter that Williams’ had acted like a “fourth grader” but it did not warrant a fine.

Eventually it was decided that a fine of $1,500 €1,095) dollars would be levied with a $500 (€365) addendum as a repeat offender; a reference to an outrageous tirade in 2009 when she threatened a line judge by saying: “If I could, I would take this . . . ball and shove it down your . . . throat.”