Week in, week out

PLASTIC FANTASTICGLASGOW Mid Argyll and Skye made history on Saturday by contesting the first official Shinty match ever played on a plastic pitch.

The ruling Camanachd Association are advocating the future use of such surfaces to combat the fixture chaos caused by the severity of highland weather. On Saturday, the maiden game on a non-grass park went ahead in Cumbernauld, with Skye running out 7-5 victors.

Afterwards, Glasgow manager George Hay said the third generation (3G) pitch produced a cracking game and passed the test with flying colours. "I think games on these parks will tend to be higher scoring matches but it was a good advert for Shinty and there wasn't too much difference to the grass."

BLOOD ON THE ICE

THERE was a moment of tension at the Olympic curling venue on Thursday when Canada's game against Sweden was halted to clean up blood that had dripped on to the ice. It turned out the injury to Canadian Marc Kennedy's elbow was not inflicted in rough curling action, however, but was caused by a rug burn in a game of "mini sticks" against the women's hockey team at the Olympic village. "A real major injury – we almost had to call in the ambulance," team-mate John Morris joked. Luckily, as a fire fighter, Morris has first-aid training.

"We got out one of those knuckle band-aids and I think he's good to go," he said. After the blood was mopped up, Canada defeated Sweden 7-3 to remain unbeaten.

SNOW IDEA

STAYING in Vancouver it has to be said that the BBC coverage has been mostly excellent, with the nicely simmering chemsitry between Steve Cram and Rhona Martin during those long, long hours at the curling arena, a particular highlight. At the other end of the spectrum, however, has to be the coverage of the snowboarding, with Canadian co-commentator Kerrin Lee the most obvious waste of tax-payers' money in the Beeb's cast-of-thousands extravaganza. With two Australians in the mix for medals during the women's halfpipe she was asked: "How does a country like Australia keep producing such great snowboarders?" The former Olympian's response was a swift, if unilluminating: "I don't know." That's the kind of insight money can't buy.

COLE GETS ABU OFF HOOK

THE level of unpopularity affecting Chelsea bad boys Ashley Cole and John Terry was further underlined with the news that the dastardly duo topped a poll of 3,000 women to find 'The Most Hated Men in Britain'. Cole and Terry, who have been the subject of tabloid revelations surrounding their private lives, came first and second in the OnePoll.com survey, leaving Muslim fudamentalist hate preacher Abu Hamza, pictured left, trailing in third. Tiger Woods was fourth.

BHOYZONE

BOYZONE star Ronan Keating was the latest singing sensation to pitch up at Parkhead as he took in the Celtic v Dundee United match on Saturday decked out in green and white scarf. Rod Stewart is a regular at the stadium and the Gallagher brothers of Oasis have also made the odd appearance. This season alone has also seen Susan Boyle and X-Factor runner-up Olly Murs make a visit to Paradise, so quite the supergroup is developing.