A There have been several cup final penalties, but few have actually won the match. The first to decide a final came in 1922, when Huddersfield Town defeated Preston North End 1-0 at Stamford Bridge. It was a poor game and a controversial penalty, newsreel film confirming that Billy Smith was outside the penalty area when he was fouled in the 67th minute. Smith converted the kick, despite the antics of Preston goalkeeper James Mitchell, who wore glasses and a bandana, and tried to distract Smith by dancing about on his line waving his arms around. The outcome was a new rule forbidding goalkeepers to move until the kick was taken. The same teams were involved in the first Wembley final to be decided by a penalty, in 1938. This time Preston lifted the cup with a goal in the last minute of extra time. The game was goalless when Hudderfield’s captain, Alf Young, was adjudged to have fouled George Mutch. Mutch took the kick, sending his shot in off the bar to give Preston their first final win for 49 years. In 1982, Tottenham won the cup by beating Queens Park Rangers 1-0 in a final replay with a penalty from Glenn Hoddle. Hoddle had also scored in the first game, a 1-1 draw, with Terry Fenwick on target for Rangers. The decisive goal in the replay came after six minutes when Tony Currie fouled Spurs’ Graham Roberts. — Kevin Bell, Bramley
Q Do the RFU or IRB have any plans for an international women’s sevens tournament? — AD Hiam, Northampton
A Neither the Rugby Football Union nor the International Rugby Board is prohibiting the staging of an international women’s sevens tournament, although the IRB is the body that would sanction such an event. The difficulty is funding. There have been several women’s sevens tournaments in different parts of the world, but the cost has had to be met by the organising body. Since 1997 there has been an international women’s event run alongside the Hong Kong Sevens, and last season saw the first South American and African women’s sevens tournaments. A European women’s sevens was first run in 2003, when the Six Nations teams fielded under-20s sides against the ‘emerging’ countries. Twenty teams are scheduled to take part this year. IRB support and funding is currently focused on the Women’s Rugby World Cup. At this point many rugby nations struggle to fund their 15-a-side game.
Resources are scarce and it needs a pro-active approach to include women’s development, in all its forms, in bidding to the IRB for funding. If and when the Olympics adopts rugby sevens as a full sport, perhaps we will see the IRB extending its support of the women’s game into international sevens. — Carol Isherwood OBE, director of rugby, Rugby Football Union for Women
Q Who was the first British golfer to win the US Women’s Open? — Ronnie Buchanan, Aberdeen
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A Laura Davies, from Ottershaw, Surrey, achieved that distinction in 1987 when she defeated Ayako Okamoto and Joanne Carner in a playoff at Plainfield, New Jersey. Davies shot a one-under-par 71 in an 18-hole playoff to defeat Okamoto by two strokes and Carner by three to win the 42nd US Women’s Open with rounds of 72, 70, 72, 71.— Abigail Trent, Sutton Coldfield
Q Is it true somebody cursed southern clubs to prevent them winning the original FA Cup? — B Storey, Wigan
A I can find no reference to a curse, but there is a tale concerning the 1883 final when Blackburn Olympic became the first northern club to win the cup by beating Old Etonians 2-1 at Kennington Oval. Legend has it that one of the Blackburn fans wasn’t too impressed with the trophy — the Little Tin Idol, which stood only 18in high — remarking that it was ‘nowt but a teapot’. Sam Warburton, the Olympic captain, replied: ‘Eh, lad, but it’s very welcome in Lancashire. It’ll have a good home and it will never go back to London.’ It never did. Northern or Midlands clubs won the trophy for the next 12 years until it was stolen from a Birmingham shoe-shop window in 1895. — Len Statham, Stourbridge
Any Answers?
Send questions or answers to Peter Boyle, Q & A, The Sunday Times Sport, 1 Pennington Street, London E98 1ST, or e-mail peter.boyle@sunday-times.co.uk
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