Almanack: The free-wheeling footballers

NEWS of a most extraordinary football match played on Tuesday in Monrovia, the capital of Liberia in West Africa. It was a friendly between a team of blind players and a team of wheelchair-bound players, played in front of a roaring capacity crowd of 5,000 fans.

The teams contesting the game, which was staged to mark International White Cane Day, were the Christian Association of the Blind and the Cripples of the Group of '77, an association for the disabled founded in that year. A bell had been inserted into the ball to assist the blind players - but to no avail, as the wheeled wonders won 3-0.

For the record, the goals, in the 15th, 40th and 70th minutes, came from the Group of '77 forwards Taye Moore, Tamba Borbor and John Mark. Liberia Football Association officials claimed after the game that it was the first match of its kind played in the West African country: we think the enterprise shows admirable sporting spirit. And no cheap cracks, please, about Premier League strikers who might have qualified to play on the blind side.