If you ask me...

New medical studies confirm what many former gridiron players have long feared – bangs to the head can have debilitating and potentially deadly consequences. By Gerard Wright in Los Angeles

Few surprises are likely to be sprung at Hove today. Sussex play host to Lancashire, the County Championship's early joint leaders, having already played them this season in Liverpool. The visitors' coach, Peter Moores, meanwhile, was the man who guided Sussex into the greatest era in their history at the start of the last decade.

Eating healthily is more appealing when the food is displayed beautifully. So arrange your apples and pears in one of these elegant table-top pieces.

Indifference to a world on the wane

The Cox's orange pippin is no longer Britain's favourite. Tom Peck reports

Crisp and mouth-wateringly sharp, Cox's Orange Pippin has been the country's most popular apple for at least a century. But it has lost its crown to the blander, sweeter Gala apple, a more recent variety.

This recipe is Persian in origin and was given to me by my friend Greg Malouf.Found in his beautiful book Saraban (Hardie Grant Books, £30), it is the perfect way to eat fruit when not in season. All the dried fruit used in this recipe should be fairly easy to find in Middle Eastern stores or any good health-food shop or delicatessen.

Ingredients to make 8 tarts

Claire McDonald finds out what makes the festive favourite so delicious

A maul is a kind of mallet, which was used to club a family to death (baby included) in London's East End in December 1811. The country was plunged into a frenzy of fear. Twelve nights later, an elderly couple and their maid were found bludgeoned to death. Public opinion demanded a culprit, and an Irish seaman named John Williams, who lodged at the nearby Pear Tree inn, was arrested. With the trial still ongoing, Williams was found hanged in his cell, and posthumously convicted.

Serves 4

My philosophy on cooking has always been to have no more than three main ingredients on the plate, otherwise it can be difficult to marry up all of the ingredients' flavours and you end up with a confused creation. But since recently cooking a dinner for the artist John Gerrard, I've been seriously thinking about narrowing my formula down to two ingredients which perfectly partner each other.

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