Almanack: Thanks for blanks

THE Commonwealth Games loom: where is our official handbook from the Englandteam? We telephoned the Games press office in London. They'd gone to Vancouver. An assistant gave us a number for the handbook's printers. It was unobtainable. Then, after turning her piece of paper the right way up, she gave us the correct number, for a firm in Loughton, Essex. 'That Games thing?' said Tracy, who answered. 'It's been a nightmare, and now they're grumbling because it's late.' She popped one on a bike. It was hardly worth the effort. Many mug-shots (including Du'aine Ladejo's) are missing. And biographies are sketchy. If anyone knows anything about Martin Jones and Donna Fraser, whose entries boast beautiful pictures but not a word of text, could they fill us in?