Outside Edge: 13/06/10

When his wife relegated him to the bedroom to watch the World Cup, Kevin Whitter of Macclesfield decided to spring a surprise: he ordered a custom-made £5,000 bed with a mattress that looks like a pitch, an England flag headboard and a bedside table shaped like a giant trophy. If he gets lonely, he can always contact model Daiyu Fang of China, who was so fed up that none of her girlfriends wanted to watch the World Cup that she put an advert on the internet offering to pay a man £100 to watch it with her. She said: "My only rules are that I get to keep the remote and there is absolutely no kissing, no matter how exciting it gets." Spoilsport? Damn right. You can't have the remote, love.

When his wife relegated him to the bedroom to watch the World Cup, Kevin Whitter of Macclesfield decided to spring a surprise: he ordered a custom-made £5,000 bed with a mattress that looks like a pitch, an England flag headboard and a bedside table shaped like a giant trophy. If he gets lonely, he can always contact model Daiyu Fang of China, who was so fed up that none of her girlfriends wanted to watch the World Cup that she put an advert on the internet offering to pay a man £100 to watch it with her. She said: "My only rules are that I get to keep the remote and there is absolutely no kissing, no matter how exciting it gets." Spoilsport? Damn right. You can't have the remote, love.

£21,600

Price at auction of the only George Cross to be awarded for bravery on a cricket field, to Major Douglas Brett when he "tackled" an armed Hindu rebel who attacked a game in Chittagong in 1934. Clearly an umpire of the empire.

Golden oldies of the week

No wonder there aren't many famous Belgians. Eugene van Roosbroeck, 82, has had to wait 62 years to receive his Olympic gold medal for winning the team cycle race at the 1948 Games in London. He did not know that he had won because the formula for working out the result was so complicated that he had caught a bus back to the Olympic village by the time it was announced. Now a 94-year-old has had his attempt at breaking the speed record for an autogyro thwarted because the Civil Aviation Authority puts a 70mph limit on such craft. The former James Bond stuntman Ken Wallis must go abroad in his bid to reach 140mph in his hand-built machine. Thanks for that, Dr No.

Good week for

Michel Lagravere, youngest-ever bullfighter in Mexico City's Plaza de Toros, aged 12... Roz Savage of Cheshire, the first woman to row single-handed across the Pacific Ocean, reaching Mandang in Papua New Guinea 150 days and 8,000 miles after leaving San Francisco... and Ted Fenwick of York wins Pre-TT Classic on the Isle of Man aged 82.

Bad week for

Danny Dyer , presenter of football hooligan TV programmes and 'Football Factory' actor, whose new film 'Pimp' was watched by just 24 people on its first weekend in cinemas... the double-bouncer, delivery developed to combat the Twenty20 six-hitters is outlawed by the England and Wales Cricket Board... and children at Southampton Common paddling pool are instructed not to use the facility if the temperature drops below 20C.

Big bangers of the week

Fed up with the World Cup already? There are lots of other global extravaganzas going on, such as yesterday's World Sausage Hurling Championships in Hemyock, Devon. Male contestants must hoick the Devon Dazzler, which weighs 8kg and is 4ft long with a 24in girth, while the ladies get to grips with the smaller Hemyock Hurler and kids chuck a Baby Blackdown. Like the World Cup, you have to make sure you don't meet any German sausage experts in the later rounds or you would fear the wurst. But if that's not to your taste, yesterday also saw the World Toe-Wrestling Championships in Ashbourne, Derbyshire. As the tension grows, you just have to hope there isn't a nail-biting finish.

a.tong@independent.co.uk