Outside Edge: A name to try and remember

One of the most inspiring stories of 2010 had to be the comedian Eddie Izzard completing 43 marathons in 51 days despite never having run one before. OK, so the 47-year-old transvestite comic didn't do it in high heels – maybe next year – but he raised an enormous amount of money for Sports Relief. Now a teacher from Harrow, Neil O'Maonaigh-Lennon, has set an extraordinary new record by running 105 marathons in 105 days. In fact he beat the previous best by some considerable distance – the Guinness Book of Records lists 52 in 52 days. The 30-year-old set off from Brighton on 10 September and arrived back at the town's pier on Thursday, raising £10,000 for Cancer Research UK. He undertook the task after both his grandfathers died of the disease. Each day's run took him around seven hours to complete as he ran anti-clockwise around the entire coast of Britain. Perhaps he can also lay claim to another long-distance record: having one of the longest, trickiest names in the world.

498

Runs scored by 13-year-old Armaan Jaffer for Rizvi Springfield in Mumbai, the highest-ever score by an Indian schoolboy. The nephew of Test opener Wasim Jaffer struck 77 fours off 490 balls. "I decided not to play any aerial shots," he said. His report says "must do better"; he should have got 500.

Sometimes it's not OK on the oche

Our celebrity-obsessed culture is full of "divas", or people with extraordinary demands, but who would have thought the same applied to darts players. Step forward Chris Thompson (if it's not too much trouble). The Hitman from Acomb in Yorkshire is taking part in the PDC World Championships at Alexandra Palace and has shocked staff at the Best Western Mostyn Hotel with his many requirements. He insists on an arm massage twice a day, which is fine for a top-level darter. But he also demands freshly squeezed carrot juice three times a day to help his eyesight, and has asked that his walk-on music, 'Happy Hour' by the Housemartins, should be played all over the hotel. The only thing the staff have not done for him, bizarrely, is put up a darts board in his room because it would do too much damage to the wall. He can't be very good then.

Good week

Samuel Sevian of Santa Clara in California has become the youngest-ever chess master in the United States at the age of nine – beating the previous record, set by Nicholas Nip, by 11 days... Zara Phillips, equestrian Olympian and 12th in line to the throne, and Mike Tindall, Gloucester and England rugby player, announced their engagement...

Sachin Tendulkar, the 37-year-old Indian batsman, becomes the first cricketer to reach 50 Test centuries against South Africa in Centurion.

Bad week

Andrew Flintoff, former cricketer was searched by security staff at an Asda in Surrey on suspicion of shoplifting a wok... The inflatable roof of the Minneapolis Metrodome, home of the Minnesota Vikings, collapses under the weight of 17 inches of snow... Anderlecht, the Belgian football team, had to retreat to their dressing-room after seven minutes of their Jupiler League match at Club Brugge after they were pelted with snowballs by the home fans.

An award that must deserve an award

Peace on earth, especially in Switzerland. The country that is famed for its neutrality can breathe a sigh of relief after Christian Constantin, abrasive president of the Swiss football team Sion, was persuaded to drop his plan to compile footage of poor refereeing decisions against his club and show them on television as an advertisement. Sion and another side, Neuchatel Xamax, even asked for foreign referees to handle their games this season. In truth, it doesn't sound like the most exciting advert, but surely it would have been better than the former Soccer AM host Tim Lovejoy's appalling commercial for Giovanni Rana pasta, which has just received the Turkey of the Year award from the advertising industry magazine Campaign and also took the prize for Worst Celebrity Advert of the Year. The only downside to this heart-warming tale is that it knocked Jamie and Louise Redknapp's even more outrageously awful advert for Thomas Cook into second place.