Q&A: Tiger's ranking feat

Q. Tiger Woods, the American golf sensation, won four of the first 10 tournaments he entered. However, I am surprised to notice that he is not in the leading 20 players in the Sony world rankings. Why? How do the rankings work?

A. Tiger Woods is in fact 14th in the Sony World Rankings published last week. The system is extremely complicated but basically a rookie cannot earn an accurate ranking until after two years of entering ranking events. The number of ranking points they accumulate at each tournament in this time are added up and divided by 40 (the average number of tournaments a player will play in two years). Woods has not even played 20 tournaments yet as a professional, so every time he plays and gets ranking points his average will climb and so will he up the order. Woods is already seventh in the US Ryder Cup list and was declared recently as the only player in the world to average more than 300 yards off the tee. - James John, Trowbridge

ANSWERS PLEASE

Q. On 29 August 1953, Lincoln City inflicted an 8-0 defeat on Blackburn Rovers, equalling Rovers' record defeat by Arsenal 20 years earlier. On 2 January 1954, the score was Blackburn 6 Lincoln 0. Is this a record variance in a scoreline between teams in the English League in the same season? - Royce G Franklin, Saddleworth

Q. Peter Schmeichel's goal in Manchester United's 1-0 defeat at Wimbledon in their FA Cup fourth-round replay was disallowed. Was the Manchester United goalkeeper the first to be ruled offside in the FA Cup? - J Kennedy, London N5

If you know the answers to any of these questions or have a sporting question of your own, write to Q&A, Sports Desk, Independent on Sunday, 1 Canada Square, London E14 5DL. Fax: 0171-293 2894