On The Sidelines

It may have been too late for this Christmas's popular stocking filler, but assuming nothing too extraordinary happens over the next eight months or so, the former Shelbourne striker Jimmy O'Connor will finally gain the recognition he has been due for the past 30 years - a place in the Guinness Book Of Records.

Supporters of Shelbourne have long been campaigning for the Dubliner's hat-trick in the 1967 32 victory over Bohemians at Dalymount Park to be recognised officially as the fastest in the history of the game and a couple of weeks ago, the publisher informed the "Jimmy In - Jimmy Out" campaign that they had finally been successful.

In recent times, the campaigners had tracked down the match referee who, with the help of his original notebook, backed up the claim as did many other witnesses. The real breakthrough came a few months ago, however, when a researcher from TnaG came across unedited footage of the game in the archives of RTE. This was the proof that clinched O'Connor's place in the history books.

Now living and working in west Dublin, O'Connor was just 19 when he went on his historic goal spree. There was nine minutes played when he slotted his first home from a narrow angle inside the box and 85 seconds later, including the 23 it took to restart the game, Mick Conroy supplied a cross from the left which O'Connor chipped in for number two. Just under 50 seconds later and it was three. Brendan Plaice's interception in midfield starting a move which was ended by O'Connor's close-range header.

Now, thanks to the perseverance of Paul Byrne and everybody up at the Shelbourne supporters club, as well as TnaG's help, O'Connor, whose son Barry has also played for Shelbourne, has been pencilled in to replace Jock Dodds of Blackpool and Gillingham's Jimmy (hence the name of the campaign) Scarth, who had each turned in two-and-a-half minute hat tricks, in next year's records bible.

Congratulations to all concerned and particularly, of course, to Jimmy himself.

Following the success of the All-Ireland Gold series, TnaG are about to apply a similar formula to the Republic of Ireland's World Cup archive with Packie Bonner lined up to present a new run of our better old matches.

First up, on New Year's Day, is the meeting with England during the 1990 World Cup finals in Italy. A different Irish game from over the past 16 years will then be featured each Thursday night at 10.30 p.m.

On Tuesdays, games featuring other countries will be shown, with Brazil against France from 1986 providing the centrepiece of the opening show on January 6th. As with the station's GAA games, every match will be shown in its entirety with its original commentary.

Athletes should be free to use performance-enhancing drugs because sports bureaucrats have provided no valid reasons for banning them, according to Swedish sports philosopher Claudio Tamburrini, a senior philosophy lecturer and researcher at Gothenburg University. The ban on doping, he says, is pointless and should be scrapped immediately.

Tamburrini's plea echoes a similar call made after the Atlanta Olympics by leading South African sports scientist John Hawley who reckoned up to 50 per cent of competitors in the power and strength events used performance-enhancing drugs.

A former professional soccer player in his native Argentina, Tamburrini insists that "the ban on doping is paternalistic because the main reason advanced for the ban is to protect the sportsman's health."

Nobody, he points out, would dream of sanctioning career-minded people who work too hard and ruin their health and, as elite sport is now a profession like any other, he argues that athletes should decide for themselves how much risk they are willing to take.

There are those, of course, who would claim that by failing to bring in genuinely effective testing, that is what the ruling bodies in numerous sports around a world are already doing.

For the latest in our long-running series "Refs - why on earth do they do it?" we travel this week to Israel where the Ha'aretz newspaper carried news of Eyal Tzur's brave attempt to restore order amongst his linesmen as they travelled to a league game together in the back of a taxi.

Tzur was on the way to a game along with linesmen Shai Ossidon and Reuven Gino when Ossidon, recently awarded an international badge by FIFA, joked he would now be roaming the world while Gino stayed at home.

"I am going to officiate in Europe and will do duty-free shopping in London while you will have to make do with (the southern Israeli cities of) Ashdod and Ashkelon," Ha'aretz quoted Ossidon as saying.

Gino apparently failed to see anything funny in the statement and the two came to blows. Tzur stepped in and, aided by the taxi driver, managed to restore calm. The Israel Referees' Association are now investigating the matter.

Former World Heavyweight champion Gerrie Coetzee was being questioned by police in Johannesburg this week after being involved in an exchange of fire with another man in the car park of a motel.

The other man, identified only by the surname Wosthuizen in reports of the incident, is said to have pulled a shotgun on Coetzee, who recently attempted to relaunch his boxing career.

Hardly remembered as one of the greater world champions ever, Coetzee's aim let him down on this occasion as well, however, and having introduced a gun of his own into the proceedings and claiming that he genuinely believed his life to be in jeopardy, he apparently attempted to shoot his assailant dead, but succeeded only in inflicting a flesh wound in the leg.

Michael Buffer, meanwhile, the boxing referee who popularised the phrase "Let's get ready to rumble" ahead of major title fights, is claiming around $1 million in damages after his catch-phrase was sampled into a song without his permission.

Buffer's voice is repeatedly used in a new track by Craziewhite Peckawoods and the referee claims that he owns the copyright on the phrase and his own voice. Three different record companies are expected to defend the case, which is expected to make its first appearance in court as early as next week.

Correspondence to this column should be sent to ON THE SIDELINES, c/o the Sports Dept, The Irish Times, D'Olier St, Dublin 8.