Yesterday the European Championships of football got under way, and as usual people were straight onto the statistics of rare occurrences. While it might be interesting to have the fastest goal or the youngest player record, saying that something is the third this, or only the fourth time that..., is of far less interest even for those interested in football. I'd like to propose the name of "the Grover effect" for this, after the limerick:
There once was a batsman called Grover, Who scored thirty-six runs in one over! Which had never being done By a clergyman's son On a Sunday, in August, at Dover!
(Bismarck) No, not by a clergyman's son on an August Sunday at Dover but by the great Gary Sir Garfield Sobers on an August afternoon in 1968 at Swansea, off the bowling of Malcolm Nash. Serve 'im right. Bloody South Walians.