THE BIG QUESTIONS
I’ve just read Peter Crouch’s hilarious book, How To Be A Footballer. In it, he often jokes about his height. But have there been any players even taller than him? – R
Crouch, capped 42 times for England, is 2.01m (6ft 7in) tall. The tallest player I know of is Danish goalkeeper, Simon Bloch Jørgensen, who stands 2.1m (6ft 11in) tall.
The tallest athlete ever is probably Canadian wrestler Edouard Beaupre (1881-1904) who reached a height of 2.5m (8ft 3in).
I’ve always been intrigued by that footballer’s favourite saying, “a stonewall penalty”. Where does it come from? – M
The word “stonewall” was coined after Confederate General Thomas J Jackson was described as “standing like a stone wall” against Union forces in the US Civil War.
Stonewalling came to be a word used to describe the act of obstructing something. Over time, the word came to mean a refusal to communicate or co-operate.
Now, when a footballer is fouled in the box, fans call it a stonewall penalty, meaning the ref simply can’t listen to a defender’s plea of innocence and must award a penalty.
Which movie that won the Best Picture Academy Award was actually seen by the fewest people? – T
That’s difficult to say as there are no figures for the numbers who have been to see each film.
However, in the US, taking box office grosses and adjusting them for inflation, a surprise winner – or loser in this case – would be 2009’s The Hurt Locker.
It would seem movies about the Iraq war were unpopular at the time.