Unbelievable Facts - Strange Facts - Own Goals

French rugby player Gaston Vareilles missed his international debut against Scotland in 1910 … all because of a sandwich. When the team train stopped at Lyon , Vareilles nipped to the buffet. But the queue was so long that by the time he returned to the platform, the train was disappearing into the distance. He was never picked for his country again.

The world middleweight title fight between Jack “Nonpareil” Dempsey and Johnny Reagan on the sea front at Long Island , New York , in 1887 was abandoned after eight rounds when the tide came in and flooded the ring.

English golfer Roger Wethered missed out on winning the 1921 British Open when he incurred a penalty for accidentally treading on his ball. The additional stroke put Wethered in a play-off which he lost.

The Tunisian team competing in the 1960 Olympic modern pentathlon failed to score a single point. In the show jumping section, the entire team fell off their horses; one of their swimmers came perilously close to drowning; and they were ordered from the shooting range because of fears that they were endangering the lives of the judges. When it came to the fencing, they were severely handicapped by having only one man who could fence. Behind his mask, the Tunisians hoped that nobody would realise they were sending out the same man over and over again. But in the course of the gallant competition’s third contest, his opponent recognised his as the man he had just fought and had him disqualified.

Around $1 million is lost at US race tracks every year by punters who lose or carelessly throw away winning tickets.

In 1996, the Belgian government announced a new law banning camel and ostrich racing on the nation’s public roads. A mystified spokesman for Belgium ’s local authorities said: “As far as we know, no one has ever tried to race camels or ostriches in Belgium .”

Angry at seeing her son Tony taking a battering in the boxing ring, Mrs. Minna Wilson climbed into the ring, took off one of her high-heeled shoes and began pummelling opponent Steve McCarthy around the head with it. The referee quickly intervened, but not before Mrs Wilson had inflicted considerable more damage than her son on the unfortunate McCarthy. Bleeding from a head wound, which he claimed was the result of Mrs Wilson’s soft-shoe shuffle, McCarthy refused to box on, only to he disqualified for failing to continue with the fight. To the amazement of the McCartthy camp, Wilson was declared the winner, bit subsequently a re-match was ordered. And this time Mrs. Wilson was banned from attending.

Dr Sherman Thomas, a 60-year-old Maryland physician and keen golfer, was halfway through his putting backswing when he was distracted by the honking of a Canada goose. He missed the putt and sought revenge, felling the bird with a blow to the head. Up before the local beak, he was fined $500 for killing a goose out of season.

After winning a rowing gold medal at the 1956 Olympics, 18-year-old Russian Vyacheslav Lvanov managed to drop it into the lake. He dived in to try and find it, but the search proved unsuccessful.

Dozens of runners in a 13-mile half-marathon at Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, ended up doing as many as 20 miles after getting hopelessly lost in fog.

Racehorse No Bombs romped home eight lengths in a 1979 race at Ascot , only to be disqualified got having eaten a Mars Bar beforehand. The chocolate bar contains caffeine and theobromine, two mild stimulants which are banned in the racing world.

Scottish Golfer Bobby Cruickshank was so overjoyed at a slice of good luck in the 1934 Merion Open that he hurled his club into the air … and forgot to move out of the ay when it came crashing down. Badly daxed, he carried on and finished joint third.

French rugby player Jean-Pierre Sault broke his ankle before the 1969 international with Scotland in Paris . About to run on to the pitch, he tripped on the stpes leading p from the dressing-room.

During the 1980 Corfu International Golf Championships, Sharon Peachey saw her drive collide in mid-air with a ball from a competitor playing a different hole. Not only did Ms. Peachey lose vital yardage, but her ball ended up in the pond.

Sheikh Mohammed paid $10.2 million for racehorse Snaafi Dancer, but the horse proved to be so abysmal that it never even got on to a racecourse.

A rugby union match between Whitby and Corby in 1989 was abandoned because of the Corby players were too drunk to continue. The referee called a halt seven minutes into the second half with Corby already losing 80-0.

Sierra Leone boxer John Coker had to drop out of the 19666 Commonwealth Games in Kingston because he couldn’t find any gloves to fit him.

With both teams lined up ready for kick-off, a Welsh rugby match was abandoned in 1966 when it was realized that nobody had brought a ball.

A Canadian businessman bought a racehorse for £5000 minutes before it ran in a race in Montreal – then watched as it came in fourth and dropped dead.

With the fight ebbing away from him, a boxer in the Philippines suddenly pulled a knife from his shorts and attacked his opponent. He was then shot dead by a policeman in the crowd.

Standing on the 18 th tee at a Kent golf Course, club professional W.J. Robinson was confident of clearing a cow which was grazing 100 yards up the fairway. Alas, his drive clattered into the cow, killing it and leaving Robinson with what could only be described as a tricky second shot.

Italian Carlo Airoldi decided to make his way to the 1896 Athens Olympics on foot. The journey from Rome took over a month and when Airoldi eventually arrived in Greece , he was told he couldn’t compete because he was a professional.

US tennis sensation Venus Williams was docked a point at the 1999 Australian Open Championships when a string of beads came undone from her dreadlocked hair and scattered all over the court.

The triumph of Luxembourg ’s Josef Barthel in the 1500 metres at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics was greeted with embarrassed silence. Nobody had expected a Luxembourg athlete to win a medal at the Games and so when it came to the medal ceremony, there was no sign anywhere of the score to the Luxembourg national anthem. After an Awkward delay, the band struck up a hastily improvised version.