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The week in numbers: w/e 8/5/11

Higgins captured his fourth world title (image courtesy of Wikipedia)

4John Higgins won his fourth snooker World Championship with a battling 18-15 victory over Judd Trump. It was the Scotsman’s sixth tournament victory since returning from a six-month ban last November.

3Manchester United and Barcelona safely negotiated the second legs of their Champions League semi-finals to progress to the final at Wembley Stadium later this month. It will be a record third time the two teams have met in a European final.

18 – A 0-0 draw at Roma was enough to secure AC Milan‘s 18th Serie A title, their first in six years.

8 – Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimović, who is on loan at Milan, has now won a league title in each of the last eight seasons with five different clubs in three different countries.

Ballesteros won five Majors

54 – Age of the widely adored golfer Severiano Ballesteros, who died on Saturday morning after a 2½ year battle with a brain tumour. Seve won The Open three times and the Masters twice, and contributed to five European Ryder Cup wins as both a player and captain.

33Cristinao Ronaldo scored four times as Real Madrid won 6-2 at Sevilla. He now has 33 La Liga goals this season, two more than Lionel Messi.

5 – Hat-tricks scored in league games by Ronaldo this season, only the third player ever to achieve this in La Liga.

12 – Goals scored by Real Madrid in their last two away games, against Sevilla and Valencia.

6:29 – Time taken for four goals to be scored in the game between Hércules and Racing Santander. Racing won 3-2.

5Lancashire spinner Simon Kerrigan took five wickets for just seven runs as Warwickshire were bowled out for 97 in the second innings of their first division match. Kerrigan finished with match figures of 7/26 as he and fellow spinner Gary Keedy combined for 10 wickets in the match at a cost of just 28 runs. Lancashire won a low-scoring match by 147 runs.

Djokovic has a 32-0 record in 2011 (image courtesy of Wikipedia)

32 – Serbia’s Novak Djokovic defeated Rafael Nadal 7-5 6-4 in the final of the Madrid Open to extend his unbeaten start to 2011 to 32 matches. Only John McEnroe has started a season with a longer winning streak (42 matches in 1984).

37 – Defeat to Djokovic ended Nadal’s unbeaten run on clay at 37 matches, dating back to the 2009 French Open.

12 – Despite narrowly losing stage two to Alessandro Petacchi, Britain’s Mark Cavendish leads the Giro d’Italia by 12 seconds overall.

4 - Defending Formula 1 world champion Sebastian Vettel secured his fourth pole position in four races in 2011 at the Turkish Grand Prix, and converted it into his third win of the season.

82 – There were 82 pit-stops at the Turkish GP, the highest number for a single race in the history of F1.

The Premier League in numbers

7Sunderland‘s 2-1 win at Bolton meant that Steve Bruce is now unbeaten in all seven games as a manager against Bolton. Ivan Klasnic‘s 87th-minute goal was the first time a Bruce side had conceded against Bolton.

Odemwingie scored for the fifth game in a row

5 - Peter Odemwingie became the first West Bromwich Albion player in more than 40 years to score in five successive top flight matches. Nonetheless, his side lost 3-1 at Wolves.

34 - West Brom extended their Premier League record of games without a clean sheet to 34.

2Tottenham conceded two penalties in the space of two minutes in their 1-1 home draw with Blackpool. Heurelho Gomes saved Charlie Adam‘s first effort, but then conceded the second penalty himself, and Adam made no mistake with his second attempt.

5West Ham‘s 1-1 draw with Blackburn was the fifth consecutive draw between the two clubs.

8Robin van Persie extended his Premier League record of scoring in consecutive away games to eight in Arsenal‘s 3-1 defeat at Stoke.

36Javier Hernández opened the scoring after just 36 seconds as Manchester United beat Chelsea 2-1 to move them to within a point of claiming a record 19th league title.

(Some statistics courtesy of Opta Sports, The Times@InfostradaLive and @StatManJon.)

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The week in numbers: w/e 12/9/10

Kim Clijsters won her third US Open title

14 – Since her return from retirement, Kim Clijsters has won all 14 of her singles matches at the US Open, winning back-to-back titles to add to her 2005 victory. She crushed Vera Zvonereva 6-2 6-1 in Saturday’s final.

3Roger Federer‘s new world ranking after his US Open semi-final defeat to Novak Djokovic. It is the first time he has been out of the top two since 2003.

89Pakistan recorded their lowest ever Twenty20 total in Tuesday’s defeat to England in the second of their two T20 matches.

7 – England’s victory in that game was their seventh consecutive T20 win, equalling the best sequence in T20′s short history, set by both Pakistan and South Africa in 2009.

3.4 – In seconds, the length of time Fernando Alonso‘s Ferrari was stationary during his only pit stop in yesterday’s Italian Grand Prix. Jenson Button had pitted a lap earlier, stopping for 4.2 seconds. The Ferrari pit crew’s speed was enough to leapfrog the Spaniard into a lead he would not relinquish.

24 – Number of points separating Formula 1 championship leader Mark Webber from his Red Bull teammate Sebastian Vettel in fifth after yesterday’s race. There are 25 points available for a race win.

Mark Cavendish (image courtesy of Graham Watson)

2Mark Cavendish became only the second British rider (after Robert Millar) to record a stage win in each of cycling’s three Grand Tours by winning stage 12 of the Vuelta a España on Thursday. For good measure, he won the following day too.

967 - Wayne Rooney‘s goal against Switzerland on Tuesday ended an international goal drought of 967 minutes stretching back 12 matches.

10 - Emile Heskey‘s longest run of England starts without a goal. Rooney’s goalless sequence ended at 11.

1 - In his seventh England appearance, Darren Bent registered his first shot on target in international football – and scored from it.

23Jermain Defoe has still never played a full 90 minutes for England, after 23 caps.

Stephen McManus spared Scotland's blushes with a 97th-minute winner against Liechtenstein

97Scotland did not take the lead against Liechtenstein in Tuesday’s Euro 2012 qualifier until the 97th minute. They won 2-1, with Stephen McManus scoring the crucial late winner.

36,000 – The whole of Liechtenstein’s 36,000 population could fit into Scotland’s Hampden Park – and still leave 16,000 seats empty.

22Argentina beat Spain 4-1 in an international friendly in Buenos Aires on Tuesday, despite the losers registering 22 shots to just seven for the home side. It was the first time Spain had conceded four goals in a game since 2000.

10 – The All Blacks have now won their last ten meetings against Australia. They came from 22-9 down with 20 minutes left to win 23-22 in their final Tri-Nations encounter. New Zealand finished the tournament with a perfect 6-0 record.

1Barcelona lost 2-0 at home to newly promoted Hércules, meaning they have already equalled the one defeat they suffered during the whole of their 2009/10 La Liga-winning campaign.

3Darren Ferguson‘s Preston North End were leading 3-1 at Burnley on Saturday, but conceded three goals in the last six minutes to lose 4-3.

The Premier League week in numbers

2Sir Alex Ferguson‘s Manchester United were leading 3-1 at Everton on Saturday, but conceded two goals in injury time to draw 3-3.

48 - Everton have attempted 48 shots in their last two games (against Aston Villa and Man Utd) – but secured only one point.

8 - Arsenal have now won their last eight Premier League games against Bolton, scoring 21 goals and conceding seven. Bogey team? Not any more.

Alex Song (image courtesy of arsenal.com)

1,000 – In scoring the third goal in their 4-1 win over Bolton, Alex Song registered the 1,000th Premier League goal for Arsenal under Arsène Wenger.

24 - Carlos Vela‘s goal for Arsenal ended a sequence of 24 passes, the most for any Premier League goal so far this season.

10 - Bolton forward Kevin Davies has been booked more times against Arsenal (ten) than any other opponent.

24Blackpool‘s 2-0 win at Newcastle ended their hosts’ run of 24 straight home league games without defeat.

4 – Newcastle’s James Perch became only the second player ever to be booked in each of his first four Premier League appearances.

4Sunderland have conceded four goals so far this season, all in the last 15 minutes of games. Wigan‘s Antolin Alcaraz scored his side’s goal in Saturday’s 1-1 draw in the 87th minute.

5 – Sunderland captain Lee Cattermole was shown his fifth Premier League red card since the start of the 2008/09 season, more than any other player in that time.

4 – On the three previous occasions that Chelsea have won the Premier League, they have won their opening four games – a sequence they equalled with their 3-1 win at West Ham.

5 - Yesterday’s 0-0 result was the fifth consecutive Premier League draw between Birmingham and Liverpool.

The NFL week in numbers

New Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll

3 – The Seattle Seahawks‘ new head coach Pete Carroll completed a hat-trick of debut wins in his first game with his third NFL team (also New York Jets and New England Patriots). The Seahawks’ 31-6 win over the San Francisco 49ers meant he has won those three games by a combined score of 95-16.

48 – The Green Bay Packers recorded their first win at Philadelphia in 48 years, when Vince Lombardi was in his fourth season as Packers head coach.

12.2% – Percentage of games won by the St Louis Rams since the start of the 2007 season (won six, lost 43). The Rams lost 17-13 to the Arizona Cardinals last night.

9 – By beating Cincinnati 38-24, the New England Patriots raised their record in home openers at Gillette Stadium to 9-0.

Tom Brady (image courtesy of Keith Allison)

21 – New England quarterback Tom Brady has now won his last 21 starts in regular season home games.

5 - The Houston Texans recorded their fifth straight win (dating back to 2009) in outlasting the Indianapolis Colts 34-24, setting a new franchise record for consecutive wins.

31 – Despite losing, the Colts’ Peyton Manning had 40 pass completions, compared to just nine for Matt Schaub. It was the largest differential in completions by opposing quarterbacks who played the entire game since at least 1960.

50Rashard Mendenhall’s 50-yard scoring run was the longest overtime rushing TD run since Herschel Walker had a 60-yard score for Dallas in 1987. Final score: Pittsburgh 15 Atlanta 9.

8 – By losing 38-13 to Tennessee, the Oakland Raiders lost their eighth straight season opener, the longest active streak in the NFL.

151Matt Forte’s 151 receiving yards in Chicago‘s 17-14 win over Detroit was the second-highest total by a Bears’ running back in franchise history, and the most in nearly 63 years. (George McAfee had 157 receiving yards vs the Rams in December 1947).

(Some statistics courtesy of @OptaJoe@optajim@StatManJon and NFL.com.)

There will be no ‘Week in numbers’ next week, as I am on holiday. Normal service will be resumed the following week.

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