• April 12 down the years

Bloodgate

Tom Williams was banned for his role in the Bloodgate scandal © Getty Images

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2009
Rugby union's 'Bloodgate' scandal. With five minutes to go in their Heineken Cup match against Leinster, Harlequins were trailing 6-5 and had used all their substitutes. The only way they could get specialist kicker Nick Evans back on was for someone to go off with a blood injury. Cue Tom Williams. He went off with a bleeding mouth and Evans came on. But there were no goal kicks to take and Quins lost the match. As he walked off, Williams spat out blood. But he also winked at the team bench. Leinster's club doctor followed him down the tunnel, demanding to see the injury, but wasn't allowed to enter the changing room. It all came out soon enough. When Williams was sent on as sub, he had a capsule of fake blood in his sock. He was suspended for a year and the club fined £215,000. But a year's a long time in rugby, too long for Williams to take so much of the blame. When he appealed, his ban was commuted to four months - and other cards fell: Quins doctor Wendy Chapman was suspended by the BMA; physio Stephen Brennan from his position with the England team; above all, Dean Richards was banned from coaching in England for three years. But Harlequins escaped expulsion from the Heineken Cup. The fact that someone at a rugby club had a capsule with fake blood in it suggests these shenanigans went on all the time. But maybe less so after this...

A day of big moments in Masters golf.

1987
The luckiest shot in any Major golf tournament. Good luckiest if you were Larry Mize, soul-destroying for poor Greg Norman. The year before, he led going into the last round of all four Majors. He won only one, the British Open on July 20. Now, in the first Major of the new season, he led at the end - but so did two others, hence a three-way play-off. Seve Ballesteros dropped out after the first sudden-death hole. At the second, Norman was on the green in two while the unfancied Larry Mize was more than 100 feet from the flag. Using a sand wedge, Mize played a low pitch, but the ball landed short of the green. On any other day, Norman would have had two shots for the title. But today Mize's pitch bounced onto the putting surface and kept on rolling. And rolling. When it went in the hole, it turned into a dagger in Norman's heart. In consecutive Majors, he'd been beaten by a fluke (August 10 1986). For the second year in a row, he finished equal second in the Masters. Mize was the only player born in Augusta to win it, and this was the only time he finished in the top three at any Major.

1998
At the 57th attempt, Mark O'Meara won a Major for the first time. Like Arnold Palmer on April 10, 1960, he birdied the last two holes to win by one shot. Fred Couples and David Duval tied for second place - but this was a tournament for oldies. O'Meara was 41, and there were some sprightly former champions: Jack Nicklaus finished equal sixth at 58; Gary Player made the cut at 62; and 66-y-o Gay Brewer shot level-par 72 for the first round.

2009
Whereas O'Meara won with two birdies, Kenny Perry lost with two bogeys. He led for most of the final day but left a nervous putt inches short at the last and ended up in a three-man play-off. Chad Campbell didn't get past the first extra hole, and Perry drove into a clump of trees at the next, leaving Argentina's Ángel Cabrera with two putts from 15 feet. At 48, Perry would have been the oldest golfer to win a Major. On August 11, 13 years earlier, he'd been in a play-off at the US PGA after leading by two strokes with only the last hole to go.

1953
The biggest year for one of the greatest golfers. Ben Hogan won the only three Majors he could enter: qualifying rounds for the British Open (July 10) began while the US PGA was still in progress. Today Hogan destroyed the Masters field and the Augusta course. His 274, one of the best 72 holes ever played in a top tournament, was the lowest score in any Major up till then, beating his own 276 set at the 1948 US Open. Hogan finished five shots clear of Ed 'Porky' Oliver , who was runner-up in a third different Major.

Arnold Palmer won the famous green jacket four times © Getty Images

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1964
Giving up smoking did the trick for Arnold Palmer, who became the first golfer to win the Masters four times. It was the seventh and last Major he ever won, but he went out with a bang. His first-round 69 tied for first place with Gary Player, but then he pulled away with rounds of 68 and 69. On the last day, 'Arnie's Army' of fans lined the fairways five or six deep. When he missed a three-footer on the 10th, he was still three strokes clear, and pars at the next two left him five clear with six holes left. Jack Nicklaus made a charge, but his putts wouldn't drop, and Arnie won by six shots. Hogan, 51 by now, shot an impressive 67 in the third round.

1997
Two of the greatest and most charismatic boxers met for a world title. Golden boy Oscar de la Hoya was already a champion at three different weights: IBF junior-lightweight and light-welterweight, and now WBC light-welterweight. Today he fought at welterweight for the first time, trying to take the WBC belt from the brilliant Pernell Whitaker. After 23 fights, De la Hoya was unbeaten as a professional. Whitaker hadn't lost in 26 going back more than nine years. Their fight was predictably close and good to watch. De la Hoya knew Whitaker's southpaw stance would cause him problems, and sure enough that right jab was in his face all night. And a left hook put him down in the ninth round. Whitaker made him miss with his superior movement and left him with a bloody nose. 'By far the hardest fighter I've ever faced', said a chastened Golden Boy. So how did De la Hoya win a unanimous decision? Well age probably had something to do with it. Whitaker was 33, De la Hoya nine years younger and a harder puncher. He landed enough of them to win by several rounds, despite a cut under his eye caused by an early butt. De la Hoya made seven successful defences before losing to Félix Trinidad, who also defended the IBF title against Whitaker.

1969
The first player in 70 years to score four tries in a rugby match against England. If Maurice Richards hadn't moved to rugby league by the end of the year, he would have been part of Wales union folklore alongside Gareth Edwards, Barry John, JPR Williams, and Gerald Davies, three of whom were in the team today. Strong and fast, with a sidestep and swerve to match the best, he had all the skills a wing needs. Today he displayed them all to win Wales the Triple Crown and the Five Nations Championship. By half-time, England were in the hunt for both. In their previous two matches, they'd thrashed France and beaten Scotland. Here in Cardiff, Bob Hiller gave them the lead with a penalty goal, and even after Richards scored his first try they were level at the break. The floodgates were prised open by two penalty goals from Keith Jarrett, then Barry John scored the best try of the day, all dummies and changes of direction. He later dropped a goal to make it 20-6, then Richards scored his last two tries. Right at the end, Hiller kicked his third penalty goal of the game, though it's hard to know why: England were 30-6 down at the time. Richards equalled a record that still stands: no-one has ever scored five tries in a match for Wales.

1896
In the first Olympic Games, the Marathon races were both won by Greeks. The one on two legs on April 10 and the one on two wheels today. The run was from Marathon to Athens, the cycle from Athens to Marathon and back, a distance of 90 kilometres. Aristidis Konstantinidis finished ten minutes ahead of Germany's August Goedrich, with third place going to Edward Battell, who worked at the British embassy in Athens. The story goes that Battell might have won 'had he not collided with a fellow-servant who was accompanying him.' He was lucky to be racing at all: people tried to exclude him because he was a servant and therefore couldn't be a true amateur. Prats, some of you.

2002
The first Commonwealth athlete to throw the hammer over 80 metres. Chris Harmse of South Africa reached 80.19 metres to break his own 79.40 set the previous year. He set further records in 2004 and 2005.

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