• June 29 down the years

A thousand reminders of a champion

Michael Schumacher may well have been left with a hefty bar bill © Sutton Images

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2003
After winning the Canadian Grand Prix for the second year in a row, Michael Schumacher had scored 999 points in his Championship career so far, many more than anyone else in the history of Formula 1. 'This 999 points is a good number,' he said. 'In Germany that means giving a free drink to everyone, so let's see what happens tonight.' Schumacher reached 1,000 two weeks later by taking four points for fifth place in the European GP at the Nürburgring.

1996
David Campese scored his 64th and last Test try for Australia, the most by any rugby player before Daisuke Ohata (May 14, 2006). Campese had broken the record with just his 25th try (June 13, 1987). He had easier pickings today, scoring one of ten in a 74-9 hammering of Canada in Brisbane. Full-back Matt Burke scored three tries and kicked nine conversions in a total of 39 points. Campese played another six matches for Australia without scoring a try.

2003
If at first you don't succeed...If at second and 200th you don't succeed...After 20 years on golf's European Tour and a record 16 visits to the qualifying school, during which he'd never retained his card, 40-year-old Philip Golding made a birdie on the last hole at the French Open. It was his 201st Tour event and the only one he ever won. He'd never previously finished higher than sixth, and he earned almost as much from this one event over (£290,000) as in his whole career so far. Amazingly, in the same event the previous year (May 5), another 40-year-old had won a tournament for the first time - after a much longer wait.

1997
Kelly Holmes ran the 1500 metres in 3 minutes 58.07 seconds to break the Commonwealth record set by Zola Budd twelve years earlier. Holmes's time survived as a British record until she broke it herself in a rather important race on August 28, 2004.

1934
Top British golfer Henry Cotton won the Open for the first time. Americans had dominated the event for the past ten years, but their big names were missing this time, and Cotton won by five shots from the obscure Sid Brews and future champion Alf Padgham. A relatively weak field meant the pressure wasn't what it might have been, and Cotton took advantage with some impressive stats. He began with a 67, and his second-round 65 was an Open record until 1977 (July 9). His 36 and 54-hole totals were Major records at the time, and he could afford a shocking 79 in the last round. Cotton won the Open again in 1937 and 1948 (July 2).

1911
When Harry Vardon won golf's Open for the first time (June 11, 1896), he needed a 36-hole play-off. Same again today, after his last-round 80 allowed the 1907 champion to catch him. Arnaud Massy of France was the first foreign golfer to win the Open (June 21),and he came close again today. The play-off was an epic, undecided until the 35th hole, when he conceded after going five shots down. Vardon's fifth Open win equalled the record set by Jimmy Braid the previous year. Braid finished joint fifth this time, along with the third member of the Great Triumvirate, JH Taylor. Vardon won the event for the record sixth time three years later (June 19).

1956
Italian bantamweight boxer Mario D'Agata took the world title from France's Robert Cohen, who'd outpointed him in a non-title fight two years before. Their title fight ended in acrimony. D'Agata knocked Cohen down in the sixth round, and the referee stopped the fight with the champion's apparent agreement. Cohen protested vehemently afterwards - but D'Agata couldn't hear him. He was the only world boxing champion who was completely deaf.

2000
They mess you up, your mum and dad. At Wimbledon the year before, Jelena Đokić beat No. 1 seed Martina Hingis in the first round (June 22). Đokić was still only 17 when she won another match there today - before being told that her father Damir had been led off the premises by police. He'd appeared drunk and was definitely abusive, accusing various people of being Fascists and smashing a journalist's phone. DD was already known as the 'tennis dad from Hell'. In 1999 he staged a sit-down protest after being removed from another tournament his daughter was playing in, and he was notorious for barracking her opponents during matches. She later accused him of physical as well as emotional abuse, and rejected his attempts at reconciliation in 2009. Some of the mothers were considered a menace too. Wimbledon became the first Grand Slam tournament to introduce a players-only rule in its locker rooms.

2002
Supercharged rugby full-back Christian Cullen scored his 46th and last try for New Zealand. He'd scored three on his debut in 1996, four in his second game, and 28 in his first 28. Today he provided three of New Zealand's eleven in a 68-18 thrashing of Fiji in Wellington, then played another four Tests without scoring.

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