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Old stagers and Rooney's record

Wayne Rooney scored a brilliant goal against Brazil © Getty Images

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After England's footballers just failed to beat Brazil the other day, how often have they managed to beat them? asked Robin Smedley
That 2-2 draw at the Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro was the 25th time England had met Brazil in a full international. It was the 10th draw, and Brazil have won 11 times - leaving just four England victories. The first of those was in the inaugural meeting between the two countries, at Wembley in May 1956, when England won 4-2 thanks to two goals apiece from Sheffield United's Colin Grainger (who was making his debut) and Tommy Taylor of Manchester United. Brazil would win their first World Cup in Sweden two years later, by which time Taylor had been killed in the Munich Air Disaster. It wasn't until June 1984 that England beat them again - after seven defeats and four draws in the interim - with a 2-0 win at the Maracana, their only victory in Brazil. That was the match in which John Barnes scored a dazzling solo goal; Mark Hateley added the second. England won again at Wembley in March 1990, in the build-up to that year's World Cup: Gary Lineker scored the only goal of the game. And England's fourth victory came earlier this year, with a 2-1 win at Wembley in February in a match to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the FA. The scorers then were Wayne Rooney and Frank Lampard. With his goal in Rio last week, Rooney joins Grainger, Taylor, Lineker, David Platt and Michael Owen as the only England players to score twice against Brazil.

Apart from the British Open, golf also has Irish, Welsh and Scottish Opens. Has anyone won all of them? asked Michael Hayes
No-one has managed a grand slam of the domestic Opens, mainly because the Wales Open is a relatively recent innovation (it started in 2000). The Scottish Open is not much older, being played regularly from 1986 after two initial events in 1972-73. There was even an English Open for a while (1979-2002). Those domestic giants Colin Montgomerie and Ian Woosnam both won three of the national titles. Monty won the English one in 1994, the Scottish in 1999, and the Irish Open in 1996, 1997 and 2001. Woosnam won the Scottish Open in 1987, 1990 and 1996, the Irish in 1988 and 1989, and the English in 1993. Neither of them ever won the British Open: if you include that then Severiano Ballesteros - a three-time winner of the claret jug - also won the Irish Open three times and the English one (then called the English Golf Classic) in 1979.

As I write Tommy Haas, 35, is doing well in the French Open. Who's the oldest man to win it? asked Nicky Thomas
As we now know, 35-year-old Tommy Haas didn't go on to win, although his was a fine effort. Another thirtysomething, Roger Federer (he's 32 in August) also exited at the quarter-final stage. The oldest man to win the French Open remains the Spaniard Andres Gimeno, in 1972: he was two months short of his 35th birthday when he beat the Frenchman Patrick Proisy to take his only major singles title. Gimeno also reached the Australian Open final in 1969, but lost to Rod Laver, who went on to win the Grand Slam that year. Gimeno was just over twice as old as the youngest man to triumph at Roland Garros, 17-year-old Michael Chang in 1989.

Tommy Haas showed up well at the French Open © AP

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Is it true that the Great North Run was started by Brendan Foster? Did he ever win it, and how many Britons have won it? asked Philip Woods
Brendan Foster, the prominent middle-distance runner of the 1970s - his 10,000m bronze was Britain's only athletics medal at the 1976 Montreal Olympics - did indeed have the idea for the Great North Run, which first took place in 1981: it's a half-marathon, rather more serious now than when it started as more of a fun run, and goes between Newcastle and South Shields on Foster's native Tyneside. The man himself never won it, but the first two editions of the men's race were won by another northern favourite, Mike McLeod. Since then the only British male winner has been Steve Kenyon, in 1985, although Ireland's John Treacy came in first in 1988. British women have had better luck: Karen Goldhawk, Margaret Lockley and Julie Barleycorn won the first three (1981-83), Liz McColgan won in 1992, 1995 and 1996, and Paula Radcliffe in 2000 and 2003, when she set the record time for the women's course. The 2013 race will be on September 15.

The radio commentary on the Derby included a passing reference to the "suffragette incident" 100 years previously. What happened? asked Daniel McIver
What happened was that, in an attempt to publicise the movement to give women the vote, a suffragette called Emily Davison was knocked down by the King's horse, Anmer, as the field was rounding Tattenham Corner. The horse was brought down, and Davison suffered what turned out to be fatal injuries: apparently spectators lined the roads to jeer her as she was taken away in an ambulance to the nearby cottage hospital (which, many years later, became my doctor's surgery!). She died four days later. It's not known whether Davison meant to kill herself: a return rail ticket was found among her belongings, and it's possible she didn't realise the speed at which the horses would be travelling as they geared up for the downhill finish. That year's eventful race was eventually awarded to Aboyeur, a 100/1 shot, after the original winner Craganour was judged to have interfered with some of the other runners.

As the British Lions tour gets under way in Australia, how often have they won a series there? asked Chris Levison
Up to 1966 the British Lions usually toured both Australia and New Zealand, starting with what is now recognised as the inaugural tour in 1888, which didn't actually include any international matches. In 1899, touring Australia only, the British Isles won 3-1; after that they won 3-0 in 1904, lost 1-0 in 1930, and won 2-0 in 1950, 1959 and 1966 (but routinely lost in New Zealand!). After a long gap the Lions, skippered by Scotland's Finlay Calder, won 2-1 in Australia in 1989, but in 2001, under Martin Johnson, they lost 2-1. Overall the Lions have played 20 Tests against Australia, winning 15 and losing five.

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