• October 22 down the years

Schumacher ends on a low note

Michael Schumacher bids farewell to Formula One ... or so it seemed © Sutton Images

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2006
Michael Schumacher's last race before his first retirement. His chances of regaining the world title from Fernando Alonso had been wrecked in the previous round, the Japanese Grand Prix. He was on his way to victory and the championship lead when his engine failed for the first time in six years, handing the race to Alonso, who now had a ten-point lead going into the final race in Brazil, where Schumacher's chances disappeared when he qualified in only 10th place. He did well to finish fourth after a puncture dropped him down to 18th, but Alonso strolled to second place and retained the title.

A better day for Schumacher as he did some retaining of his own in 1995. After his narrow and controversial win over Damon Hill the previous year (November 13), this time his Benetton avoided mechanical and legal problems and won him the title with two races to spare. At the Pacific Grand Prix in Japan, Schumacher was happy to start third on the grid behind David Coulthard and Hill, but he set the fastest lap and won the title in style. He ran in second place until Coulthard's second pit stop, then increased his lead to nearly 15 seconds by the end. Hill finished third. It was Schumacher's 8th win of the season, and he won the next one in Japan. He didn't take the title again until his move to Ferrari paid off in 2000.

The same day in 1967 produced the only New Zealander to become Formula 1 world champion. The Mexican Grand Prix was the last of the season. The great Jim Clark (died April 7 1968) won it in typical barnstorming fashion, starting on pole, setting the fastest lap, and finishing 90 seconds clear. But he was already out of contention in the hunt for the championship. Behind him in Mexico City, Australia's reigning champion Jack Brabham finished second but couldn't shake off Denny Hulme, who drove calmly and safely into third place to take the title. Mixed feelings from Jack? His own Brabham cars won the constructors' title - but Hulme was driving one of them.

2003
The biggest win in international rugby league. In the Mediterranean Cup tournament in Lebanon, Serbia & Montenegro lost their opening match 102-0 to the hosts, Samer El-Masri scoring 34 points. But today was even darker. Serbia & Montenegro's 120-0 defeat by France could have been even heavier: the referee took pity on the whipping boys by ending the match five minutes early! France set other world bests by scoring 22 tries, 10 of them by Fabrice Estebañez, who broke the 20-year-old record of six (October 2). His 40 points were matched by his captain Maxime Grésèque, who scored four tries and kicked 12 of France's 16 goals. But Lebanon retained the Cup by beating the French 26-18 in Tripoli.

1978
Norwegian runner Grete Waitz not only won the New York marathon, she set a world record in her debut at the distance. She finished nine minutes faster than the next woman in 2. 32. 29, which broke the previous world best by more than two minutes. Waitz won the New York race in each of the next two years as well, setting world records in her first three Marathons (October 21 1979 and October 26 1980). Here in 1978, Bill Rodgers won the men's race for the third year in a row, with British runners Ian Thompson and Trevor Wright finishing second and third.

1964
Italian cyclist Mario Zanin won the road race at the Olympic Games. With only 20 metres to go, he was in third place behind Walter Grodefoot of Switzerland and Denmark's Kjell Rodian, but came through to win by inches despite "a tremendous finishing burst by the Dane". After nearly four hours and forty minutes of riding, the race was so close that Sweden's Sture Pettersson was only 0.16 of a second behind Zanin - but in 51st place!

Arnold Palmer looks on as Gardner Dickinson makes a putt © PA Photos

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1967
The day the Ryder Cup reached its nadir. The moment it nearly died out. The USA hadn't lost the trophy since 1957 (October 5), and they'd hammered Britain & Ireland 23-9 in 1963. But this was even worse. At the Champions course in Houston, the Americans led by three points after the first day, then mopped up the second. In eight fourball matches, the British & Irish managed only one draw. Most of their seven defeats were by narrow margins, which demonstrated the difference between the teams: when it came to crunches, the Americans were always stronger. They were without Jack Nicklaus, picked a 47-year-old Julius Boros, and they were up against good players like Tony Jacklin, Bernard Hunt, Brian Huggett, Christy O'Connor senior, and a veteran Peter Alliss. But the USA still picked up another five points in the singles. Again, most of the contests were tight; again the States won most of them. Arnold Palmer and Ryder Cup new boy Gardner Dickinson had 100% records from their matches, and the USA won 23½-8½. Britain & Ireland needed something unlikely two years later to save the whole event from extinction (October 20).

1968
An Olympic gold medal for a Mexican in Mexico. Their first of these Games. It came in the swimming pool, where world record holder Vladimir Kosinsky led for most of the 200m breaststroke. Felipe Muñoz was fourth at halfway and just behind Kosinsky at the start of the final length. As the Soviet swimmer began to feel the effects of the thin air, he fought them bravely - but Muñoz inched past him to win by half a second. The time was well outside Kosinsky's world best - but the Mexican crowd didn't care too much. They dragged Muñoz out of the water and carried him round the pool in triumph. He was nicknamed 'Tibio' (tepid) because his dad was from Aguascalientes (hot waters) and his mum from Rio Frio (cold river).

1994
The stuff of rugby league legend as Great Britain beat Australia at Wembley with only 12 men. When GB captain Shaun Edwards was sent off for nearly decapitating Bradley Clyde after 25 minutes, the remaining players held off waves of assaults on their line. With the rain pouring down, Steve Renouf scored a try for Australia, but David Furner missed the difficult conversion, so they trailed 6-4, the result of Jonathan Davies' superb try just before half-time, when he outpaced the defence after dummying his way through a gap on the edge of a ruck. Davies converted his own try, and Bobby Goulding added a last-minute penalty. But Australia came back to win the next two Tests 38-8 and 23-4 to retain the Ashes, which Britain never won after 1970.

1997
That fast and smooth winger Philippe Saint-André scored his last try in international rugby. In a Latin Cup match at Lourdes, he captained France to a perfunctory 39-3 win over Romania. Christophe Lamaison converted four of the team's five tries and kicked a couple of penalties, but France should have scored more after leading 27-3 at half-time. Saint-André played three more times for France without scoring, ending with 32 tries from 69 matches.

1933
Primo Carnera was such an outsize boxer by the standards of his time - 6 foot 6 and 19 stone - that he set two weight records in world title fights, one at each end of the, er, scale. When he faced former light-heavyweight champion Tommy Loughran, the difference between them was exactly six stone. When he met Spain's Paulino Uzcudun in Rome tonight, their aggregate tonnage was over 35 stone. Carnera won unanimous decisions after two dull fights, his only title defences before the comeuppance against Max Baer.

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