If you ever visit Mexico, pay a visit to a place called Chicken Itza. It contains the Ball Court where an ancient form of basket ball was played. The 545 ft long stone courts has two rings which players had to get a ball through using their arms and legs. But the rewards did not match those of Michael Jordan .. the winners had their heads cut off!! (I wonder what the losers had cut off?)

BRAZIL NUT!!

A teenager, rejected by two English football clubs, has been signed up by a team from Brazil. Matty Young, 17, was told he would never make the grade because he was only 5ft 5 in tall and not strong enough. He spent years on the books of second division Swindon Town and third division Bristol Rovers before ending up in the Dr Martens league. During a holiday in Brazil, he was spotted playing beach football by scouts of Piracicaba, Sao Paulo. They invited him to the club for five weeks training. Bosses at the club were so impressed with the midfielder's skills that they handed him a six-month contract. Matty will line-up in Brazil's Serie B this season ... the equivalent of our Division One.

MY NAME IS..

Football-mad builder Marin Zdravkov, 38, has won a four year legal battle in Bulgaria to change his name to .. Manchester United (shame he didn't support Scunthorpe!!)

STONE THE CROWS!!

Football referee Ken Bevan, 50, uses a falcon to scare off a crow whose whistles ruin games at Keymer, Sussex.

WHAT A CLONE!!Dead baseball hero Ted Williams is at the centre of a bizarre feud ... over plans to freeze his body and clone him. Son James wants Ted, 83, to be cryogenically preserved by scientists in Arizona. Daughter Barbara wants the Boston Red Sox legend cremated.

KNICKERS KNOCKER KNACKERS!!

Norwich City Football Club have invited every surviving player who ever made a competitive appearance for them, to join in their centenary celebrations. They've contacted nearly 400 players, but one is proving difficult to trace. Defender Tony Powell who played for them for five years and was their player of the year in 1978 - 79,

just cannot be found. That's a pity because he would have had some interesting tales to tell. "Knocker" Powell, as he was known by his team-mates, may have his own knockers now. When last heard of he was living as a woman in San Francisco!!

ON TRACK!!

Formula One fans with a few million pounds to spare can buy their own private race track. The one mile circuit near Marseilles has hairpin bends, crash barriers and pits. It also comes with a 17th century chateau.

LOST HIS MARBLES!!An eight year old boy tried to remove a marble stuck in his brother's ear ... by pushing it through his head and out the other side!! The boy said he wanted to put into practice his teacher's saying that everything with him "went in one ear and out the other", and promptly began prodding the marble with a pencil. After the boys' mother saw what was happening she took the lad to a local hospital where a doctor removed the marble (It would have worked on David Beckham).

STAMP IT OUT