Adam Scott’s monumental British Open meltdown obviously overshadowed Ernie Els’s  feat – big time.

It also meant that largely lost in despatches was the fact that the popular veteran’s victory marked yet another chapter in what, for South Africans, has become a remarkable  “majors” success story.

For such a proud golf nation as Australia, it’s sobering to consider this:  in the 21^st century, while Aussies have celebrated one solitary “major” triumph (Geoff Ogilvy’s 2006 US Open), South Africans have savoured seven – thanks to five different players.

For the record, they are: Els (British Open, 2002, 2012), Retief Goosen (US Open, 2001, 2004), Trevor Immelman (US Masters, 2008), Louis Oosthuizen (British Open, 2010) and Charl Schwartzer (US Masters, 2011).

Els, of course, also boasts  two US Opens – in 1994 and 1997. So we’ll throw in Steve Elkington’s 1995 US PGA … Scoreboard: South Africa 9, Australia 2.

South Africans may not have a lot to cheer about as the London Olympics unfold. But, given the Big Easy’s heroics at Royal Lytham and St Annes – and the Proteas’ first Test demolition job at The Oval —  they’ve certainly had a bit to dine out on these past few days.

And they might just fancy their Super Rugby title chances, too — if the Stormers can avoid a late meltdown.

— Peter Thomson

I guess I should have looked at the fine print more closely. Back in 2009, that is, when SANZAR’s brains trust decided on a Super Rugby conference system (ultimately introduced in 2011).

Had I done so, I wouldn’t have been quite so accepting of such an obviously flawed system. And I certainly would have been better prepared for a scenario which, if it doesn’t represent the mother of all finals anomalies, then surely a close relative.

I refer, of course, to the Queensland Reds, as winners of the Australian Conference, scoring home-ground advantage for their sudden-death final against South Africa’s Sharks – despite being the bottom-placed team amongst the six qualifiers (on the overall regular-season points table).

In its wisdom, SANZAR decrees that the three conference winners automatically qualify in the top three positions – regardless of whether, say, one of them (yes, in this case the Reds) had finished with less points than any of the three so-called finals “wildcards” (yes, in this case, including the Sharks).

Why the possibility of such a skewed situation failed to register with at least some of us last year was, I suspect, the fact that the three inaugural conference winners were, in the final wash-up, also the three top-placed teams at the end of the regular season.

All reasonably neat and tidy – and fair. But this year?

No code has the perfect system, of course.  But rugby looks to have more weird things happening (its top two teams, for instance, didn’t even get to play one another in the regular season) than should be acceptable.

Even allowing for Super Rugby’s unique (some would say nightmare) logistical challenges  — plus the obvious demands of  three  host broadcasters —  I wonder if persisting with such a quirky system is not seriously compromising its credibility.

— Peter Thomson

So it’s finally official. Sonny Bill Williams is quitting the All Blacks and heading back to the NRL … via Japan.

It was, of course, one of sport’s worst-kept secrets. But where to, ultimately, for the SBW juggernaut?

Yes, he’s apparently only signed a one-year contract to join the Roosters. Yes, there’ll still be scope for him to pursue his boxing ambitions. And, yes, Kiwi rugby officials have made it patently clear the door remains open for a return to their ranks somewhere down the track.

Few sportsmen have polarised opinion quite like Sonny Bill. Fair enough, too, after his infamous walkout from the Bulldogs back in 2008 — not to mention his mere bit-part role in the All Blacks’ successful 2011 World Cup campaign. But, given his emphatic “arrival” as a consummate rugby player this season, I suspect most dispassionate judges would have come around to sharing the same view – the bloke’s a freak.

So what happens after Sonny Bill satisfies his yen for Japanese rugby and honours that “handshake deal” to return, for one season at least, to the NRL?

To me, there was a touch of irony in the fact that one of the truly great athletes of any football code should confirm his plans at a time when most of us are starting to turn our attention to the upcoming London Olympics.

Why?

Because I can not only see him hooking up with the All Blacks again in the run-up to their 2015 Rugby World Cup defence; I can see him looking to add an Olympic gold medal to his bulging CV when Sevens makes its much-anticipated Games debut in Rio de Janeiro a year later.

Who knows, he might even pick up another boxing title or two along the way.

— Peter Thomson

Can you imagine a State of Origin rugby league match coming down to a penalty shootout — with, say, Petero Civoniceva stepping up for the critical kick?

Drawing a sizeable bow, perhaps, but is such a bizarre scenario really all that far removed from what we so often see being played out at the pointy end of a major soccer match (most recently, during Euro 2012)?

As someone who’s long questioned the wisdom/logic/fairness of soccer’s penalty shootouts – while readily acknowledging they make for great theatre – I was delighted to see one of my favourite English sports writers, Simon Barnes (The Times/Weekend Australian), shares my view.

It’s a view encapsulated in a comment from an American sportswriter which Barnes highlighted in his latest weekend column: “What I don’t understand is why you play football for two hours and then settle it by playing a completely different game.”

“This,’’ Barnes wrote, “seems to me a pretty good man-from-Mars response to the penalty shootout.’’

In concluding his typically insightful, eloquent piece, Barnes wrote: ‘‘Matches are decided by testing not what footballers are good at, but what they are bad at. It doesn’t make any sense at all.”

Interestingly, Barnes failed to offer a “sensible” alternative to the penalty shootout tiebreaker. I’m wondering what he might make of my idea.

Born, it must be said, during a late-night, red wine-fuelled discussion with an English mate steeped in soccer, it actually had him urging me –even in the cold light of day, weeks later – to run it past FIFA.

My “solution”? If a game’s still tied up after the first period of extra time, drop off the two goalkeepers.

Think about it …

Yes, a bit left field, granted — and necessitating a few rules tweaks — but I’m sure FIFA’s kicked around sillier ideas.

— Peter Thomson

To say Black Caviar’s heart-stopping victory at Royal Ascot has been well documented would be something of an understatement. Not least, of course, jockey Luke Nolen’s actions in the shadows of the post.

It was, therefore, fascinating to read an email from an old Kiwi mate highlighting eerie similarities with New Zealand Hall of Famer Mainbrace – winner of 17 straight in the late 1940s-early ’50s.

“Although Wikipedia says Mainbrace won 23 of his 25 starts, and ran 2^nd in the other two, the biography of Grenville Hughes, regarded as one of NZ’s best jockeys, ‘Grenville’ by Jim Knight, says that Mainbrace ran 3^rd at his debut,’’ he wrote.

“He had 24 more starts, all ridden by Grenville Hughes, and won 23 of them.

“In 1950, on the final day of the Auckland Cup meeting, Mainbrace won the Royal Stakes over 6 furlongs, by a head. Here’s an extract from that biography:

‘‘‘He should have won more decisively. Hughes dropped his hands inside the final furlong when Mainbrace seemed to have his opposition under control. ‘To my dismay,’ Hughes recalled, ‘Correspond flashed up on the inside and all but caught me. It gave me the fright of my life. I had time to give Mainbrace only one kick and one hit with the stick to get him going again. I’d never have forgiven myself had I been beaten’.”

Fair to assume, I guess, that Luke Nolen hadn’t read ‘Grenville’.

— Peter Thomson

One of the great  things about immersing myself in sports crossword compilation is that it also allows me to indulge in a bit of  reminiscing.

Just as trying to find a topical clue might trigger memories from my journey as a sports journalist, current events also often prompt me to recall some of the more offbeat highlights.

Such was the case this past week as the US Open somehow had me looking forward to the British Open – and thinking back to the time when, working for Wellington’s Evening Post, I met my celebrated namesake at a golf tournament in New Zealand.

Having a famous sporting namesake – yes, five more British Opens than me – can be a tiresome business (all those lame jokes … “not THE Peter Thomson?”).

But it can also have its upside – as I was reminded when I came across the great man’s name as the only Australian to win the British Open at this year’s venue, Royal Lytham & St Annes (the fourth of his five, incidentally, in 1958).

It was while covering the 1972 City of Auckland Classic (won by Jack Newton and featuring a former US Masters champion in George Archer) that I had the privilege of meeting THE Peter Thomson (from memory, he was by then writing for Melbourne’s The Age newspaper).

Having, I suspect, rather bored him with my namesake “woes” – and had our photo taken together for a US golf magazine – he proceeded to recount one of the more humbling experiences of his glittering golf career.

Some years previous, Thomson recalled, he had been playing in a pro-am tournament in the north of England that happened to also feature a Liverpool and England soccer star of the time – one Peter Thom(p)son.

Coming off the 18^th green, there was the usual bunch of kids chasing autographs and the British Open legend duly obliged – only to be taken aback when he overheard a couple of them comparing notes.

“Whose autograph have you got?” asked one.

“Peter Thomson”.

“Not THE Peter Thomson?”

“No, the golfer …”

— Peter Thomson

Having failed to hold up my end of the bargain by not producing a new crossword this week, I feel I owe an apology.

In truth, it’s actually more an explanation which gives me a chance to plug another sporting project I’m heavily involved in — namely, Revolver Cricket.

No, I won’t hit you with chapter and verse – it is, after all, the footy season – but for anyone interested in a “revolutionary” approach to junior cricket development, the website is: www.revolvercricket.com.

Suffice to say, though, the Revolver concept has already managed to generate serious interest across the cricket world – not least from a rather august body based in the shadows of the MCG.

Thus my reason for venturing to Melbourne this week, along with a Revolver colleague; hence my inability to deliver on the Sportsword front (something I hope to rectify ASAP).

Meanwhile, thankfully, our Sportsword tipster David White has continued to be there, or thereabouts, in all three codes – most notably, delivering his sixth Super Rugby multi in eight weeks.

And just to keep things in perspective – in this case, after a random check of The Sydney Morning Herald’s “experts” – I see YT, while still a little off the pace in the NRL, would be leading both its AFL and Super Rugby panels.

— Peter Thomson

As someone who’s always had decidedly more than a passing interest in sport, had shares in a few moderately performed racehorses — even dabbled in thoroughbred breeding — I can’t say I’ve ever been a serious punter.

Put it this way. I’ve certainly never seen the need to have a TAB account – although I did subscribe to Centrebet in the early days of sports betting (remember fax machines?)

As it happens, having launched this website and got David White on board to provide a weekly tipping service, one of my next moves was to inquire about reactivating my long-dormant Centrebet account – only to be told they had no record of it.

No big deal. Having run out of puff after a fair measure of early success with my “specialty” – Super rugby multis – I figured there was probably no more than a few bucks left in the account, anyway. And, of course, as my Centrebet man was only too happy to tell me, it would only take a few minutes to have me back in business …

Regrettably, that didn’t happen then, and hasn’t happened yet, as I decided to focus on getting my crosswords bedded down – and merely keep an eye on YT’s form.

Yes, the sort of form that has seen him jag five Super rugby multis in the last seven weeks – and claim “bet of the week” success across all three codes last weekend.

Suffice to say, I’m not writing this blog from the Bahamas.

— Peter Thomson

If feedback to date is anything to go by, Sportsword.com.au would seem to be well on its way to establishing a solid niche for itself.

Early days, of course, but we’re more than encouraged.

On reflection, having declared on our home page that ‘’we back ourselves to deliver solutions’’, I should concede that, in some ways, I was perhaps being a tad too cute.

As anyone with a modicum of knowledge of crossword compilation would appreciate, the solution is always right (it’s the clues we cock up from time to time) — which leaves our intrepid tipster, YT, with easily the toughest gig.

Yes, he’s revelling in the challenge. No, he’s not happy with the number of “50-50” matches that have shown an uncanny tendency to date to go the other way.

But, hey, let’s keep things in some sort of perspective.

Newspaper tipsters generally may not have the greatest reputation, but an admittedly random tips panel check going into this weekend’s action proved interesting.

Looking at our only national newspaper, The Australian, I noted that YT would have been sitting atop its AFL panel – and just off the pace in both the NRL and Super Rugby.

Hang in there.

— Peter Thomson

In finally getting Sportsword online, after a few false starts, there’s just a couple of points I’d like to make from the get-go.

While, obviously, my crosswords have always had a strong Australian flavour, I’m also mindful that, given my principal newspaper market, there’s often been a distinct Queensland “bias” – particularly when it comes to the football codes.

As a result, one of the more significant challenges for me in launching this project is to try to strike a reasonable balance — and that’s where I’ll be largely guided by your feedback.

Enjoy.

— Peter Thomson