Sporting munchies

Serbian player Novak Djokovic said he

Mark Philippoussis was known as Scud, after the missile. Novak Djokovic's surprise munching of the Wimbledon grass could lead him to him being called Cud - and led the Herald on Sunday sports team to ponder: what other strange cases of consumption have been seen on the world's sporting stage?

1 Novak Djokovic and grass
Djokovic took the phrase 'sweet taste of victory' to a more literal level last week when he dined out on a handful of grass after winning Wimbledon. The new world No 1 sunk to his knees after beating Rafael Nadal in four sets and plucked some grass from the hallowed turf. He didn't plan to eat it but couldn't control the urge and joked afterwards: "I felt like an animal," he said. "I wanted to see how it tastes. It tastes good."

Djokovic has said he will turn it into a tradition and do it again next year if he wins. It's not something nutritionists advocate. "We eat things from the grass family, like wheat, barley and oats, but we tend to eat the seeds," British Dietetic Association spokeswoman Sue Baic said. "Lawn grass, we cannot digest. You need a lot of time and a lot of stomachs to digest grass. Cows have four stomachs and it takes ages to digest."

Djokovic, who pocketed £1.1 million for his first Wimbledon title, probably digested a few other things as he celebrated with 100,000 Serbians during a royal reception in Belgrade.
- Michael Brown

2 Sir John Walker and fish & taties
"Mid-afternoon. Walker enters my room. He has been resting after lunching on two large pieces of fish, a plate of potatoes and a glass of beer."

That's how journalist Ivan Agnew in his book Kiwis Can Fly described the preamble to Walker's feat that evening when he broke the mile world record, running 3m 49.4s in Gothenburg, Sweden on August 12, 1975.

The then 23-year-old eclipsed Tanzanian Filbert Bayi's mark of 3m 51s set three months beforehand. It took almost four years for the new record to be bettered by Sebastian Coe. Speaking to the Herald on Sunday last year, Walker suggested the "glass of beer" may have been Coke in the midst of a hot Scandinavian summer.

Never mind the new age of sports science, Walker's nutritional instincts were spot on. The sub-3m 50s achievement was arguably the greatest breakthrough in the distance since Roger Bannister broke four minutes in 1954.
- Andrew Alderson

3 Shahid Afridi and a cricket ball
Cricket's experienced its share of bizarre moments involving food. There was Ian Healy's suggestion of placing a Mars bar on a good length to encourage the rotund Arjuna Ranatunga to step out of his crease; Zimbabwean Eddo Brandes' response to Glenn McGrath's query as to why he was so fat (clue: it involved McGrath's wife and the consumption of biscuits) and the baffling jellybean-drop around Zaheer Khan's crease by English players four years ago.

However, seeing Afridi bury his fangs into the ball during a one-dayer at Perth in January last year takes the cake, so to speak. There was no need for Hawkeye, Hotspot, the third umpire or even a forensic scientist as he chomped into the grimy white leather in full view of the cameras during the death overs.

It offered no lasting advantage with reverse swing or whatever he was hoping to conjure up. Australia won by two wickets and Afridi was banned for two Twenty20 internationals. He simultaneously apologised and justified his actions afterwards: "I shouldn't have done it. It just happened. I was trying to help my bowlers and win a match. There is no team in the world that doesn't tamper with the ball. My methods were wrong. I am embarrassed."
- Andrew Alderson

4 John Daly and most things
Go to youtube.com and type in "John Daly beer can" to get an idea why this man is a golfing cult hero in the US. It should come with a viewer warning that any unsuspecting members of the R & A will suffer varying forms of apoplexy if they catch a glimpse.

The two-time major winner, with his enormous gut protected by a flimsy blue polo shirt, steps over his ball on a beer can tee at the 2008 Buick Open pro-am. To the whooping crowd's delight, he swings back - while his ballooning paunch remains stock still over the ball - and drills his drive at least 250m straight down the fairway.

The only thing missing is a fag hanging out of his mouth and perhaps a cheeseburger placed delicately on hold for the duration of the swing.

Sure, Daly doesn't actually consume anything in the clip but he'd be a worthy candidate for any eating or drinking sports hall of fame with his penchant for pizza, cigarettes, booze and, curiously, Diet Coke.

Lap-band surgery has since removed some bulk but sports fans can still relate to the 45-year-old's vices which lend him the common touch.
- Andrew Alderson 5

The Ma family army and turtle blood
Ma Junren was the mastermind behind China's dramatic rise in the world female track ranks in the early 1990s. The theory worked as follows: He took unknown peasant women from the north-eastern province of Liaoning. They came under his strict training and nutritional regime which included running at altitude and quaffing potions containing turtle blood and caterpillar fungus.

In 1993, his charges swept all three medals in the 5000m and took gold and silver in the 10,000m at the Stuttgart world championships. A month later, they shattered three world records at the Chinese national championships.

However, a walkout resulted from such brutal training. Ma was accused of stealing team winnings and beating athletes for what he claimed was laziness or disobedience. He employed his unconventional methods up until the Sydney Olympics, when six of his athletes failed blood tests for EPO and were prevented from competing, lest they discredit China's 2008 Beijing hosting bid. According to the Tibet Sun newspaper, the old dog has now taken up a new trick. He is chairman of the China Tibetan mastiff association.
- Andrew Alderson

6 Mike Tyson and Evander's ear
Ears might not sound the tastiest of morsels but they have long been on the sporting menu - as in 1997 and the heavyweight boxing rematch between Tyson and Evander Holyfield.

Holyfield had knocked out the fading Tyson nine months earlier and this fight was billed as "The Sound and the Fury". It was an interesting choice of words as, in the third round, Tyson - in a fury - bit off a chunk of Holyfield's ear in a clinch; meaning Evander had a bit of a problem with the 'Sound' part of that equation.

Tyson was disqualified in the US$100m fight and later accused Holyfield of headbutting (the wily old fighter did occasionally lead with his head): "What am I supposed to do? This is my career. I can't continue getting butted like that. I've got children to raise and he keeps butting me, trying to get me stopped on cuts. I got to retaliate.
Listen, Holyfield's not the tough warrior everyone says he is. A little nick on his ear and he quit... I got one eye, big deal, if he takes one, I got another one."

In 2005, Tyson was quoted as saying his life was a failure and he wanted to be a missionary. Okay, Mike, thanks. Libya would be good and here's hoping you can get the ear of the people.
- Paul Lewis

7 Emerson Fittipaldi and milk at the Indianapolis 500
It looks weird - the winner of one of the most prestigious of all motor races chugging down milk on the victory dais. This year, winner Dan Wheldon even gave himself a milk shower. Other sports - notably F1 - use champagne with all its elitist connections.

Indy's milk fetish began in 1933, when winner Louis Meyer requested a glass of buttermilk after his victory (ah, how times have changed.... A national dairy company, not realising it was buttermilk, jumped on the gravy train and offered a bottle of milk to future winners. So it became a tradition - right up until (and after) 1993, when crack Brazilian driver Emerson Fittipaldi earned the ire of fans by drinking a bottle of orange juice instead.

He owned orange groves in Brazil and wanted to promote the juice instead - but his OJ guzzling caught in the craw of Indy fans. He was roundly criticised and was still being booed and jeered over it when he returned to Indy in 2008.
- Paul Lewis

8 Bubbles on the bikes
Cyclists are regularly accused of taking various untoward substances - not without foundation - but there is one thing they consume in full view.

The Tour de France has finished on the Champs Elysees in Paris since 1975 and tradition dictates that the domestiques of the winning rider serve champagne to the yellow-jersey wearer as the peloton enters Paris. It's little more than a photo opportunity, because the overall classification is usually settled on the second-last day, before the sprinters eye one last stage win on Paris' most famous avenue to end 21 days and more than 3200km of racing.

Riders have come up with some creative excuses for failing drug tests but, as yet, no one has used a spiked glass of bubbles. Maybe this year.
- Michael Brown

9 Bill Werbeniuk and beer
Big Bill (he was 120kg-plus but not very tall) became one of snooker's best-known figures for his ferocious alcohol consumption. His drink of choice was beer and he didn't guzzle it post-match, oh no, Big Bill knocked it down while he played. He had, he said, a benign tremor. The shakes would be fairly detrimental in what is a supremely unathletic sport all about high-precision, fine motor skills. Big Bill would usually sink six pints of beer before any big game - as all great athletes would - and then, as a rule of thumb, he'd drink one per frame.

It wasn't uncommon for Big Bill to nail 30 pints in a day and, even more remarkably, he could seemingly go for hours without needing the toilet. He was ranked as high as eighth in the world at one stage of his career; amazing given that any normal human would have been lucky to be standing upright and breathing after 30 pints, let alone sinking reds and demonstrating dextrous control over the cue ball. Possibly to no one's great surprise, Big Bill died in 2003. He had taken beta blockers throughout his career to combat the effects of the booze but his heart failed him a few days short of his 56th birthday.
- Gregor Paul

10 Johan le Roux and Fitzy's ear
Johan le Roux didn't really have an explanation as to why he bit Sean Fitzpatrick's ear in 1994 - other than because it was there. The South African prop entered a ruck in the second test of the series in Wellington and took the random decision to bite Sean Fitzpatrick's ear.

The All Black captain can be seen on the video footage to wince, clutch his ear and then play on - which is kind of what you always expect of an All Black captain. The claret flowed and Fitzy stayed staunch. But Le Roux was in a bit of trouble with the judiciary. Snacking on an opponent's appendage is not really on and the Springbok prop was banned for 17 months.

He later said: "For a 17-month suspension, I feel I probably should have torn it off. Then I could say: Look I've returned to South Africa with the guy's ear'."
- Gregor Paul