Really feeling the benefit

Veteran warhorse Andrew Flintoff, 27, has been awarded a benefit this year, news which can't have come as much of a shock to the limelight-bathed allrounder, or indeed his adoring nation.

But one man wasn't expecting a similar announcement, having retired from county cricket a full ten years ago. Yet step forward 41-year-old Tony Middleton of Hampshire: the former opening batsman turned Academy Director has finally been rewarded by his county a decade after the original promise.

"I thought they'd forgotten," he said, "but it's a nice surprise." Bless him.