This is on today's BBCi website:

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Footballer's 'fastest ever' goal

Marc noticed the 'keeper was off his line.

A footballer is claiming the sport's fastest goal - after he scored in just two seconds. Marc Burrows of Cowes Sports FC, on the Isle of Wight, shot straight from the kick-off in Saturday's game against Eastleigh, and saw it sail straight in.

The referee timed the wind-assisted goal at two seconds, which would beat the existing world record, set by an Argentinian player at 2.8 seconds.

The Football Association is deciding whether to confirm the claim.

Mr Burrows said: "I put the ball on the centre spot, and noticed the 'keeper was off his line.

"I looked at the referee and had a laugh with him and said 'I'll have a shot from here'.

"He laughed and shrugged his shoulders - blew his whistle, then the wind got hold of the ball and it flew into the back of the net."

Southampton FC legend and ex-Eastleigh player Matt Le Tissier said: "It's a world record - it's pretty special and he must be pretty proud of himself."

Mr Burrows, a former trainee with Premiership side, Portsmouth, was playing for Cowes reserves - who are sponsored by BBC South - in Sydenham's Wessex League. They won the match 5-3 and he scored a hat trick.

The FA will accept the timing of the record goal if it is confirmed by the referee.

The current world record of 2.8 seconds was set by Argentinian Ricardo Olivera for his side Rio Negro in the Uruguayan league in 1998.

FA officials say the fastest goal in the UK was scored by Barrow player Colin Cowperthwaite when he scored in 3.5 seconds against Kettering in 1979.

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COMMENT:

This would indeed be a fast goal.

Assuming the centre spot to the goal-line is 50 yards, then that's 50 yards in 2 seconds which equals 1,500 yards in a minute - nearly a mile a minute.

That works out at 51.14 mph.

Lucky the goalie or the ref wasn't in the way.

If the *average* speed was 51.14 mph, then it must have started off at more than that.

Sounds even quicker at the equivalent metric of 82.3 km/h

[put that in for all the metric-educated children tuning into this board, Steve].
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Additional information for metric-educated children:

The crossbar is 8 foot high. In language you would understand, that's 2 metres and 43.8 centimetres

The goal is 8 yards wide. In language you can understand, that's 7 metres and 31.5 centimetres

Penalties can be awarded if a foul occurs within the '18-yard box'. In language you can understand, that's 16 metres and 46 centimetres.

The defence have to retreat 10 yards from a free kick. In language you can understand, that's 9 metres and 14.4 centimetres

Tony Bennett wrote

<<
The crossbar is 8 foot high. In language you would understand, that's 2 metres and 43.8 centimetres
>>

One says "one and three tenths inches" but never "one inch and three tenths of an inch". By the same token one should never use both metres and centimetres in the same measurement. Thus one should not write "2 metres and 43.8 centimetres" but rather "2.438 metres".

Not much to respond to this other than Tony, if you are so interested in these statistics, why not go and post on a football message board. I'm into football but come on this board to talk about the costs and benefits of metrication / imperial.

I am fastly starting to believe that you are the imperial equivalent of Eric! Someone who hates metric and gets excited if a report is quoted only in imperial.

If I was to do the same for metric, I would be having a very tiring couple of weeks when the olympics are on later this year, trying to quote all the kilograms, metres, kilometres, etc. Of course, I have much better things to do.

re (martin): "one should never use both metres and centimetres in the same measurement. Thus one should not write "2 metres and 43.8 centimetres..."

REPLY: Martin, I'm sure you're correct. But inadvertently, you have emphasised once again one of the key joys and benefits of Imperial measurements - their variety.

"Six Foot Two Inches", "Thirteeen Stone Three Pounds" and "Six Pounds Ten Ounces" illustrate the sheer range of vocabulary in Imperial, whilst giving everyone the accuracy they need.

In the metric system, the word 'point' has to be used all the time:

Thus '1 point 82 metres' to distinguish it from 182 metres, '3 point 74 kilograms' to distiguish it from 374 kilograms, and so on. Hardly surprising, then, that so many mistakes are made in metric. No danger in Imperial of confusing a centimetre with a millimetre, or of getting the decimal point in the wrong place

Tony Bennet wrote

<<
"Six Foot Two Inches", "Thirteeen Stone Three Pounds" and "Six Pounds Ten Ounces" illustrate the sheer range of vocabulary in Imperial, whilst giving everyone the accuracy they need.
>>

Pounds and ounces are both units of mass. They had different origins and were adjusted so that one was an integral multiple of the other. Not every one did it in the same way. In some countries there were 12 ounces to a pound, in others 16. (Just as in the US there are 16 floz in a pint, but in the UK there are 20 floz in a pint).

The same argument applies to other units.

The metric system is different. The metre anmd centimeter were not manipulated so that the metre was an integer multiple of the centimetre - the metre came first, it was then cut up into a hundred separate piece and each small piece was called a centimeter.

Martin, you make a valid point, but the fact that different units have the same names does not cause nearly as much confusion as one would expect. If you are in the US, you know that "gallon" means US gallon, and if you are weighing gold you know that "ounce" means troy ounce, etc.
Also, the fact that imperial units evolved naturally from different sources rather than being arbitrarily defined means that there is a unit of convenient size available for most practical purposes. For example, in the metric system the gram and millilitre are to small for most food and drink and result in three-digit numbers with unnecessary accuracy.

<<< I am fastly starting to believe that you are the imperial equivalent of Eric! >>>

I was thinking exactly the same thing...

I'm not sure who you're trying to convince - I think we're all agreed that football uses yards.

"- I think we're all agreed that football uses yards."

Ooooh careful! "Euric" might hear you and anounce that what you say is a complete lie!

re (Andy): "I think we're all agreed that football uses yards".

REPLY: AND without metres in brackets - as in 'Beckham fired that one in from 25 yards - that's around 23 metres for all you metric-educated youngsters tuning in'.

As Imperial is the street language of young people, that is bound to be more influential in what measurements young people use than doing tests on how many centimetres' length is the hypotenuse

In football you rarely need to use exact measurements so converting from yards to metres is completely unnecessary

Yes everyone (even kids) knows how much a yard is because its almost the same as a metre - A 25 yard goal would probably be referred to as either 25 metres or 20 metres in other countries

If the two weren't so similar we would have changed to metres long ago

I would genuinely like to know how these distances are quoted in other countries.

Bearing in mind that there is a french (german, italian, etc) translation of the measurement word "yard" I would be interested if metres or yards or a mixture thereof are used.

I expect that no-one here will know this straight away though, except eric who will say "no" because "no-one outside the UK uses outdated cumbersome and obsolete units".

But there again, who believed him when he started talking about his "american relatives" or that "survey from australia"?

It'd be interesting to find out.

My hunch (at 80% probability) is that they'd use metres in non-english speaking countries*, but I really don't know.


(* - except Wales and hispanic America)

They do use metres - certainly in Germany, Italy, Spain anyway

If translating an english report using "shot from 20 yards" I guess they would just use 18 metres or just leave it at 20

By the way in German a penalty is "elfmeter" i.e 11 metres.

"They do use metres - certainly in Germany, Italy, Spain anyway"


Unless you're a Brit watching it on Sky Sports TV in a bar!

;-)