The Observer’s latest Sport Monthly features an exhaustive list of all the ways cheating gits can prosper in sport. My top three:

3. face clutch, the n ham-acting technique employed by footballers to make clear to officials that they have been struck, punched, touched, or nearly touched in the face by an opponent. See: Rivaldo

2. goalposts, moving the vb 1. figurative for changing the rules after a contest has begun. 2. actual method deployed by Swedish goalkeeper Kim Christensen during a match between IFK Gothenburg and Orebro in September 2009

1. Henry Hill n, proper the real-life Goodfella who arranged, in 1978, for basketball players at Boston College to “point shave” – or miss shots, deliberately, at certain times – to aid gambling gangsters. Hill said he first snared the players with offers of free booze, drugs and prostitutes.

The Underarm and Andy Hayden’s lineout work are also noted.