December 13th . . "And the 1998 BBC Sports Personality of the Year is . . David Beckham!" Hey, don't snigger, it could well happen. It seems a chain-mail-style e-mail campaign is being conducted, as we speak, by Manchester United fans determined to embarrass the Beeb by flooding them with so many votes for young David that he'll stand a pretty darn good chance of winning the big award (despite being the most loathed sportsman in Britain).

The Beeb have copped on to the scam, however, and are doing their best to thwart it, much as they did to the 1990 and 1991 campaigns on behalf of angler Bob Nudd, who was disqualified. (If you'd like to vote for David (or Bob) the address is sports.review@bbc.co.uk).