ROCK bottom is a phrase which has occurred many times in these pages over the years, referring to under-achieving sports teams, several of whom have improved their fortunes partly through the loyal support of Northern Rock.

So it's sad that when the bank has hit rock bottom they appear not to have enjoyed the loyalty of people prepared to queue for hours, many of whom will be sports fans who object to a lengthy queue for their half-time pies.

Clubs and fans are hugely indebted to the mysterious business of sponsorship. I've always been a bit baffled as to how the sums invested can produce a profit for companies who are already well known.

No doubt it's good for tax deduction and promotes goodwill, although that appears to have been in short supply in the case of Northern Rock, who have ploughed millions into Newcastle football and rugby, plus Durham cricket.

With a ten-year partnership behind them - the longest main sponsorship in the Premiership - the Falcons have rallied to the cause and the players and coaches are to open accounts with the bank at its Gosforth headquarters today.

Commercial director Mick Hogan added: "The Northern Rock Foundation has given incredible backing to our own Falcons Community Foundation, impacting on so many lives in a positive way They are not just a sponsor, they are part of the fabric of the club and of the region."

IT IS said that when share prices hit rock bottom that's the time to buy, so perhaps a similar line of thinking has prompted some interest in buying into Leeds United.

Why anyone would want to be linked with Ken Bates is beyond me, but it's a fate which has recently befallen both the Darlington chairman, George Houghton, and ex-Newcastle chief Freddy Shepherd.

Both perhaps these shrewd businessmen are already too late. Having taken Leeds to a position where they began the season 15 points adrift at the foot of League Two, we now have the Bates bounce.

After winning all six games, Leeds are no longer bottom and are only six points adrift of a promotion play-off place. We'll have to suffer the appalling sight of Bates basking in the glory of this rise from the ashes and he'll now be confident he doesn't need any Shepherds to guide his flock.

SO WHO else is rock bottom at the moment? The England rugby team certainly need a big bounce off the canvas and the Twenty20 cricket team fared predictably poorly. The former is a matter of great concern; the latter is not because it's the growth of this frenzied form of the game itself which is deeply worrying.

Casual observers might get excited about Yuvraj Singh hitting six sixes, but he can't command a Test place and what did he do for Yorkshire in his season there? And what do those six sixes do for the confidence of the highly promising young bowler on the receiving end?

England were never going to win the tournament with Twenty20 specialists like Darren Maddy and Jeremy Snape simply because they are not international standard cricketers. But I'd rather they had taken more of that ilk, or veterans like Darren Gough, instead of exposing Stuart Broad to the psychological harm which could be inflicted by a contest so heavily loaded in favour of batsmen. Not to mention the physical damage to Andrew Flintoff.

To send Snape in against South Africa ahead of Dimitri Mascarenhas, a recent smiter of five successive sixes, was Paul Collingwood's biggest aberration of the week, despite the reported £1,000 fine for visiting a lap dancing club.

Given the recent evidence of the Fredalo incident, he seems to have been a little gullible in allowing himself to be taken there. And trying to defend himself by saying he was fit enough to play golf at 7.30 the following morning does not excuse him in the eyes of the public. They would rather he devoted the time to preparing for the match later in the day.

It may, of course, reflect Collingwood's feelings about Twenty20 cricket and if so he has my full support. It's a slogfest, but it is riding a wave of popularity and we'll have to suffer more of it next season with counties playing two more games each. And with the two finalists qualifying to fight for the $5m prize fund ($1m for the winners) at an international tournament in India the shift in bias towards Twenty20 can only gain huge momentum