THOSE of us old enough to realise that Lynn Davies is a man have been surprised to see his name crop up twice recently.

Lynn The Leap, a 1964 Olympic gold medallist, had held the British long jump record for so long that it was measured in feet and inches, if not chains.

The record stood at 8.23 metres, which is about 27ft, until Middlesbrough's Chris Tomlinson leapt 8.27 metres at such a low-key college meeting in Florida this year that the dusting-off of Davies' record almost went unheralded. The fact that it was also London Marathon weekend didn't help.

No sooner was Davies, now 60, back in the news than it transpired that he had helped England's latest fast bowling recruit, Simon Jones, to iron out his run-up.

The Glamorgan tearaway used to no-ball a lot, but he claims that it was sorted out in 20 minutes by The Leap, who simply altered his stride pattern.

Whether Davies has also helped Tomlinson I don't know, although he apparently described the 20-year-old Teessider's technique as "schoolboyish", implying that there could be a lot more to come.

Tomlinson, in fact, shares Jonathan Edwards' coach, Peter Stanley, who apparently received a call on his mobile from Edwards during the recent North-East Championships.

Edwards wanted to know if Tomlinson had broken his 100 metres record and was relieved to know that he hadn't, although he believes that training with the youngster is proving mutually beneficial.

Despite breaking the oldest British record in the book, however, it appears Tomlinson is not going to have things all his own way in the long jump pit.

At the summer's traditional curtain-raiser at Loughborough University, he, Nathan Morgan and Jonathan Moore all cleared eight metres - the first time three Britons have done so in the same competition. Sounds like Lynn The Leap could soon be ancient history.

ANOTHER Teessider in the news is James Simpson-Daniel, who pulled off a David and Goliath act last weekend when he conceded six inches and six stones to Jonah Lomu and made a monkey of him.

Four days ahead of his 20th birthday, he combined skill bordering on the impertinent with real pace to run round Lomu and score a remarkable try for England against the Barbarians.

James and his elder brother Chris were originally attached to the Middlesbrough club before their feats at Sedbergh carried them into the England Schools team and on to Premiership rugby.

It looks like Newcastle went for the wrong brother as they released scrum half Chris after two years of understudying Gary Armstrong, and his career has since been blighted by injury.

Gloucester snapped up James, who was a fly half at school but has now been converted to a winger and is in the England squad to tour Argentina this summer.

Also in the squad is Tim Stimpson, who was the star of the show in Leicester's Heineken European Cup final win against Munster after also kicking the huge penalty which won the semi-final against Llanelli.

Stimpson always looked a world-beater in the making during his days with West Hartlepool and Newcastle, but he didn't see eye-to-eye with Rob Andrew after returning from the 1997 Lions tour and lost his England place after being frozen out of the Newcastle team.

The move to Leicester has earned him a few trophies, but the feeling persists that he ought to have won more England caps.

WHAT of the Back-hander which helped Leicester to beat Munster? When England flanker Neil Back illegally flipped the ball out of the Munster scrum half's hands at a late scrum near the posts it was a blatant piece of cheating.

He and most professional forwards would argue that it's OK to go for whatever you think you can get away with. But if players of Back's ability use their destructive qualities more than their creative ones, who will want to watch them?

No wonder TV companies are no longer falling over themselves to buy up the rights to the Six Nations Championship, with the BBC's currently unrivalled £70m bid for next season falling about £30m short of expectations.

IT greatly saddens me that such lovely people as the Irish continue to have their reputation tarnished by a lunatic fringe, of which Roy Keane is a fully paid-up member.

It is also utterly abhorrent that Manchester United should send out their private jet to fly him back from Japan. Granting such VIP treatment to imbecilic footballers merely fosters their belief that they have no need to observe common decencies.

WITH Becks and Dyer fit, the crucial absence of Gerrard seems to have been forgotten and everything is hunky dory in the England camp. They could even afford to fall about laughing when Rio Ferdinand's over-hit pass struck Goldenballs where it hurts most. And I don't mean in the metatarsals.

Published: 31/05/2002