Thrash, ban, wallop

Sorry, what was the score again?

A local newspaper has been banned from reporting on junior football matches after describing a 29-0 defeat as a "trouncing".

The Sheffield and District Sunday League claimed children would have been "humiliated" if they read about the heavy loss suffered by their team.

And it accused the Derbyshire Times of breaking its golden rule which states that no publication should report defeats of 14-0 and above.

Times editor Mike Wilson insisted they were unaware of the 14-goal limit and they would not be adhering to it in the future.

He said: "It's pointless. If you play competitive sport, the scoreline's an important part of it.

"If teams lose 29-0 and the league doesn't want it reporting, then perhaps they should be looking at whether they are guilty of mis-matching - which could put youngsters off the game."

League chairman Matt Hardman maintained the high-scoring ban had been in force for 18 years at the request of the member clubs.

He said: "The children know they've suffered a heavy defeat and they don't need to see it in large print with words like 'emphatically trounced'."

But Wilson said he was not sure what example the league were setting. "It's taking its ball and showing us a red card," he added.

By the way, in case you were wondering the identity of the two teams involved in the narrow 29-0 contest, they were Chesterfield side Brampton Rovers and Waltheof of Sheffield.

But in the interests of fairness, we're not going to tell you which one came out on top.