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The arrival last autumn of one of academic life's more prominent football enthusiasts, Howard Newby, as vice chancellor of Southampton University, seems to be having an effect on the local soccer club with manager Alan Ball taking up HE-speak.

Ball's account, quoted in The Sun, of an incident in last week's match at Queen's Park Rangers included the statement that "I continued to 'assess' the linesman from the dugout". The referee earned the undying envy of every academic by despatching the would-be assessor to a place in the stand and a disciplinary hearing. Should Southampton's results get much worse, universities are advised to beware of quality teams including a small red-headed man with an improbably squeaky voice and a 1966 World Cup winner's medal.