Tigerboy1966

They all owned Cairn Terriers and had golf handicaps of 10? All four appeared as voce actors in the Japanese radio adaptation of "The Inimitable Jeeves"? They are all devoted fans of West Bromwich Albion? All of them are allergic to cress? They all have named Husker Du as their second favourite band?

He had also been a Japanese citizen for several years.

The clue is in the name given to the two forms of grip. Hidari means left and hidari-yotsu is the name given to the style where there is a left-hand inside grip. Migi means right and migi-yotsu is the name given to the style where there is a right-hand inside grip. The inside grip is generally considered more favourable. That's why having a double inside grip (moro-zashi) is regarded as advantageous.

Roughly 30% of the current sekitori who go for the belt favour hidari-yotsu. If it correlates with left-handedness that's a higher figure than we would expect from a random sample (about 10% of people are left-handed). I wonder if sumo is one of those sports where southpaws have an advantage. I wouldn't be surprised if there has already been a thread on this topic.

I understand. I am sure it slipped by me, but of the recent Yokozuna, I have only Hakuho´s left uwate grip as an almost sure thing. The others ? No idea. According to WP Wajima had a "golden left arm" inside grip.

One of the daruma on the poster still has a missing pupil. I suppose this means that Shodai has one more goal to achieve.

That sounds like it's a done deal. They don't call this kind of meeting to announce that they're going to have a think about it and maybe set a target. Well done Shodai. He always had the skills and the physique, but now he has the fire in his belly to complete the set.

Guilty pleasure of the the day was Chiyoshoma vs Nishikifuji in juryo. Chiyoshoma eschewed normal tactics and just smacked the kid around the head over and over again until he got dizzy enough to throw. Nasty, cynical, brutal sumo from a man whose hobbies allegedly include biting the heads off kittens. I enjoyed it enormously.

The man he lost to today could be the next one to leapfrog him.

If Shodai does make ozeki, does anyone think that he will adopt a new shikona like Hoshi and Ama? I think that Mitakeumi floated the idea of changing his name if he got promoted but I may have dreamed that.

I think he's just hanging in there so that Tochinoshin has a buddy to talk to in Georgian.

He should not be fighting. You can't do sumo with one arm.

I'm still hoping that we get to see the "big stretch" one more time as a farewell gesture. Would be interesting to see how well the "no cheering" ban survives that one. The coverage will probably be able to pick up me going bonkers in England.

No-one has ever gone 0-15 on their sekitori debut. Come on Ikioi, do the decent thing. Come to think of it, given Ikioi's current form, generosity might not be required.

Even when he's been winning Terunofuji hasn't been looking good. Last time he was zeroing in on the belt every time, but at Aki he's been doing a lot of shoving and when he gets in close he's been tending to hug rather than get a grip. No idea if this is a physical or mental problem. Any suggestions?