Purple is an all too rare colour for most of us

ON the truly white sidelines of yet another sporting year we can be certain that the perennial mystery of the Purple Patches for both individuals and teams will remain unsolved in twelve months time.

The existence of those blazing patches is one of the brightest and most enthralling elements on the patchwork quilt of all the disciplines in the world of sport. Thank God for them. Otherwise the form-books would become infallible tomes rather than the flimsy documents we know them to be.

Everyone who has ever participated in any sport, either in a team or as an individual, knows in their bones about the Purple Patch and its dreaded first cousin the Black Patch. They have been struck by both of them at one time or another during their careers. Their arrival on the sporting scene is as unpredictable as next week’s weather. They both come out of the blue and normally rip up all the form-books in sight and desolate either the punters or the bookies. They can both last for months, or for entire seasons.