Interesting Facts

According to research carried out by the Institute for Public Policy Research 38% of women in the 1950s married men richer and better-educated than themselves, but today that percentage is just 16%. (The study found that women in the UK are increasingly marrying ‘beneath themselves’ by opting for men of lower social classes. 28 per cent of women born between 1976 and 1981 married men who were less educated and worse paid than them. In 1958, the figure for the same age group was 23 per cent. Of the women born between 1976 and 1981, only 16 per cent married up and more than half (56 per cent) married someone of the same class, defined by the IPPR as someone in a similar occupation. One example used is the Queen’s granddaughter Zara Phillips who married former England rugby player Mike Tindall. The one thing this study really proves though is how class concious the UK still is.) Source

World-cup-winning rugby star Jonny Wilkinson, would practise about 1,000 kicks to prepare for just 20. (Sadly, he wrote in the Times that his fear of failure was so powerful that he didn't feel any satisfaction or pleasure even after winning the rugby World Cup with a drop goal in the last minute. Luckily since then he seems to have discovered a more balanced approach to life.)