Unicycles cost from around pounds 80 up to pounds 200 or more for

Unicycles cost from around pounds 80 up to pounds 200 or more for a model designed for hockey - they're stronger all round, and have more spokes in the wheels Try DM Engineering (01202 471 943). No good for hockey, or to learn on, a popular "giraffe" model is adjustable between 5ft and 8ft, and makes you stand out from the crowd.Unicycle hockey teams and circus schools are the most organised areas of unicycling. Contact Oddballs (0171-250 1333), a specialist juggling shop, or circus schools: Circus Space (0171-613 4141), or Albert & Friends Instant Circus (0181-741 5471). The Catch (01275 332 655) is a juggling/street theatre/new circus magazine that carries listings including unicycling. Main contact for the Hackney Hokey Cokeys is James (0171-729 5013); other hockey teams include the London Loonies, the Hastings Unicycle Group (Hug) and the St Leonard's Unicycle Group (Slug). Rumour has it that someone in Birmingham is trying to start a team.There is also a world unicycle convention - and, of course, leaping on to the bandwagon and balancing up hill and down dale, there are even mountain unicyclists with knobbly tyres.. The Britons running in tomorrow's European Cross-Country Championships in Lisbon may not think it is worth competing Last year's team still have not received their medals Simon Turnbull reports.

It was in Lisbon three years ago that Diane Modahl underwent the fateful test that led to her initial suspension and the costly court case which ultimately contributed towards the financial collapse of the British Athletic Federation. The positive sample of concern to British team officials on this occasion, however, is the one Iulia Negura of Romania gave at last year's European cross-country event in Charleroi. Negura's disqualification after winning the women's race in Belgium led to Romania's exclusion from the team result and Britain's elevation from third to second place. The British team, however, are still waiting to receive their silver medals."They didn't even get the bronze medals in the first place," Dave Clarke, the Great Britain team manager, said "It's the first thing we want to sort out. The girls earned those medals and they deserve to have them."The three British team counters of 12 months ago - Hayley Haining, Andrea Whitcombe and Suzanne Rigg - are all absentees this time So is Paula Radcliffe. With the World Cross-Country Championship silver medallist contesting the Waikiki road mile in Honolulu today, Vikki McPherson will lead the British challenge in the women's race.The leading light of British men's cross-country will also be missing. Still recovering from his marathon debut in Chicago two months ago, Jon Brown has decided to concentrate on preparing for the County Durham international event on January 3 rather than defend his title in Lisbon.Injury has deprived the host nation of Paulo Guerra, the winner in 1994 and 1995 and runner-up to Brown last year, so a first-time champion is guaranteed.The leading candidates include Martin Fiz, the Spaniard who has won both gold and silver World Championship marathon medals, and Mustapha Essaid, the naturalized Frenchman who finished third in Charleroi.. I suppose it is a campaign medal really Of sorts, anyway.

Although I can't help but feel that enduring a four-day trip to Rome hardly merits a decoration. There it sits, in its snug green box - Dad's Roman coin, as my six-year- old describes it. I served. "What did you do in the European Athletics Cup of 1993, Daddy?" he asks. "Daddy, did you ever have to kill a man when you were serving in Rome?"The idea of the gift, I presume, was to assure the attending representatives of the international written press that they were champions themselves within the worldwide - or at least, pan-European - Family of Athletics.Now that is a curious image to foster, although there is something in it - the world of athletics contains more than enough bickering to make it feel like a real family.But the gesture is one that has been made on many occasions at many venues And every time it feels wrong Because medals are things you give to athletes or soldiers. What we press boys really want is bags.The Seoul Olympics of 1988 are remembered for many things - the unscheduled "dove incineration" section of the opening ceremony, the scandalous refereeing of the boxing tournament, and the stupendous exposure of the 100-metres champion Ben Johnson as a drugs cheat.

If only De Coubertin could have lived to witness it all.But for many of my colleagues, that Olympics will always be associated with a traumatic moment of revelation that occurred as they entered the press village.One of their number, a flamboyant Brummie with a taste for rainbow-hued Joe 90 specs, had arrived a day earlier and was on hand to offer them this lugubrious greeting: "Welcome to the No-bag Olympics." Effectively, the thing was dead in the water from there on in.Four years later, I'm happy to report, Barcelona proved that the concept of the Olympic Games was still vibrant and ongoing through the imaginative provision of a choice of bags.Every major championship bag contains a quantity of small, shiny items - including a number of lapel badges bearing the name or symbol of the event. These "pins", as they are known, take on an unavoidable significance for the duration of one's stay. It works like this.Girl at serving hatch, smiling hopefully: "Have you got any pins?" You: "I'm sorry. I gave away my last one this morning." Girl starts to look all wistful, but gamely serves you with your food, anyway, her day spoiled. You feel guilty.The variant goes as follows: Girl at serving hatch, smiling hopefully: "Have you got any pins?" You: "I think I have got one somewhere Hang on a sec. There you go." Girl accepts badge with a dazzling smile and fixes it into the glinting array already established on the lapel of her Games volunteer overall.She then smiles over with a look of quiet triumph to her mate alongside. Who then asks you, smiling hopefully: "Have you got any pins?" And you say, "I'm sorry That was my last one." Another quiet triumph.

And the second girl looks all wistful and gamely carries on serving food, her day spoiled. You feel guilty.Basic rule of life for championships: pins are good, but don't run out. Pins good, bags good, coins not good.Thinking about it, though, a coin was the best gift I ever had while working. Jack Walker, who bought a controlling interest in Blackburn Rovers in 1990, has another team whose fortunes he underwrites - First Tower United, who play near his tax-haven home on the island of Jersey.Walker is a man who habitually shuns publicity, but on Jersey itself he is known by a different name - locals call him Johnny Walker - and his attitude to enquiries is similarly altered.After expressing all the frustration of the one-eyed fan as the team closest to his heart struggled to a goalless draw in an FA Vase tie, he waxed expansive in the little room where club officials and their counterparts from Paulton Rovers were served with drinks.It seemed strange to hear a man who had recently sold his family sheet- metal company for pounds 360m remarking ruefully on the cost of transporting First Tower across to Devon for the replay. "That's another two grand up the spout," he said.Afterwards, I was phoning from the lobby for a taxi to take me to the airport - I was being transported by Jersey European Airways (owner: Jack Walker) - when Tower's benefactor came out to wish me a courteous farewell.As I made my way to the ground entrance, I heard my name called out and turned back to see the multi-millionaire holding something up between his forefinger and thumb "You don't want to leave this," he said It was a 20p piece..