Offbeat assortment

Matches held up by wildlife and underwear protests, chickens in danger in Croatian soccer and offside armpits. AFP Sport looks back at 10 of 2019's best offbeat sporting moments:

Oh deer!

The kick-off in a Scottish soccer match was delayed after a herd of wild deer left excrement all over the pitch.

"Kick-off suspended due to the ref being delayed, the pitch currently waterlogged－and covered in deer faeces," Nairn County, which play in the Highlands League, tweeted ahead of the game at Fort William.

The match in April eventually ended in a 6-2 defeat for hapless Fort William, its 29th loss in 31 games.

Sue are you?

When Sue Barker won the Roland Garros women's title in 1976 she became Britain's most recent champion in Paris－or did she?

An eagle-eyed photographer spotted that Barker is listed as Australian and not British on the list of champions whose names are engraved on the Suzanne Lenglen Trophy presented each June to the French Open women's champion.

"Last time I checked, Sue Barker was British－are my eyes deceiving me?" tweeted Ella Ling, who snapped a photo of the cup which has classed Barker as 'AUST' rather than 'GBR' for the last 43 years.

"I mean seriously....how has no one noticed!"

Red alert

Dimitris Giannakopoulos, the owner of Greek basketball club Panathinaikos, was fined 3,000 euros ($3,324) for leaving a pair of red women's underwear on the empty bench of rival Olympiakos before a game.

"It was an act that defamed the sport," said the sports judge who handed down the ruling.

Giannakopoulos made the move after Olympiakos, which plays in red, failed to show up for a February contest in Athens.

Strike it lucky

Players of Mexican soccer club Veracruz went on strike in the opening minutes of a league game, allowing grateful opponents Tigres to walk in two goals unchallenged.

Veracruz decided on the radical action to protest over unpaid wages. As a result, Eduardo Vargas and Andre-Pierre Gignac put Tigres 2-0 up inside three minutes on their way to a 3-1 win.

At the end of the game, Veracruz sarcastically applauded their opponents who they claim reneged on a promise to respect their strike.

"They knew that we were going to stay still for three minutes," said Veracruz defender Carlos Salcido.

Hamilton's movie misery

Lewis Hamilton had to put his ambitions to be a Hollywood movie star on hold because he was too busy winning Formula One titles.

The six-time world champion claimed he had to turn down a role in Top Gun: Maverick, which is scheduled for release next year and stars Tom Cruise, due to lack of time.

The 34-year-old Briton's part in the film was expected to be bigger than in his previous movie cameos, which came in Zoolander 2 and Cars.

That sinking feeling

British golfer Eddie Pepperell's Turkish Open bid came to an abrupt and early end when he ran out of golf balls.

Pepperell put five balls into the water at the fourth hole before telling playing partners that he was quitting the course.

Offside armpit

Liverpool maintained its lead at the top of the Premier League in early November with a last-gasp win over Aston Villa but came perilously close to being denied a victory－by an offside armpit!

Jurgen Klopp's Reds were trailing to Trezeguet's opener when Roberto Firmino thought he had tapped home the equalizer seven minutes later.

However, the linesman raised his flag and a VAR check confirmed the decision to the rule out the goal, with the Premier League revealing that Firmino's armpit "was marginally ahead of the last Villa defender".

The decision looked like it would lead to Liverpool losing its first league match of the season, before Andy Robertson headed home an 87th-minute equaliser and Sadio Mane snatched the points deep in stoppage time.

"It's not right that we laugh about it. Managers get sacked over it," Klopp said of the VAR ruling.

Fowl play

A Croatian soccer player "accidentally" kicked a chicken to death during a semi-pro match.

The incident took place when a brood of chickens ran onto a pitch in the eastern part of the country.

Ivan Gazdek, of home team NK Jelengrad, ran after the birds, kicked one with his foot and then chucked it over the fence in a flurry of feathers.

"I ran towards the chickens to chase them away, swung my foot and accidentally killed one," said Gazdek.

Pope and glory

The New Orleans Saints got a surprise shout-out from Pope Francis, with fans and at least one player taking the inadvertent tag as a good omen for the NFL team.

Francis created five new saints in October in a canonization ceremony at the Vatican.

"Today we give thanks to the Lord for our new#Saints," he posted on Twitter－with the combination of a hashtag and the word 'Saints' automatically adding the New Orleans team's fleur-de-lis logo.

Saints linebacker Alex Anzalone wrote on Twitter: "Wow, are we blessed or what?!??", and, after a victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars, the team tweeted: "Couldn't lose after this.#Blessed and highly favored."

Bad buzz

A swarm of bees sent players taking cover on the pitch during a Cricket World Cup match between South Africa and Sri Lanka in Durham, England.

"It's very funny. Looks like someone's just had a machine-gun through all the players on the field and everyone is down on the ground," said South Africa skipper Faf du Plessis.

"You are not brave enough when there is a swarm of bees flying. I'm brave, but not that brave."

Agence France- Presse