It's official, the silly season is under way and two of our sporting legends have been taking full advantage.

Michael Vaughan has had a busy week, what with 'Fredalo-gate' and the small matter of becoming the most successful English cricket captain ever, but it was his celebration of the latter which really put the cherry on top.

Grainy photographs showing the skipper asleep on a bench, apparently the worse for wear after a night on the sauce in Manchester, surfaced on the Daily Mail website. www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/li...

One 'eye-witness' said: "Vaughan was staggering drunk by about 9.30pm. He had obviously been celebrating hard, he could hardly walk. He came out of the hotel bar and into the foyer where he walked into a window, thinking it was the way out."

Newly-crowned Dad of the Year Freddie Flintoff stopped smiling for long enough to spring to his captain's defence, saying: "Michael has become England's greatest ever captain with his amount of wins and if you can't go out and celebrate that, what can you do?"

Once Vaughan had sobered up, he would doubtless have argued that at least there wasn't a pedalo in sight...although he couldn’t be sure.

Over in County Durham, snooker legend Alex Higgins was doing his best to shift some more copies of his autobiography by punching a referee in the stomach during an exhibition match with Jimmy White. news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/oth...

A frail-looking Higgins, who looks like he would have trouble punching his way out of a wet paper bag, insisted: "It was just a friendly tap on his beer belly," but the official, Terry Riley, thought differently and abandoned the contest.

Riley made the mistake of calling a foul against the hard-done by People's Champion, whose only previous includes headbutting a tournament director, breaking his foot after kicking a plant pot and threatening to have Dennis Taylor shot.

In the week that Diehard IV was being heavily promoted, Hand of God II was given its premiere in the Nou Camp, courtesy of Lionel Messi's sucker punch for Barcelona in the 2-2 draw with Espanyol. Messi's reaction? "My goal? With the hand? It doesn't matter." Oh well, that's all right then.

Over in Italy, Genoa and Napoli gained promotion to Serie A - twice. The teams played out a predictable 0-0 draw and when the referee blew his final whistle, fans from both sides invaded the pitch, the delirious managers were interviewed pitchside and one player was left wearing a fetching pair of black briefs after throwing his entire kit into the crowd.

Only, the referee hadn’t blown the final whistle. Cue mayhem as officials tried to usher supporters off and the nearly-naked player went to the terraces begging in vain to have his clothes thrown back.

After several minutes of craziness, the referee started the game again, only to blow up 20 seconds later, prompting more pitch invasions, more pitchside interviews but no-one daft enough to remove their kit. Just in case…

(Type the names of both teams into your favourite video website to witness the pandemonium for yourselves).

In Formula 1, Lewis Hamilton confirmed his status as the new darling of British sport with a fantastic win in Canada to go eight points clear of Fernando Alonso, who then proceeded to have a rant about how the new boy was getting preferential treatment from McClaren.

There's not enough room to repeat his diatribe in full but it can be summed up in three words - "It's Not Fair!!"

Finally, the football fixtures for next season have been released and cult website Whoateallthepies marked the occasion by putting together a "40 signs that summer's here" piece. www.whoateallthepies.tv/2007...

The list includes the gem: "You realise it's 3pm on a Saturday afternoon and you're holding your missus' bags in Top Shop. And even though she's trying to talk to you, all you're thinking is 'Ooh, I remember when Top Man used to sponsor Leeds'."