Abdul El-Sayed captained the University of Oxford lacrosse team

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Lovers of trivia will know that Kris Kristofferson won a boxing Blue for Oxford, but our Trivia Desk has news of another American Rhodes Scholar who represented the university at sport.

It comes from England Lacrosse:

Former University of Oxford Lacrosse Club defender and men’s captain Abdul El-Sayed has become the first Muslim-American, first Egyptian-American, and surely first Oxford Men’s Lacrosse Club alumni elected to the United States Senate after victory in the mid-term elections on Tuesday.

 This is definitely our Trivial Fact of the Day.

Assembly Rooms toilet row – Ludlow council "not a bottomless pit"

Now here's a decision that didn't take the judges long: the Ludlow & Tenbury Wells Advertiser is the clear winner of our Headline of the Day Award.

Europe’s coffin-makers warn Chinese imports could be death knell for industry

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Thanks to a sharp-eyed Liberal England reader, Politico wins our Headline of the Day Award.

Beavers chew down sign warning walkers about beavers in Poland

Euro Weekly News wins our Headline of the Day Award.

A beaver writes exclusively for Liberal England: I says to Reg, I says: "You know what that sign means? No more Kendal Mint Cake, that's what it means." So Reg says "Then it's got to go." And you know Reg: he gnawed right through the post"

Dog owner fined after man bitten on penis

Nominated by a reader in Rutland who also liked the story's notion of a "scuffle" between two dogs, and originally skeeted¹ by someone because it involves "a disused railway line between Stamford and Ryhall, and Ryhall is never in the news", this has won BBC News are esteemed Headline of the Day Award.

Personally, I liked the defence solicitor's statement that "This was a particularly unfortunate incident, perhaps not helped by the layout of the location."

That may have swayed the judges, though they do seem to like headlines involving the word "penis" in general.

Notes

1. Can't we just say "tweeted" now Twitter is called X? "Skeeted" has never sounded like a real word.

Mozart died in 1791. Neil Young believes one 1960s songwriter has the same immortality

Far Out Magazine wins our Headline of the Day Award. The judges are currently soothing their brains by listening to this...

‘They were casting out demons’: Scottish manager recalls attending exorcism with Gordon Brown to sign a player

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"This one's a doozy. The lads have really given it 110 per cent today," remarked the clerk who brought me the judges' decision.

And she was right. Congratulations to The Athletic on winning our Headline of the Day Award.

Woman ‘posed as substitute teacher to insult students because she hates kids’

Metro wins Headline of the Day and may just have identified a phenomenon that explains some of my own school experiences.

Plans resubmitted for controversial 'state-of-the-art' crematorium next to Northampton secondary school

There's nothing sinister about this. Nothing sinister at all.

Our Headline of the Day Award travels down the A508 to the Northampton Chronicle & Echo.

"Chop chop ya bam" Grandson of Big Mags Haney jailed over 'sadistic' machete attack

I can't begin to imagine what went on in their chamber, but the judges have awarded Headline of the Day to the Daily Record.

Blackburn Reform councillor accused of farting at rival

I pleaded the case of BBC News and its 

Car crashes into viral shop shutters where gran was hoisted into the air

but the judges were stern. Bewigged. Implacable. 

So our Headline of the Day Award goes to the Lancashire Telegraph for:

Blackburn Reform councillor accused of farting at rival

I'm not happy. As the headmaster says in Alan Bennett's Forty Years On:

"Mark my words, when a society has to resort to the lavatory for its humour, the writing is on the wall."

Still, I suppose you have to admire the Telegraph's front page. (The winning headline appears on the paper's website. The judges insist I have to be able to link to a headline for it to be eligible for this award.)

Peer says his name should not be used in legal letter in island cafe dog snub row

After commending the slugs of Stretford, the judges gave our Headline of the Day Award to The Scotsman.

Our picture shows Great Bernera in the Outer Hebrides, where the cafe in the island cafe dog snub row is to be found.

David Goodhart, arithmetic and our Quotation of the Day

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I missed seeing the Old Etonian David Goodhart as one of the leading Trots on campus at York by a couple of years, but time moves on. Having spent the Blair years in very Blairite jobs, he is now an increasingly right-wing social and political commentator.

He took part in the latest edition of BBC Radio 4's Free Thinking last week, and his award-winning effort came in a contribution bemoaning the number of social science and humanities academics that begins at 21:36:

"What is 40 percent of 250,000? It's more than 100,000."

Goodhart also appeared convinced that Jean Baudrillard had argued that 9/11 didn't take place.

Our Trivia Desk has asked me to point out that he is the nephew of the late Liberal Democrat peer Willie Goodhart.

Rick Wakeman performs piano concert to 150 rescued moon bears in Vietnam

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I told the judges they needed a holiday and much good it did. So, through gritted teeth...

Congratulations to the Guardian for winning our Headline of the Day Award.

New crematorium evacuated just weeks after opening as firefighters rush to scene

I'm hoping the judges will decide it's time for a holiday soon. But for now, Cambridgeshire Live wins our Headline of the Day Award.

Jeremy Clarkson left red-faced over 'stolen' sheep that were never even missing

Some sheep yesterday.

The Mirror wins our Headline of the Day Award.

In an outbreak of judicial witticism, the judges suggested that Clarkson fell asleep before he had finished counting them.

Councillor defies council to install hedgehog sign

BBC News wins our Headline of the Day Award.

The councillor is Christian Vassie, a Liberal Democrat member of City of York Council, and the sign has gone up in the village of Wheldrake.

Britain's hedgehogs salute him.

UK luxury business backed by David Cameron in £500K collapse

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The Oxford Mail wins our Headline of the Day Award. 

Far be it from me to criticise the judges, but is this such a surprising story?

Shock as 16 tonnes of soil mistakenly dropped in Shrewsbury

The Shropshire Star, and not for the first time, wins our Headline of the Day Award.

There's more about the scheme to improve the Abbey Foregate area of the town in a BBC News report.

Council to help people 'correctly identify' potholes

BBC News wins our Headline of the Day Award for this tale from Yorkshire, where a Sheffield City Council reports claims there is "confusion around what qualifies as a pothole"