Physicists no match for polo

Roger McClure, chief executive of the Scottish Funding Council, has been monitoring the rapid rise up Google’s rankings of Supa, the Scottish Universities Physics Alliance, and is eagerly awaiting that final push. “It’s still in second place, behind the Schools and Universities Polo Association, which causes me some grief,” he told Supa’s annual meeting. He also admitted that he had fancied becoming a theoretical physicist. But the delegates’ hopes of ring-fenced millions from the funding council faded when he added that he had actually gone on to study Old Norse, Old Irish and Middle Welsh.