[caption id="attachment_71599" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Giovanni Trapattoni's announcing his squad for the European soccer championship finals. Donall Farmer/Inpho "]
Perhaps this is the week to play 23 in the lottery because it's a number with winner all over it and one that has been cropping up repeatedly in a sporting context, most especially in golf and soccer.
The number, made famous in sports by Michael Jordan, and which duly adorns the uniforms of kids in all sports everywhere, is the age that Rory McIlroy reached just days before he reclaimed the number one slot in the world golf rankings.
McIlroy didn't have to win the Wells Fargo championship last Sunday in North Carolina, where Number 23 Jordan played during his college career.
Joint second for the 23-year-old from County Down was sufficient.
So being beaten by American Rickie Fowler, who is 23, didn't bar McIlroy's upward progress.
Also making headlines, for good reasons and not so good this week, is Irish soccer player James McClean. The Derry man, who is 23, has declared for Giovanni Trapattoni's Republic of Ireland squad for the upcoming European championships.
This has resulted in death threats from loyalists (See story on Page 2) but McClean has expressed delight in being included in Trap's squad for the finals in Poland and Ukraine.
That would be the Republic's 23-man squad of course.
