New sports minister Richard Caborn scored a series of spectacular own-goals yesterday by failing to answer correctly a range of questions on sport during a live radio show.

On Radio Five's Sunday Service he failed to answer questions on golf, rugby, horse racing and cricket.

His interview came as his predecessor, Kate Hoey, claimed the government hag a "fixation with football". She had been sacked for insulting senior figures in the game.

She added that her former boss, Chris Smith, had once been described as someone whose sporting knowledge could be "written on the back of an opera ticket".