2012 countdown fever ready to Boyle over; THE FAR POST The weekly offbeat look at the world of sport and betting.

AS surely everyone knows, the countdown to the 2012 Olympics has reached that notable milestone today - it's 1,000 days until the opening ceremony in London.

It's like the old reminder of how many shopping days are left until Christmas that suddenly gives everyone a jolt and sends them scurrying to the High Street. Elite athletes all over the world are waking up and thinking: "Gosh, just a thousand days? I'd better start doing some training."

London 2012 chairman Sebastian Coe claims: "Reaching 1,000 days to go gives us an opportunity to celebrate."

Boylesports have taken a more sensible approach and used it as an excuse to price up a few 2012 specials. The good news for British Olympic fans who are impatiently counting down the next 1,000 days, the Irish firm reckon it's 1-5 that we'll have to wait no more than two days into the Games for the first British gold medal. Boylesports - which colour medal will Britain win most of? 4-6 gold, 7-2 silver, 9-4 bronze; total British athletics gold medals: 8 none, 10-3 one, 9-4 two, 11-10 three or more; in which sport will Britain win most golds? 1-10 cycling, 8 rowing, athletics; in which sport will Britain win fewest golds? 1-8 archery, 9-2 gymnastics, 20 boxing; number of days to Britain's first gold medal: 1-5 one or two, 5 three or four, 10 five or six, 25 more than a week.

You'll never take the Meerkat Different firms have different approaches to pricing up unusual markets.

Ladbrokes, for example, clearly had their serious heads on when sending RPSPORT their odds for the potential purchasers of the naming rights to Newcastle's St James' Park, going as short as 2-1 about Adidas getting the gig, and with ten firms on offer at 15-1 or shorter.

Hills, however, had their comedy hats on, going 16-1 the field and quoting none of the top ten on Ladbrokes' list, while including Compare The Meerkat Stadium at 66-1. There's always a point where fact and fiction meet, though, and the sole name on both lists is Tesco - 16-1 favs with Hills and 20-1 with Ladbrokes.

Rooney jr (aet) SIR ALEX has clearly trained Wayne Rooney well, as wife Colleen was last night already well into added time as the couple awaited the birth of their first child.

Paddy Power, who had also been betting on the day of the birth (yesterday was the 7-4 favourite), quote 300-1 that the baby plays for Everton and make Kelly 3-1 favourite for its name.

Scientific certainty Paddy Power are never shy of pushing the boundaries and their latest niche market is a line on which celebrity will be the next to sever their ties with the controversial Church of Scientology.

Grease star John Travolta is the 9-4 favourite to follow in the footsteps of Oscarwinning director Paul Haggis, with Katie Holmes 3-1 and Lisa Marie Presley 4-1. Next in the list at 6-1 is Jason Lee, though apparently that's an American actor not the now Corby Town striker - so sadly we can't do a gag about him being brainwashed into getting the pineapple haircut.

The firm quote 4-1 that France bans Scientology before 2012 after a French court fined the church EUR600,000 for organised fraud.

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