I don't know if he had blanks but he shouldn't have missed from there says Arthur blithely Another time a

"I don't know if he had blanks but he shouldn't have missed from there," says Arthur blithely "Another time a guy shot at me from a pick-up truck. Apparently he missed too." He recounts how, one hot day in the Seventies in Birdseye, Indiana, four men with a petrol can told him that they were going to burn his cross, and him as well. Pretending not to hear them, he offered to buy them Cokes, which must have startled them. Twenty-four hours later he had them all in church praying alongside him.Experience has taught him that most dangerous situations can be salvaged. "I've had a guy put a gun to my head and five minutes later we're having coffee together.

And when I know people are coming to rob me, I say, `You look like big strong guys - can you help me with my cross?' and they end up looking after me."A few miles outside South Bay a stout white fellow in a sedan is kerb- crawling on the other side of the road, waving and smiling at Arthur, who eventually leans his cross against the crash barrier and goes over to talk. Praise the Lord, it's another preacher.The man in question, Carl Feyos, also works at a gospel radio station Excited at meeting Arthur, he tries to lure him on the air. Then he calls the local weekly paper, the Belle Glade Sun, and a few minutes later another car pulls up Two women jump out, praising the Lord. They take photographs for next week's edition, and Arthur does a live radio interview on Carl's mobile phone. Everybody joins hands to pray by the side of the road.Then yet another preacher turns up, Steve Smith, who is from Ringgold, Georgia Steve has blow-dried silver hair and a large gut. He looks like a pub landlord but in fact he has a TV spot in Georgia and issues Arthur with a standing invitation to go on the air.

They pray together, Steve in a deep and serious "preacher voice", as Arthur calls it. After praying, Steve says that the Lord has the best advertising, because it always works.Arthur says he fights a daily battle to keep his chosen way of life from being corporatised. The high-velocity bullets penetrated windows, doors and walls. Like all good gags there's an astute and cutting observation within the generalisation. Industrialised countries, however, are likely to assume an equal starting point, recognising the first baby born after its particular midnight as the landmark child.They will certainly mount a frenzied search to discover its identity. Northern Ireland discovered Ecstasy and nothing was ever the same again. Five years after the dance scene took hold, a year after the Good Friday Agreement, a bunch of clubbers have rewritten all the rules. Last Saturday Roger Sanchez flew in from New York to DJ at Lush! in Portrush.

Instead, the "peace" mantra slowly became an advertising strapline at the bottom of increasingly glossy flyers for increasingly expensive raves. Ince cried in vain for one penalty and - before he was awarded another - Song headed wide Then, Fowler took centre stage. His manager, Gerard Houllier, explained that "It was just a joke", dating back to the Metz career of the Cameroon international Rigobert Song. Athletes from other countries have been cleared under similar circumstances.Walker, however, faces the interminable idle wait.

Four months have already gone by and many more are likely to pass while the lawyers burrow their way through their lucrative legal labyrinths. Meanwhile, Walker's sponsors have suspended the monthly payments he was living on, and potential earnings of pounds 100,000 on the track over the next five months are denied to him, as is valuable time in the development of what it is inevitably a short career.Surely, an athlete protesting his innocence should be allowed to continue to compete during these long proceedings. The authorities could always reclaim the winnings if they are eventually found guilty. But some sporting bodies seem incapable of showing any consideration for the individuals caught up in these nightmares and I can't escape the suspicion that they share the old Iron Curtain appetite for show trials.As of now, Walker is being severely punished for an offence of which he may well be innocent.