BETTY’S brilliant on short deliveries, I learned to my cost this week.

Me? I’m a corner-to-corner merchant, and the bigger and wetter the bowling green the better.

She was thrashing me 19-6 in a Hyndburn match before I managed to deliver a useful jack, sending it to the farthest corner, despite Betty being older, smaller and puffing on an asthma inhaler.

“You used to be a vicar!” a spectator accused after defeating Betty 20-21, “fine way for a Christian to behave!”

I smiled ruefully. I knew that he knew that all bowlers honestly play to their strengths, and trying to win for the sake of their teams is at the heart of sport.

Take that away and little of value remains, and we remember this especially on a weekend when world sport is on trial, with two FIFA officials in the dock accused of World Cup corruption.

Fail to cherish integrity and start loving other things – whether the size of bribes or the needs and size of bowling opponents – and sport ceases to be sport.

That’s why Survival Sunday last week had to be honest.

Manchester United, championship assured, could have fielded a weak side against Blackpool, saving the stars for hopeful European glory tonight.

But Rovers and others striving for survival would have lost out.

President Obama, speaking on the source of human honesty, freedom and dignity, told Parliament this week, “the true size of our (US & UK) influence hasn’t just been commerce … our militaries ... or land … it’s the idea that all beings are endowed by our Creator with certain rights that cannot be denied.”