No stretch of the calendar comes with quite so many warnings.

The lights went white and the stretch came on.

Then came the flat stretch and the brink of the small lake.

Woods's best stretch came a few months after he turned pro.

Now came a stretch of reconstruction work where there had been a landslide.

His worst stretch of the season came last week.

Then comes a flat stretch followed by a long descent of between 2.5 and 3.8 per cent.

After that comes a stretch of barbed wire, and then Egypt.

Then came a long stretch of almost level flow.

The Padres' only strong stretch at home last season came in the final five weeks, when they won 16 of 22 games.