WORLD CUPSPECIAL

Ian Holloway:We must learn

England inquest: Thecoach and the technology+ Martin Keown exclusive

The future’s orange:Dutch masters benefit

from brotherhood

Capello: we’ve no chance in Euros

www.independent.co.uk4 JULY 2010

SPORT

Fabio Capello, who is staying on as head coachof England for two more years, has issued anapology to all supporters for the shockingperformances at the World Cup. He admitshis own reputation has been damaged as wellbut he has already concluded that the teamwill never win a major competition if the play-ers are as drained physically and mentally asthey were in South Africa.

Capello believes the failure was the directresult of a hard domestic season. His staffthought there was sufficient time to recoverbetween the FA Cup final and the openingWorld Cup match four weeks later, but withthe added complications of shuffling back-

wards and forwards to Austria for altitudetraining and a lucrative friendly match atWembley, they did not do so.

Asked about the chances of winning theEuropean Championship in Poland andUkraine in 2012, for which qualifying beginsin September against Bulgaria and Switzer-land, Capello said: “If we arrive fresh, yes. Ifwe arrive tired, no.”

The former Football Association executivedirector David Davies, who worked with asuccession of England managers, said lastnight that they had all made the same com-plaint and the answer was a winter break.

Davies also joined Gordon Taylor, the chief

executive of the Professional Footballers’Association and a member of the FootballAssociation’s international committee, in call-ing for a much more widespread review ofEngland’s failure than planned, involving allinterested parties.

Having suggested they would take twoweeks to review the tournament and decideCapello’s future, the FA suddenly came outand backed him within four days last week.

Capello’s message to supporters was: “I amreally disappointed for them. The expecta-tion was really big and the performance wasnot good, Sorry.”

England inquest, pages 6-9

Startling admission will come to pass if ‘England players arrive tired’. By Steve Tongue

Klose to gloryGermany reach semi-final with

4-0 demolition of Argentina

Turned them over:Miroslav Klosecelebrates making it 52 goals in 100 caps REPORTS, PAGES 2-3

WimbledonMurray’s

conqueror Rafa Nadal eyes

second SW19title today... as

Serena smashesway to fourth

crown

THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY•••••4 JULY 20102 Sport

Klose enjoyscentury dutyto humbleArgentinaInspirational display by Löw’s Germans in CapeTown makes the world sit up and take notice

By Tim RichAT GREEN POINT STADIUM

When they arrived, they banged thewindows of the team bus on whichwas written the words “Last Stop,Glory.” They were Diego Maradona’smen, the best, the most exciting teamin this World Cup. The great enemy,Brazil, were already out; this wastheir time. As Argentina stood in thetunnel waiting for kick-off, Maradonacame over and kissed each one of hisboys on the cheek; a blessing from agodfather.

Some two hours later, after the sunhad set into the Atlantic, he kissedthem again. By now most were intears. Maxi Rodriguez looked incon-solable. They had been humiliatedby a team and a manager who relied

on tactics rather than a gang culture.Cape Town, the southern tip of Africa,was Maradona’s last stop and glorywas entirely absent.

It had been stripped away byanother superb German tournamentteam, who dismantled Argentina asefficiently as they had taken apart Eng-land the weekend before and who, ifthey are fated to meet the Dutch inthe final, can claim to have played thetotal football.

Nevertheless, Argentina’s momen-tum appeared irresistible. How, youwondered, were Per Mertesacker andArne Friedrich going to keep four for-wards of the brilliance of Carlos Tevez,

Gonzalo Higuain, Angel di Maria andLionel Messi at bay. The answer wasas easily as they had neutered WayneRooney in Bloemfontein.

Friedrich even got his name on thescoresheet, which is more than Messihas achieved in South Africa, whenwith the match won and Argentinadisintegrating as a unit, Bastian Schwe-insteiger skipped through three tepidchallenges and cut the ball back fromthe byline for the big central defenderto slide home ahead of Gabriel Heinze’sexhausted challenge.

The side Maradona built andwhich was demolished in CapeTown attacked thrillingly, defended

questionably and relied on motiva-tion rather than tactics. When ThomasMüller stooped to head home Schwe-insteiger’s cross, it quickly becameapparent they would not be journey-ing on to Johannesburg.

Just as Joachim Löw had ruthlesslytargeted the weak link in England’sdefence, Matthew Upson, so theGermany manager focused onArgentina’s frailties at full-back, inthe shapes of Heinze and NicolasOtamendi, who was finally taken offwhen the game had already careeredout of Argentina’s grasp. Otamendinot only gave away the free-kick thatled to Germany’s opener, he failed to

Fried at last: the Germany centre-back Arne Friedrich turns to celebrate after scoring his first goal for the national team on his 77th

Argentina lived Maradona’s dreamfor a few heady weeks here but yes-terday they died by it. The newGerman World Cup contenders, likethe ones from the past who won thetournament three times, do not dodreaming. They do planning and therelentless grooming of the best oftheir youth and now, once again, theyloom large as the team who knowbetter than any other on earth howto make the best of themselves at thehighest level.

It doesn’t always create favourite’sstatus but it does make them com-petitive – and respected by every

opponent in a way that can only makeEngland curl in envy. Here they bookedtheir place in a third straight semi-final and the possibility of a stunningeighth appearance in a final, two morethan Brazil.

Most astonishing of all, though, isthat in the 4-0 destruction ofMaradona’s multi-talented but ulti-mately fragmented team the ill-considered Germans made a seriouscase for their fourth triumph to addto the wins of 1954, 1974 and 1990. Untilthe moment 25-year-old BastianSchweinsteiger, a veteran of Germany’svictory over Argentina on penaltiesat the same stage four years ago, beganto crush the spirit of the world’s mosttalented player, Lionel Messi, Ger-many were having to suffer the pin-pricks of faint praise.

Yes, they had overwhelmed Eng-land in round two in Bloemfonteinlast Sunday but what was that to claim?Maybe a promising future fuelled bythe brilliance of youngsters like

Thomas Müller and Mesut Ozil, whocounterattacked England’s creakingdefence to death?

Here, as the sadness on the face ofMaradona lacked only the make-upof the most tragic clown, the new Ger-man team showed that they belongnot to the future but now. Whetherthey are mature enough, and theirdefence of sufficient resilience, to seethem through to the final, is a matterof some intrigue but plainly a gleefulChancellor Angela Merkel was readyto give them the benefit of any doubt.

She was made so exuberant by thegoals of Müller, Miroslav Klose, ArneFriedrich and then the old hand Kloseagain, she planted a kiss on the cheekof the South African president JacobZuma, a man of noted enthusiasm forsuch overtures.

The Germany coach Joachim Löwalso seemed ready to embrace theworld. He may well have the oppor-tunity if the German football federa-tion do not move swiftly to concludecontract negotiations. Currently heis a free agent, technically if not emo-tionally, but his value as the maker ofa potentially world-beating team hassurely rocketed his value.

Argentina came to this stadium asthe romantic story of the tournamentbut soon enough it had become a night-mare of regrets. Maradona made justtwo substitutions as his team brokeapart. His face became a landscape ofdesolation and at the end football hadrarely seen such a poignant ritual aswhen he went to each of his players

to embrace them. Back in the realworld there should be no shame forthe man who once played like amuscular angel and wielded the handof god.

He came to the great challenge with-out any significant coaching experi-ence but he did manage to light up hisnation with a string of victories filledwith the adventurous game he onceplayed so superbly.

The trouble was the Germans camefrom another kind of experience. It isone they are born into. It is the foot-ball not of chance and speculation andespecially superlative skill. It is thegame of character and discipline andthe perfect implementation of allavailable talent.

Long before the end of this gameGermany were running riot with thecertainties of their belief. Müller, trag-ically, was booked harshly when theball seemed mostly to cannon into hisarm and he will miss the chance inDurban on Wednesday night to battle

Substitutes: Argentina: Pastore for Otamendi(70), Aguero for Di Maria (76). Germany: Jansenfor Boateng (72), Kroos for Khedira (78), Tro-chowski for Müller (83).Bookings: Argentina: Otamendi, Mascherano.Germany: Müller. Attendance: 64,100 Referee: Ravshan Irmatov (Uzbekistan)Man of the match: Schweinsteiger Match rating: 7/10

ARGENTINA Romero

Otamendi Demichelis Burdisso Heinze

M Rodriguez Mascherano Di Maria

Messi

Higuain Tevez

Klose

Podolski Ozil Müller

Schweinsteiger Khedira

Boateng Friedrich Mertesacker Lahm

GERMANY Neuer

ARGENTINA 0

GERMANY 4Müller (3), Klose (68, 89), Friedrich (74)

Germany’s perfect plan crushes Diego’s dream

World Cup 2010 Quarter-finals

JamesLawtonin Cape Town

MOST GOALS IN WORLD CUPS

Ronaldo (Brazil) 15Miroslav Klose (Germany) 14Gerd Müller (Germany) 14Just Fontaine (France) 13Pele (Brazil) 12Jürgen Klinsmann (Germany) 11Sandor Kocsis (Hungary) 11

THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY4 JULY 2010 ••••• 3Sport

pick up Müller’s run and within aquarter of an hour had been booked.His game did not noticeably improve.

“Argentina have four or five world-class attackers who don’t support theirdefence,” Löw said on reflection of ajob well done. “I told my young play-ers that if they put the Argentina backfour under pressure, players likeHeinze would crack because they arenot as young as they were. We tooktheir defence apart.”

Only two things would have con-cerned Löw at half-time; the fact thatMüller’s harsh booking for handballmeant he would miss the semi-finalin Durban and that Germany should

have been more than one up. After theinterval, Argentina became as suckedin and as vulnerable to the counter-attack as England ever were. MiroslavKlose, winning his 100th cap, virtual-ly walked the ball into the net to fin-ish off a move that had begun withMüller passing to Lukas Podolski whileflat on his back. And just before theend, Klose scored his fourth goal ofthe World Cup and his 14th in all.

Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Rooney,Kaka ... all the marquee names of thisWorld Cup have now gone, eclipsedby a centre-forward who decided tobecome a carpenter in case footballdidn’t work out.

appearance during the stunning 4-0 demolition of Argentina GETTY IMAGES

Diego home: Diego Maradona is powerless to prevent the thumping for Argentina AP

Sport

World Cup

No flair or style:Brazil head homefor media mauling

By Brian HomewoodIN PORT ELIZABETH

The word “saudade” is one ofthe most distinctive and fre-quently used in the Portugueselanguage, a barely translatableterm used to describe deep long-ing for something or someonethat is gone. It is a sentimentwhich few will be feeling forBrazil’s 2010 World Cup team.

The five-times championswere due to head home lastnight and are almost certain toreceive a mauling from themedia, already at loggerheadswith the coach Dunga over histeam’s perceived lack of styleand flair, after their quarter-final exit at the hands ofHolland.

The former Brazil strikerRonaldo suggested that FelipeMelo, cast as the villain afteran own goal and sending-off inFriday’s game, should keep alow profile in the next fewweeks. “Felipe Melo should notspend his holiday in Brazil,”Ronaldo wrote on his Twitterpage. “The boys fought, weredignified and strong. Unfortu-nately we all lost.”

Despite being one of the mosttechnically gifted teams at the

World Cup, Dunga’s team putworkrate, tactics and patriot-ism above talent, and theyshowed only isolated flashes ofinspiration. They brought onlyfour forwards and two creativemidfielders to South Africa,were not prepared to take risksand then criticised their oppo-nents for “not wanting to play”.

Some of the selections wereinexplicable, such as the inclu-sion of former ManchesterUnited midfielder Klebersonat the expense of Ronaldinhoor Santos youngster Paulo Hen-rique Ganso. The only sourceof midfield inspiration wasKaka, who was still regainingfull fitness after a difficult debutseason with Real Madrid.

Inspired by the rantings ofDunga on the touchline, theyharassed referees, received twored cards in five games, andtheir matches against IvoryCoast, Portugal and Hollandwere three of the most nigglyat the tournament.

Dunga placed the emphasisfirmly on efficiency and tacti-cal discipline but, instead ofthat, Brazil fell to pieces in thesecond half against the Dutchafter conceding a surpriseequaliser shortly after the break.

Playing uninspiring footballand failing to win the WorldCup is the worst possible com-bination in the eyes of the Brazil-ian public and Dunga’s side islikely to join the 1966 and 1990teams in being considered theworst the country has produced.

Carlos Alberto, captain ofBrazil’s winning 1970 WorldCup team, said Dunga had paidthe price for blind loyalty to theteam which won the 2007 CopaAmerica and the Confedera-tions Cup last year.

“He went on about this busi-ness of having a united, closedgroup,” Carlos Alberto said.“That’s nonsense. The nationalteam is for the best. Because ofthis philosophy, he left out theSantos lads, who are in greatform, and experienced players,who you always need in a cup.”

Dunga made it clear after Fri-day’s stunning defeat that hisfour-year cycle had ended, leav-ing Brazil to search for his suc-cessor. The early speculationhad 2002 World Cup-winningcoach Luiz Felipe Scolari amongthe favourites. It will need abrave man to take on the job as,with Brazil hosting the compe-tition, the pressure will begreater than ever.

Real disappointment: the only source of midfield inspiration for Brazil was Real Madrid’s Kaka AFP/GETTY

for a place in the final. The 21-year-old who picked off England so mer-cilessly in Bloemfontein, gave Ger-many a sensational start, heading ina free kick after just three minutes. Itwas the move of a young player whoseemed to be seizing every ounce of

his potential. The rest was inevitableand if there was any temptation to cryfor Argentina, once more, it was soonenough buried in sheer admirationfor the quality of this latest Germanteam to say they will simply not aban-don the highest of ambitions.

Van Marwijk feels his compatriothas “developed as a player but moreso as a human being” now, thoughbefore the tournament he told himand the rest of the golden orange gen-eration to stop discussing their salariesand show more respect for the squad’slesser lights. The reward has been aflowering of the players who were notexpected to feature so prominently.Mark van Bommel, van Marwijk’s son-in-law, has been the Dutch player ofthe tournament so far, vindication forthe manager’s determination to per-sist with him in the face of initial crit-icism. Maarten Stekelenburg, the goal-keeper who had tended to resemblehis predecessor Edwin van der Sar inlooks but not ability, has been one ofthe most consistent goalkeepers ofthe tournament and a revelation.

This is part of a collective spiritwhich is all the greater consideringthe Dutch are a squad of two-tiertalents. While the group known in theNetherlands as the “famous four” (VanPersie, Wesley Sneijder, Arjen Robbenand Rafael van der Vaart) have alwaysbeen capable of setting the tourna-ment alight, the defence has alwayslooked vulnerable.

Its susceptibility to a long ball by-passing Van Bommel and Nigel deJong was never more evident thanwhen Robinho scored on Friday. Butthe kinsmanship played its part aftera nervy first half in Port Elizabeth,where Andre Ooijer, the 35-year-oldformer Blackburn player drafted in

Uruguay’s striker Luis Suarez lastnight escaped an extended two-game ban for the deliberate hand-ball which denied Ghana a firstAfrican place in the World Cup semi-finals and has declared that he nowpossesses “the hand of God,” writesIan Herbert. The Ajax player will onlymiss Tuesday’s semi-final withHolland in Cape Town following theFifa disciplinary committee’s deci-sion and Ghana’s indignation iscompounded by their belief thatthe ball, headed towardsgoal by the substituteDominic Adiyiah, hadcrossed the Uruguayangoalline before Suarezhandled it. AsamoahGyan (right), whomissed theresulting penalty,said: “The ballwent in. It didcross the line andthe referee disal-lowed it. If it wasour day thereferee would have seen itand allowed the goal.”John Pantsil added: “The

referee should have recognised itwas a goal.” Uruguay’s players – aswell as the nation – conveyed nosense of regret or embarrassmentabout Suarez’s offence. TheUruguayan newspaper ‘El Pais’declared: “Long live the hands ofLuis Suarez”. The Uruguay managerOscar Tabarez, who will be withoutmidfielder Nicolas Lodeiro for the

rest of the tournament andmay also lose captain DiegoLugano with ligamentdamage for Tuesday’s match,pointed out that Ghana had

previously benefitedfrom a similar offence.“Ghana has alreadybeen given a penalty

because a playerstopped the ball on thegoalline,” Tabarez said.“The only difference isthat that goal was toequalise againstAustralia. This time theymissed, but that’s not ourfault. The hand of Suarezis the hand of God andthe Virgin Mary, that’s

how Uruguayans see it.”

THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY•••••4 JULY 20104 Sport

World Cup 2010 Dutch masters

Brotherhood is why the future’s orange

T he Dutch players’ arm-bands are discreet, barelythe width of a piece of tape.Dirk Kuyt’s is orange, Robinvan Persie’s white and five

more of Bert van Marwijk’s side arewearing different colours. They tookto doing so a few months ago, as atoken of the kinsmanship they feelfor each other. It is a small gestureand yet a huge one in the perspec-tive of the squad’s World Cup tour-nament because the Holland sideswho have been a source of such hopeand despair over the past 30 yearshave rarely been kinsmen.

There has been the odd character-istic Dutch tantrum at these finals.Robin van Persie took badly to beingsubstituted against Cameroon, buthe quickly made an apology throughDutch national radio and TV. Theentire team were banned from Twit-ter after winger Eljero Elia streameda webcast of himself and Ryan Babelplaying a computer game duringwhich Elia was heard to use racistlanguage. But it has otherwise beenquiet as Holland have discreetlynavigated a course through the tour-nament before signalling theirarrival so mightily with Friday’s winover the Brazilians.

Amid the euphoria back in Ams-terdam yesterday – “World Class”declared the ‘De Telegraaf’ headline;“Marvellous” and “The Road to Gold”read others – was an acknowledge-ment of the part that coach VanMarwijk has played in establishingsuch a culture.

Van Marwijk hardly fits the mouldof those Dutch managers with colour-ful careers and large egos who havetended to add to the internal squadstrife, rather than deal with it, inrecent years. He goes in for some-thing more subtle: “I pay a lot ofattention to non-verbal communi-cation. I know that a little joke witha player or a tap on the head can meanmuch more than long conversations.But I do talk with them, of course. Ihave this huge suite in the Huis terDuin hotel (in the western Nether-lands) and I invite them in, one byone, whenever we’re together.”

The Premier League pantomimehas led us to conclude this kind ofapproach only works for a SpecialOne or a knight of the realm, not amanager whose modest career inclub management began at the Dutchclub Fortuna Sittard and took him toFeyenoord, where he won the UefaCup in a side which included Pierrevan Hooijdonk eight years ago, on toBorussia Dortmund in Germany, thenback to Feyenoord again.

But Van Marwijk has the virtue ofhaving known his superstars beforethey were famous. Managing a youth-ful Van Persie at Feyenoord, he senthim home on the eve of a Super Cupmatch against Real Madrid. “I toldhim: ‘You need to understand whatit takes to be a top player’,” van Mar-wijk recalled recently. “He was slop-py. He’d give 20 crosses in a game, 10of which were crap. For someonewith his technique, it’s not on.”

when Joris Mathijsen was injured inthe warm-up, though currently noteven on a professional club’s books,weighed in. In the second half, VanMarwijk billeted De Jong to helpGregory van der Wiel silence Robinhowhile Van Bommel and Ooijertook Kaka.

It is hardly the stuff of David Win-ner’s ‘Brilliant Orange’ we are describ-ing here; nothing like the totaalvoet-bal perfected by Johan Cruyff underRinus Michel’s leadership in 1974 inwhich all the Dutch players were socompletely gifted that they could in-terchange positions in the 4-3-3 for-mation which the side displayed to theworld. But this is not a tournament ofperfection: each of the remaining con-testants has looked defensively vul-nerable at times. Andfew of them havelooked quite so at one with each otheras the Dutch, who would have fearedsterner semi-final threats than Uruguay,in Cape Town, on Tuesday.

Two years have passed since VanMarwijk declared that he wouldquickly identify the players who couldwin a World Cup for Holland and thennot chop and change his squadon theway to victory. The first part of thepromise has been kept and the secondis in sight. Sneijder put his finger onwhy yesterday, as he reflected on a winto avenge the 1994 and 1998 defeats toBrazil. “Finally we won and are veryhappy. If we can put out Brazil, one ofthe biggest and best teams at this WorldCup... it’s a fantastic team effort.”

NEW ‘HAND OF GOD’ ROW

Tantrums and strife are a thing of the past. Holland are finally at one, and now the world is at their feet. By Ian Herbert

Ball crossed the line, say Ghana butSuarez avoids tournament knockout

Go DutchWesley Sneijder (No 10)turns away to celebrateafter his header knocksout Brazil and putsHolland into Tuesday’ssemi-final AFP/GETTY

THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY4 JULY 2010 ••••• 5Sport

World Cup

Back to the future is Hodgson’s missionBy Graham Chase

For the scale of the task facing RoyHodgson, you need only look back afew months to the miserable endingto Liverpool’s Europa League cam-paign that followed their miserableChampions’ League campaign.

Trailing to Atletico Madrid on awaygoals at Anfield, Rafael Benitez wasonly able to call on Nabil El Zhar,Philipp Degen and Dani Pacheco toswing a semi-final their way.

A club for sale, still in the stadiumthey acknowledged they had to leavebehind years ago, with a squad lack-ing any depth beyond a competitivebut failing first team, Liverpool limpedto seventh place – and a first titlesince 1990 has rarely felt as far away.

Unveiling Hodgson, the chairmanMartin Broughton was bullish aboutthe prospects of a sale, claiming thereign of Tom Hicks and George Gillettcould be over by August. Whetherthat time frame is optimistic remainsto be seen but rumours of potentialinvestors swirl around Merseysidealmost on a daily basis.

Only when the sale goes throughcan talk of rejuvenation take over

from worries about refinancing. Untilthen Hodgson must battle with whathe has got before him. Until they candefinitely move forward, sidewaysshould be seen as an achievement.

Real Madrid continue to put outfeelers for Steven Gerrard, who heldtalks with the new manager on Thurs-day before heading off on holiday, andHodgson was making a priority ofspeaking to Javier Mascherano andFernando Torres, still involved at theWorld Cup, on the phone. Mascher-ano has rarely missed a chance to linkhimself with a reunion with Benitezat Internazionale, while doubts con-tinue over the future of Torres.

Hodgson accepts he cannot affordto “bullshit” his players about thedirection the club is taking. The £6msale of Yossi Benayoun to Chelsea willpush Hodgson’s transfer budget toabout £17m, which may buy one top-quality player.

With Tottenham in the Champions’League and Manchester City contin-uing to spend, it is not the time to beattempting to match them by assem-bling a squad on a budget. Furthermoney could be on its way if AlbertRiera and Ryan Babel follow Benayoun

out of the club but Hodgson admitshe must give chances to players whohave underperformed or been com-pletely sidelined in recent months.

Hodgson has his eyes wide openand although he is faced with limit-less negatives, which should decrease

expectations on him to such an extentthat Champions’ League football wouldbe like a title win, he merely sees foot-balling issues that must be overcome.

Success with Fulham was broughtabout with a clear tactical plan, drilledinto the players relentlessly on the

training ground, and Hodgson hopesto get Liverpool back on track byemploying the virtues that broughtthe club success in the 1970s.

“The weight of tradition at this clubweighs on the shoulders of every player who comes through the door,”he said. “We shouldn’t be taking any-body through the door who doesn’tthink what a privilege it is to play here.

“Therefore I have to give everythingI can give and maybe even a bit more.Funnily enough, all the things that I’vealways liked are the things Liverpoolwere famous for in their heyday. Passand move, always move it quickly andwhen you lose the ball, get back in po-sition. That was the mantra that tookLiverpool through their great years.

“I know Alex Ferguson is not a Liv-erpool fan so I’m a bit concerned aboutmy excellent relationship with him,”he joked. “I sincerely hope he forgivesme for moving north and will wel-come the fact that we can have a glassof wine together, maybe in secret.”

Though he views his work at Ful-ham with immense pride, if Hodgsonis able to make his old friend fearLiverpool as genuine title rivals again,it would surpass all else.

ALL CHANGE AT ANFIELD

Sign of the times: new Anfield manager Roy Hodgson hopes to get Liverpool back ontrack by employing the virtues that brought the club success in the 1970s GETTY IMAGES

THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY•••••4 JULY 20106 Sport THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY•••••4 JULY 2010Sport

World Cup 2010 England: The Inquest

O ne of the catchphrasesemployed by Ron Green-wood, the former WestHam and England man-ager recently named by

Harry Redknapp as the best Englishcoach of the past 50 years, was “livelyminds”. It echoed down through theyears in Rustenburg last week asFabio Capello’s post-mortem on thenation’s latest failure in a majortournament centred on how dull hisplayers had been both mentally andphysically after nine unbrokenmonths of high-pressure football.

David Davies, who has workedwith most England managers sinceGreenwood, either as broadcaster,public relations adviser or FootballAssociation executive, was hardlysurprised at the diagnosis. It is afamiliar theme, he pointed out, oneof three that recur constantly through-out the recent history of the nationalteam – the others being inferior tech-nical ability to many if not mostopponents, and the lack of prioritygiven to what has suddenly beenchristened “Club England”.

In Davies’ experience, all three arebound up together. “I was lucky towork with a succession of Englandmanagers and the issues they raisedwere invariably the same ones,” hetold The Independent on Sunday. “Ifyou go back to 2002 in Japan andKorea, Sven Goran Eriksson and hisstaff assessed the fitness levels of all23 players and they were not whatyou would have wanted. The fittestwas the one player who didn’t playin England: Owen Hargreaves, whoplayed in the Bundesliga.”

As England’s first foreign coach,

Where did it all go wrong?points are resolved, any coach in theworld would struggle to bring the bestout of the England team. “The iden-tity of the coach is important but it’snot the fundamental issue.” Like theProfessional Footballers’ Association’schief executive, Gordon Taylor, hebelieves that the review being under-taken by the Football Associationneeds to be much more wide-rangingand to have input from all parties.

In theory, the fact that Sir DaveRichards is both chairman of thePremier League and vice-chairmanof the FA ought to bring the bodiescloser together, but this does not seemto happen. The point has been madehere before that the former body wasoriginally constituted as the FA Pre-mier League, one of its stated inten-tions being to assist the national team.Yet the “FA” prefix was quietly droppedsome years ago and now club chair-men like Wigan’s Dave Whelan sug-gest in all seriousness that the Leagueshould take over the running of theEngland team. If a TV deal really standsin the way of a winter break, then theonly other solution to over-played,injury-prone international players isa reduction of the top flight to 18 clubs,as was always the intention. Self-interest has regularly ruled that out.

As for technical development, SirTrevor Brooking is doing what he canat the FA for the longer term, in con-junction with an extensive programmedesigned to recruit larger numbers ofbetter qualified coaches, especiallyfor the youngest age groups. Slowly,the National Football Centre backedby successive England managers istaking shape. It will house researchand medical facilities, as well as

providing a base for the various agegroup England teams.

Results for those sides are gradu-ally improving. The Under-17s wonthe European Championship recentlywhich, staggeringly, was England’sfirst success at any major competi-tion since 1993 and the second inapproximately 100 attempts at all lev-els. Germany, meanwhile, won threein one year, more than England hadmanaged in a quarter of a century.

One of the German successes, asCapello’s assistant Stuart Pearce willremember particularly well, was atlast summer’s Under-21 EuropeanChampionship in Sweden, when theydemolished Pearce’s side 4-0 in thefinal. Only James Milner of that Eng-land squad played in South Africa 12months later, while the Germans pro-moted four straight into the senior XI.

Brooking, having watched the finaland noted one player in particularwho would come back to hauntEngland, observed: “There are cer-tain positions we need to develop. Thecreative ‘Ozil’ role is one we have totry to produce more of.” Do not sayyou weren’t warned. But Englishfootball is not short of warnings. Theproblem is finding the will and theway to do something about them.

THE MANAGER‘If players are tired, youcan forget the Euros too’

Fabio Capello has claimed that Eng-land will have no chance of winningthe 2012 European Championship ifthe players are as weary as they werein South Africa. As he sees little

Eriksson, for all his weak points, wasin a unique position to observe whatwas wrong with English football. Hisconclusion was that a winter breakwould be a huge improvement and atone point, Davies believes, it mighthave come about: “Sven and myselfgot 19 out of 20 Premier League clubsto sign up to a winter break and it wasultimately kyboshed because of thePremier League’s television deal.

“Part of the deal involves non-stopfootball during the season. That’sclearly in their interests but is it in theinterest of English football? That’sexactly the point I’m making. We’rethe only major football country inwestern Europe without a winterbreak. And research has been donewhich shows that players who don’thave a break are more likely to sustaininjuries in the latter part of the season.

“So there’s the issue of our season,what it takes out of our players andthe levels of fitness going into majortournaments. All the managers raisethat. And before anybody says, forinstance, that Tevez and Mascheranoseem pretty sparky in this tournament,well, ask the Spanish about Torres,who doesn’t, and ask South Africansabout Steven Pienaar, who lookedabsolutely exhausted.

“Then there’s the technical abilityof too many of our players not beinghigh enough, which they all raise. Andthere’s the whole issue of the priority,or lack of it, of the international teamwithin English football. There are pri-orities for the Premier League, for theFootball League and the FA, but ourgeneration failed to agree principlesover and above sectional interest.”

Davies believes that until all these

The obvious post-mortem findings are that England’s players were dull – mentally and physically. The game needs a winter break

FOUR BAD DECISIONS

PERSEVERING WITH EMILE HESKEY:Starting him in the first two gameslimited the potential for goals andresulted as usual in Wayne Rooneydropping too deep. Peter Crouchhad to be called upon each timeand astonishingly Heskey was stilltwice used as an impact (sic)substitute after being dropped.

PERSEVERING WITH 4-4-2:Almost every other team in thetournament used a more modern,more flexible formation, often as a3-4-3. Far from reaping the benefitof having a foreign coach with newideas, England ended up with thesame formation they were using44 years ago (when it was rathermore novel).

ADAM JOHNSON AND JOE COLE: The old English mistrust of flairappears to have echoes in thedeeply conservative Capello.These two players could haveoffered something different. Colewas ignored for two games thenthrown on to prove himself again.

ONLY BEATING SLOVENIA 1-0: To the Italian mind, 1-0 is apotential win and is not to berisked. England felt it would sufficeand shut up towards the end, onlyto find themselves condemned toplay Germany when the USAscored in the last minute of theirmatch to win the group.

Steve Tongue

THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY4 JULY 2010 ••••• 7SportTHE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY4 JULY 2010 ••••• Sport

World Cup

practical prospect of improving theirfitness at the end of a long domesticseason – assuming they survive thequalifying campaign which begins inSeptember – it is a startling anddepressing admission. Asked beforeflying home about the prospect ofwinning a first trophy since 1966, hereplied: “I think if we arrive fresh, yes.If we arrive tired, no.”

Traditionally England begin a newseason with good results in Septem-ber and October, when playing qual-ifying games at their freshest. In eightgames under Capello in those months,they have won seven and lost onlyaway to Ukraine. By the time a sum-mer tournament comes round, how-ever, soon after the climax of a Pre-mier League campaign, the Champi-ons’ League and FA Cup, nigglinginjuries and fatigue kick in. The onlysolution Capello could advance was:“I think after the end of the PremierLeague or the finals, the players needmore time free, on holiday. I remem-ber when Denmark won the Euros inSweden [in 1992], they arrived off thebeach. There was no pressure – notlike it was with England.”

This year the squad met two daysafter the FA Cup final and five daysbefore the Champions’ League final– in which no English clubs wereinvolved – and spent four weekstogether before their opening game.Capello may now accept that it wastoo long a period, even though theyhad to acclimatise to altitude. Com-ing back to play Mexico at Wembleyin the middle of a fortnight’s altitudetraining in Austria always seemed anodd thing to do and he admitted:“Maybe, probably, yes, we regret that.”

The weariness, he believes, was men-tal as much as physical: “Not only thebody [is] tired, also the mind, this isthe problem. Too many games.”

Other themes in his final World Cupdebriefing were familiar. One was thelack of English players available tohim: “There are only 38 per centEnglish players in the Premier League.This is the big problem because othercountries are 68, 69, 70 per cent.”

Asked to compare England’s teamwith the German one that humiliatedthem last weekend, he did not dwellon technical ability but offered theundignified assertion that Germanyfielded “four foreign players”. Henamed Mesut Ozil, Sami Khedira andJerome Boateng, all of whom were infact born in Germany, plus Lukas Podolski, who, like Miroslav Klose,was born in Poland.

More dignified was an admissionthat his personal reputation had beenharmed by the past three weeks; andan apology to England supporters. “Iam really disappointed for them. Theyspent a lot of money to come to SouthAfrica. The expectation was really bigand the performance was not good,Sorry.” It was an appropriate last word.

THE FORMER PLAYERCapello chemistry allwrong, says Keown

Martin Keown knows a good man-ager when he sees one. He knows adecent team ethic as well. And as hardas he tries to sugar the pill, he is clearin his views that Fabio Capello’s meth-ods failed miserably with England,and were largely to blame for their

dismal showing at the World Cup,writes Matt Butler.

Keown, in keeping with his newcareer as a pundit, does his best togive an impartial summary of Eng-land’s desperately disappointing tour-nament, insisting: “I am trying to bebalanced.” But the ex-England andArsenal defender cannot stop usingwords like “uncertainty”, “belligerentstubbornness” and “wrong” when giv-ing his view on Capello’s managerialstyle or inflexibility with tactics.

Keown is in a good position to dis-cuss what works and what doesn’t,having worked under Arsène Wengerand the much-maligned Sven GoranEriksson at the 2002 World Cup. Andhe believes there was “something verywrong with the chemistry” betweenplayers and staff in South Africa.

“Capello is such a disciplinarian,which is OK if you’re only meetingpeople for two or three days,” he says.“But in those moments when you areaway from your support network andyou’re away with the team, you reallyneed your manager to be supportive,to give more of himself to the groupand not be so closed off.

“The story I hear is that the man-ager didn’t communicate well to hisplayers. But football is an insecureworld. Players are wandering around,they are thinking: ‘did I do well?’, ‘washe happy with my second-half per-formance?’, ‘why did he take me off?’,‘will I start the next match?’

“You can’t create such uncertaintythat the players feel kind of unloved.

but don’t expect one soon. By Steve Tongue

CONTINUED ON PAGES 8-9

on, Frank Lampard’s possibly crucialeffort did not (definitely wrongly).

Still, it will be stressed, the Englandmidfielder has at least prodded theman who is habitually not-for-turn-ing into something approaching a volteface. That remains to be seen. If noth-ing else, the Fifa president is the con-summate politician, and appreciatesthe value of time. So, yes, “the file willbe reopened”, though no vote can betaken until the governing body’s nextfull meeting, in March 2011, by whichtime the temperature will be reduced.

Nevertheless, it’s quite conceivablethat the pressure of professionals suchas the new Liverpool manager RoyHodgson, who regards the introduc-tion of goalline technology as a “no-brainer”, will prevail. The whistle-blowers’ union have been cajoled intoconcurrence, although many of themwho appreciate the power, and inher-ent dangers, of momentum will pri-vately have reservations.

Referee Howard Webb said hewould be “open” to the introductionof goalline technology, but just as sig-nificant was his insistence that thefluidity of the game should not beimpaired. The reality is that this appar-ently benign desire “to help referees”could swiftly become rather more all-embracing. Those who demandchange insist that the beginning andend of the process would be deciding“goal” or “no goal”. Anyone whobelieves that is deluding themselves.

That is why techno-sceptics, suchas John Motson, will continue to

counsel caution (and not because heis a “cretinous dinosaur” as he wasdeemed to be on one message board),and continue to protest: beware themonster you let loose. As sure as aFerguson rant follows a refereeingaberration at Old Trafford, the clam-our will begin for an extension of theprocess. With a certain logic, too, ifyou favour utilising technology at all.

Isn’t the failure to award a “certain”penalty similarly unjust? Doesn’t anerroneous dismissal, say, have just asmuch impact on a game? The linebetween the area of “certain” penal-ties, “clear-cut” offsides or, in the caseof Thierry Henry against Ireland, an“obvious” handball, is far from dis-tinct. One can envisage some god-likefigure in the stand, adjudicating on a“big decision”, raising or downturn-ing a thumb.

Some will claim it would enhancethe game, as it has, arguably, in other

sports. The reality is that it would alterfootball, irrevocably, and become asport, at its elite level, far removedfrom the one we enjoy now.

You can be certain that the morevocal chairmen and managers willdemand that other incidents arereviewed too.

For all the debate over Uruguay’sLuis Suarez’s “cheating” on Fridaynight, just imagine the furore hadAsamoah Gyan scored from the re-sulting spot-kick, and reviews werein force. The South American teamwould, themselves, have had groundsfor protest against the highly dubiousfree-kick that led to the original inci-dent. Wouldn’t they?

That’s why we should welcome aperiod of deliberation rather than pre-cipitate action. As someone once near-ly said: what may appear one smallstep for football could be one giantleap into a maelstrom of mayhem.

THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY•••••4 JULY 20108 Sport

World Cup 2010 England: The Inquest

So where do England go from here?Keown adds: “The financial situationat the FA is that they are not stuck withhim as such, because Capello is stillan outstanding manager, but they havegot him until the next tournament.

“The thing is that we know he is agreat club manager, we now he wasgreat in qualifying, but has he got aproblem with tournaments? And if hehas and he doesn’t learn from this andimprove for the next one, then he mayas well go now. It is very disappoint-ing and we’ve all lost a lot of confi-dence in him after the World Cup.”

Martin Keown is an ambassador forBT Vision’s launch of Sky Sports

1 and 2. Visit www.bt.com/sport.

TECHNOLOGYBeware the monster you let loose

It’s just as well for Sepp Blatter’s Fifaadministration that Thomas Müller’ssecond-half brace at Bloemfonteinserved primarily to focus condem-nation on Fabio Capello’s men, writesNick Townsend. The nuclear blasts ofindignation would have been suffi-cient to solve this nation’s energy crisis for years. Forty-four years wouldbe appropriate.

Many will argue that while it wasperfectly reasonable that Geoff Hurst’sthird, and crucial, goal in the blackand white TV world of 1966 wasallowed to stand (possibly wrongly),there is no reason why, all these years

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 7

I watched the manager from Paraguay,their coach was cuddling the play-ers, laughing and joking. You didn’tsee Capello do anything like that.”

While Keown isn’t advocating areturn to the touchy-feely Erikssonstyle, he does point out the benefitsenjoyed under the Swede; namelythat England got to quarter-finals.

“Capello doesn’t think he has donethat much wrong, which is a worry,”Keown says. “He sees that all he needsto do is get better at the next tourna-ment. But they do need to cometogether as a group, become matesagain. People say that Sven GoranEriksson’s style of management wastoo close and too soft. But then hegot better results, because we got tothe quarter-finals in Japan and Ger-many. Somewhere in between is theanswer. That’s why Jose Mourinhoand Arsène Wenger are successful.”

Apart from Capello’s failings in hisrelations with the squad, Keown says:“There were problems tactically,where the manager’s style seems tobe to belligerently pick a team andplay in one particular way. And eventhough there were people telling him,or asking him, to make changes, hestubbornly stuck to 4-4-2. You arejust not able to play top-level foot-ball with that system. The managerhas to take responsibility for that,but it is a collective responsibility.There is no ‘us and them’. It is themanagement and players.”

IT’S NOT ALL DOOM AND GLOOM

> FOUR BEACONS OF LIGHT

01

02

11 August Friendly v Hungary (Wembley).European Championship qualifiers ...3 September v Bulgaria (Wembley)

7 September v Switzerland (Basel)

12 October v Montenegro (Wembley)

26 March 2011 v Wales (Cardiff)

4 June 2011 v Switzerland (Wembley)

2 September 2011 v Bulgaria (Sofia)

6 September 2011 v Wales (Wembley)

7 October 2011 v Montenegro (Podgorica)

From next season, eight of every Premier League club’s squad must be “home- grown”. As long as Arsenal, Chelsea and their ilk do not merely import more children from Europe, qualifying them as home-grown by the age of 18, this should eventually increase the percentage of players available to England

Joe Hart (right), named as “one of the hotties” of the World Cup with his “white-blond hair and soft caramel skin”, is set to be England’s keeper for the next few years. (Unless he suffers a Robinson/Carson/Green moment)

> FOUR PLAYERS TO GO

03

04

The nation as a whole may be sick of over-paid and over-pampered players but England fans − far removed from the old days of hooliganism and racism − have stayed with the team. Some may even turn out at Wembley for a friendly against Hungary in the summer holidays

England won therecent Under-17 European Championship.So come the 2018 World Cup, being played at home of course, they mightjust have a team of 25-year-olds worth watching. Look out for names such as Liverpool’s Conor Coady, the captain,and the much-admired Ipswich strikerConnor Wickham (above)

> FIXTURES

< POSSIBLE TEAMS >

DAVID JAMESVeteran goalkeeper has had a good run since his debut in

1997 and has finally played in a World Cup at the third

attempt. He was by no means the worst performer in South Africa but it is time to turn to Joe Hart

JAMIECARRAGHER

Ghastly second-half show against the US

confirmed there was no merit in begging him to

come out of retirement as an

ageing centre-half whose legs are not

what they were

DAVID BECKHAMOK, he wasn’t an

official member of the squad, although he would have been but for injury. Time

to say thank you and goodnight, in

the knowledge that he could be back at

some stage as a fully paid-up coach

EMILE HESKEYThe number 34 refers to his age come Euro 2012,

not, alas, his goals total from 61

games. Which is seven. The notion

that he would bring the best out of Wayne Rooney

proved fallacious

v Hungary11 August (4-4-1-1)Hart; G Johnson, Ferdinand, Terry, A Cole; A Johnson, Parker, Lampard, J Cole; Gerrard; Rooney

World Cup 2014(4-2-3-1)Hart; G Johnson, Dawson, Smalling, Gibbs; Gerrard, Rodwell; A Johnson, Shelvey, Wilshere; Walcott

The anatomy ofa 4-1 thrashingMiroslav Klose (farleft) slides on hisknees after puttingGermany ahead;Lukas Podolski(left) makes it 2-0; a ‘goal’ from FrankLampard (right) isnot given, to theastonishment ofWayne Rooney andLampard; a raremoment of joy as aheader by MatthewUpson (below) getsFabio Capello’s menback into the game;Thomas Müller (farright) finishesEngland off withGermany’s thirdand fourth goals inBloemfonteinGETTY/EPA/AP

THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY4 JULY 2010 ••••• 9Sport

World Cup

THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY•••••4 JULY 201010 SportSport

World Cup The Columnists

the Hungary friendly next month. Hecame on leaps and bounds by virtueof playing regularly on loan at Birm-ingham City and having a manager,Alex McLeish, who believed in him.

Ben Foster has now joined up withAlex McLeish at Birmingham and Ican see him benefiting in a similarway. He was playing terrifically forManchester United but when he madea couple of errors, Sir Alex Fergusondropped him straight away. I thoughtthat was sad. Everyone makes mis-takes. There’s also Paul Robinson,who’s only 30, which is no age for akeeper, and Capello ought to monitorthe progress of the lad who did wellin the Under-21 set-up, Scott Loachof Watford.

Talking of which, I look at the play-ers Germany brought to the finals,with half a dozen of their Under-21team from a year earlier. We playedthem in the final of that tournament

and yet we had only one of our side,James Milner, in the World Cup squad.

Ryan Shawcross, the centre-backfrom Stoke City, is one young playerI’d like to see given a chance. OnceRio Ferdinand pulled out, we werestruggling for central defenders. Let’sbe frank, the support cast to JohnTerry wasn’t great. Shawcross is rawbut quick and dominant in the air.

Capello needs to look closely atplayers like him. He also has to behumble enough to look at himself.We don’t know what was going on inthat dressing room. We don’t knowwhether there was disruptionwithin the camp, or whether certain players didn’t get on with him and hewasn’t happy with particular individ-uals. But there are questions that wecan answer. Why was he playingSteven Gerrard in the wrong placeon the left of midfield in a 4-4-2, ratherthan in the centre, playing off Wayne

Rooney in a 4-5-1? Did he place toomuch trust in Emile Heskey whenPeter Crouch always looks a morelikely scorer?

If it was based purely on Capello’stactics, then I’d have said: “Yes, he’sgot to go”. But the way that some ofthe players performed, so far belowtheir club standards, you can’t neces-sarily hold the manager responsible.There comes a point when the play-ers have to stand up and be counted.You can’t blame him for Robert Green’smistake in the US game, or for FrankLampard’s disallowed goal againstGermany. They were massiveturning points in the campaign.

The bottom line is that Capello hasto do better in the European Cham-pionship or the FA must look else-where. But now that he’s definitelystaying, we need to look forward. Asdown as people are feeling now, it’spotentially an exciting time.

new cap, and that was to Peter Shilton.However, I was interested to note thathe gave a debut to no fewer than 10players in the 12 months after thosefinals. Then, as now, we were start-ing a European Championship qual-ifying campaign in the autumn. Forthe first match, in Malta, he broughtin four new caps, including RoyMcFarland and Martin Chivers.

The goalkeeping position is onewhere we need to move on to the nextgeneration. The Germany gameshould be David James’s swan-song,though I didn’t hold him culpable formore than one of their goals.

Some critics said he should havecharged out when Miroslav Klosewas running on to the keeper’s longkick for the first goal. I feel he hada right to expect one of the centre-halves or full-backs to be covering

the centre. It was too late forhim to come out; that

would have made it tooeasy for Klose. It was

better to try tostand up andtry to psychehim out.

But James(pictured left)

will be pushing42 by the time of

Euro 2012. Joe Hartwas probably the most

consistent last season ofthe three keepers Capello tookto South Africa and he has tostart a game now, perhaps in

N ow that the FootballAssociation have backedFabio Capello, ratherthan sacking him, it iscounterproductive to

continue the debate over whetherhe’s the right manager for England.Lessons must be learned, but wehave to look to the future and notget bogged down in the blame game.

It’s up to Capello to look at the ageof particular players, and how they’reperforming, then decide who he’sgoing to keep and which new faceshe’s going to try. There’s no need tobe hasty and throw in a load ofuntried young players – that wouldn’tbe good for them or for England– but he should bring in a fewat a time and see how theyshape up.

The parallels with 1970 areinstructive. Alf Ramseyknew when and howto ring the changes.Bobby Charltonand a handfulof othersnever playedfor Englandagain after wereturned fromMexico. In thefirst match afterthat World Cup,we played EastGermany at Wem-bley. There was aclamour for changebut Alf gave only one

Hart to start asCapello mustring changes

Banks of EnglandWORLD CUP-WINNING LEGEND PULLS NO PUNCHES

Hart stopper: Joe Hart was excellent at Birmingham City – Ben Foster will benefit from a similar move next season PA

Outside the BoksBy SteveTongue

When Jimmy Greaves turnedup to take part in anadvertisement for Burger Kingin Leicester Square, the filmcompany had arranged a bodydouble for what they imaginedwould be the hard part:volleying a football throughthe doors of the restaurantand into the street. Even withtwo reconstructed knees,Greavsie insisted on doing thathimself and executed 50 in arow bang on target. He can’thave been using the Jabulani.

Atkinson hits the spotRehabilitated as a pundit,locally at least, Ron Atkinsonhas been entertaining Wolver-hampton’s ‘Express and Star’with some trenchant views onEngland’s World Cup efforts.

He condemns the players as“bellyaching”, “pathetic”,“scandalous” and “a disgrace”.He says of Fabio Capello: “Hisbody language tells me hedoesn’t want to be there.”Would he take the job himself?“Only as player-manager. AndI’d get in at centre-half.”

Houllier: I’m just like DiegoAs Roy Hodgson slips into apretty hot seat in the Liverpoolmanager’s office, a formerincumbent who dividedopinion about hisachievements there has beencomparing himself – notunfavourably, it has to be said– to one of the coaches of themoment, Diego Maradona.Gérard Houllier, a member ofFifa’s technical committee

here, wrote after Argentinabeat Mexico: “Argentina hadsomething extra – more thirstand desire to win plus theirmental and emotionalstrength. The reason for thatcomes down to the personalityof the coach and the aura hecommands among his players.The Argentinians aren’t justplaying to win for themselves,but also for their coach. I experienced that samefeeling at Liverpool, when yousense your players go on thepitch ready to give everythingand want to succeed forthemselves and for you.”

Japanese fall on swordsMore of those slogans on theside of the team buses (fromlast week). Ghana’s “The hope

of Africa” proved one of thefew prophetic ones. Chile’s“Red is the blood of my heart,Chile will be Champion”always sounded a littleoptimistic as well as over-wrought. “Shake the greenfield: Go Slovakia!” may havelost something in translation,though they did manage toshake Italy on the green fieldof Ellis Park. “One dream, onepurpose – Portugalvictorious!” did not survive theIberian derby and “TheSamurai spirit never dies!Victory for Japan!” did notunfortunately extend to apenalty shoot-out. Poor YuichiKomano, who hit the bar withhis spot-kick, looked suicidal,so we must hope they’re nottaking the Samurai spirit too

seriously or there may besome falling on swords.

Remember White City?Last week’s quiz questionasked: which country failed toqualify for the second stage ofa World Cup after winning agroup match 10-1? In 1982,Hungary beat El Salvador bythat score but finished onlythird in their group behindBelgium and Argentina. Thisweek: what, to the nearest5,000, was the attendance atthe one 1966 World Cup gameplayed at the old White Citystadium in London? Answernext Sunday. You can followme at the World Cup ontwitter.com/stevetongue.

s.tongue@independent.co.uk

Fifty volleysin a row ismeat anddrink toGreavsie

THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY4 JULY 2010 ••••• 11SportSport

Ian HollowayBLACKPOOL MANAGER’S UNIQUE TAKE ON THE WORLD

because how does the fourth officialassist the referee when we’re allscreaming at him? His job, by defini-tion, should be to assist the referee,not explain the ref’s decision to us.

They’ve already got the techno-logy and a similar thing happens inother sports so why not football? Ifwe get these decisions right, nobodyis disappointed, nobody can argueand everything is done properly.

We are light years behind and weare waiting on one person, who sayshe will actually talk about it now. Buthow late is it for Sepp Blatter to saythat? It’s too late for Mexico and Eng-land and it’s way too late for Ireland,who were cheated by Mr Henry. Butjust get it done as soon as possible soit will never happen again.

A footballing educationfrom Holland’s class actsMy favourite TV pundits are ClarenceSeedorf and Edgar Davids. I can’t getover how educated they are. They

know exactly what they are talkingabout. They understand football, theformations and the problems teamsface. But that just sums up the Dutchfor me, and we have to try and edu-cate our lads to the same standard.

In Holland they are bought up play-ing in different positions so theyunderstand the game better. I wantmyself and my assistant at Blackpool,Steve Thompson, to teach our ladsshape, what works and what doesn’t.

It’s a hell of a task but coaches inthis country need to start doing itbecause I don’t think our English ladsare as football-educated as some ofthe others in the world.

Spain have one of the best passinggames in the world. But where didthey get it from? It was a Dutch fellawho went to Barcelona and taughtthem it.

In this country we’ve had anotherSpaniard in Roberto Martinez doinga great job and he was the man Istudied during my year out of foot-ball. He made me think about the

game in a new way and it made mereturn to the way I used to do it atBristol Rovers when I started as amanager in the Nineties.

At Rovers I played with a back threeand my right-sided centre-half usedto bomb forward. We beat Brentford6-2 and he created three goals. Nocentre-forward in his right mind wasgoing to track back and pick him up.

That’s why someone like Germany’sMesut Ozil gets so much space,because he floats about. It is reallyclever and it allows a team to play.

Opposition managers have got tocounteract that, and it sums up lifereally – you think you know every-thing and then something comes alongto surprise you.

I’ll have to learn very quickly atBlackpool next season. I have nevermanaged in the Premier League. Ihave played at that level but my play-ers haven’t. So I’ve got to help themas much as I can by staying as posi-tive as I can and by picking them inthe positions that suit their skills.

Was it because he’d been booked orbecause he wasn’t fit? In which casehe shouldn’t have been playing.

I have no problem with Mr Cap-ello at all because managers have tomake choices. But they have to besensible choices. They can’t be knee-jerk reactions.

Everyone has to share the blame –the manager, the players and the FA.We have wasted another tournament.

Dugout monitors to spot‘goals’ like Lampard’sFrank Lampard scored. The ref’s hada nightmare. Blah blah. We all knowwhat happened. But everybody isnow shouting about goalline tech-nology. Rubbish. It’s not that we need.

I’ll tell you exactly what we needand I had it when I was boss at Ply-mouth. It’s so simple it is untrue. Allyou need is a monitor in the dugoutswhich shows the game on a five-second delay.

The job of the fourth official shouldnot be to stop us managers fighting.It should be his task to simply watchthe monitor and then inform the ref-eree when there’s a big call to be made.I’m not talking about using it for everysingle incident, just for anything thatleads to a goal.

One of my Blackpool players, AlexBaptiste, scored a lovely goal at Crys-tal Palace last season after playing anice one-two. He was given offsideand I was fuming. But it could so eas-ily have been solved had the fourthofficial seen it and said “erm, actu-ally it was onside so it’s a goal”. Bythe same token if a goal is offside itgets chalked off.

The current system is a bit daft

I f we learn anything from Eng-land’s painful defeat, let it bethat we look at other nationsand learn. For some reason weseem to think football belongs

to us but I’m telling you it doesn’t.The sport has moved on and we

have got to move with it, even ourbest players. We have to look at thesystems we use and try to adapt.

I’ve watched Egypt in friendliesand they keep the ball better thanus. Chile have played a 3-3-3-1 for-mation in this World Cup and thatis unbelievable. But it shows whatcan be done. At the minute we area long way from being a good team,and yet we’ve got some real goodplayers, so shame on us.

Mr Capello is a brilliant managerand I’ve got the utmost respect forhim. I’m just little Ian Holloway com-pared to him. But there are somequestions I’d like answering, likewhy did John Terry get moved tothe right of defence when he couldhave brought in Michael Dawson,who had a great season with Spurs?

Why did we play with no width?I haven’t seen any other team at theWorld Cup without width. That’swhy Frank Lampard wasn’t the same.When he plays for Chelsea he knowswhere everyone is and he spreadsit. England’s lack of width killed him.

Then there’s the keeper situation,which my wife summed up perfectly.She said that if Robert Green waschosen for the first game but wasdropped for making a mistake, thenno wonder everyone was so scaredin the second match. They were allfrightened of making an error.

Why was James Milner taken offin the first half of the America game?

Game has movedon ... and Englishmust move with it

Face in the crowd: after a great season for Spurs, Michael Dawson should have been brought in alongside John Terry GETTY

Let me clear up one thing.There have been a few storiesappearing about me being insome contract dispute with mychairman (Karl Oyston, pictured right) at Blackpool.

How people can talk aboutthis is totally and utterly wrongand beggars belief.

Let’s get this straight. I haven’t got any problem with

If England wanted me as manager, I’d say ‘do me a favour, I’m Blackpool, get stuffed’my chairman. We’ve got amassive amount of work to dobefore the new season andwhenever he gets around todealing with my contract thenI’ll be more than happy.

He has talked to me, I’vetalked to him and that’s how weget on. If there were anyproblems, I would be tellingpeople, and I’m not. And

besides, does anyone reallythink I’d want to leave this job?

Blackpool are in the PremierLeague and I cannot wait for thenew season to begin.

It’s going to be a dream cometrue for everyone at the club andI’ve never been so excited aboutanything in my life.

I don’t even care if anyone elsewanted me. If England rang up

tomorrow and said they wantedme as manager, I would say “dome a favour, I am Blackpool, getstuffed”.

So wherever that rumourcame from, I don’t know. But letme tell you there is no problemat all and I am really lookingforward to going back to workwhen pre-season training startson Thursday.

Capello’s men have to learn from other nations – but there are still questions for him to answer

THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY•••••4 JULY 201012 Sport

> Fixtures and results

SOUTH AFRICAvMEXICO

FRI 11 JUNE JOHANNESBURG, SC

URUGUAYvFRANCE

1—1

0—0

0—3

FRI 11 JUNE CAPE TOWN

SOUTH AFRICAvURUGUAY

WED 16 JUNE PRETORIA

FRANCEvMEXICO

THU 17 JUNE POLOKWANE

MEXICOvURUGUAY

TUE 22 JUNE RUSTENBURG

TUE 22 JUNE BLOEMFONTEIN

ARGENTINANIGERIA

SOUTH KOREAGREECE

SOUTH AFRICAMEXICO

URUGUAYFRANCE

BAGERMANY

AUSTRALIASERBIAGHANA

ENGLANDUNITED STATES

ALGERIASLOVENIA

DCITALY

PARAGUAYNEW ZEALAND

SLOVAKIA

HOLLANDDENMARK

JAPANCAMEROON

FEHOLLANDvDENMARK

MON 14 JUNE JOHANNESBURG, SC

JAPANvCAMEROON

MON 14 JUNE BLOEMFONTEIN

HOLLANDvJAPAN

SAT 19 JUNE DURBAN

CAMEROONvDENMARK

SAT 19 JUNE PRETORIA

DENMARKvJAPAN

THU 24 JUNE RUSTENBURG

CAMEROONvHOLLAND

THU 24 JUNE CAPE TOWN

ENGLANDvUNITED STATES

SAT 12 JUNE RUSTENBURG

ALGERIAvSLOVENIA

SUN 13 JUNE POLOKWANE

SLOVENIAvUNITED STATES

FRI 18 JUNE JOHANNESBURG, EP

ENGLANDvALGERIA

FRI 18 JUNE CAPE TOWN

SLOVENIAvENGLAND

WED 23 JUNE PORT ELIZABETH

UNITED STATESvALGERIA

WED 23 JUNE PRETORIA

SOUTH KOREAvGREECE

SAT 12 JUNE PORT ELIZABETH

ARGENTINAvNIGERIA

SAT 12 JUNE JOHANNESBURG, EP

ARGENTINAvSOUTH KOREA

THU 17 JUNE JOHANNESBURG, SC

GREECEvNIGERIA

THU 17 JUNE BLOEMFONTEIN

NIGERIAvSOUTH KOREA

TUE 22 JUNE DURBAN

GREECEvARGENTINA

TUE 22 JUNE POLOKWANE

ITALYvPARAGUAY

MON 14 JUNE CAPE TOWN

NEW ZEALANDvSLOVAKIA

TUES 15 JUNE RUSTENBURG

SLOVAKIAvPARAGUAY

SUN 20 JUNE BLOEMFONTEIN

ITALYvNEW ZEALAND

SUN 20 JUNE NELSPRUIT

SLOVAKIAvITALY

THU 24 JUNE JOHANNESBURG

PARAGUAYvNEW ZEALAND

THU 24 JUNE POLOKWANE

SERBIAvGHANA

SUN 13 JUNE PRETORIA

GERMANYvAUSTRALIA

SUN 13 JUNE DURBAN

GERMANYvSERBIA

FRI 18 JUNE PORT ELIZABETH

GHANAvAUSTRALIA

SAT 19 JUNE RUSTENBURG

GHANAvGERMANY

WED 23 JUNE JOHANNESBURG, SC

WED 23 JUNE NELSPRUIT

AUSTRALIAvSERBIA

1—1

0—1

1—1

1—1

4—0

0—1

> Things we learnt last week ...

FRANCEvSOUTH AFRICA

Uruguay

Mexico

South Africa

France

United States

ENGLAND

Slovenia

Algeria

Holland

Japan

Denmark

Cameroon

Paraguay

Slovakia

New Zealand

Italy

Germany

Ghana

Australia

Serbia

Argentina

South Korea

Greece

Nigeria

› A › B › C › D › E › FGROUP RESULT TABLES

1WHAT GOES AROUND,COMES AROUND

On the evidence of meeting Howard Webb’s (below) two assistants, the men with flags are neither grotesque egotists nor short-sighted buffoons. Darren Cann and Mike Mullarkey (below right) are delightful men who love football, devoted to a job in which their occasional mistakes are highlighted far more than their many correctdecisions

Rustenburg, the original one-horse town, will be an even quieter place once the World Cup horse heads home. Uruguay were training there last week but what is to become of that great bowl of a stadium (below), home to the Platinum Stars and their tiny crowds, and the whole Bafokeng training complex?

However much pressure England feel under at major tournaments, it will never compare to that on Brazil. Three successive finals, from 1994-2002, is the sort of World Cup achievement regarded as par. To go out in the quarter-final twice running is deemed a humiliation for them, which it hardly was for Sven’s England

2IT’S OFFICIAL.LINESMEN ARE OK

6BRAZILNUTS

4GATHERINGRUST

A final point learnt about assistant referees: one of the two is always designated as senior assistant and he is the one who works on the same side of the pitch as the fourth official. He can be identified (though anonymity might sometimes be preferable) as the first name on the team-sheet or programme

3GET WITH THEPROGRAMME

His family like living in London and he is paid something over £5m a year for overseeing a dozen football matches, assisted by a vast staff. Nice work if you can get it. He can and so, unsurprisingly,he decided hewould likesome more

5FABIO CAPELLOIS NOT DAFT

7

4

4

1

PTS

4

1

-2

-3

GD

0

1

1

2

L

1

1

1

1

D

2

1

1

0

W

9

4

3

1

PTS

6

-1

-3

-2

GD

0

1

2

2

L

0

1

0

1

D

3

1

1

0

W

5

5

4

1

PTS

1

1

0

-2

GD

0

0

1

2

L

2

2

1

1

D

1

1

1

0

W

6

4

4

3

PTS

4

0

-3

-1

GD

1

1

1

2

L

0

1

1

0

D

2

1

1

1

W

9

6

3

0

PTS

4

2

-3

-3

GD

0

1

2

3

L

0

0

0

0

D

3

2

1

0

W

5

4

3

2

PTS

2

-1

0

-1

GD

0

1

0

1

L

2

1

3

2

D

1

1

0

0

W

4—1

2—1

0—0

1—1

0—1

2—2

0—2

0—1

1—2

2—2

0—2

0—1

1—0

0—1

2—1

1—3

1—2

3—2

0—0

2—0

1—0

2—0

1—0

1—2

1—0

1—1

0—2

Nobody has ever proved that the ball crossed the line in 1966, so the Azerbaijani linesman could not have been 100 per cent certain it did and was wrong to award a goal. The Uruguayan assistant last Sunday, on the other hand, rightly favoured the defending side based on what he could see

THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY4 JULY 2010 ••••• 13Sport

SPAINSWITZERLAND

HONDURASCHILE

BRAZILNORTH KOREAIVORY COAST

PORTUGAL

HGIVORY COASTvPORTUGAL

TUE 15 JUNE PORT ELIZABETH

BRAZILvNORTH KOREA

TUES 15 JUNE JOHANNESBURG, EP

BRAZILvIVORY COAST

SUN 20 JUNE JOHANNESBURG

PORTUGALvNORTH KOREA

MONDAY 21 JUNE CAPE TOWN

NORTH KOREAvIVORY COAST

FRI 25 JUNE NELSPRUIT

PORTUGALvBRAZIL

FRI 25 JUNE DURBAN

HONDURASvCHILE

WED 16 JUNE NELSPRUIT

SPAINvSWITZERLAND

WED 16 JUNE DURBAN

CHILEvSWITZERLAND

MON 21 JUNE PORT ELIZABETH

SPAINvHONDURAS

MON 21 JUNE JOHANNESBURG

CHILEvSPAIN

FRI 25 JUNE PRETORIA

SWITZERLANDvHONDURAS

FRI 25 JUNE BLOEMFONTEIN

SC= Soccer City, EP = Ellis Park

0—0

0—1

2—1

0—1

> Six stars eclipsed

Brazil

Portugal

Ivory Coast

North Korea

Spain

Chile

Switzerland

Honduras

› G › H7

5

4

0

PTS

3

7

1

-11

GD

0

0

1

3

L

1

2

1

0

D

2

1

1

0

W

6

6

4

1

PTS

2

1

0

-3

GD

1

1

1

2

L

0

0

1

1

D

2

2

1

0

W

URUGUAYvSOUTH KOREA

1SATURDAY 26 JUNEPORT ELIZABETH

3SATURDAY 26 JUNERUSTENBURG

5MONDAY 28 JUNEDURBAN

7MONDAY 28 JUNEJOHANNESBURG

URUGUAYvGHANA

QF1 FRIDAY 2 JULY JOHANNESBURG

URUGUAYvHOLLAND

SF1TUESDAY 6 JULYCAPE TOWN, 7.30pm, BBC1, ITV1

WINNER SF1vWINNER SF2

FINALSUNDAY 11 JULYJOHANNESBURG, SC, 7.30, BBC1, ITV1

GERMANYvWINNER QF4

HOLLANDvBRAZIL

QF3 FRIDAY 2 JULY PORT ELIZABETH

ARGENTINAvGERMANY

QF2 SATURDAY 3 JULY CAPE TOWN

PARAGUAYvSPAIN

QF4 SATURDAY 3 JULY JOHANNESBURG

UNITED STATESvGHANA

HOLLANDvSLOVAKIA

BRAZILvCHILE

GERMANYvENGLAND

4SUNDAY 27 JUNEBLOEMFONTEIN

2SUNDAY 27 JUNEJOHANNESBURG

6TUESDAY 29 JUNEPRETORIA

8TUESDAY 29 JUNECAPE TOWN

ARGENTINAvMEXICO

PARAGUAYvJAPAN

SPAINvPORTUGAL

FABIO CANNAVAROITALY

A bridge too far for the 36-year-old named World Player of the Year in 2006. Only in the last game against Slovakia did the Italian defence cave in, but even one crucial goal conceded to each of Paraguay and New Zealand undermined the Azzurri's challenge and the veteran's reputation

The Boatengs arethe first brothers to appear for separate countries at a

World Cup – Jerome(far right) for Germany,

Kevin-Prince forGhana

Honduras’sJhony, Jerry and Wilson Palacios (left to right)

are the first three brothers to be included in the same

squad at a World Cup

The 2006 Italysquad were the first

World Cup-winners since 1982 to be selected entirely from home-

based teams

Holland, in their victory over Slovakia, were the first team to play at the World Cup with numbers 1 to 11

since Switzerlandin 1994

0—3

0—0

1—2

0—0

7—0

3—1

2—0

1—0 SF2

WEDNESDAY 7 JULYDURBAN, 7.30pm, BBC1, ITV1

2—1

1—2

(after extra time)

2—1

3—0

4—1

3—1

0—4

1—1

(after extra time Uruguaywon on 4-2 penalties)

2—1

0—0

(after extra time Paraguaywon on 5-3 penalties)

1—0

Words − Steve Tongue

DIDIER DROGBAIVORY COAST

Looked at one stage as if he would not appear at all after falling victim to a careless challenge by a Japanese opponent in a warm-up game. Showed courage to do so, but not enough flair to lead his under-achievers through an admittedly difficult group with Brazil and Portugal

STEVEN PIENAARSOUTH AFRICA

Fifa's official 2010 World Cup book featured South Africa's best-known player in a section about eight potential stars of the tournament. Alas, the Everton midfielder's reputation suffered after three games ranging from poor to indiffer-ent. Another victim of a demanding English season?

CRISTIANO RONALD0PORTUGAL

Using up all their goals in the 7-0 drubbing of North Korea proved Portugal’s downfall. Ronaldo managed a spectacular one after balancing the ball like a sea-lion but was a picture of frustration in the three other goalless matches. Little support to be fair to him

WAYNE ROONEYENGLAND

The weight of the world seemed to be bearing down on those increasingly hunched shoulders as England’s wretched campaign wore on. A yellow card for swearing in the gentle warm-up game was not a good augury and after a few promising touches against the USA it was downhill all the way

SAMUEL ETO’OCAMEROON

Like Drogba, was carrying hopes for the whole of Africa as well as his own country but his team fared even worse in losing all three games. Great finish to season with Internazionale did not carry over. Critics felt writing was on the wall when he had a poor African Nations Cup in January

‹ TOMAS BERDYCHFOUR THINGS BERDYCH MUST DO TO WIN

1KEEP GOING FOR HIS SHOTSNadal, one of the game's great athletes, will inevitably win most of the longer rallies. Berdych’s movement is not one of his strengths, so he must attack at every opportunity, shortening the points when he can

2TARGET NADAL’S BACKHANDWhile the Spaniard’s backhand is hardly a weakness, the forehand, struck with great power and vicious topspin, is Nadal’s killer shot. Anything Berdych hits short to his forehand is likely to be punished in brutal fashion

$5.2m

6ft 5in

14st 3lb

afternoon’s Wimbledon final appearssomething of a mismatch – RafaelNadal, his opponent, has won 40 tour-naments, including seven Grand Slamtitles – the Spaniard will not be tak-ing his opponent lightly.

Berdych has already knocked outRoger Federer and Novak Djokovicand if he wins today he would becomeonly the third man in the Open era todefeat three of the top four seeds enroute to a Grand Slam title. This is his28th Grand Slam tournament: in mod-ern times only Goran Ivanisevic, whowon Wimbledon in his 48th Grand

Slam appearance, and Petr Korda,who won the Australian Open inhis 34th, have won their first

major titles at such a late stageof their careers.

While Nadal (picturedright) is the outstandingplayer of his generation,

Billed as mismatch but

THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY•••••4 JULY 201014 Sport WIMBLEDON

It has taken him time to reach thetop, but then again TomasBerdych (pictured left) has neverbeen the quickest of movers. TheCzech’s talent was evident when,

as the world No 50, he beat six high-er-ranked players, including five inthe world’s top 20, to win the 2005Paris Masters. His tournament haulsince then? In nearly five years, the6ft 5in giant from Valasske Meziricihas won just three minor titles, at Halle,Tokyo and Munich.

Today, nevertheless, Berdych playsin his first Grand Slam final, a reali-sation, at last, of the potentialthat at one stagehe seemed des-tined never tounlock. If this

Nadal has won the last 14 sets in a row against Berdych but it’s about time

Berdych is another from a rich cropof 23 and 24-year-olds who filled allfour semi-final slots here this year.Djokovic, Gaël Monfils, Richard Gas-quet and Britain’s own Andy Murrayare all in the same age group. Monfilsand Gasquet have yet to fulfil theirpromise, but Berdych is starting tocatch up with Djokovic and Murray.Five years after his only previousappearance in a Masters Series finalhe made it to a second in Miami thisspring, beating Federer along the waybefore losing to Andy Roddick.

What had been a modest clay-courtcampaign for Berdych peaked spec-tacularly at the French Open, wherehe reached his first Grand Slam semi-final, having trounced Murray instraight sets in the last 16. He will climbto a career-high position in tomor-row’s world-ranking list – to No 7 ifhe wins today and No 8 if he loses.

Murrayfindspositives indefeat as heprepares forhard courts

By Paul Newman TENNIS CORRESPONDENT

The semi-finals can be the hard-est stage at which to lose, but forAndy Murray (right) there wasthe consolation that it was RafaelNadal who had denied him thechance to become Britain’s firstWimbledon men’s singles finalistfor 72 years.

“I love the guy,” Murray said ashe reflected on his defeat by theworld No 1 on Friday. “As aplayer I think he’s the best thingthat has ever happened to tennis.I play so much tennis, but he’s theonly guy I love to watch. I have alot of respect for him as well.

“Obviously you’re desperate towin – I hate losing – but when thematch is finished I have a lot ofrespect for him. I’ve known himsince we were very young.”

The respect is mutual. “I feltsorry for him because he’s a verynice person, a very good person,”Nadal said. “I wished him best ofluck for the rest of the season, andsorry for today.”

Nadal has been a key figure inMurray’s life. It was a conversa-tion between the two teenagersthat led to the Scot basing himselfat the Sanchez-Casal academy inBarcelona when he was 15, whilehis victories over the Spaniard atthe 2008 US Open and 2010 Aus-tralian Open were arguably thebest performances of his career.

Friday’s defeat, Murray’seighth in 11 meetings with Nadal,set another benchmark for the

RAFAEL NADAL ›

3KEEP YOUR NERVE ON THE BIG POINTS Nadal beat Murray in the semi-finals because he played the key points better. Berdych has wobbled under pressure in the past, but he has the shots to trouble Nadal and mustbelieve in them. Easier said than done

4PUNISH HISSECOND SERVEIf Nadal has a weakness it is his serve, even if he has made significant improvements to it. Berdych will have to punish the worldNo 1’s second serve in particular if he is to break often enough to have a chance of victory

WORDS − Paul Newman | RESEARCH − Paul Sarahs

EARNINGS

HEIGHT

WEIGHT

$31.2m

6ft 1in

13st 4lb

don’t write Czech off

2005, the world No 1 has played 27matches here and lost just twice, toFederer in the 2006 and 2007 finals.This is his fourth successive Wimble-don final – he missed last year becauseof injury – and he is currently on a 13-match winning streak here.

His recent success is a remarkableturnaround considering that he hadgone 11 months without winning a titleuntil this year’s Monte Carlo Masters.Since then he has lost only once, tohis fellow Spaniard Feliciano Lopezin the quarter-finals of the AegonChampionships at Queen’s Club.

Along the way Nadal became thefirst player in the modern era to winthe four big titles of the clay-court sea-son – the Masters Series events inMonte Carlo, Rome and Madrid, fol-lowed by the French Open – and hasquickly settled back into playing ongrass. Berdych has his work cut out.

THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY4 JULY 2010 ••••• 15SportWIMBLEDON

One of the major differencesbetween the 2010 Berdych and theearlier vintages is his ability to closeout matches and to live with the game’sbest players. Last year he won the firsttwo sets against Federer at the Aus-tralian Open only to lose, while in arun of 28 matches against top-10opponents between 2007 and the startof this year’s Miami Masters he wononly three times.

Berdych said that he hoped theexperience of reaching the last fourat the French Open, where he lost toRobin Soderling, would stand him ingood stead today.

“That was my first experience of anoccasion like that,” Berdych saidyesterday. “I hope tomorrow won’tfeel any more special than the othermatches. I will try to really concen-trate just on my game, on my points,and not to be thinking about the

occasion, the fact that it’s a final, thatI’m playing Nadal.”

Only one Czech player has wonWimbledon before, Jan Kodes, whotriumphed in the boycott year of 1973.Ivan Lendl is the only other Czechwho has played in a Wimbledon finalin the Open era, having lost to BorisBecker in 1986 and to Pat Cash thefollowing year.

To win today, Berdych will need toreverse all his recent form againstNadal. Although he won three of hisfirst four matches against the Spaniard,Nadal has won all six of their meet-ings since 2006, winning 14 sets in arow. They have met here once before,Nadal winning in straight sets in thequarter-finals in 2007, which wasBerdych’s previous best run at the AllEngland Club.

Since Nadal lost to Luxembourg’sGilles Müller in the second round in

Tomas reached the top, writes Paul Newman

Scot. Being able to play the bigpoints with the steely resolvethat the world No 1 showed maybe a quality that players are bornwith rather than one that can behoned, but there were otherlessons Murray could take fromNadal’s near-faultless display.

“Obviously I’m going to have toimprove certain things,” Murraysaid. “There are certain things Ican do on the court better thanRafa, but there are obviouslythings that he does that no oneelse in the world can do.

“I’ve been hitting my forehandgreat all tournament, but it needsto get better to be on a par or sim-ilar to his. It’s a very differentshot. I hit the ball a lot flatter, butthat’s a shot that can cause himproblems. If I can hit hard andflat it gives me a chance.

“I need to play better up at thenet. I can serve and volley better.This is the best I’ve served thisyear, for sure. I was winningbetween 75 and 80 per cent of thepoints on my first serve.”

He added: “When you’re out

there you’re not focusing on howwell he’s playing. I was just try-ing to find ways to win. But I’msure he did play great, becausewhen I came off I didn’t feel like Iplayed that terribly. When youdo get your chances against him,you have to play great tennis totake them. That was the maindifference. When he was downbreak points he played greattennis and I didn’t on my ownserve at the end of the third set.”

Murray should take heart fromhis Wimbledon run, whichproved that his troubles of recentmonths were only a blip. He hasplayed significantly fewermatches than last year so heshould be comparatively fresh forthe American hard-court cam-paign, which is usually the mostproductive part of his season.

What of his major rivals? Nadalhas looked all but unbeatableover the past three months, buthis form usually dips at this stageof the year. Roger Federer hassuddenly started to lookvulnerable. Novak Djokovic does

not appear quite the force he was,Juan Martin del Potro’s year hasbeen wrecked by a wrist injuryand Marin Cilic’s post-Melbourne slump has beenlonger and deeper than Murray’s.

Tomas Berdych and

Robin Soderling could be thebigger long-term threats.

Murray will now take a break,but does not expect to relax forlong. “I need to take a little bitof time off,” he said. “I’ll tryand put the rackets away, but I’mnot great at staying away fromthe court and the gym.”

THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY•••••4 JULY 201016 Sport TENNIS

Grace, hunger, athleticism...Serena really has got the lot

Holy mackerel! If anyone had thesmallest flicker of doubt about howmuch this title meant to SerenaWilliams then it was in the first set,eighth game, with Vera Zvonarevaserving, break point down. Serenaslams a pass, a winner, and drops toone knee, balls her fist, lets out a gut-tural scream, and punches the air. Itwas the breakthrough moment. Herwhole demeanour said: “I want this.And now the match is heading myway, baby!”

Serena served out for the set andwhen Zvonareva was broken in thefirst game of the second set, it was ef-fectively over. Serena climbs to sixthplace on the all-time Slam singles list,with 13 titles now, four of them atWimbledon to add to five from theAustralian Open, three from the USOpen and one from the French. Thatmust be one big trophy cabinet.

The only women now ahead of Ser-ena in numbers of Slam singles titlesare a roll call of the greatest playersto have held a racket: Margaret Court(24), Steffi Graf (22), Helen Wills-Moody (19), Chris Evert and MartinaNavratilova (18 each). Serena over-takes Billie Jean King (12), and jeep-ers she’s pleased about it.

Serena had another awesome dayserving, and that provided the sub-stantial foundation on which this vic-tory was built. It wasn’t all about theserve, by any means, but that servedoes warrant some attention becauseit is, as Navratilova rightly said yes-terday, the greatest serve the women’sgame has ever seen.

Serena hit nine aces in the match, atup to 122mph, to take her tournamenttotal to 89 aces, the most ever by awoman at one Wimbledon. That tallymade toast of her own record of 72.

Serena won 94 per cent of her firstserve points. That is astonishing, pure“Gee whizz!” territory. Nobody elsehas those kind of numbers. They putSerena on a whole different level.

Vera’s strategy was to get into thenet but how could she possibly attackthat serve? How could she even comein? She couldn’t, and quickly she

didn’t. You can’t. She did everythingwithin her capabilities, and the pairwent blow for blow for most of thatfirst set. But there’s only so much agirl can do when Serena is servinglike that and backing it up with goodall-round play.

Serena has that massive physicalpower as one asset, but there wereothers on display. She was angling theball, trying to avoid hitting north-southas much as possible to take Zvonarevaout wide. Serena’s court coverage wasexcellent, her movement fluid. Toachieve that – to be able to move thatframe with such grace – takes an enor-mous amount of physical fitness. Tomake it look so easy takes one heckof a lot of time in the gym, believe me.

I’ve known the Williams sisters sincethey were little girls, and it’s worthrepeating: they are the finest femaleathletes ever, in any sport, in terms oftheir physical attributes. On the court,they are warriors. Off it, full of grace.And on that subject we must give Verahuge credit for reaching the final andthe manner in which she played.

For a long time, she’s lived in theshadow of the other Russians, and inthe shadow of injuries that threatenedher career. At one stage it was so bad

that she feared she may never playagain. Heck, it tells you something ofher journey when she even invites hersurgeon to sit in her box.

Her story is an inspiration, that hardwork and faith do sometimes havetheir reward. Yes, she lost, but thesalient point is that she reached thefinal, and was then the best that shecould be. That’s all you can ask of any

student: be the best that you can be. Iwas also impressed by the eloquenceof the post-match speeches on courtby both girls. They both thanked theirsupport staff. They acknowledged thatmany different people help them –players in an individual sport – toachieve what they do. You’d be sur-prised how many players don’tacknowledge the help.

Dish of the day: Serena Williams holds aloft the Venus Rosewater Dish DAVID ASHDOWN

NickBollettieriat Wimbledon

THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY4 JULY 2010 ••••• 17SportTENNIS

Williams triumphs on Groundhog Day

By Simon TurnbullAT WIMBLEDON

Welcome to the Punxsutawney Open.Another Groundhog Day on the cen-tral sward here at SW19. On Fridayit was the “Oohs” and “Aahs” andultimate anguish of a semi-final defeat for a Briton in what is stillcalled officially the gentlemen’s sin-gles, the sixth in 13 years. Yesterdayafternoon it was groans of disap-pointment at the predictable formal-ity of yet another routine victory fora Williams sister in the final of theladies’ competition.

Up in the Royal Box, Dame ShirleyBassey must have been tempted tobreak into song. It was all just a little bit of history repeating. For theninth time in 11 years, the VenusRosewater Dish was hoisted by aWilliams, Serena dispatching the No 21 seed Vera Znonareva of Russia 6-3 6-2 in just 66 minutes. Theymight as well rename the thing the

Venus and Serena Dish. “Can I say mythank yous?” Serena asked, with gleam-ing trophy in hand, interrupting a SueBarker question, before extending hergratitude to a list of figures stretch-ing from Jehovah to her watching sister, to whom she offered extra thanksfor the loan of a lucky necklace.

There was also a “Hey, Billie, I gotyou!” for the benefit of Billie Jean King,whom the younger Williams sistersurpassed yesterday with Grand Slamsingles title number 13. It was num-ber four at Wimbledon, putting the28-year-old just the one down hereon her 30-year-old sister.

The denizens of the Centre Courtdid not exactly yawn and slam downtheir fists in exasperated fury on theirclock radios, in the style of Bill Mur-ray, but the prevailing atmosphere wasmuted from the off and the press boxhalf-empty by the start of the secondset. As with the lingering British fail-ure in the men’s competition, famil-

iarity with the wins of the Williamssisters has bred a discernible degreeof contempt.

One can only wonder whether itwas like this way back in the 1880swhen the Renshaw twins from Warwickshire, William and Ernest,enjoyed a near-monopoly on the men’ssingles. Between them, they won iteight times in nine years, William rack-ing up seven titles, a record tally heshares with Pete Sampras. Theystunned the crowds and nailed theopposition with their innovation ofthe overhead serve. “The RenshawSmash,” it was called.

It might have been a different storyyesterday had the serving been of anunderarm variety. As it was, the“Williams Wallop” was far tooemphatic for Zvonareva. The poorMuscovite, who at 25 was appearingin her first Grand Slam final, wasblitzed by a 114mph ace on the secondpoint of the afternoon. There was

much more of that to come. Therewere 10 Williams aces in all, makingit 90 for the tournament, 18 more thanthe record she set last year.

“It’s not only a shot weapon,”Zvonareva said afterwards of the mostpotent piece of armoury in thewomen’s game. “It’s also like a men-tal weapon. She’s so confident in itthat she knows she can take more risks.She can also go for more on returns.”

There was much more than themighty Wallop to admire in Williams’game, though. Or to fear, if you wereunfortunate enough to be on the otherside of the net. There were whippedbackhands of sheer wickedness and some blistering forehands, suchas the stunning passing shot withwhich Williams broke the serve of hernominal rival for the first time, in theeighth game of the opening set.Zvonareva dropped to her knees atthe net in utter despair.

She looked a broken woman in every

respect, and thus it proved. Williamswrapped up the first set 6-3, and thenbroke again in the opening game ofthe second set.

“Come on our Vera,” someoneshouted in broad Lancastrian, ratherlike Jack Duckworth urging his Mis-sus to improve her service at the barof the Rovers Return. Zvonareva wasto return later in the day for the ladies’doubles final but there was to be nocoming back for her in the face of therelentless Williams barrage.

With an overhead smash at the net,the Russian was put out of her mis-ery. Serena had gone through the com-petition in complete serenity, with-out dropping a single set. “I honestlydidn’t think I was playing my best,”she reflected. “I felt like my strokeswere off, especially in the first week.”It was a scary thought for the rest ofthe women’s game at the end of an-other Groundhog Day at The All Eng-land Club.

Four-midableSerena Williams serveson her way to a 6-3 6-2victory over VeraZvonareva and a fourthWimbledon singles titlePICTURE: DAVID ASHDOWN

Net GainsBy Paul Newman

The timing of Venus Williams’fine for not attending a pressinterview on Wednesday couldhardly have been more appro-priate considering her newbook had been released 24hours earlier. The subject ofthe tome? Interviews with 50people about the importanceof sport in their lives. BillClinton, Condoleezza Rice andMagic Johnson are among thecelebrities who talked toWilliams and co-author Kelly ECarter. The results appear in‘Come to Win: BusinessLeaders, Artists, Doctors andOther Visionaries on HowSports Can Help You Top YourProfession’. “We did a lot ofinterviews with a lot of greatpeople and how they startedout in sports and how it made

a huge difference in their life,”Williams said. “Obviously theydidn’t become professionalathletes, but they becamegreat people in their field. Soit’s about the lessons thatsport taught them and howthey still apply to what they donow.” Like the importance ofkeeping appointments?

Pooch with tale to tellIf only animals could talk. Oneof the police sniffer dogs usedat Wimbledon would no doubthave a tale to tell after goingmissing following one of hisshifts here. It was presumedhe had been dog-napped, buthe was found in Essex onFriday, still wearing his policetag. Detectives are said to befollowing a number of leads.

Pasting over the pastryDespite frequent warnings tospectators to turn off theirmobile phones while on court,there are always some whoforget. Offenders normallyreach hurriedly for the “rejectcall” button, but on Court 12last week one woman jumpedup and rushed towards theexit in the middle of a point,despite an attempt by anhonorary steward to stop her.“Sorry, but it’s urgent,” shesaid before dashing behind thestand to continue her conver-sation. “Darling,” she wasoverheard saying down thephone, “I did tell you to use filopastry and not short-crust.”

Dome tickets selling wellOrganisers of the year-ending

Barclays ATP World Tour Finalsat London’s O2 Arena wereamong those who will havebeen quietly celebrating AndyMurray’s run to the semi-finals. With places in the elitesingles field going to the eightmen with the most rankingpoints earned in the year,Murray was effectively lying inninth position going intoWimbledon. The progress ofthe likes of Tomas Berdychand Robin Soderling is all verywell, but Murray is one of thekey men when it comes topulling in crowds. Neverthe-less, the tournament is oncourse to match or better lastyear’s total of 256,000 ticketssold. “We wondered whetherthe election and the World Cupmight have an effect on sales

but that hasn’t happened,”Chris Kermode, the event’smanaging director, said.

Sex and City love matchToday’s men’s final should bea good chance for somecelebrity-spotting. The Diarycan reveal that among theguests of the tournamentsponsor Polo Ralph Laurenwill be the American actressKim Cattrall (star of “Sex andthe City”), and Britain’s heart-throb Mr Darcy, aka Colin Firth.

Pub serves the SerbSpotted in the Dog and Duck inWimbledon village on Fridayevening: Novak Djokovic,enjoying a pint.

p.newman@independent.co.uk

Absent Venusshould take aleaf out of herown book

Centre Court crowd grow tired of American sisters’ domination as world No 1 blows away Russian to retain crown

THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY•••••4 JULY 201018 Sport TENNIS

Wimbledon‹ Facts in figures ›

4thround

3rdround

2ndround

1st Men round

4thround

3rdround

2ndround

1st Women round

FINALWomen

Zvonareva

S Williams6-3 6-2

Men

QF1

SF2

SF1

QF2

QF3

QF4

A Chakvetadze RUS v A Petkovic GER 3-6 6-4 6-4

T Tanasugarn THAI v A Morita JAPAN 7-5 6-1

I Olaru ROM v A Cornet FR 5-7 6-4 6-4

Li Na CHIN (9) v C Scheepers SA 7-6 6-2

M Duque Marino COL v K Nara JAPAN 6-4 6-2

A Keothavong GB v A Rodionova AUS 3-6 6-2 4-6

S Errani IT (32) v J Coin FR 6-2 6-4

A Brianti IT v J Craybas US 6-2 7-5

M Czink HUN v A Radwanska POL (7) 6-3 6-3

C Wozniacki DEN (3) v T Garbin IT 6-1 6-1

A Rus HOLL v K Chang TAIW 6-0 2-6 6-3

S Bammer AUT v R Vinci IT 6-3 6-3

J Zheng CHIN (23) v P Parmentier FR 7-5 6-4

S Cirstea ROM v P Kvitova CZ REP 6-2 6-2

B Jovanovski SERB v C Dellacqua AUS 6-1 6-0

M Lucic CROA v V Azarenka BELA (14) 6-3 6-3

M Niculescu ROM v G Dulko ARG 6-3 6-2

R Oprandi IT v H Watson GB 6-4 1-6 6-3

T Bacsinszky SWIT v E Gallovits ROM 4-6 7-5 6-3

K Kanepi EST v S Stosur AUS (6) 6-4 6-4

K Clijsters BEL (8) v M Camerin IT 6-0 6-3

K Sprem CROA v B Mattek-Sands US 6-3 6-4

S Perry US v A Yakimova BELA 6-2 4-6 9-7

J Henin BEL (17) v A Sevastova LAT 6-4 6-3

K Barrois GER v M Koryttseva UKR 6-3 6-4

Y Chan TAIW v P Schnyder SWIT 6-0 6-2

T Malek GER v N Petrova RUS (12) 6-4 6-3

Y Wickmayer BEL (15) v A Riske US 6-4 5-7 6-3

S Dubois CAN v K Flipkens BEL 6-4 6-4

L Hradecka CZ REP v V Lepchenko US 6-4 7-5

E Daniilidou GRE v A Wozniak CAN 7-5 7-5

L Robson GB v J Jankovic SERB (4) 6-3 7-6

R Kulikova RUS v M South GB 6-2 6-2

A Molik AUS v G Arn HUN 7-5 6-4

Z Kucova SLOVAK v A Molik AUS 6-2 7-5

P Martic CROA v E Baltacha GB 2-6 7-5 6-3

J Goerges GER v M Bartoli FR (11) 6-4 6-3

S Peer ISR (13) v A Ivanovic SERB 6-3 6-4

S Mirza INDIA v A Kerber GER 6-4 6-1

R Voracova CZ REP v J Groth AUS 6-4 6-3

S Arvidsson SWE v A Kudryavtseva RUS 6-4 6-1

E Makarova RUS v A Szavay HUN 6-4 7-6

R De Los Rios PAR v V Williams US (2) 6-3 6-2

Sunday4 July

Saturday3 July

Pavlyuchenkova6-2 7-6

QF1

SF2

SF1

QF2

QF3

QF4

D Cibulkova SLOVAKv L Safarova CZ REP (25) 7-6 6-4

K Bondarenko UKRv M Sharapova RUS (16) 6-1 6-0

A Amanmuradova UZBv S Kuznetsova RUS (19) 6-2 6-7 4-6

I Benesova CZ REPv A Pavlyuchenkova RUS (29) 6-3 6-4

A Dulgheru ROM (31)v K Date Krumm JAPAN 6-2 6-7 6-1

N Lertcheewakarn THAIv A Hlavackova CZ REP 6-3 6-2

A Kleybanova RUS (26)v S Zahlavova CZ REP 6-2 6-3

N Llagostera Vives SPv V Zvonareva RUS (21) 6-4 6-1

Federer 6-3 6-7 6-4 7-6

Bozoljac

Clément 6-3 6-3 6-4

Luczak

Lopez 7-5 4-6 6-3 6-4

Berankis

Troicki

Melzer 6-7 4-6 6-3 7-6

Berdych 7-5 6-3 6-4

Becker

Schüttler

Istomin 6-3 7-6 4-6 4-6 6-1

Hanescu 6-4 6-4 3-6 6-3

Ilhan

Brands 1-6 7-6 7-6 6-1

Davydenko

Djokovic 7-6 6-1 6-4

Dent

Evans

Monfils 6-4 6-4 6-7

Beck

Korolev

Hewitt 6-4 6-4 3-0 (ret)

Mayer 6-7 6-3 6-4 6-4

Fish

Lu 6-4 7-6 6-3

Przysiezny

Gabashvili

Llodra

Roddick 4-6 6-4 6-1 7-6

Fognini 3-6 5-7 7-5 7-6 6-3

Russell

Beck

Seppi

Kamke 3-6 6-2 6-3 6-4

Dolgopolov

Malisse 6-7 6-4 6-1 6-4

Reister

Dodig

Querrey 6-2 5-7 6-3 7-6

Simon Won out

Marchenko

Nieminen

Murray 6-3 6-4 6-2

Soderling 7-5 6-1 6-4

Granollers

Fischer

Bellucci 6-7 7-6 7-6 6-2

Lacko

Chardy 6-3 7-6 4-6 6-7 8-6

Serra

Ferrer 6-4 7-5 6-7 6-3

Youzhny

De Bakker 6-0 6-3 6-2

Isner

Kubot

Haase

Nadal 5-7 6-2 3-6 6-0 6-3

S Williams 6-0 6-1

Chakvetadze

Morita

Cibulkova 6-7 7-6 7-5

Hantuchova

Olaru

Sharapova 6-1 6-4

Li 6-2 6-4

Nara

Rodionova 6-4 2-6 6-4

Kuznetsova

Errani 6-2 6-2

Parra Santonja

Brianti

Radwanska 6-2 6-0

Wozniacki 6-4 6-3

Chang

Vinci

Zheng

Kvitova 6-4 2-6 6-2

Jovanovski

Azarenka 6-1 6-4

Pennetta 6-1 6-1

Niculescu

Zakopalova 5-7 6-3 6-3

Rezai

Dulgheru 6-2 6-0

Oprandi

Gallovits

Kanepi 6-4 7-5

Clijsters 6-3 6-2

Sprem

Perry

Kirilenko 6-1 6-4

Henin 6-3 7-5

Barrois

Chan

Petrova 6-3 6-4

Wickmayer 7-6 6-4

Flipkens

Lepchenko

Wozniak

Jankovic 4-6 6-2 6-4

Dushevina

Pironkova 6-3 6-4

Kulikova 6-2 6-4

Shvedova

Arn 7-5 6-4

Molik

Martic

Bartoli Won over

Peer

Kerber 3-6 6-3 6-4

Groth 6-4 6-3

Oudin

Kudryavtseva

Makarova

V Williams 6-0 6-4

I Bozoljac SERB v N Massu CHILE 7-6 3-6 6-3 7-6

J Tipsarevic SERB v A Clément FR 6-3 3-6 6-4 7-5

F Lopez SP (22) v J Levine US 7-6 3-6 6-2 6-3

R Berankis LITH v C Ball AUS 6-2 6-0 3-6 7-6

I Kunitsyn RUS v V Troicki SERB 6-3 6-4 6-1

D Brown JAM v J Melzer AUT (16) 6-3 4-6 6-2 6-3

R Sweeting US v B Becker GER 5-7 6-2 6-2 6-4

D Tursunov RUS v R Schüttler GER 6-2 6-2 6-3

M Ilhan TUR v M Daniel BR 6-7 4-6 6-2 6-3 6-1

I Andreev RUS v D Brands GER 7-6 7-6 7-5

J Chela ARG v T Dent US 6-3 6-7 7-6 7-5

B Evans US v J Huta Galung HOLL 6-3 7-6 6-3

P Lorenzi IT v A Montanes SP (28) 6-3 7-6 6-2

G Monfils FR (21) v L Mayer ARG 6-1 7-6 6-2

K

E Schwank ARG v E Korolev KAZ 6-1 7-6 4-6 6-2

M Cilic CROA (11) v F Mayer GER 6-2 6-4 7-6

M Fish US v B Tomic AUS 6-3 7-6 6-2

H Zeballos ARG v Y Lu TAIW 7-5 6-4 6-3

M Llodra FR v J Witten US 6-4 6-4 6-7 6-3

R Ram US v A Roddick US (5) 6-3 6-2 6-2

F Verdasco SP (8) v F Fognini IT 7-6 6-2 6-7 6-4

M Russell US v P Riba-Madrid SP 6-3 7-6 2-6 7-6

A Beck GER v J Baker GB 7-6 6-3 6-4

N Almagro SP (19) v A Seppi IT 7-6 7-6 6-2

R Kendrick US v J Tsonga FR (10) 7-6 6-7 3-6 6-4

J Reister GER v R de Voest SA 6-4 7-5 3-6 6-2

O Hernandez SP v I Dodig CROA 6-1 6-3 6-3

G Simon FR (26) v G Alcaide SP 6-3 6-4 7-6

I Marchenko UKR v M Berrer GER 6-3 7-5 0-0 (ret)

J Nieminen FIN v S Koubek AUT 6-4 7-6 5-7 6-2

J Hajek CZ REP v A Murray GB (4) 7-5 6-1 6-2

R Soderling SWE (6) v R Ginepri US 6-2 6-2 6-3

F Gil POR v M Granollers SP 6-3 6-0 6-3

G Soeda JAPAN v M Fischer AUT 6-4 6-3 6-1

R Mello BR v T Bellucci BR (25) 6-4 6-4 6-4

J Chardy FR v D Gimeno-Traver SP 6-3 6-3 6-1

J Greul GER v D Serra FR 7-6 6-3 6-2

N Kiefer GER v D Ferrer SP (9) 6-4 6-2 6-3

M Youzhny RUS (13) v D Sela ISR 6-3 6-4 4-6 7-6

M Gicquel FR v P Mathieu FR 6-1 7-5 3-6 6-1

N Mahut FR v J Isner US (23) 6-4 3-6 6-7 7-6 70-68

B Kavcic SLOVEN v L Kubot POL 4-6 6-2 6-2 6-3

R Haase HOLL v J Blake US 6-2 6-4 6-4

K Nishikori JAPAN v R Nadal SP (2) 6-2 6-4 6-4

P Luczak AUS v T Robredo SP (30)2-6 7-6 6-2 7-5

R Federer SWIT (1) v A Falla COL5-7 4-6 6-4 7-6 6-0

T Berdych CZ REP (12) v A Golubev KAZ7-6 6-2 6-2

D Istomin UZB v S Wawrinka SWIT (20)6-7 6-1 2-6 7-6 6-3

V Hanescu ROM (31) v A Kuznetsov RUS6-7 7-6 6-3 1-6 7-5

K Anderson SA v N Davydenko RUS (7)3-6 6-7 7-6 7-5 9-7

N Djokovic SERB (3) v O Rochus BEL4-6 6-2 3-6 6-4 6-2

P Kohlschreiber GER (29) v P Starace IT6-3 3-6 6-3 6-0

R Delgado PAR v T Gabashvili RUS2-6 6-4 6-4 6-2

K Vliegen BEL v J Benneteau FR (32)2-6 6-7 6-1 6-2 7-5

T Kamke GER v G Garcia-Lopez SP5-7 2-6 7-5 6-4 6-4

M Chiudinelli SWIT v A Dolgopolov UKR6-4 6-3 6-3

J Ferrero SP (14) v X Malisse BEL6-2 6-7 7-6 4-6 6-1

S Stakhovsky UKR v S Querrey US (18)7-6 6-3 2-1 (ret)

M Baghdatis CYP (24) v L Lacko SLOVAK6-3 2-6 6-3 6-1

P Petzschner GER (33) v S Robert FR6-4 7-6 4-6 2-6 6-4

T de Bakker HOLL v S Giraldo COL6-7 6-4 6-3 5-7 16-14

M Przysiezny POL v I Ljubicic CROA (17)7-5 7-6 6-3

M Gonzalez ARG v L Hewitt AUS (15)5-7 6-0 6-2 6-2

K Beck SLOVAK v P Petzschner GER6-3 6-1 4-6 6-2

Kohlschreiber7-6 5-7 2-6 7-6 9-7

Montanes3-6 6-3 6-7 6-1 6-4

Federer 6-2 6-4 6-2

Lopez

Clément

Melzer 4-6 6-3 6-2 6-4

Berdych6-7 7-6 6-7 6-3 6-4

Istomin

Hanescu

Brands6-7 6-7 7-6 6-3 3-0 (ret)

Djokovic 6-1 6-4 6-4

Djokovic7-6 6-4 3-6 6-4

Melzer

Berdych4-6 7-6 7-5 6-3

Brands

Federer 6-3 6-2 6-3

Federer

Berdych6-4 3-6 6-1 6-4

Djokovic 6-3 6-2 6-2

Djokovic

Murray

Nadal 6-4 7-6 6-4

Berdych 6-3 7-6 6-3

Lu

Murray 6-7 7-6 6-2 6-2

Soderling

Tsonga

Nadal 3-6 6-3 7-6 6-1

Hewitt

Lu 4-6 7-6 7-6 6-7 9-7

Roddick

Montanes

Monfils

Hewitt 6-3 7-6 6-4

Mayer

Lu 6-4 6-4 2-1 (Ret)

Kohlschreiber

Roddick7-5 7-6 6-3 6-3

Fognini

Benneteau6-4 6-1 4-6 6-3 Benneteau

Murray 6-1 6-4 6-4

Bellucci

Soderling 6-4 6-2 7-5

Soderling6-2 5-7 6-2 3-6 7-5

Murray 5-7 3-6 4-6

Querrey

Chardy

Ferrer7-5 6-3 4-6 3-6 7-5

Ferrer

De Bakker

Mathieu 7-6 7-6 6-7 6-4

Mathieu

Petzschner

Nadal6-4 4-6 6-7 6-2 6-3

Nadal 4-6 2-6 2-6

RESEARCH − Paul Sarahs

Simon

Kamke

Tsonga 6-1 6-4 7-6

Tsonga 1-6 4-6 6-3 1-6

Querrey6-7 6-4 6-2 5-7 9-7

Malisse

Kleybanova 6-4 6-2

S Williams US (1) v M Larcher De Brito POR6-0 6-4

D Hantuchova SLOVAK (24) v V King US6-7 7-6 6-3

B Zahlavova Strycova CZ REP v E Vesnina RUS6-1 6-3

F Pennetta IT (10) v A Medina Garrigues SP6-4 6-0

K Zakopalova CZ REP v Y Meusburger AUT6-7 6-1 6-0

M Rybarikova SLOVAK v A Rezai FR (18)6-7 6-2 7-5

S Voegele SWIT v M Kirilenko RUS (27)2-6 6-4 7-5

F Schiavone IT (5) v V Dushevina RUS6-7 7-5 6-1

T Pironkova BUL v A Lapushchenkova RUS6-0 7-6

P Hercog SLOVEN v Y Shvedova KAZ (30)6-1 6-4

A-L Grönefeld GER v Melanie Oudin US (33)6-3 6-0

A Bondarenko UKR (28) v K O’Brien GB6-3 6-7 6-4

A Parra Santonja SP v O Govortsova BELA6-3 2-6 6-4

Henin 6-1 6-4

Clijsters 6-3 6-3

Clijsters 2-6 6-2 6-3

Henin

Jankovic

Zvonareva6-1 3-0 (Ret)

Bartoli

V Williams 6-4 7-6

Groth

Pironkova 6-4 6-4

Azarenka

Kvitova 7-5 6-0Kvitova 6-2 6-0

Radwanska 6-3 6-1

Radwanska

Pavlyuchenkova

Wozniacki 7-5 6-4

Wozniacki

Errani

Rodionova

Li 6-1 6-3

Li 6-3 6-2

Sharapova 7-5 6-3

SharapovaZahlavova Strycova

S Williams 6-0 7-5

S Williams 7-6 6-4

Clijsters 6-3 4-6 2-6

Kanepi

Kvitova 4-6 7-6 8-6

Zvonareva6-3 4-6 2-6

Pironkova 6-2 6-3

Pironkova

Zvonareva3-6 6-3 6-2

V Williams

S Williams 7-6 6-2

Kvitova

Li

S Williams 7-6 6-3

Cibulkova

Pennetta

Zakopalova 6-2 6-3Zakopalova

Dulgheru

Kanepi 6-1 6-2

Kanepi 2-6 4-6

Kirilenko

Petrova

Wickmayer

Zvonareva 6-4 6-2

Bondarenko

Jankovic 6-0 6-3

Pironkova 6-4 2-0 (ret)

Kulikova

Arn

Bartoli 6-3 6-4

Kerber

Groth 6-3 7-5

Kleybanova

V Williams 6-4 6-2

Benneteau3-6 6-2 4-6 7-6 6-3

1977the last time Her

Majesty the Queen (below) visited the tournament before

this year

£1mprize money for both

titles this year. It was first offered in 1968 − £2,000

for the men, £750 forthe women

200spectators paid a shilling

(below) to see the first ever final in 1877. This year 15,000 will pay

up to £104

Petzschner6-4 3-6 4-6 6-3 6-2

Tsonga6-4 6-4 6-7 5-7 10-8

Zahlavova Strycova6-1 6-4

Hlavackova

Zvonareva 6-1 6-4

Bondarenko4-6 6-4 6-3

Mathieu6-4 2-6 2-6 6-3 6-4

Nadal

Berdych

THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY4 JULY 2010 ••••• 19SportGOLF

The HackerBy Peter Corrigan

I trust that Dr Frank Stablefordapproves that, every year, 20or so of his devotees gatherrather rowdily to celebrate hisimmense contribution to golf.

His points system of scoringis blessed by millions of golfersaround the world andnowhere is he appreciatedmore than at Wallasey golfclub on Merseyside and TheGlamorganshire in southWales where special annualtournaments are held.

It was at Wallasey in theearly 1930s that the gooddoctor perfected the Stable-ford system but it was at Glam-organshire in 1898 that he firstexperimented with it. The 30-year gap is maybe explainedby his absence as an armysurgeon in the Boer War, theFirst World War and one ortwo other military campaigns.

When we at Glamorganshiremarked the centenary of hisfirst attempt with a commem-orative event, Wallasey sentdown two teams of four andthe bonds formed over a fewdrinks until 5am have led to anannual fixture.

Last weekend was the 12thsuch meeting and it was ourturn to be hosts. In recentyears, Wallasey have played apreliminary game at RoyalPorthcawl to where Dr Frankmoved when he returned fromthe Boer War. There is norecord of him trying todevelop his system there buthe won the club championshipand reached the semi-final ofthe Welsh amateur to prove hewas a tidy golfer.

This year we put out a teamof Porthcawl members in amatch of greensome four-somes. It was a hot, sunny dayand the course was in greatcondition having staged aEuropean Tour seniors tourn-ment the previous weekend.

The club has purposely notwatered the fairways because

My half can’t save Wales but at least they enjoyed the footy

it wanted to foster fast-running links which they were– especially when the ball wasrunning backwards. At theholes that required an uphillapproach shot, you had to besure to land the ball well on tothe green otherwise it wouldroll back into a bunker or soonjoin you at the foot of the hill. I am told it builds character.

I was partnering Bob againstLes and Neil whose combinedhandicap was 18 compared toour 40 (my 28 comes in handysometimes). That meant wehad 11 shots and, in a closegame, made the most of themto be one up coming down the18th. I hit my drive miles to theright but Bob was straightdown the middle. Unfortu-nately, we couldn’t find eitherso we shook hands on a half.

Since Porthcawl had lost theother four games, it was a solidvictory but it was only afriendly. The real match wasthe following day at Glamor-ganshire in which I couldn’tplay. On holiday in Exmoor, Imade a special journey backto play at Porthcawl but Icouldn’t stay for the Sunday.

Sadly, we lost 3-2 and thebow-tie award went back toWallasey. The award is abronze replica of a polka-dotbow-tie beloved of the doctorwho drove a yellow RollsRoyce. Immediately after thepresentation the teams satdown to watch the England-Germany game and it was sadto see our visitors’ euphoriagradually disappear.

In accordance with Wales’proud record of never takingpleasure from the sportingdisappointments of our neigh-bours, we didn’t laugh until atleast 30 minutes had gone.

I am not sure Dr Frankwould have approved of suchrank bad sportsmanship.

p.corrigan@independent.co.uk

TIP OF THE WEEK

No 56: KEEPING THE CORRECT LOFT THROUGH IMPACTIt is important to maintain the right amount of loft on the clubface through impact. If the club is swung too steeply, the clubface will be de-lofted and the ball will travel too low – and viceversa for a shallow swing plane. With either of these faults,distance control and ball flight will be inconsistent. It is easilycorrected with this routine: set up to the ball in your normalmanner, move the club to position the butt of the grip in yournavel, and hold down on the shaft to take your normal grip.Maintaining your posture, swing back normally to waist high,keeping the butt of the club in your navel. You should see theclub face remain square. Rotate the body back throughimpact and to waist high in the follow-through. Do this slowlyto achieve the correct feel. If the butt of the club stays in thenavel, the club face should remain square and with constantloft. Try to repeat this feel with your normal swing.

Simon Iliffe, Head Professional, Bramley GC, Surrey.www.theshortgame.co.uk

for the day, three-over for the week.But the reality was inescapable.

This is his sixth comeback eventfrom his self-enforced absence and,unless something on the miraculousside of remarkable comes to pass today,he will cross the pond still awaitinghis first victory of 2010. This will bethe longest winless stretch he has suf-fered from the start of a season since2002. Obviously the circumstancesare unique, but so were they when hereturned from an eight-monthabsence after knee surgery last year.He was out of the winner’s enclosurefor a whole two tournaments then.

Certainly Woods sounded discon-solate. “My game’s not quite sharpyet,” he said. “I hit it awesome, puttawful. I putt great, hit it awful. Rightnow I need to putt better.”

At least he claimed to have “foundsomething” on the greens yesterday.This is just what his backers need tohear before he plays The Open at whathe calls “my favourite course in theworld” in 12 days’ time. “I positivelyexpect Tiger to win at St Andrews,”said Colin Montgomerie recently. “Hewill win The Open on the greens. Ifhe brings his putting A game to theFife coast – and he usually does – thenhe can hit it around St Andrews withhis B game and still win.” But whatabout with his putting C game?

In a week in which he admitted beinginterviewed by federal agents abouthis involvement with Anthony Galea,a Canadian doctor under drug charges,and in which further reports emergedof an impending divorce, the last thingWoods required was for his most cher-ished club to desert him. He will spendtoday and then the next five days orso in Ireland praying his refound touchremains. He will pin plenty of faith inthe fact that his only two top fives ofthis campaign have come at the majors.

Another professional on the privatejet from Pennsylvania to Shannon thisevening is Justin Rose. By then, theEnglishman will hope to have securedhis St Andrews spot via a mini orderof merit on the PGA Tour. Last nighthe took a one-shot lead into the thirdround to continue his latest resurgence.

Two tournaments ago the 29-year-old won his first US title at the Memo-rial, last week he held a commandingadvantage in the final round beforeblowing up in spectacular fashion.Many feared that humbling experi-ence would precipitate another down-turn in Rose’s topsy-turvy career. Yethe bounded back so impressively inthe first two rounds. His 64 on Fridaywas particularly well-crafted and bodeswell for the Old Course. A dozen yearsafter he finished fourth as a 17-year-old amateur, The Open beckons again.

Tiger to enjoy Open seasonif he can cure putting blues

By James CorriganGOLF CORRESPONDENT

Tiger Woods will arrive in the BritishIsles tomorrow for the first time sinceone of sport’s seediest scandals erupt-ed. But while certain sections of themedia will arrive at the J P McManusPro-Am in Co Limerick intent onfinding out whether the divorcerumours are true, the golfing spot-light will fall upon his putter. It is fairto say this has not been the mostfunctional of relationships recently.

Yesterday at the AT&T Nationalin Philadelphia Woods took 31 moreputts in a 70 which left him well offthe pace. The fact he had finishedhis third round an hour before theleaders started theirs only extenu-ated the forlornness of his position.He wanted to fare so much better inthe event he once hosted, but whichsince the sponsors dropped him inthe wake of the revelations, he nowonly attends because his charity hasremained as the beneficiary.

Woods had made the cut with noth-ing to spare and was looking for abirdie surge to escape the backmark-ers. Instead, bogeys arrived on thefirst two holes and by the back nineWoods was fighting for a bit ofrespectability. He managed it withthree birdies to get back to level par

Looking for inspiration: Tiger Woods is enduring his longest winless stretch from the start of a season since 2002 GETTY IMAGES

Donald charges into contention in Paris

By James Corrigan

Luke Donald shone in Europe yetagain yesterday, but still has no plansto start playing more on this side ofthe Atlantic. A third-round 67 in theFrench Open at Paris’s Le GolfNational course gives Donald achance to continue a run which hasseen him finish second, first andthird in his previous three starts onEuropean soil.

With 18 holes to play the worldNo 7, taking another step towards

regaining the Ryder Cup place helost through injury two years ago,is seven-under, two adrift of thedefending champion, Martin Kaymer.The brilliant German took advantageof the calamitous finish of AlejandroCanizares, who visited water twice inhis final three holes and saw fourshots – and a three-stroke lead – slipaway in the process.

Kaymer will fear Donald most ofall. The Englishman outscored hisplaying partner, Rory McIlroy, by two,finishing in style with a 210-yard

three-iron over the water to 15 feet.Making the birdie putt completed aninward 31 and, having lowered hisscore each day, Donald said: “I’mmoving in the right direction. I doenjoy coming over, but it would be apretty big upheaval to play more inEurope. I want to play against thebest and most of the time the PGATour has stronger fields.”

Meanwhile, Lee Westwood and IanPoulter had to settle for 71s that keptthem at three-under and needingspectacular rounds today.

THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY•••••4 JULY 201020 Sport CRICKET

On the Front FootBy StephenBrenkley

There were two significantanniversaries in the gameyesterday. Charlie Barnett, theformer Gloucestershire andEngland opening batsman,would have been 100. TheLord’s Taverners were 60.Barnett scored 25,389 runs ina career lasting from 1927 to1948 and it would have beenmany more but for the SecondWorld War. The aggregate isnow not enough for his nameto be included in ‘WisdenCricketers’ Almanack’ everyyear since little old yellowchops dispensed with the listof scorers of 25,000 first-classruns and replaced it with a tophundred in 2006. Barnett,114th, was ahead of his time inbeing a dasher at the top ofthe innings. His 194 againstSomerset at Bath in 1934contained 11 sixes. He mighthave liked playing today. TheTaverners were born, fittingly,in the Tavern pub at Lord’s in1950. No praise can be toohigh for the charity work theyhave done in raising morethan £50m – their aim now isfor £3m a year – in helpingdisabled and disadvantagedchildren have access to sport.If you see youngsters withphysical disabilities at asporting event, the chancesare they will have arrived in anadapted mini-bus provided bythe Lord’s Taverners. Theirpresident is the televisionpersonality Chris Tarrant, whowas at Lord’s yesterday as theorganisation took over theground for their birthday. Hefollows such luminaries asJohn Mills, Eric Morecambeand HRH the Duke ofEdinburgh. It was the Dukewho instigated a game ofcricket in the ballroom at theDorchester Hotel at thecharity’s first meeting. WereTarrant to do likewise, thereaction would be fascinating.If there is anything dodgyabout the Taverners it mightbe their red, green and bluemaypole bat grip, one of whichis used by Andrew Strauss.

You can bank on NatWestSay what you like about banksbut one of sport’s mostenduring sponsorships hasbeen that of NatWest forcricket. This is their 30th yearand (presumably the survivalof capitalism permitting) theyintend to continue. The matchat Lord’s yesterday was the820th under their auspices,which must be some kind ofcorporate record. This hasembraced their name beforeTrophy, Series, Internationaland Challenge. Their firstinvolvement was in 1981 whenthey took over sponsorship ofwhat had started its life in 1963

Taverners raise a glass andcelebrate milestone at Lord’s

as the Knock-Out Competition.They moved into internationalcricket in 2000, since whenEngland have won 38 and lost44 of their NatWest one-dayers. The bank started incricket after taking over fromcricket’s first sponsor of all.With due respect to the bank,some of us hereabouts stillrefer to the oldest limited-overs knockout competition asthe Gillette Cup.

Watch a Titanic 3D clashThe first cricket match to betelevised in 3D will be shown inmore than 1,000 pubs onThursday. The first of the seriesof three between England andBangladesh at Trent Bridge hasbeen chosen for the singularoccasion – and if it was notTrent Bridge you might think ofgoing to the pub and seeingthe action there instead.During their research,broadcasters Sky had talks

with, among others, the filmdirector James Cameron(above). Cameron should knowwhat he is talking about sincenot only is he one of the moreardent admirers of the formatbut his 3D movie ‘Avatar’ is alsothe highest grossing of all timehaving so far clocked up$2.835bn (£1.85bn). If 3D helpscricket to do similarly at thebox office, it will all have beenworthwhile. And somethingyou may not have known:whereas old-fashioned 2Dcricket needs more than 20 cameras at a game to makeit watchable, 3D needs seven.

Vodafone don’t call it a dayAs this is turning into sponsor-ship Sunday, it is worth notingthat Brit, the new sponsors ofthe England team, may not beutterly overjoyed at theactions of the firm from whichthey took over. Having volun-tarily withdrawn after adecade, Vodafone have nowdecided to sponsor the Ashesin Australia this winter, thuscontinuing their name-identification with the game.

s.brenkley@independent.co.uk

MCC calling the shots in battle to save TestsBy Stephen Brenkley

The perilous future of Test cricketwas considered twice this week. Ini-tially it was the lame turn of the bodywho are supposed to run the game.They were soon to be outflanked bythe organisation that used to run itand on the evidence of current formought to make a revolutionary come-back takeover bid as soon as possible.The day after tomorrow might betoo late.

It would seem that the Interna-tional Cricket Council and Maryle-bone Cricket Club now have vastlydiffering views about what directionshould be taken. Essentially, the ICCare sitting around paying lip serviceto the problem in places like Singa-pore, where a Test has never beenand never will be played while theMCC world cricket committee, con-vening at Lord’s, the spiritual homeof the game, wants to take action now.

Consider the ICC’s proposals forTest cricket, if they can be investedwith such dignity. With Test matchcricket haemorrhaging support every-where except England, they have beenprevaricating for more than a year.

The occasion of the annual con-ference week, in Singapore as it hap-pens, was when they would finallyannounce a bold initiative. Therewould be a properly structured quad-rennial world Test championship,perhaps day-night Tests and at leastthe permanent introduction of theDecision Review System, the latterbeing already official policy.

Instead of which they postponed,for the fifth time, any constructiveaction. The mealy-mouthed state-ment merely said that the chief exec-utives committee and the governancereview committee, having had dis-cussions on the programme after 2015,will need more talks in September.

Haroon Lorgat, the ICC’s chiefexecutive, said: “Although we havemade progress, this exercise requiresmore work. We know there areexciting opportunities to protect andpromote all three formats but we mustexercise patience as we consider allaspects in introducing context andcontent in international cricket.”

This overlooks the prospect thatby 2015, Test cricket – except in Eng-land and when England travel abroad– may have all but expired, ambushedby Twenty20. Indeed it might bedefunct by September were it not forthe Ashes this winter. Anybody whowatched the recent series betweenWest Indies and South Africa, playedin empty grounds, could see wherethe game is headed. Watch any seriesanywhere and it is abundantly clearthat as a live sport, which ultimatelyis what makes it worthwhile as a tel-evised sport, the Test format has neverhad it so bad. Blame modern audi-ences, blame wretched marketing,blame Twenty20 – but, whatever, ifyou care, something needs to happen.

The day after this timid piece ofinaction, the MCC world cricket com-mittee spoke. It said in a way whichwas as unmealy-mouthed as it is pos-sible to be without breaching thediplomatic code that pertains in thesematters: “The MCC world cricket

committee fears for the future of Testmatch cricket and has called for theICC and its full member countries tobetter promote the longest and purestform of the game.

“Twelve months after stating theneed for a World Test Championshipand seven months since presenting ablueprint for such a competition tothe ICC, the committee feels that thefollowing necessary action should betaken immediately to reinvigorate Testcricket: ensure that Test matchesare played on pitches that offer a fairbalance between bat and ball;

financially reward players to ensurethat Test cricket is an attractive propo-sition; invest in marketing of theTest game to improve crowd andtelevision audiences.”

There is a crucial differencebetween the composition of the ICCgroups discussing this seminalrestructuring and the MCC worldcommittee. One former Test crick-eter will be involved in the ICC’s con-versations, David Richardson, theirhead of cricket. It will otherwise

include professional administrators.Whereas the MCC group is chairedby Tony Lewis, who with due respect,is one of its least illustrious members.The rest include former Test crick-eters and accomplished men such asAndy Flower, Martin Crowe, MikeAtherton, Rahul Dravid, Majid Khanand, as it happens, Dave Richardson.

MCC are also advocating the imme-diate introduction of day-night Testcricket, and while the evidence mightnot be overwhelming following theexperiment in the UAE earlier thissummer, it nonetheless indicates thatthey are willing to move decisively.

The former players are not daft.They recognise the lure of T20, butthey also see that it cannot exist in avacuum. Or not yet. MCC have donethe necessary research by investigat-ing cricket-viewing patters in India,whose clout only England can comeclose to matching. Only 11 per cent ofcricket watched on television in Indialast year was Test cricket comparedto 33 per cent as recently as 2004.

Once more revealing MCC’s acu-men, the MCC former players said:“The committee understands thatmarket forces will always dictate whattype of cricket spectators want towatch and that you cannot forcepeople to watch Test match cricket.At the moment, however, cricketauthorities around the world need tomake a more concerted effort toattract audiences to Test cricket.”

They can already see T20 gorgingon Test cricket’s historic remains.

They can already see Twenty20 gorgingon Test cricket’shistoric remains

Testing times: the MCC world committee includes England coach Andy Flower (above).They want day-night Tests and a world championship – and they want them now PA

THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY4 JULY 2010 ••••• 21SportCRICKET

Tait puts foot down as England crash

N othing in cricket, noth-ing at all, stirs the emo-tions like a fast bowler inhis pomp. It was truewhen Frederick Spof-

forth, the Demon himself, was ter-rorising English batsmen at the startof international cricket more than130 years ago and it was true againyesterday at Lord’s.

Shaun Tait, from the Adelaide Hills,delivered the quickest recorded spellin the history of the game. It derailedEngland’s innings in the fifth andfinal match of the NatWest Seriesand tingled the spines of everyonewho watched. One ball was clockedat 100mph, most of the rest wereabove 95mph.

It went a considerable way (at con-siderable speed) towards ensuringAustralia won by 42 runs despite avaliant England fightback led by theirsenior player, Paul Collingwood. Theseries thus finished at 3-2 after thetourists had been 3-0 down. On thebalance of play it was just about themost appropriate outcome. Australiawere out of the series until Taitentered it for the third match.

For four ferocious initial overs inthe sunshine from the Pavilion End,his slinging action, which makes theball seem as if it is coming from a cat-apult, was brutally incisive. He tookthe wickets of England’s captain,Andrew Strauss, and their stand-inNo 3, Michael Yardy, bowling bothof them with frightening pace –officially 95.4 and 96.7mph.

Strauss was trying to play a regu-lation forward prop but the ball burstthrough his defences and sent the offstump on a 15-yard cartwheel. Yardy,oddly promotedbecause of an injuryto Kevin Pietersen who was later outfor a duck, made the mistake of shoul-dering arms two balls later to onewhich moved, rapped him on thepads and went on to the stumps.

If that fatally undermined England’spursuit of 278, Tait was to return laterwhen it seemed Collingwood might

With his sixth one-day hundred inview and, who knows, perhaps an Eng-land victory after that, Collingwoodessayed a drive at another Tait thun-derbolt. It was a mere 93.7mph but ittook the inside edge of the bat and ric-ocheted into leg stump.

That really was that. Graeme Swannpirouetted awhile as the match con-cluded, striking 26off two overs, mak-ing typically merry. But Tait fittinglyended the affair by having him caughtin the covers. He had taken 4 for 48.

Tait was called up as an unlikelyreplacement for off-spinner NathanHauritz, who went home to Australiawith a foot injury. He happened to bein England playing Twenty20 forGlamorgan and the Australians recog-nised, belatedly,he might provide thecutting edge they had been missing.

Watching his compelling bursts

yesterday, it was obvious that he couldhave a part to play in the Ashes thiswinter. But Tait has withdrawn fromTest cricket, citing a rickety body. Thegame at the top level has also playedhavoc with his mind before now, butwhat his bowling can do to batsmen’sminds was evident from the faces onthe England balcony yesterday.

They would, and should, have beendisappointed that it came to that. Theycontinue to insist they are a work inprogress and precisely reflected theirown assessment. Australia were ratherlet off the hook. Constrained for mostof their innings, the tourists were ram-pant in the closing overs. From 107 for4 at the end of the 30th, they addedanother 170. Most of the damage wascaused when the second ball was com-pulsorily introduced after 34 overs.

If England muddled their bowling

strategy and failed to bowl with suf-ficient skill or intelligence, Australiajudged it perfectly. In veteran MikeHussey and relative newcomer ShaunMarsh they found a pair who refusedto panic and recognised that the clos-ing overs can yield untold bounties.

The ball was one factor, the battingpower play was another. Hussey andMarsh took it at the end of the 39th,giving them five overs to take advan-tage of the reimposed fielding restric-tions. It was what making hay in thesun is about: Hussey made 79 from 60balls having not struck a four until his38th ball; Marsh made 59 off 50. It wasthe best batting of the day after Eng-land had bowled beautifully early on.

Neither Swann (eight overs for 32)nor Yardy (five for 19) were permit-ted their full allocation. Strauss’s one-day captaincy is also a work in progress.

Tait and smile: Paul Collingwood’s leg stump goes flying as the Australian speedster Shaun Tait does the damage at Lord’s GETTY

By David LloydAT LORD’S

Just hang fire on that ticker-tapeparade and put the open-top bus backin the garage. Suddenly, thoughts ofwitnessing an Ashes and World Cupdouble in the space of a few monthsthis coming winter look a touchoptimistic, unless of course youhappen to be Australian.

The boys in yellow and greendished out a dose of reality at TheOval a few days ago when winningthe first of two dead rubbers by 78runs. But, just in case anyone overhere missed that result – what withthe prolonged wailing and gnashingof teeth after a certain football result– they gave England another going-over at Lord’s yesterday.

So where does all this leaveAndrew Strauss’s outfit? Well, pretty

much where they were before the startof a five-match NatWest Series whichfinished 3-2 in favour of the home sidebut concluded with Australia remind-ing everyone that there is plenty of lifeleft in the old dingo yet when it comesto 50-over cricket. England havealready made great strides in the Testarena under the guidance of Straussand their coach, Andy Flower, andwereonlyrecentlycrowned world T20champions. As for the “old-fashioned”one-day game, though, there remainsplenty of room for improvement.

In fairness, Strauss and Flower havebeen saying exactly that throughoutthe past fortnight. They know Aus-tralia will go into the 2011 World Cup,to be held on the subcontinent, as tour-nament favourites while England canexpect to be among a cluster of coun-tries considered capable, if everythingcomes together, of denying the holders

a fourth consecu-tive triumph.

Before thatmulti-nationjamboree, ofcourse, there is atasty little two-team affair to thinkabout. And whileboth camps will insist,with plenty of justifica-tion, that history will countfor nothing come ball onein Brisbane on 25 November,England can at least puff outtheir chests at the thought ofhaving beaten Australia in allthree forms of the game in thespace of 10 months. Best of all,they hold the Ashes, and willbelieve they can keep hold of them.

There is still a fair bit of waterto flow under the bridge before

battle recommences at the Gabba with,apart from anything else, both coun-tries playing Test series against Pak-istan. But while the electrifyingly quickopening spell of Shaun Tait (pictured)yesterday must leave Australia with

plenty of food for thought, it isdoubtful whether England’sAshes plans will have beengreatly influenced by eventsover the past fortnight.

Eoin Morgan, man ofthe NatWest Seriesafter making a won-

derful century at theRose Bowl and playing

consistently well throughout, looksto be the batsman most likely to breakinto the Test XI. But he failed to make

the most of his chance againstBangladesh earlier this summerand may not get another oppor-tunity to press his Ashes claims

unless injury creates an openingagainst Pakistan.

Craig Kieswetter probably deserveda go in the one-day side after con-tributing on both sides of the stumpsto England’s World T20 success.Against Australia, though, he has madeonly 69 runs in five innings, allowingMatt Prior to sleep a little easier in hisbed after some people had suggestedit was only a matter of time beforethe Somerset man became England’sbatsman-keeper in Test as well aslimited-overs cricket.

And as for those folk hoping Eng-land will go into the Ashes series witha more balanced side, namely fivefront-line bowlers rather than four,Luke Wright has done little to advancehis claims to be considered a full all-rounder. Indeed, Tim Bresnan nowappears the best bet for a role unlikelyto be created.

Fast and furious paceman clocks 100mph to allow Australia to pull away. By Stephen Brenkley at Lord’s

LORD’S SCOREBOARD

Australia won tossAUSTRALIA

Runs 6s 4s BlsS R Watson c Anderson b Broad 14 0 3 26†T D Paine b Swann 54 0 4 90*R T Ponting c Kieswetter b Broad 15 0 3 27C L White c Yardy b Swann 20 0 2 31S E Marsh c Morgan b Swann 59 3 4 50M E K Hussey c Anderson b Broad 79 2 5 60S P D Smith c Anderson b Broad 15 0 1 13J R Hopes not out 12 1 1 3R J Harris not out 0 0 0 0Extras (lb 3, w 6) 9Total (7 wkts, 50 overs) 277Fall: 1-27, 2-55, 3-104, 4-106, 5-213, 6-263, 7-265.Did not bat: D E Bollinger, S W Tait.Bowling: J M Anderson 10-0-75-0, T T Bresnan 10-1-48-0,S C J Broad 10-0-64-4, L J Wright 6-0-32-0, M H Yardy 5-0-19-0, G P Swann 8-0-32-3, P D Collingwood 1-0-4-0.

ENGLANDRuns 6s 4s Bls

*A J Strauss b Tait 6 0 1 11†C Kieswetter c Hussey b Harris 11 0 1 23M H Yardy b Tait 0 0 0 2P D Collingwood b Tait 95 2 7 121E J G Morgan c Marsh b Hopes 9 0 1 18K P Pietersen b Smith 0 0 0 4L J Wright c Marsh b Smith 21 0 1 37T T Bresnan run out (Ponting) 34 0 5 30G P Swann c Harris b Tait 33 0 5 21S C J Broad c and b Bollinger 3 0 0 8J M Anderson not out 5 0 1 4Extras (b 4, lb 6, w 8) 18Total (46.3 overs) 235Fall: 1-14, 2-19, 3-44, 4-72, 5-73, 6-129, 7-194, 8-194, 9-229.Bowling: S W Tait 8.3-0-48-4, D E Bollinger 8-0-26-1, R JHarris 8-1-38-1, J R Hopes 10-1-42-1, S P D Smith 10-0-49-2,M E K Hussey 2-0-22-0.Umpires: Aleem Dar (Pak) and N J Llong (Eng).T V Umpire: R A Kettleborough. Match referee: J Srinath (Ind).Australia win by 42 runs.England win series 3-2.Man of the Match: S W Tait (Aus). Man of the Series: E J G Morgan (Eng).

be about to conjure an improbablewin. Collingwood alone had stood upto Tait and taken him on, pulling himfor one six and top-edging him overlong-on for another. Drawing on allhis bloody-minded experience, Eng-land’s leading one-day run-scorerdragged his team back into the match.With Tim Bresnan he was steward-ing them towards their target. But Tait,thrilling still, was brought back.

Bresnan, until then as poised as adebutante with a book on her head,pushed into the covers and set off fora single. England needed the runs;maybe he was happy to allow Colling-wood to see off Tait. If so, it failed towork as Ponting made a direct hit.

Strauss’s one-day side remain a work in progress

THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY•••••4 JULY 201022 Sport TOUR DE FRANCE +

Inside LinesBy Alan Hubbard

Pressure is growing on theInternational OlympicCommittee to kick out SaudiArabia, who are likely to be theonly major nation not toinclude women in theirOlympic team for 2012. Qatarhave announced that theirsquad will feature a “smallcontingent” of women for thefirst time in London, a decisionperhaps accelerated by theinternational spotlight on theirWorld Cup bid. Only threecountries – Saudi Arabia, Qatarand Brunei, who rarely sendany athletes to the Olympics –among the IOC’s 205 membernations have never beenrepresented by femalecompetitors since womenmade their debut in Paris 110years ago. Now Anita DeFrantz,the former US Olympic rowingmedallist who chairs the IOC’sinfluential Women and Sports

Commission, says patience iswearing thin and it is time theSaudis changed their policy orface being barred from theGames. Should Saudi Arabia,where women are not allowedto play or watch sport in public,send a male-only team toLondon, we understand theywill face protests from equalrights and women’s groupswhich threaten to disrupt theGames. “We keep asking themwhy not,” says the 58-year-oldlawyer DeFrantz. “But I amhopeful that by 2012 everyNational Olympic Committeewill have competitive opportu-nities for women.” Knowing theSaudi authorities, she would beunwise to bet on it.

Davies Jnr takes gambleThe resignation last week ofthe Betfair managing director,Mark Davies, one of the

gaming industry’s best-knownfigures, has caused a stir inbetting circles. The son of theBBC commentator Barry, theformer Cambridge cox Davies,39, has quit the punter-friendlyinternet betting exchange hehelped found after 10 years in

which he became a key figurein their global success. AsBetfair’s public face, he hasbeen behind many of theevents sponsored by thecompany. He is to start his ownconsultancy and writes on hisblog: “I haven’t been able tooffer Betfair as much as I’d likeso it’s time to move on.” Mean-time, dad warbles on melliflu-ously at Wimbledon, where hehas managed to upset the PCbrigade by suggesting thatteenager Tara Moore was“chunkily built”.

Militant Small faces banThe former British light-middleweight championAnthony Small has alwaysbeen one of the sport’s moreobnoxious creatures, bigger ofmouth than talent. He is evenmore unlikeable now he haschanged his name to Abdul

Haqq and was last seenscreaming “murderers” atBritish troops returning fromAfghanistan. At 28, he says heintends to continue, thoughthe British Boxing Board ofControl may have other ideasand his manager, FrankWarren, has dropped him,saying: “He’s a disgrace.”

Gary’s different strokesThe former Walker Cup captainGary Wolstenholme is livingproof that old golfers neverdie, they just go on to show thekids how it is done. A few daysshort of his 50th birthday,Wolstenholme (left) has wonhis first tournament as a pro,the PGA’s Stoke NaylandChampionship, by four strokes,beating some of the country’sbest young ’uns in the process.

insidelines@independent.co.uk

Protests at 2012 ifSaudis say‘no girlsallowed’

By Alasdair FotheringhamIN ROTTERDAM

A decade after he won the Tour deFrance’s opening time-trial, Britain’sDavid Millar rolled back the years inyesterday’s prologue here when hestormed to a fine third place behindthe overwhelming favourite, FabianCancellara of Switzerland.

Largely forgotten in the mediaexcitement over the new British teamSky making their Tour debut, the 33-year-old Scotwas just three secondsdown on the early leader, Germany’sTony Martin, at the midway check-point. His tall, painfully lean figurecrouched over the bars of his time-trial bike, the Garmin-Slipstreamrider said later he had barely touchedthe brakes as he screamed round thecorners of the rain-soaked 9km city-centre course. He finished just 20seconds down on the Olympic time-trial gold medallist Cancellara, theclosest he has come to repeating hissurprising victory as a rookie Tourrider 10 years ago.

“I knew it would be difficult to beat

the top times but I wanted to have agood try anyway,” Millar, who remainsBritain’s last Tour leader, said later.

“I had a bad fall earlier this springso I’ve learned not to take too manyrisks, but riding fast in the rain hasalways been one of my strong points.Today I could take advantage of that.”

Millar was the best of Britain’s eightstarters – the highest number since1968 – pipping the British nationalchampion, Geraint Thomas, whoended up fifth, by three seconds.

In contrast, Bradley Wiggins had alow-key start, finishing 56 secondsdown on Cancellara. The 30-year-oldLondoner started three hours beforethe majority of the favourites andhoped to take advantage of the humid,hot air that usually precedes thunder-storms, which were forecast forRotterdam yesterday evening.

Scientists working for BritishCycling prior to the 2008 Olympicshad discovered that such conditionscan save as much as a tenth of a sec-ond per kilometre. But the heavenssuddenly opened and Wiggins’s earlystart saw him ploughing through

sheeting, torrential rain. Wiggins’soverriding goal switched from tryingto gain time on his rivals to the moremundane one of avoiding crashes.

The weather then dried up slight-ly, providing an opportunity Millarwas quick to use.

Sky team officials later said thatWiggins had got through the stagewithout any mishaps – no smallachievement considering that two rid-ers quit the race in ambulances afterskidding on the treacherous surface.But Wiggins felt that his performancewas only a minor setback.Differences between the overallfavourites when the Tour finishes inParis on 25 July will be measured inminutes, not seconds.

“I always said it wasn’t going to beabout the prologue,” Wiggins said.“There was no point in taking risksand losing three minutes.”

British success in the Tour’s open-ing weekend now hinges on HTC-Columbia’s Mark Cavendish, the Manxsprinter who will be looking to securethe 11th Tour stage win of his careerthis afternoon in Brussels.

By Alasdair FotheringhamCYCLING CORRESPONDENT

Lance Armstrong has rejecteda fresh series of doping accu-sations from his former team-mate Floyd Landis relating toalleged drug use within Arm-strong’s former squad, USPostal. For the second time in10 weeks, Landis made theallegations in an interview withthe Wall Street Journal, pub-lished hours before the 38-year-old RadioShack leader rolleddown the start ramp of whatwill be his final Tour.

“The article repeats many ofLandis’s baseless and alreadydiscredited claims,” Armstrongargued. “His credibility is likea carton of sour milk; once youtake the first sip, you don’t haveto drink the rest to know it hasall gone bad.”

In May, Landis accused Arm-strong and the team manager,Johan Bruyneel, of organisingdoping inside US Postal, towhich Landis belonged from2002 to 2004, and his secondinterview provided a wealth ofnew detail. Among his claimswere that the squad membersonce had an hour-long bloodtransfusion in a team bus thatconveniently “broke down” onan isolated mountain road.

On another occasion duringthe 2002 Tour, he claimed, heand three other riders – includ-ing Armstrong – had transfu-sions in a hotel room with plas-tic taped over the air-condition-ing unit and its smoke detec-tors ripped out to ensure anyhidden cameras were blocked.

Landis also claimed that upto 60 team bikes, made byAmerican company Trek, weresold off to provide cash for thedoping programs, and that Arm-strong himself gave Landis 20testosterone patches for the2002 Tour while having coffee

Fresh doping claimsare just ‘sour milk’insists Armstrong

with Armstrong’s family. Landis does get some new back-up, but not much. Three otherPostal riders told the Wall StreetJournal that doping took place,but would not be named.

Evidence of bikes-for-drugsdeals is equally blurry. Trekhave confirmed team bikeswould appear for sale on theinternet, but other teams havepointed out to The Independenton Sunday that while the tax-man might not hear much aboutit, it is not unusual for riders tosell off soon-to-be-outdatedteam material at the end ofthe season.

While the claims are remark-ably detailed and will do noth-ing to lessen the clouds of sus-picion surrounding Armstrong,direct evidence remains scarce.

What is perhaps most tellingabout the Landis interview andthe mindset of riders involvedin doping is his expressions ofadmiration for Armstrongdespite claiming time and againthat cycling’s biggest ever starconsistently cheated. “He’s gothis image, and then he’s got thereality,” Landis said. “He wasthe best bicycle racer in theworld. I could respect that.”

Red alert: ‘The article repeatsmany of Floyd Landis’s baselessclaims,’ says Lance Armstrong

Clap happy: Bradley Wiggins gets good support but it was a better day for his fellow Briton David Millar, who was third AFP/GETTY

Millar best of the Brits

THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY4 JULY 2010 ••••• 23SportATHLETICS +

By Rob Maul

Tai Woffinden, speedway’slatest prodigy, makes hisBritish Grand Prix debut inCardiff next Saturday, but the19-year-old – born in northLincolnshire yet raised inPerth, Australia – admits thiscould be the first and only timehe races on “home soil” in GB colours if the nationalgoverning body, the BritishSpeedway Promoters’Association (BSPA), continueto interfere with hisinternational itinerary.

Handed a lucrative wildcardfor this year’s series, havingtwice been a non-startingreserve at the MillenniumStadium, the Wolverhampton

Wolves captain has so farproduced a modest return: 22 points from five races, witha creditable semi-final inPoland two weeks ago. Butbefore the 10th annualshowpiece in Cardiff, theScunthorpe-born Elite Leaguerider has vented his frustrationover what he feels is a lack ofcompromise by the authoritiesduring the domestic calendar.

He is still angry over thenon-negotiable decision bythe BSPA that meant he had toride at Sheffield two monthsago in the first British semi-final, less than 24 hours beforeofficial practice at the SwedishGP in Gothenburg. “I had toput my helmet and kevlarsover my jeans and T-shirt,

otherwise I’d have missed it,”he says. Woffinden (above) isnot afraid to switch allegiancesto the country where he spentmost of his formative life. Evenif it meant initially forfeiting his

wildcard entry. “It’s my life andI have to do what is best forme,” he said. “[Changingnationalities] is always nigglingin the back of my mind.

“There’s a possibility to dothat in a couple of years. I would lose my Grand Prixspot if I chose to representAustralia. But at least then I wouldn’t have to have all thisnonsense – like making melate for a Grand Prix. It’s typicalBritish speedway; they don’twant to help the riders out atall. It seems as though theywant to make it harder.

“I hope [the BSPA] knowhow hard it is to be good atspeedway, given all thetravelling and logisticsinvolved, because when they

do something like that, itdoesn’t make life any easier. Ifyou want an English rider todo well, everything needs torun smoothly.”

Woffinden’s only regret nextweekend will be the fact hisfather Rob, a former speedwayrider who died from cancer inJanuary, will not be there.“Dad had a massive influenceon my career,” said Woffinden.“He was with me pretty muchevery day for the last fiveyears. He became more of afriend than a dad. Everything I know now, whether it’s inspeedway or life, came fromhim and my mum.”

The British Speedway GrandPrix is on Sky Sports 2 from

4.30pm next Saturday

Teenagesensationmay turnhis backon Britain

abuse. That’s what you do when you’re11 and 12. I’ve never actually had thepleasure of meeting him – outside ofthose memories. There’s a mural atour school of the pair of us together.”

Sackey, the dreadlocked former Eng-land wing who has left London Waspsfor Jonny Wilkinson’s Toulon thissummer, must be a rare individual. Itis difficult to imagine the amiableRooney provoking anyone’s ire. Youcould hardly find a more mellowfellow – unless you happened to bumpinto the Lightning Bolt, perhaps.

Rooney’s running ability might notbe on the same out-of-this-world scaleas Usain Bolt’s (no other mere mor-tal’s has been) but in terms of raw, nat-ural talent he is the British equivalentof the young, beanpole Jamaican. Bothare 23, both have been reported asbeing 6ft 5in. The man whodestroyedthe 100m and 200m world records is1.96m tall, which does indeed convertto 6ft 5in. Rooney, however, is in fact1.98m – 6ft 6in – which makes himbigger than Bolt in at least one respect.

“But he’s a phenomenal athlete,” theSouth Londoner says. “I think if hetrained hard enough for 400m hewould break the world record but atthe moment he’s not bothered. Hedoesn’t want to do it. I’d love to racehim at 400m.”

As it happens, there is a vacancy atthe top of the global tree in the one-lap event. LaShawn Merritt, the Amer-ican who was a runaway winner at theBeijing Olympics and the World Cham-pionships in Berlin, is out of commis-sion, having tested positive for theanabolic steroid dehydroepiandros-terone, which he claims was containedin an over-the-counter male enhance-ment product he had taken.

“I was gutted when I heard,” Rooneysays. “Obviously he’s innocent untilproven guilty, but I was genuinely dis-appointed. I enjoyed competing againsthim. He was a nice guy and an amaz-ing runner and you find out he’s faileda drugs test. It’s just frustrating. Butwhat can you do?”

He added: “If you look past the fast

times in which he won the finals inBeijing and Berlin, second and thirdwere not that quick. If you take himout, it’s a low 44sec to win it and that’ssomething I feel I’m capable of doing.So, yeah, the door is open at worldlevel. It’s about who turns up on theday and runs well rather than who’staken the most drugs.”

Not that there is a global champi-onship on the horizon for Rooney thissummer, just the continental onelooming in the Catalan capital, beyond the Aviva British Grand PrixDiamond League meeting at Gates-head next Saturday. “I’m quite excited,”he says of the European Champi-onships, which run from 27 July to 1 August in the 1992 Olympic Stadium.“People can build me up as favourite.I’m just going to stay focused on myself. It should be interesting. Itshould be really fun.”

More fun than that other Rooneychap managed to squeeze out of his2010 international championshipsojourn, one suspects.

The ‘otherRooney’ is ahot prospectfor BarcelonaSprinter aims to grab back one of Britain’s sportingcrown jewels, the 400m, at European showpiece

By Simon TurnbullATHLETICS CORRESPONDENT

At about the same time that WayneRooney was packing his bags inBloemfontein last Sunday followingEngland’s plodding, leaden WorldCup campaign, Martyn Rooney wasgalloping down the home straight atthe Alexander Stadium in Birming-ham looking every inch the kind ofthoroughbred capable of making thewinner’s enclosure at a major inter-national sporting event this summer.

The distinctive figure of the tall,upright Croydon Harrier won themen’s 400m final at the British trialsfor the European Championships bya considerable margin, breaking 45seconds for the second time thissummer. He will travel to Barcelonain three weeks’ time as favourite fora continental crown that was onceregarded as part and parcel of Britain’ssporting crown jewels, having beenheld between 1986 and 1998 by RogerBlack (who won twice in succession),Du’aine Ladejo and Iwan Thomas.

Like his 24-year-old footballingnamesake, the running Rooney, 23,has long been regarded as a rare tal-ent in his particular sporting sphere.Back in 2005, at 18, he ran for the sen-ior British team in the 4 x 400m relayat the World Championships inHelsinki, clocking a 44.8sec split andmissing a medal by one place in thefinal. He finished sixth in the indi-vidual 400m final at the BeijingOlympics in 2008 but was hamstrungby injury last season, bowing out at

the semi-final stage at the WorldChampionships in Berlin.

This summer Rooney looks to beback in the groove, ready to take hislifetime best from 44.60sec downtowards Thomas’s British record fig-ures of 44.36. Not that he can expectto make a name exclusively for him-self, given that he happens to share itwith the mega-profile ManchesterUnited man.

“It really doesn’t bother me,” Rooneysays, taking a swig of Ribena before alunchtime physio session at his EastMidlands training base, the UK Ath-letics High Performance Centre atLoughborough University. “If he wasrubbish it would be different but he’spretty awesome at what he does. It’scool. It makes it easier for me to bemarketed as an athlete and there’snothing bad with the press attentionit brings. It’s all positive stuff.

“It could be a lot worse,” he added.“I could have had the same name assomeone who’s been in a drugs scan-dal or something like that.”

Or perhaps his sporting talents mighthave lain in a different sporting arena,leaving him trying to make his markas another footballing Rooney? “I lovedplaying football when I was youngerbut it was only in the playground atschool,” the lifelong Crystal Palacefan reflects. “I didn’t play in the schoolteam. I went to a big rugby school,John Fisher School in Purley.

“Paul Sackey went to John Fisher.He was in the sixth form when I wentthere. I remember running away fromhim, as a leery first year, shouting

Title contender: Martyn Rooney says, ‘I could have had the same name as someone who’s been in a drugs scandal’ DAVID ASHDOWN

SPEEDWAY

THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY•••••4 JULY 201024 Sport

This Week

BASEBALLAmerican League: Arizona Diamondbacks 12 LosAngeles Dodgers 5; Atlanta Braves 4 Florida Marlins3; Boston Red Sox 3 Baltimore Orioles 2; Chicago Cubs0 Cincinnati Reds 12; Cleveland Indians 0 OaklandAthletics 3; Colorado Rockies 6 San Francisco Giants3; Detroit Tigers 7 Seattle Mariners 1; LA Angels 1Kansas City Royals 2; Minnesota Twins 2 Tampa BayRays 1; New York Yankees 1 Toronto Blue Jays 6; Pitts-burgh Pirates 2 Philadelphia Phillies 0; San DiegoPadres 3 Houston Astros 0; St Louis Cardinals 5 Mil-waukee Brewers 0; Texas Rangers 3 Chicago WhiteSox 5; Washington Nationals 3 New York Mets 5.

CANOEINGICF European Championships Seniors (Trasona,Sp): Men’s: K1 1000m: 1M Hoff (Ger) 3min 33.018sec;2A Yurenia (Bela) 3:34.148; 3R Holten Poulsen (Den)3:35.228. Other: 8 T Brabants (GB) 3:41.888. K21000m: 1D Pajic & D Stanojevic (Serb) 3min 20.597sec;2 C Carre & V Lecrubier (Fr) 3:22.282; 3 A Battelli & SPierotti (It) 3:23.352; 4 J Boyton & E Rutherford (GB)3:24.167. K4 1000m: 1 H Bertz, N Brockl, M Grob, TWieskotter (Ger) 2min 54.016sec; 2R Dombi, G Hadv-ina, R Kokeny, T Szalai (Hun) 2:54.961; 3 D Havel, OHorsky, J Soucek, J Sterba (Cz Rep) 2:55.316. Other:8 A Daniels, B Farrell, S Hastings, P Wycherley (GB)2:57.566. Women’s: K1 1000m: 1 R Cawthorn (GB)3min 58.346sec; 2F Weber (Ger) 4:00.806; 3B Miko-lajczyk (Pol) 4:01.276.

CYCLINGTour de France: Prologue (8.9km, Rotterdam,Holl): Leading positions: 1 F Cancellara (Swit) TeamSaxo Bank 10min; 2 T Martin (Ger) Team HTC-Co-lumbia +10sec; 3 D Millar (GB) Garmin-Transitions+20; 4 L Armstrong (US) Team RadioShack +22; 5 GThomas (GB) Sky Pro Cycling +23; 6 A Contador (Sp)Astana +27; 7 T Farrar (US) Garmin-Transitions +28;8 L Leipheimer (US) Team RadioShack same time;9 E Boasson Hagen (Nor) Sky Pro Cycling +32; 10 LGerdemann (Ger) Team Milram +35; 11 B Bookwal-ter (US) BMC Racing Team; 12 A Malori (It) Lampre-Farnese; 13 J Brajkovic (Slo) Team RadioShack; 14M Rogers Aus) Team HTC-Columbia all s/t; 15 R Plaza(Sp) Caisse d’Epargne +36; 16 N Terpstra (Hol) TeamMilram; 17 A Kloeden (Ger) Team RadioShack s/t;18 V Kiryienka (Bela) Caisse d’Epargne +38; 19 A Vi-nokourov (Kaz) Astana+38; 20 R Kreuziger (Cz Rep)Liquigas-Doimo s/t.

GOLFEuropean Tour French Open (Paris, Fr): Leadingthird-round scores (GB & Ire unless stated): 204M Kaymer (Ger) 66 67 71. 205 S Webster 69 66 70;A Canizares (Sp) 66 66 73. 206 M A Jimenez (Sp) 71

For the Record

World Cup Day 23

TODAYRUGBY LEAGUE (3.0 unless stated): Engage SuperLeague: Bradford v Hull; Castleford v Huddersfield(3.30); Catalans Dragons v Wigan (7.15); Crusaders RLv Warrington; Wakefield v Hull KR (3.30). Co-Opera-tive Championship: Batley v Sheffield; Keighley vFeatherstone.CRICKET: Tour Match (one day): England Lions v WestIndies A (New Road). Friends Provident Twenty20:Derbyshire v Lancashire (Chesterfield); Leicestershirev Nottinghamshire (Grace Road); Somerset v Middle-sex (Taunton); Surrey v Glamorgan (The Oval); Essex vHampshire (Chelmsford); Yorkshire v Warwickshire(Headingley); Kent v Gloucestershire (Canterbury). Varsity Match (one day): Oxford University v Cam-bridge University (Lord’s). TENNIS (final day): ATP & WTA Tours: Wimbledon.GOLF (final round): Alstom Open de France (Paris).AT&T National (Aronimink, Philadelphia).RACING: AYR; BRIGHTON; Limerick; Market Rasen.

TOMORROWCRICKET: Twenty20 Match:Pakistan v Australia (Edg-baston). Tour Match (one day): Middlesex v Bangladesh(Lord’s). LV County Championship First Division:Essex v Nottinghamshire (Chelmsford); Yorkshire v War-wickshire (Headingley); Hampshire v Kent (The RoseBowl). Second Division:Northamptonshire v Glamor-gan (Northampton). Friends Provident Twenty20:

Lancashire v Worcestershire (Old Trafford). ICC WorldLeague First Division (one day): Afghanistan v Kenya(Amstelveen); Ireland v Scotland (Voorburg); Hollandv Canada (Rotterdam). TENNIS (to 11 July): ATP Tour: Campbell’s Hall of FameChampionships (Newport, Rhode Island); Davis CupQuarter-Finals/Zonal Second Round. WTA Tour: GDFSuez Grand Prix (Budapest, Hungary); Collector SwedishOpen (Bastad, Sweden).RACING: BATH; Newton Abbot; RIPON; WINDSOR.

TUESDAYFOOTBALL: World Cup Semi-Final: Uruguay v Hol-land (7.30).CRICKET: Twenty20 Match:Pakistan v Australia (Edg-baston). Tour Match (one day): England Lions v IndiaA (New Road). Varsity Match (four days): Oxford Uni-versity v Cambridge University (The Parks).RACING: PONTEFRACT; SOUTHWELL (AW); Uttoxeter;WOLVERHAMPTON (AW).

WEDNESDAYFOOTBALL: World Cup Semi-Final: Germany vParaguay/Spain (7.30).CRICKET: LV County Championship Second Division:Sussex v Gloucestershire (Arundel). Friends ProvidentTwenty20: Leicestershire v Worcestershire (GraceRoad). ICC World League First Division (one day):Kenya v Scotland (Rotterdam); Canada v Ireland(Amstelveen); Holland v Afghanistan (Voorburg).

RUGBY LEAGUE: State of Origin Series: New SouthWales v Queensland (10am, ANZ Stadium).RACING:CATTERICK; KEMPTON (AW); LINGFIELD; NEW-MARKET; Worcester.

THURSDAYFOOTBALL: Friendly: Forfar v Motherwell (7.30).CRICKET: First One-Day International: England vBangladesh (Trent Bridge). Tour Matches (two days):Derbyshire v Australia (Derby); Leicestershire v Pak-istan (Grace Road). Friends Provident Twenty20:Sur-rey v Middlesex (The Oval).RUGBY LEAGUE: Co-Operative Championship:Feath-erstone v Leigh (7.30).GOLF (first round of four): Barclays Scottish Open (LochLomond). John Deere Classic (Deere Run, Illinois).RACING: DONCASTER; EPSOM; FOLKESTONE; NEW-MARKET; WARWICK.

FRIDAYFOOTBALL: Friendlies: AFC Emley v Huddersfield(7.30); Brigg Town v Grimsby (7.0); Buxton v Maccles-field (7.45); Southend v Ipswich (7.45).CRICKET: Triangular Series One-Day International:India v New Zealand (Dambulla). Friends ProvidentTwenty20:Worcestershire v Durham (New Road); Kentv Essex (The Oval); Somerset v Hampshire (Taunton);Lancashire v Yorkshire (Old Trafford); Glamorgan vSurrey (Swalec Stadium); Northamptonshire v War-wickshire (Northampton). ICC World League First

Division (one day): Holland v Ireland (Amstelveen);Afghanistan v Scotland (Rotterdam); Canada v Kenya(Voorburg).RUGBY LEAGUE: Engage Super League (8.0 unlessstated): Harlequins RL v Bradford; Hull KR v Leeds; St Helens v Catalans Dragons; Wigan v Salford.RACING:ASCOT; CHEPSTOW; CHESTER; NEWBURY; NEW-MARKET; YORK.

SATURDAYFOOTBALL (3.0 unless stated):World Cup Third/FourthPlace Play-off: tbc (7.30). Friendlies: AFC Wimbledonv Charlton; Arnold Town v Notts County; Berwick Rangersv Ashington; Bournemouth v Tottenham; Bury v Burn-ley; Dareham Town v Norwich; Dover v Colchester; Farn-borough v Reading; Ilkeston v Burton Albion; Leaming-ton v Cheltenham; Long Buckby v Northampton; SKSturm Graz v Blackburn (4.0); Staines Town v LincolnCity (4.0); Sydney FC v Everton (10.30am); WakefieldFC v Huddersfield; Weymouth v Torquay.CRICKET: First Test: Sri Lanka v India (Galle). SecondODI: England v Bangladesh (Bristol). Friends Provi-dent Twenty20: Middlesex v Hampshire (Uxbridge).RUGBY LEAGUE: Engage Super League: Wakefield vHull (7.30). Co-Operative Championship: Toulouse vSheffield (7.0).RUGBY UNION: Tri-Nations Series: New Zealand vSouth Africa (3.0).RACING: ASCOT; CHESTER; HAMILTON; NOTTINGHAM;SALISBURY; YORK.

Racing ResultsBEVERLEY

Going: Good to firm2.10 1. SPARTIC (J Doyle) 11-2; 2. Dark Dune 12-1;3. Dubai Glory 9-4. 14 ran. 13-8 fav Cathcart Cas-tle (4th). 3/4l, 1/2l. (A McCabe). Tote: £7.70; £2.20,£2.70, £1.70. Exacta: £47.40. CSF: £68.66. NR: LadyAmakhala.2.45 1. AHTOUG (A Ajtebi) 3-1; 2. El Viento 9-2;3. Lady Royale 11-4 fav. 10 ran. 1l, 1/2l. (M Al Za-rooni). Tote: £3.80; £1.30, £2.90, £1.40. Exacta:£19.80. CSF: £17.73. NR: Ice Trooper.3.15 1. STONEHAUGH (I Brennan) 8-1; 2. SummerDancer 13-2; 3. Amethyst Dawn 9-4 fav. 8 ran.hd, 11/4l. (J H Johnson). Tote: £10.20; £2.80, £2.10,£1.20. Exacta: £71.90. Tricast: £159.98. CSF: £61.89.NR’s: Dabbers Ridge, Shotley Mac, West End Lad.3.50 1. ATLANTIC BEACH (S De Sousa) 5-4 fav;2. Noodles Blue Boy 7-4; 3. Mullglen 7-1. 5 ran.21/4l, shd. (D O’Meara). Tote: £2.30; £1.80, £1.10.Exacta: £3.10. CSF: £3.78. 4.25 1. MEJD (S Hitchcott) 8-1; 2. Tribal Myth 9-2;3. Cabal 11-10 fav. 6 ran. 11/4l, 1l. (M Channon).Tote: £9.70; £3.20, £3.00. Exacta: £37.20. CSF:£46.11. NR: Vito Volterra.5.00 1. MAGIC MILLIE (S De Sousa) 11-8 fav; 2.Enchanting Smile 11-2; 3. Venture Girl 9-1. 8 ran.13/4l, 11/4l. (D O’Meara). Tote: £2.30; £1.60, £1.80,£1.70. Exacta: £10.80. Tricast: £56.33. CSF: £10.99. 5.35 1. ALIS AQUILAE (D Swift) 22-1; 2. SharpEclipse 8-11 fav; 3. Tislaam 14-1. 11 ran. 11/2l, 6l.(T Etherington). Tote: £38.80; £8.60, £1.10, £3.40.Exacta: £92.40. CSF: £41.87. NR’s: Mottley Crewe,Prince Of Nama, Rio’s Girl.Placepot: £71.90. Quadpot: £32.50. Place 6: £63.03. Place 5: £23.88.

HAYDOCK

Going: Sprint: good to firm; remainder: good-goodto firm in places2.15 1. ANHAR (T Durcan) 10-1; 2. Bowdler’s Magic11-2; 3. Mecox Bay 16-1. 5 ran. 2-5 fav Berling (4th).11/2l, 1l. (S Bin Suroor). Tote: £8.30; £3.40, £2.10.Exacta: £38.30. CSF: £54.93. NR’s: Kingdom Of Mun-ster, Tipperary Boutique.2.50 1. BARSHIBA (Hayley Turner) 7-2; 2. Polly’sMark 3-1 fav; 3. Lady Jane Digby 11-1. 10 ran. 3/4l,11/2l. (D Elsworth). Tote: £4.50; £1.60, £1.60,£3.00. Exacta: £17.60. Trifecta: £137.20. CSF:£14.39. NR’s: Clowance, Flame Of Gibraltar.3.25 1. DANGEROUS MIDGE (M Dwyer) 17-2; 2. De-molition 16-1; 3. Fiery Lad 16-1. 14 ran. 10-3 favHanoverian Baron (9th). 8l, 1/2l. (B Meehan).Tote: £9.80; £3.30, £4.90, £6.10. Exacta: £202.20.Tricast: £2145.47. Trifecta: £2130.70. CSF: £131.52.NR’s: Itlaaq, Red Cadeaux, Siberian Tiger.4.00 1. BATED BREATH (R Hughes) 4-5 fav; 2. Lit-tle Garcon 11-2; 3. Secret Millionaire 28-1. 7 ran.3l, 31/4l. (R Charlton). Tote: £1.80; £1.20, £3.20. Ex-acta: £5.40. Tricast: £63.01. CSF: £5.39. NR’s: Falas-teen, Gouray Girl, Sunraider.4.35 1. GENKI (S Drowne) 13-8 fav; 2. Rileyskeep-ingfaith 7-1; 3. Castles In The Air 9-2. 8 ran. nk,hd. (R Charlton). Tote: £3.00; £1.40, £2.10, £1.70.Exacta: £14.40. CSF: £13.99. NR’s: Fullandby,Medicean Man, Redford.5.10 1. HAZELRIGG (D Allan) 2-1 fav; 2. Foxy Music3-1; 3. Haajes 7-2. 6 ran. nk, 21/2l. (T Easterby).Tote: £2.60; £1.70, £2.10. Exacta: £8.00. Tricast:£18.47. CSF: £8.38. NR’s: Avertor, Taurus Twins.5.45 1. SIR FRANK WAPPAT (J Fanning) 8-1; 2.Star Addition 14-1; 3. War And Peace 8-1. 9 ran.2-1 fav Yabtree (5th). 3/4l, 3/4l. (M Johnston). Tote:£9.10; £2.50, £2.80, £2.10. Exacta: £87.10. Tricast:£925.72. CSF: £112.00. NR’s: Arabian Spirit, Astrodon-na, Oh So Saucy.Placepot: £349.70. Quadpot: £46.40. Place 6: £127.10. Place 5: £19.99.

LEICESTER

Going: Good to firm-firm in places1.55 1. THALIA GRACE (Kirsty Milczarek) 16-1; 2.Posy Fossil 12-1; 3. Grand Zafeen 9-1. 12 ran. 3-1fav Decency (6th). 11/2l, 1l. (L M Hall). Tote: £15.50;£6.40, £4.70, £3.40. Exacta: £301.40. Tricast:£1860.37. CSF: £182.30. 2.30 1. SILLY BILLY (P Dobbs) 11-1; 2. Lord Of TheStorm 40-1; 3. Barista 10-1. 9 ran. 8-11 fav Nel-lie Ellis (5th). nk, 11/4l. (S Kirk). Tote: £17.20; £4.00,£7.20, £2.90. Exacta: £184.20. CSF: £362.09. NR’s:Artic Rose, Dark Times.

3.00 1. BOLLIN DOLLY (D Nolan) 2-1 fav; 2. EthicsGirl 10-1; 3. Tut 5-2. 5 ran. 3l, 1l. (T Easterby). Tote:£2.20; £1.40, £2.90. Exacta: £27.60. CSF: £20.70.NR’s: Bakongo, Dream In Waiting, Levitation.3.35 1. GOOLAGONG (J Mitchell) 6-1; 2. Sir Bruno12-1; 3. Jimmy The Poacher 9-1. 10 ran. 15-8 favRasselas (7th). 13/4l, 33/4l. (R Beckett). Tote:£10.10; £2.50, £3.30, £3.00. Exacta: £97.00. CSF:£75.63. NR’s: Red Yarn, Stefanki.4.10 1. ARABIAN MIRAGE (P Cosgrave) 10-1; 2.Flowing Cape 17-2; 3. Tesslam 15-8 fav. 7 ran. 11/2l,11/2l. (B Meehan). Tote: £8.30; £3.40, £2.30. Ex-acta: £73.70. Tricast: £228.37. Trifecta: £143.20. CSF:£86.74. NR: Averoo.4.45 1. MELODY IN THE MIST (N Callan) 3-1; 2.Pherousa 15-8 fav; 3. Miss Polly Plum 6-1. 9 ran.3/4l, 23/4l. (T D Barron). Tote: £3.60; £1.40, £1.40,£2.00. Exacta: £10.30. Tricast: £30.74. Trifecta:£17.90. CSF: £9.06. NR: Beauty Pageant.5.20 1. MACANTA (J Mitchell) 7-2; 2. Khajaaly 13-2;3. Second To Nun 7-1. 11 ran. 3-1 fav Bidable(5th).1/2l, 23/4l. (G Butler). Tote: £3.80; £1.20, £2.40,£2.50. Exacta: £22.20. Tricast: £156.13. Trifecta:£89.70. CSF: £27.00. NR’s: Blue Zealot, Gallego,Jenny’s Pride.Placepot: £6,480.50. Quadpot: £84.60. Place 6: £6,134.98. Place 5: £902.29.

SANDOWN

Going: Round; good-good to firm in places; sprint:good to firm2.00 1. TRIPLE ASPECT (L Jones) 15-8 fav; 2. GroupTherapy 3-1; 3. Bould Mover 10-3. 6 ran. 1/2l, 21/4l.(W Haggas). Tote: £3.10; £1.80, £2.10. Exacta: £7.00.CSF: £7.49. NR: Wi Dud.2.35 1. BLACK SPIRIT (L Morris) 33-1; 2. Acros-tic 6-1; 3. Dunn’o 10-1; 4. Oratory 5-1 fav. 17 ran.1/2l, 1l, 23/4l. (C Cox). Tote: £58.20; £10.20, £2.10,£2.80, £1.80. Exacta: £540.20. Tricast: £2238.46.Trifecta: £2749.20. CSF: £218.15. 3.10 1. TWICE OVER (T Queally) 13-8 fav; 2. SriPutra 33-1; 3. Viscount Nelson 4-1. 5 ran. 1/2l, 1/2l.(H Cecil). Tote: £2.10; £1.10, £4.10. Exacta: £16.30.CSF: £32.07. NR: Mawatheeq. Mawatheeq Rule 4applies to All Bets, deduct 15p in the pound.3.40 1. VIRGINIA HALL (S Sanders) 11-2; 2.Fontley 15-2; 3. Lady Darshaan 11-8 fav. 7 ran.3l, 1/2l. (Sir M Prescott). Tote: £6.20; £2.60, £2.70.Exacta: £28.20. Trifecta: £98.20. CSF: £41.87. NR:Decorative.4.15 1. KING OF WANDS (W Buick) 8-1; 2. Illus-trious Blue 14-1; 3. Opinion Poll 11-2. 7 ran. 4-5fav Manighar (5th). 3/4l, 3/4l. (J Gosden). Tote: £9.30;£3.50, £3.70. Exacta: £74.20. CSF: £97.77. NR: PetaraBay.4.50 1. KAKATOSI (K Fallon) 2-1 fav; 2. Mass Rally16-1; 3. Oil Strike 11-1. 10 ran. hd, 13/4l. (A Bald-ing). Tote: £3.10; £1.40, £3.80, £3.40. Exacta: £36.90.Tricast: £286.54. CSF: £35.38. 5.25 1. BEACHFIRE (W Buick) 13-8 fav; 2. Revered4-1; 3. Hidden Glory 7-1. 8 ran. nk, 1l. (J Gosden).Tote: £2.50; £1.20, £1.70, £2.80. Exacta: £9.10. Tri-cast: £35.11. CSF: £8.28. Jackpot: Not won, pool of £8,492.92 carried for-ward to Market Rasen.Placepot: £1,026.10. Quadpot: £90.10. Place 6: £1,124.27. Place 5: £770.94.

NOTTINGHAM

Going: Good-good to firm in places6.10 1. ARAGALL (Miss R Jefferson) 6-5 fav; 2. Hur-ricane Thomas 5-1; 3.Desert Fairy 20-1. 7 ran.31/2l, 13/4l. (George Baker). Tote: £2.80; £1.40, £1.50.Exacta: £8.80. CSF: £7.36.6.40 1. TIMETEAM (Richard Evans) 15-8 fav; 2.Frontline Boy 13-2; 3. Anjomarba 13-2. 11 ran.11/4l, 11/2l. (P D Evans) Tote: £4.20; £2.10, £1.60, £1.30. Exacta: £13.20. CSF: £13.79. NR: Tres Amigos.

CARLISLE

Going: Good-good to firm in places6.55 1. FEELING FRESH (P Donaghy) 4-1; 2. DarkMoment 5-1; 3 dd-ht Apache Ridge 7-1 andRyedane 5-1. 6 ran. 2-1 fav Frognal (last). 21/2l,1/2l. (Paul Green). Tote: £3.30; £1.10, £2.70. Exac-ta: £12.70. CSF: £23.09. Tricast: Feeling Fresh, DarkMoment, Apache Ridge £63.96; Feeling Fresh, DarkMoment, Ryedane £47.98. NR’s: Who’s Shirl, FrillA Minute.

THE AMERICAN BOOTY XI

To celebrate today’s Independence Day in the United States, here’s a teamof ‘soccer’ players whose names are almost as American as apple pie. Theywould play at Swansea’s Liberty Stadium, not Stoke’s Britannia. Nick Frost

l

Lincoln(Palmeiras,

16th President)

l

John Disney(Stockport County,

animators)

l

CreedenceClearwater

Couto(Sertaozinho,

rock band)

l

Michael Jackson(Shewsbury Town,

King of Pop)

l

Washington(Sao Paulo,

US capital city)

l

Florent Pepsi(Yverdon-Sport,

fizzy drink)

l

Tom Cruise(Arsenal,

actor)

l

John Kennedy(Cambridge City,35th President)

l

NeillArmstrong(Portadown,astronaut)

l

Elvis(CD Feirense,

The King)

l

Hulk (Porto,

superhero)

Team of the Week

Cricket Scoreboard

QUARTER-FINALS

Argentina (0) 0 Germany (1) 4Müller 3, Klose 67, 89Friedrich 74 64,100

Green Point StadiumArgentina: Romero, Otamendi (Pastore, 70),Demichelis, Burdisso, Heinze, Maxi, Mascherano, DiMaria (Aguero, 76), Messi, Higuain, Tevez. Subs notused: Pozo, Rodriguez, Bolatti, Veron, Garce, Samuel,

Gutierrez, Palermo, Milito, Andujar.Germany: Neuer, Lahm, Mertesacker, Boateng(Jansen, 72), Friedrich, Schweinsteiger, Khedira(Kroos, 78), Muller (Trochowski, 83), Ozil, Podolski,Klose. Subs not used: Wiese, Aogo, Tasci, Kiessling,Badstuber, Cacau, Marin, Butt, Gomez.Referee: R Irmatov (Uzbekistan).Man of the match:Bastian Schweinsteiger (Germany).

Paraguay L Spain LEllis ParkParaguay: Villar, Veron, Alcaraz, Da Silva, MRodriguez, V Caceres, Santana, E Barreto, Riveros,H Valdez, Cardozo. Substitutes: D Barreto, Caniza,J Caceres, Bonet, Santa Cruz, Benitez, Vera, Torres,Barrios, Ortigoza, Bobadilla, Gamarra.

Spain: Casillas, Sergio Ramos, Pique, Puyol, Capdev-

ila, Busquets, Iniesta, Alonso, Xavi, Villa, Torres.

Substitutes: Valdes, Albiol, Marchena, Fabregas,

Mata, Arbeloa, Pedro, Llorente, Javi Martinez, Silva,

Jesus Navas, Reina.

Referee: C Batres (Guatemala).

TOUR MATCHNorthampton: Pakistan beat Northamptonshireby 6 wicketsPakistan won tossNORTHAMPTONSHIRE

Runs 6s 4s BlsD J G Sales c Saeed Ajmal

b Abdul Razzaq ........................0 0 0 7R I Newton st Kamran Akmal

b Saeed Ajmal ..........................7 0 1 10*A G Wakely b Umar Gul ..............55 0 7 43E Chigumbura not out ................58 3 2 45R A White not out ........................9 0 1 15Extras (lb 2, w 2)............................4Total (3 wkts, 20 overs) ........133Fall: 1-1, 2-28, 3-80.Did not bat: †D Murphy, J D Middlebrook, D J Willey,D S Lucas, J A Brooks, V Tripathi.Bowling: Mohammad Aamer 3-1-10-0, Abdul Razzaq2-0-14-1, Umar Gul 4-0-40-1, Saeed Ajmal 4-0-15-1,Shahid Afridi 4-0-27-0, Shoaib Malik 1-0-7-0, FawadAlam 2-0-18-0.

PAKISTANRuns 6s 4s Bls

†Kamran Akmal b Willey ............10 0 1 18Shahzaib Hasan c Tripathi b Willey 64 3 7 40Fawad Alam c Chigumbura

b Middlebrook ........................11 0 0 16*Shahid Afridi retired out ..........42 2 6 14Abdul Razzaq not out ..................6 0 1 4Shoaib Malik not out ....................0 0 0 1Extras (lb3, w1) ............................4Total (4 wkts, 15.3 overs) ......137Fall: 1-31, 2-61, 3-132.Did not bat:Umar Akmal, Mohammad Aamer, UmarGul, Saeed Ajmal, Wahab Riaz.Bowling:Brooks 3-0-38-0, Lucas 2.3-0-16-0, Willey 2-0-14-2, Chigumbura 4-0-34-0, Middlebrook 4-0-32-1.Umpires: R J Bailey and M J Saggers.

Hove: Sussex beat Bangladesh by 149 runsSussex won tossSUSSEX

Runs 6s 4s Bls*M A Thornely c Mushfiqur Rahim

b Rubel Hossain ....................56 0 4 73

M W Macham lbw b Mashrafe Mortaza ........10 0 1 23

J S Gatting b Abdur Razzak ..........8 0 2 4†B C Brown lbw b Faisal Hossain 58 0 6 52R G Aga c Junaid Siddique

b Rubel Hossain ....................22 0 1 38L W P Wells b Mahmudullah ..........9 0 2 15O P Rayner b Abdur Razzak ........20 0 3 22W A Adkin c Mushfiqur Rahim

b Mashrafe Mortaza ..............30 0 3 3J E Anyon c Raqibul Hasan

b Shafiul Islam ........................12 0 1 11J A Thorpe not out ........................3 0 0 5M S Panesar b Shafiul Islam ..........9 0 2 7Extras (b1, lb2, w12, nb1) ............16Total (47.5 overs) ................253Fall: 1-32, 2-42, 3-125, 4-147, 5-163, 6-196, 7-201, 8-231,9-241.Bowling: Mashrafe Mortaza 9-1-32-2, Shafiul Islam8.5-0-60-2, Abdur Razzak 9-0-53-2, Rubel Hossain 8-0-46-2, Faisal Hossain 5-0-20-1, Mahmudullah 8-1-39-1.

BANGLADESHRuns 6s 4s Bls

Tamim Iqbal c B C Brown b Thorpe 17 0 2 21Jahurul Islam c B C Brown b Adkin 19 1 1 14Junaid Siddique c Sub b Anyon ....4 0 1 7†Mushfiqur Rahim c Wells b Anyon 6 0 1 9Faisal Hossain b Anyon ................2 0 0 12Mahmudullah b Panesar..............15 0 2 31Raqibul Hasan run out ................23 0 1 45*Mashrafe Mortaza lbw b Rayner 0 0 0 1Abdur Razzak b Panesar ............14 0 3 22Shafiul Islam not out ....................0 0 0 9Rubel Hossain lbw b Panesar ...... 0 0 0 1Extras (b1, w3) ..............................4Total (all out, 28.4 overs) ....104Fall:1-36, 2-41, 3-41, 4-49, 5-49, 6-84, 7-85, 8-99, 9-104.Bowling:Anyon 7-0-29-3, Thorpe 3-0-26-1, Adkin 6-0-16-1, Panesar 7.4-1-21-3, Rayner 5-2-11-1.Umpires: M A Eggleston and I J Gould.ICC World Cricket League: Rotterdam: Ireland 237-9 (A D Poynter 78) v Afghanistan (rain stopped play).Amstelveen: Scotland 236-4 (N F I McCallum 89no,R D Berrington 67) bt Canada 126-9 (D/L method).

Half-time

Full-time

Pools 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49

2 1 2 1 2 2 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 2 2 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1

1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

3

3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3

9 score draws5 no-score

35 h/a wins

Summary

69 66, D McGrane 68 71 67, F Molinari (It) 69 69 68,L Donald 70 69 67, J Randhawa (Ind) 67 69 70. 207G Bourdy (Fr) 68 69 70, P Hanson (Swe) 68 69 70.208 R Bland 73 68 67, K Ferrie 73 70 65, R McIlroy68 71 69, G Storm 70 67 71, D Willett 72 67 69. 209 AScott (Aus) 69 69 71, C Schwartzel (SA) 68 70 71, RDavies 71 71 67, M Foster 76 63 70. 210 R Finch 71 7267, O Wilson 68 71 71, I Poulter 72 67 71, B Hebert (Fr)72 66 72, L Westwood 70 69 71. 211 J M Singh (Ind)70 73 68, R Ramsay 71 71 69, A Hansen (Den) 71 6872, A Dodt (Aus) 68 75 68, D Lynn 73 68 70, R Wattel(Fr) 74 67 70, A Forsyth 71 68 72, I Garrido (Sp) 74 6968. 212 S Kjeldsen (Den) 71 71 70, J-B Gonnet (Fr) 7270 70, C Wood 70 71 71, M Siem (Ger) 67 75 70, SStrange (Aus) 67 74 71, G Ogilvy (Aus) 73 70 69, MBrown (NZ) 70 73 69, V Dubuisson (Fr) 75 66 71, RJacquelin (Fr) 73 67 72, T Bjorn (Den) 72 70 70, M Hoey69 74 69, B Dredge 74 69 69.USPGA Tour AT&T National (Delaware County,Pennsylvania, US): Leading second-round scores(US unless stated): 133 J Rose (Eng) 69 64. 134Charlie Wi (S Kor) 69 65, J Day (Aus) 66 68. 136 C Hoff-man 69 67, J Overton 68 68. 137 N Watney 66 71, J BHolmes 70 67, K Blanks 69 68, R Allenby (Aus) 70 67,B Gay 67 70, B Van Pelt 69 68, J Mallinger 67 70, RMoore 67 70. 138 A Atwal (Ind) 66 72, J Ogilvie 66 72,R Imada (Japan) 68 70. 139 B Molder 69 70, G De Laet(Can) 70 69, L Glover 71 68, B Mayfair 68 71, T Purdy69 70, A Baddeley (Aus) 69 70, D Chopra (Swe) 6970, S Marino 68 71, S O’Hair 71 68, J Furyk 69 70, ARomero (Arg) 71 68, C Pettersson (Swe) 67 72, NThompson 72 67.LPGA Tour Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic (LucasCounty, Ohio, US): Leading second-round scores(US unless stated): 131 Na Yeon Choi (S Kor) 64 67.133 C Kim 66 67, A Sharp (Can) 65 68, Inbee Park (SKor) 67 66. 136 S Prammanasudh 69 67, In Kyung Kim(S Kor) 70 66, B Recari (Sp) 69 67, K McPherson 6868, Song-Hee Kim (S Kor) 70 66, S Lewis 67 69.

MOTORCYCLINGMoto GP round 8 (Barcelona, Sp): Leading qual-ifying positions: 1 Jorge Lorenzo (Sp) Yamaha 1min42.046sec; 2 C Stoner (Aus) Ducati 1:42.410; 3 R DePuniet (Fr) Honda 1:42.512; 4 D Pedrosa (Sp) Honda1:42.592; 5B Spies (US) Yamaha 1:42.710; 6A Dovizioso(It) Honda 1:42.866; 7L Capirossi (It) Suzuki 1:42.903;8 A Espargaro (Sp) Ducati 1:42.931; 9 M Simoncelli(It) Honda 1:42.994; 10A Bautista (Sp) Suzuki 1:43.025;11 C Edwards (US) Yamaha 1:43.059; 12 N Hayden

(US) Ducati 1:43.068; 13H Barbera (Sp) Ducati 1:43.417;14 M Melandri (It) Honda 1:43.621; 15 M Kallio (Fin)Ducati 1:43.685. Moto 2: 1 A Iannone (Fr) Speed Up1min 47.493sec; 2Y Takahashi (Japan) Tech 3 1:47.760;3 T Luthi (Swit) Moriwaki 1:47.973; 4 T Elias (Sp) Mori-waki 1:48.089; 5 J Cluzel (Fr) Suter 1:48.133; 6 CMorales (Sp) Suter 1:48.164; 7 S Tomizawa (Japan)Suter 1:48.192; 8 R Wilairot (Thai) Bimota 1:48.224;9 K Noyes (US) Promoharris 1:48.291; 10 R Rolfo (It)Suter 1:48.366; 11 J Simon (Sp) Suter 1:48.373; 12 KAbraham (Cz Rep) RSV 1:48.438; 13 S Corsi (It) TSR1:48.447; 14 S Redding (GB) Suter 1:48.480; 15 HFaubel (Sp) Honda 1:48.491. 125cc: 1 M Marquez (Sp)Derbi 1min 50.543sec; 2 P Espargaro (Sp) Derbi1:50.809; 3 B Smith (GB) Aprilia 1:51.019; 4 N Terol(Sp) Aprilia 1:51.066; 5S Cortese (Ger) Derbi 1:51.546;6 T Koyama (Japan) Aprilia 1:51.824; 7 E Rabat (Sp)Aprilia 1:51.890; 8 E Vazquez (Sp) Derbi 1:51.951; 9 AMasbou (Fr) Aprilia 1:52.316; 10 J Zarco (Fr) Aprilia1:52.478; 11 S Grotzkyj (It) Aprilia 1:52.538; 12 J Fol-ger (Ger) Aprilia 1:52.580; 13 A Moncayo (Sp) April-ia 1:52.758; 14R Krummenacher (Swit) Aprilia 1:52.765;15 L Salom (Sp) Lambretta 1:52.801.

RUGBY LEAGUEengage Super League Leeds (16) 28 St Helens (16) 24 Leeds: Tries: Clarkson, Delaney, McGuire 2, Hall.Goals: Sinfield 4. St Helens: Tries: Flannery 2,Lomax, Pryce. Goals: Lomax 4.

P W D L F A PtsWigan 19 16 0 3 652 302 32Warrington 19 14 0 5 618 319 28St Helens 20 14 0 6 682 417 28Leeds 20 12 1 7 547 442 25Hull 19 12 0 7 423 383 24Huddersfield 19 10 1 8 496 320 21Hull K R 19 9 1 9 403 456 19Bradford 19 8 1 10 354 440 17Wakefield 19 8 0 11 410 451 16Castleford 19 8 0 11 408 514 16Crusaders RL 18 7 0 11 337 520 14Salford 20 6 0 14 332 572 12Harlequins RL 19 5 0 14 341 602 10Catalans Dragons 19 3 0 16 258 523 6Co-Operative Championship 1: Blackpool 44 SouthWales 24. Conference National: Dewsbury Celtic34 Nottingham Outlaws 0; Huddersfield Underbank28 Featherstone Lions 14.Telstra Premiership: Cronulla 12 Canterbury 24.

ROWINGHenley Royal Regatta (Henley-on-Thames, Eng):Open events: Men’s semi-finals: Grand ChallengeCup: Waiariki R C (NZ) and The Tideway Scullers’School bt Leander Club and Molesey B C 6min 01sec,1½ lengths; Ruder Club Hansa von 1898 e V Dort-mund (Ger) bt Victoria City R C and Shawnigan LakeSchool (Can) 06.04, ¾. Stewards’s Challenge Cup:Princeton Training Center (US) bt Victoria City R Cand Shawnigan Lake School "A" 06.38, 1; Club France(Fr) bt Yamoto R C (Japan) 06.33, 1. Queen MotherChallenge Cup: Reading University and LeanderClub bt Waiariki R C (NZ) 06.28, 1½. Silver Gobletsand Nickalls’ Challenge Cup: Molesey B C and Le-ander Club(P K Reed & A Triggs Hodge) bt NauticalClub of Ioannina and Nautical Club Omilos Ereton(Gre) 07.25, 3 ½; Waiariki R C (NZ) bt Leander Cluband Molesey B C (C F Nichol & T F Burton 07.18, 3 ¾.Double Sculls Challenge Cup: Leander Club (M WWells & R M Bateman) bt Princeton Training Center(USA) 07.01, 2 ½; Club France (Fr) bt Waiariki R C (NZ)07.04, 3. Women’s semi-finals: Remenham ChallengeCup: Western R C (Can) bt Hollandia Roeiclub (Holl)06.53, 2; Leander Club and Oxford Brookes Univer-sity bt Vesta R C 07.08, Easily. Princess Grace Chal-lenge Cup: Gloucester R C and Leander Club bt West-ern R C (Can)a 07.20, 3½; Waiariki R C (NZ) bt Hollan-dia Roeiclub (Holl) 07.08, ¾. Princess Royal Chal-lenge Cup: M Knapkova (Cz Rep) bt D K Flood (Lean-der Club) 08.30, Easily; G L Stone (US) bt E Twigg (NZ)09.17, Sculled over.

TENNISAll England Lawn Tennis Championships (Wim-bledon, Eng): Women’s singles, final: S Williams(US) by V Zvonoreva (Rus) 6-3 6-2. Men’s doubles,final: J Melzer (Aut) & P Petzschner (Ger) bt R Lind-stedt (Swe) & H Tecau (Rom) 6-1 7-5 7-5. Boys’ dou-bles, semi-final: L Burton & G Morgan (GB) bt PHeller & K Krawietz (Ger) 6-3 3-6 15-13; L Broady & TFarquharson (GB) bt M Biryukov & A Rumyantsev(Rus) 6-0 6-7 6-4. Girls’ singles, final: K Pliskova (CzRep) bt S Ishizu (Japan) 6-3 4-6 6-4. Girls’ doubles,semi-final: I Khromacheva (Rus) & E Svitolina (Ukr)bt O Jabeur (Tun) & M Puig (Pue) 6-4 6-1; Ti Babos(Hun) & S Stephens (US) bt V Cepede Royg (Par) & CDinu (Rom) 6-1 6-3.LTA Aegon Men’s GB Pro-Series (Manchester, Eng):Singles final: J Ward (GB) bt J Baker (GB) 6-2 7-6.

THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY4 JULY 2010 ••••• 25SportBOXING +

Final cut for ahero of Valleysis fitting tribute

By Alan HubbardBOXING CORRESPONDENT

The cognoscenti of clout will gatherin Cardiff at the end of the month tocelebrate the fight game’s biggestglobal festival and at the same timelaud one of the great Welsh icons ofthe ring, the late world featherweightchampion Howard Winstone, withthe premiere of a compelling filmdepicting his bitter-sweet life story.

Directed by the award-winningMerthyr-based Neil Jones, Risen tellsof the boyo with the dazzling fistsand footwork who, despite losingthree fingertips of his right hand inan industrial accident, rose duringthe Sixties to become the pugilisticPrince of Wales. It also features nineformer champions playing the partsof some of boxing’s best-knownfigures in the first non-Americanbiopic about a fighter ever made.

The premiere is on the openingnight of the World Boxing Council“Night of Champions”, taking placeover three days from 29-31 July andassembled with the assistance ofanother of Britain’s outstanding for-mer world champions, the welter-weight king John H Stracey. The£300,000 cavalcade of fistiana isbacked by Cardiff City Council andthe Welsh Assembly. A parade of 100past and present world championsare scheduled to attend what it isclaimed will be the biggest gather-ing of champions in history, headedby heavyweight sibling tsars Vitaliand Wladimir Klitschko.

The festival will also include a GBversus Rest of the World amateurboxing international and the first-ever appearance in Britain of the Chi-nese national boxing team, who are

testing Cardiff as a potential 2012Olympic training base.

The London-born Stracey, 59, whoclimbed off the canvas to record oneof British boxing’s most epic overseasvictories, a fifth-round knock-out ofthe legendary Jose Napoles in the Mex-ican’s own bullring backyard in 1975,says: “The WBC president, Jose Sulai-man, thought Cardiff would be an ideallocation because per capita Wales hashad more world champions than anyother country. From Jimmy Wilde andJim Driscoll to Joe Calzaghe, boxinghas always been a very vibrant part ofthe Welsh culture.”

According to the organisers, 76champions are already confirmed with

up to a further 40 anticipated, includ-ing Mike Tyson and multi-weight all-time great Manny Pacquiao. In thegreat tradition of the thick-trade therewill be wet eyes rather than black eyeswhen old foes who belted bits off eachother years ago lock themselves inlong-held embraces. None more sothan the reunion of Britain’s 58-year-old Alan Minter and the Italian VitoAntuofermo, against whom Minterwon and successfully defended theworld middleweight title 30 years ago.

Regrettably, some big-wheel cham-pions have demanded exorbitantappearance money and expenses for

All aboard the Bateman ‘Red Express’

By Nick Townsend

Anywhere but Henley... The chapsashaying over the Thames bridgein the light pink blazer and whiteslacks may just have received adouble-take. Here, for five days, wheretradition stretches back 171 years, heis a model of convention in a surrealworld where sporting excellencemeets extraordinary fashion state-ments. Elitist, some snipe, but in truthonly on the water. Many membersof the Great Britain squad are par-ticipating in an event which this yearhas attracted no fewer than 116 inter-national crews, in preparation for

November’s World Championshipsin New Zealand.

Sir Steve Redgrave once describedHenley as rowers’ equivalent of per-forming in a football ground. GB scullerMarcus Bateman, who has won thedouble sculls with Matt Wells at twoWorld Cups already this year and isbidding for a hat-trick in Lucerne thismonth, agrees. “The crowd is so close,you’re worried you’ll hit someone withyour oar. But it’s electrifying, a greatfeeling when you’re rowing flat out.”

Bermuda-born – though Torquay-raised – Bateman, 27, and Bradford-born Wells, 31, winner of a bronze inthe double at Beijing, are both ginger-

haired (pictured) and duly acquiredthe epithet “The Red Express”. Theirprogress has acquired remarkablevelocity in just two months together.This week they have been contestingthe Double Sculls Challenge Cup.

Originally Bateman’s forte was800mrunning. Then in 2004, on a placementat Lehigh University in the US, he dida fun run at Thanksgiving. “By chance,the rowing coach had organised it andhe asked me to give his sport a try,”he says. “We went to a training campin Miami. There were dolphins out inthe bay, we’d be rowing along andsometimes they’d pick us up. It was agreat experience, and I was hooked.”

His potential was again recognisedback home, when he came to promi-nence under GB rowing’s Start talent-spotting scheme.He just missed outon Beijing but says: “I always knew Ihad the right build, and the engine. Ijust had to unlock that on the water.

“That’s been helped by the hotbedof competition between the scullers in-house [the single, double and quadall train together]. Every session, everyrace, we’re looking to beat the guy be-side us.” And with 2012 in mind, hepromises: “There’s a lot more to come.”

ROWING

Biopic of Winstone the pugilistic Prince of Walestops the bill in Cardiff’s global festival of fight game

entourages (one wanted to bring over30 “friends and family”) and won’t bethere. Muhammad Ali, naturally, wasamong the first to be asked but is tooill to travel, though two of his toughestopponents, George Chuvalo and EarnieShavers, who both took him on infierce-hitting battles, have accepted.

Based at the Cardiff InternationalArena, there will also be a gala dinnerwith Oscar-style awards for servicesto boxing and the unsung heroes ofthe sport. Fans will be able to see thechampions on open-top bus ridesaround the city and mingle with themat shopping arcades, tourist spots andcommunity centres.

However, there is no doubt the focalpoint will be the Winstone film,especially for those who recall thesilky, scintillating skills of the little

Welshman who brought such graceand guile to the ring. He was born andraised in Merthyr Tydfil and it was inthe town’s Prince Charles Hospitalthat he ended his days 61 years later,virtually penniless, pained by a brokenmarriage and a body wracked with ill-ness largely brought on by excessivedrinking, an all too familiar tale oncethose hand bandages have beenunwrapped for the last time.

Winstone’s trainer, Eddie Thomas,himself a notable champion, claimedthat children born in the Valleys wereso angry that they came out with theirfists clenched. As a youngster Win-stone had been something of a fierybrawler in the amateur ring, where hewon 83 of 86 bouts and gained anEmpire Games gold medal in 1958.

However, in his teens Winstone

sustained the near-ruinous hand injuryin an accident while working in a toyfactory. He continued to box but lostmuch of his power and was forced todrastically change his technique.Thomas re-moulded the youngWinstone in his Penydarren gym,teaching him the fast left jab that wouldbecome his trademark.

The highlight of his career was theacquisition of the world title againstJapan’s Mitsunori Seki in January 1986– at the fourth attempt. Stuart Brennan,the actor who plays Winstone (ShaneRichie also stars as one of his promot-ers, Mike Barrett) trained for five yearsfor a role which brings realism to moviescenes unlike anything from Rocky.With Winstone’s almost total relianceon his left jab, the film is a fitting trib-ute to Welsh boxing’s leading man.

‘Wales has had moreworld champions thanany other country’ JOHN H STRACEY

Ring the changes: Howard Winstone concentrated on the jab after losing three fingertips in a factory accident CENTRAL PRESS/GETTY

THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY•••••4 JULY 201026 Sport RACING +

There was a point in AndyMurray’s semi-final againstRafael Nadal (Wimbledon 2010,BBC1, Friday) when a spectatorshouted: “Come on Andy, do itfor Beckham!” You instantlyknew he was doomed. OK, sohe was already serving to stayin the match, and they thoughtit was all over long beforethen. But to invoke the spectreof our failed footballers ishardly likely to inspire anyone,least of all a Scot.

Becks was there with his sonBrooklyn, representing Britishroyalty. Sure, there was somechap called Prince Andrew butno one really knows who he is– unless his impecunious ex-wife is around to remind us.Sadly, Beckham cut as equallydisconsolate a figure as he hadon the touchlines in SouthAfrica, powerless to affectproceedings in front of him.

Murray couldn’t do muchabout it either. The crowdwere behind him to an extent,but if the British are going tocheer any Johnny Foreigner atWimbledon it would be Nadal,and that’s because the ladieslove those big arms. At leastMurray got a big hug from theSpanish hunk at the end.

There didn’t seem to bequite the clamour Henmanonce received, and althoughthe vuvuzela would be ratherout of place at the All EnglandClub, Murray might havewanted a blast of its Scottishequivalent, the bagpipes.

On Today at Wimbledon, theBeeb’s highlights package, wehadn’t really seen much ofMurray before the semis. Thefact was that he had enjoyed

an easy passage through tothe last four, and his campaignlacked the drama of Henman’shighs and lows. And suddenlyhe was gone, like the LochNess monster in the mist, or aMars bar in the deep fat fryer.

Merrily slurping from theirbuckets of Pimm’s on the roofwere Boris Becker and PatCash, a German and an Aussie.They were mercifully kindafter that footballing débâcle,especially given that Boris is afanatic of ‘Die Mannschaft’.

By Friday, the second-set tie-break had replaced thepenalty shoot-out as sport’sexcruciating passage of play,and 6-5 had become themoment to choke, and thenchoke back the tears. “There’sno way my matches were thisnerve-racking,” Henman liedafter Murray failed his test. “Itfelt like he was a match pointdown,” said John McEnroe, farmore perceptively.

Earlier there had been a 6-5moment for Tomas Berdych.He let go a lob that was calledout, Novak Djokovicchallenged the decision andHawkeye showed the ball wasin. The mind inevitably wentback to Frank Lampard. Butthe climax to what McEnroecalled “one of the greatestdefensive points you’ll eversee” was that it had to beplayed all over again as if ithad never happened. So muchfor technology then.

Djokovic won the replayedpoint and justice was served.But what if he hadn’t? In theend it made no difference, justas Lampard’s “goal” wouldn’thave done last Sunday.

Tour de Lanceby Bill StricklandA year ago to the day, Lance Armstrongset off to try to win his eighth Tour de France, having come outof a four-year retirement at the age of 37. The twist was that hisbiggest threat, the young Spaniard Alberto Contador, was in hisAstana team. And they didn’t get on, in a big way. Bill Stricklandshadowed Armstrong in his preparations and in the race itself,often in the team director’s car. His account of the American’sdoomed attempt is a masterly piece of reportage stuffed withexpert insights into the Tour’s Byzantine tactics. A self-confessedfan, he does not shy away from the doping allegations that havedogged Armstrong, returning a Scottish verdict of “not proven”.Equally elusive is Armstrong’s motive for returning; he said it isto publicise his cancer charity but a team insider claims: “He’s akiller, and missed killing.” Armstrong has just embarked on whathe claims is his final Tour. This book can’t tell you what willhappen but it will undoubtedly help you understand why it did.

Published in hardback by Mainstream, £12.99

Sport on TVBy Andrew Tong

Book of the WeekBy Simon Redfern

Who needs penalties when youcan have second-set tie-break?

Twice Over’s perfect timingearns Cecil heartfelt cheers

By Sue MontgomeryAT SANDOWN

Be glad that the sport still has itspriorities right; the next appearanceof the Derby winner continues to exerta fascination. But regretfully for thoseinvolved in staging the Coral-EclipseStakes, Workforce’s date is at Ascotlater this month, leaving yesterday’s113th running of the first of the sea-son’s elite inter-generation clashesjust a little short on equine charisma.

That is not to decry the talents ofthe winner Twice Over, an admirableand undeniably high-class performer.But in beating the 33-1 shot Sri Putra,all-out by half a length, the 13-8 favouritedid no more – and possibly slightlyless – than either the formbook or themarket suggested he would.

So for the day’s frisson, look insteadto the horse’s trainer, the remarkableHenry Cecil. It has been well-documented how the 10-times cham-pion has turned a slump in his glitter-ing career around after personal andongoing health problems and, as dap-per as ever in trademark matching tieand socks (butter-yellow on this oc-casion), was accorded three heartfeltand heartening cheers as he welcomedTwice Over and rider Tom Queallyback into the winners’ circle. It was 41years since he gave notice of what wasto come by taking the great 10-furlongprize in his first season with a licence.

Twice Over was one of only tworunners yesterday already proven invictory at the top level; the other wasthe mare Dar Re Mi, having her firstrun in more than three months. In adisappointingly small turnout, fur-ther reduced to five when Mawatheeqrefused to enter his starting stall,

tactics were always going to be cru-cial and Queally executed his team’splan to perfection.

On his previous run, the Prince OfWales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot, TwiceOver had gone down by half a lengthafter experiencing traffic problems.This time Queally seized the initia-tive from the off on the five-year-old,ensuring both a clear run and thestrong, even pace he wanted. In theearly stages the handsome son ofObservatory was shadowed by DarRe Mi, but shook her off readily witha change of gear early in the straightand had just enough in reserve to holdSri Putra and Viscount Nelson, the

sole three-year-old challenger, at bayover this testing uphill finish.

“There was always the risk of therebeing no pace,” said a relieved Queally,“and what I didn’t want was a sprintfinish, as he’d stayed on all the way tothe line the last day. He’s a horse witha great attitude and I was awfully gladthe line came in time.”

Twice Over, owned and bred byKhaled Abdullah, was Cecil’s fourthwinner of the Eclipse, the others beingWolver Hollow back in 1969, Wollowin 1976 and Gunner B two years afterthat, though the intervening barrenthree decades had featured near-

You only live Twice: the favourite Twice Over and jockey Tom Queally on their way to victory in the Coral-Eclipse at Sandown GETTY

Veteran trainer proves popular victor as he claims a fourth Eclipse success

misses and hard-luck stories, notablyfrom Reference Point and Bosra Sham.

Cecil, though happy to acknowl-edge, with some obvious emotion, thewaves of sunny goodwill flowing fromboth public and his fellow profession-als, was as quick as any trainer toacknowledge the squad effort involvedin such a moment. “It’s a lovely day,”he said, “but not just for me, for all thestaff back home, because without themthis sort of thing wouldn’t happen. It’sespecially good because of whathappened at Ascot. I hate makingexcuses, but I really do think he wasunlucky that day.”

Twice Over, who added yesterday’s£283,000 Coral-sponsored prize to hisChampion Stakes last year, is a 10-furlong specialist and will ply his GroupOne trade over the intermediate dis-tance for the rest of the year, with theYork International and a repeat in theNewmarket showpiece pencilled in.

Twelve months ago Sea The Starsconfirmed both his brilliance and hisversatility when he added the Eclipseto his 2,000 Guineas and Derby, buthis eyecatching successor at Epsom,whose opponents in the King GeorgeVI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes in 20days’ time will include Dar Re Mi, isa true mile-and-a-half runner.

This afternoon at Longchamp,though, a horse whose multi-distancetalents have yet to be heralded out-side his own country will stake hisown claim to be regarded as Europe’sbest three-year-old. Lope de Vega,who last month impressively addedthe Prix du Jockey-Club to his localGuineas, reverts to a mile in the PrixJean Prat, with Richard Hannon-trained Dick Turpin providing a solidyardstick among his opponents.

‘It’s a lovely day, butnot just for me, for allthe staff back home’ HENRY CECIL

THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY4 JULY 2010 ••••• 27SportRUGBY LEAGUE +

TWO BRITISH army doctors have become the first men torow non-stop and unsupported around mainland Britain.Captains Nick Dennison and Hamish Reid spent 50 daysand five hours at sea, doing alternate two-hour stints for20 hours a day in aid of Help For Heroes, a charity for thewounded in current campaigns, and the Army BenevolentFund. Now six British Military Fitness Instructors will try tobreak a 63-hour record for a triathlon that stetches fromLondon to Paris, also in aid of Help For Heroes. They mustrun 84 miles to Dover, then swim a minimum of 22 milesacross the Channel before pedalling 184 miles to Paris –presumably without the extra burden of a string of onions.

Brainwaves of the week

ONE FOR the casebook, or textbook: Dr Malcolm Findlay,founder of a rather watered down degree course in surfscience at Plymouth University, saved the life of a 16-year-old boy off Challaborough Beach in Devon last week afterhe stopped breathing twice – and helped to save two girlswho had drifted out to sea. Meanwhile Shane Wilmott onAustralia’s Gold Coast has spent the last 25 years teachingmice to surf. The boat builder carves them tiny, handmadeboards and starts them off in the bath, then tows themaround his swimming pool using a remote-controlled boatbefore they hit the beach. They wanted to use the cheese-board but there were just too many holes in the gruyère.

Deep thinkers of the weekTO CONTINUE this week’s aquatic theme, a dachshund calledBoniface has been fitted out with a wetsuit and mask sothat he can join his master Sergei Gorbunov, director ofdiving at Vladivostok Maritime College. Apparently he getsreally upset whenever Gorbunov goes under. They shouldchange his name to Scuba Doo. And there is an octopus atthe Sea Life Centre in Oberhausen who has been correctlypredicting all of Germany’s World Cup results. This psychiccephalopod, rather unimaginatively named Paul, has twoboxes in his tank which bear the national flags. A mussel isplaced in each box, and whichever one he grabs is thewinner. Next week: Germany field an eight-footed player.

215

Good week for

MANNY PACQUIAO (right), boxing worldchampion is sworn in as congressmanfor Sarangani province in thePhilippines... Nathan Cleverly,Welsh boxer passes mathsdegree at Cardiff University...and parents at school sportsdays, can take photos oftheir children competing,according to the Informa-tion Commissioner’s Office.

PAIRS OF pants worn by 10-year-old Jack Singer of Warwickin New York State, breaking the record of 211 set by GaryCraig of South Tyneside in April. He said: “I feel the mostexcited in my life.” Good job he had so many pants on.

JOHN HOWARD (left), former Australian primeminister is turned down in his attempt tobecome vice-president of the International

Cricket Council... Yvonne Mayer,Cape Town resident ruptured her

windpipe while blowing a vuvuzela...and Russians (or eight per cent of

them in a survey of 1,600) who stillthink their national team can win the

2010 World Cup – they did notqualify for the tournament.

a.tong@independent.co.uk

Outside EdgeBy Andrew Tong

Bad week for

Hall hauls Rhinos over line

By Dave HadfieldAT HEADINGLEY

The champions Leeds broke intoSuper League’s top four with a nail-biting victory in a fluctuating contestwith their established rivals. Saintswere handicapped by the loss of boththeir half-backs but were leading untilRyan Hall’s messy 66th minute try gotthe nod of approval from the videoreferee. These two sides meet againin a Challenge Cup semi-final in fiveweeks and the hope must be that it ishalf as exciting as this.

Saints began as though intent onblowing the Rhinos away in the firstfew minutes. Monopolising early pos-session, they had already gone closeby the time Leon Pryce launched ahigh kick, won by Ade Gardner, jump-ing above Scott Donald. When theball came to ground, Chris Flanneryhad just enough room to touch down.

Leeds would have been furtherbehind if Jonny Lomax had been ableto punish Lee Smith’s wild pass bysqueezing over in the other corner. Itwas part of the shakiest of starts fromthe Rhinos’ full-back, whosquanderedpossession on two other occasions.When Leeds did get on the score-board, it was with a try that was amirror image of Saints first. KevinSinfield kicked, Donald got aboveGardner and Chris Clarkson was thereto finish it off.

Those who believe the high kickplays too big a part in modern rugbyleague continued to get ammunitionfor their argument from two more

Leeds tries. The first came when Gard-ner could only steer the ball into thearms of the Brett Delaney and the sec-ond from the sort of evil bounce whichshows why you should never trust arugby ball. Paul Wellens was left strand-ed, Greg Eastwood reacted first andKeith Senior sent Danny McGuire overfor a converted try and a 10-point lead.

It looked bad for Saints, who hadalready lost Kyle Eastmond with a newinjury in his first match back after amonth out with ankle damage. Theyovercame that extra handicap, however,by drawing level before half-time.

Swift handling by Pryce and MattGidley sent Lomax over and then Flan-nery split the Leeds defence for his sec-ond, sliding over and grounding theball despite Smith’s efforts. Chris Deanhad the try that would have put Saintsahead after half-time disallowed for aforward pass. There was no stopping

Pryce after 51 minutes, however, whenhe took Scott Moore’s pass and carvedthrough McGuire’s attempted tackleto give his side the advantage.

Pryce also had to be helped off inobvious pain soon afterwards, justbefore Lomax’ penalty put Saints fur-ther ahead. McGuire’s knock-on pre-vented a potential reply, as did a for-ward pass from Danny Buderus whichalso reflected Leeds’ anxiety. They hadfresh hope, though, when Ryan Baileybarged through and set up McGuirefor his second try. Bailey also figuredprominently in the try that put Leedsback in front, throwing the ball blindout of the tackle for Hall to eventuallycross in the corner.Leeds: Smith; Donald, Delaney, Senior, Hall; Sinfield, McGuire;Bailey, Buderus, Peacock, Jones-Buchanan, Ablett, Clarkson.Substitutes used: McShane, Kirke, Ambler, Eastwood.St Helens: Wellens; Lomax, Gidley, Flannery, Gardner; Pryce, East-mond; Graham, Roby, Hargreaves, Clough, Dixon, Moore.Substitutes used: Dean, Fozzard, Ashurst, Emmitt.Referee: R Silverwood (Mirfield).

Leeds move up to fourth as they come from behind to make life hell for Saints

Pick-up merchant: Lee Smith of Leeds is tackled by Saints’ Chris Flannery VAUGHAN RIDLEY

Sport in Brief

Britain’s Rachel Cawthorn (right)continued her superb season bystorming to victory in the singlekayak 1,000m at the EuropeanChampionships in Trasona, Spain.The 21-year-old from Guildford ledfrom 200m and powered away fromhalfway to win by more than twoseconds. “European champion, itfeels really good, but I don’t think ithas sunk in yet,” Cawthorn said.“The plan was to go quite hard inthe first half and then go flat out inthe second half. It kind of worked.”

:: MOTO GPLorenzo grabs pole World championship leader JorgeLorenzo will start today’s CatalunyaMotoGP from pole as Casey Stoner

European kayak glory for Cawthorn

produced a good late lap to takesecond, with Randy de Puniet in third.It was a third consecutive pole posi-tion for Lorenzo, who is also aimingfor a third straight race win. “This will

be the toughest race of the season forme, it’s so hot and the rear tyre wassliding a lot,” he said.

:: ROWINGFascinating finals dayThere are tantalising finals in storetoday at Henley, writes ChristopherDodd. The Grand will be fought outbetween the Germans and NewZealanders after the former defeatedCanada and the latter dismissed theGB eight with Greg Searle, the 1992Olympic champion, in the No 6 seat.In the equivalent women’s event, theRemenham, the British national crewmeet Canada’s equivalent. Britain’squadruple scullers, stroked byKatherine Grainger, are in the final ofthe Princess Grace against NZ.

LEEDS RHINOS 28

ST HELENS 24

Half-time: 16-16

THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY•••••4 JULY 201028 Sport

The Last WordBY JAMES CORRIGAN

What exactly isthe point of the‘great manager’?

A good day to bury badnews or a bad day to burygood news? It dependson your viewpoint. Allthat can be said for cer-

tain is that the Football Association’stotally coincidental decision to release their “Fabio stays” statementon the breathless Friday which fea-tured two World Cup classics and aBriton contesting a semi-final at Wim-bledon merely served to give briefestpause to the debate.

In truth, it will rage for monthsand, as ever, much of the bitternesswill zeroin on the finance. The manymillions Capello would have lost ifhe had simply walked away, the manymore millions the FA would have lostif they had made him walk away. Whosays England football isn’t all aboutthe money nowadays?

Of course, that was not the tonewith which the FA’s “full backing”was issued. Capello is hell-bent onproving his status as one of the greatmanagers again and, apparently, theFA are just as keen to let him act onthe lessons he intimated he has learntfrom a disastrous campaign.

Yes, everyone’s entitled to a secondchance. Particularly when there’s noone suitable to replace him; partic-ularly when those in charge don’twant a supposed “governing” bodyto look yet more chaotic; particularlywhen there’s a Machiavellian powerstruggle going on in which nobodywishes to be seen as the firer or hirer.

Therein lies the problem for Fabioas he begins this formidable rebuild-ing process. The cynicism will followhim, no matter how courageously hebattles to shake it off or how deserv-ing he is of the redemption. Regard-less of a previously brilliant trackrecord there is now a stigma attachedto the Capello era. And withEnglandstigmas tend to cling like creosote.

Published by Independent Print Ltd, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5HF, and printed at Trinity Mirror Printing, St Albans Road, Watford, and Hollinwood Avenue, Oldham, and at Interpress N.I Ltd, M2 Business Park, Belfast. Registered as a newspaper with the Post Office. 4 July 2010

He will be reminded as much in alittle over a month’s time at Wemb-ley. It is an absurd friendly againstHungary, coming as it does four daysbefore the kick-off to the PremierLeague season. The appetite for Eng-land’s international team will be nextto nil – both from the fans who willscarcely populate the stadium or, itmust be suspected, from the playerswho will be desperate to escape thestench of failure to start afresh withtheir clubs.

Yet through this pointless but pound-laden experience, Capello must standtall, declaring: “I am still the man tolead you, to deliver your dreams.” Youdon’t need to have Mystic as a prefixto foresee the headlines should Eng-land walk away from that ghastly, irrele-vant night with what will suddenly betermed a very relevant failure.

The slightest flaw will be leapt uponby a media which up until the last fourweeks treated Capello like some sortof unquestionable deity. How his rep-utation will flip-flop. Whereby beforeit was all about “in Fabio we trust”,now it will be “in Fabio we tire”.

A narrow win against Bulgaria athome in the opening Euro 2012 quali-fier in September would not be deemedgood enough even though it probablyshould be. The same will be true if hisnew England dare to be satisfied withwhat in normal circumstances wouldbe a satisfactory draw in Switzerlanda few days later. It may seem like mad-ness to Capello but the over-expect-ancy will actually increase because ofthe South African shambles. In manyrespects it will be an unequal strug-gle that Capello can only hope tosurvive if his England fare as impres-sively as they did in the last qualifiers.

Yet how likely is that? This bunchhave shown how ineptly they handlenegativity – and believe it, they alreadyhave plenty of the stuff to handle. The

The week aheadBy Marc Padgett

TODAY“Nurse, quick! It says herethere are no World Cupmatches on. My medicine,please.” Let’s hope Warringtonfans aren’t as homophobic astheir Cas counterparts asGareth Thomas’s Crusadershost the Wolves. Oh, and myScottish Editor reminds meAndy Murray is not in themen’s final at Wimbledon.

TOMORROWNot that he wants to avoidhostile crowds or anything, butTiger Woods plays his firsttournament outside the US atthe always hostile charity pro-am organised by Irish race-horse owner JP McManus.

TUESDAYA World Cup semi-final ... and a Tour de France drugs story?

WEDNESDAYSee Tuesday.

THURSDAYYou know England absolutelybattered Bangladesh in Testcricket recently? Then theBangers went home to play inthe Asia Cup? Now, for somereason (oh yes, money) they’reback for a one-day hiding atTrent Bridge.

FRIDAYNo Andy Murray as Britainlook to avoid a Davis Cup dropto the Vauxhall Conference.New captain Leon Smith hasput his faith in James Wardand Jamie Baker (no, meneither) for the must-win clashwith Turkey at Eastbourne.

SATURDAYThe most pointless fixture at

any World Cup – the “battle”for third place. Those greatBritons Jenson Button andLewis Hamilton aim to delighthome fans at Silverstone in therace for pole at the BritishGrand Prix. Finally, a friendlybetween Arnold and NottsCounty. I would like theNottingham-based Arnold togo north of the Border andtake on Keith.

last week has seen them predictablycharacterised as a collection of primadonnas more interested in theirBarbados villas than their nation’shumiliation. It doesn’t make any oddswhether the abuse is fair or not. Thisis their lot until they prove otherwise.

Not that the ever-growing mass ofthe disaffected believe they should beallowed to prove otherwise. Capello

has already vowed to take a firm brushto his squad. He should be careful inhis promises as there will be a clam-our to replace the old with the newand, as with all clamours, perspectivewill be shunted out of the window.

There has been much talk of thegolden generation finally waving theirworthless goodbyes. That was ridicu-lously premature. The next Euro finals remain easily in range for the

majority of the team that lined up inBloemfontein and any wholesale dis-carding would be as rash as it wouldbe self-detrimental. Alas, there isn’t alegion of brilliant foamy-mouthedwannabes awaiting their turn. Granted,there are a few promising types whomCapello will be wise to introduce. Butas it stands the last squad will formthe bulk of the next squad and that isnot quite as bleak as it sounds.

Because these players are nowherenear as woeful as last Sunday’s displayscreamed they are. It was presentedas a par-for-the-course World Cupperformance by England. It was nosuch thing. This was an aberration ina different X-rating to the merely dis-appointing quarter-final exits to Por-tugal (on penalties) in Germany or toeventual champions of Brazil in Japan.As always, the knee-jerk recrimina-tion is futile and the energies shouldbe concentrated on discovering why.

Naturally, the players must shoul-der a sizeable portion of his blame.But so, too, must Capello; he reallymust. Seven days ago his side wereshapeless and Capello was ineffect-ual in introducing any shape evenwhen the evidence in front of himdemanded he must. There are plentywho seek to excuse him the failings

HAVE YOUR SAY

Do you agree or disagree withJames Corrigan? Email yourthoughts about any article in The Independent on Sunday’ssport section to the editorm.padgett@independent.co.uk

Heading nowhere: it may seem madness to Fabio Capello but the over-expectancy will increase after the World Cup shambles GETTY

of his team. Yet how can they? Howcan they applaud him so wholeheart-edly when his boys are getting it rightand then absolve him so completelywhen they are getting it wrong?

Great managers are supposed todrag the best from their squad, aren’tthey? They are supposed to issueclearly defined roles and to foster theproper team harmony to ensure game-plans are followed by the collectiveand the individual. If they aren’t,whatexactly is the point of the great man-ager? What is the point of paying out£6m per annum for their services?

Of course, that is the price you cancommand from success. But just asapposite is the cost you pay for fail-ure. Not for the FA now, but for Fabio.Does he really know what he is lettinghimself in for? The Impossible Job hasjust become tougher.

This was an aberrationin a different X-ratingto the quarter-finalexits of the past

The impossible job just got tougher but Capellomust give ‘golden generation’ a last chance to shine