Yesterday at the business end of events he was simply dazzling

Yesterday, at the business end of events, he was simply dazzling. “He’s certainly got that X-factor,” said Gordon Tietjens, coach of the winning New Zealand team “I can’t believe he’s not in the England 15s squad now.”. The British Basketball League’s decision to cut the number of non-national players per team from four to three for the 2006-07 season, will be seen as applying pressure on sports agencies to continue funding ?te players to stay with domestic clubs. The BBL have also committed to reducing non-nationals to two per team in the 2007-08 season, further cutting back on the slots for imports and freeing places for Britons.
But a comment from the BBL chairman, Paul Blake, makes it clear that the clubs will still need the level of funding which made it possible to assemble the England team currently in Melbourne for the Commonwealth Games.

Blake said: “Two-thirds of BBL players are British but we are committed, with the support of England Basketball, Great Britain Basketball and central Government sports agencies to continue to drive this percentage higher to aid the national team.”Sport England “topped up” the salaries of players such as Andrew Sullivan (Newcastle Eagles) and Julius Joseph (Scottish Rocks) to the level they would have earned by staying with Continental clubs, to make them available for Commonwealth Games selection.. If gold medals were awarded for entertainment value, Dean Macey would have a cabinet full of them He is never dull but he has never won a gold medal. The decathlon gets under way on Monday within the 84,000 capacity Melbourne Cricket Ground and offers him the opportunity to correct that anomaly after an injury-strewn seven-year career which has earned him world silver and bronze medals and two fourth places at the Olympics.. Ian Thorpe looked on from poolside here as his Commonwealth 200 metres freestyle title passed into English hands on a night when the Poms hit back at their hosts to take two gold and two silver medals. The previous day British swimmers had been described in one local newspaper headline as “Watery Wimps” – a reference to official calls for Bill Sweetenham, the Australian in charge of British swimming, to rule with more velvet glove and less iron fist.. As the dust settles on Cheltenham, the Irish can continue their depredations on a lesser battlefield today.

The John Smith’s Midlands Grand National, over four and a quarter miles in heavy ground, provides a fitting end to a gruelling week for punters and jockeys alike. Several of the runners have already proven themselves ideally suited by such a slog, but they are vulnerable to the improvement expected in a horse stepping into uncharted waters.. Three weeks ago, Freddie Williams had a hip replacement operation. On Tuesday, he was at his usual place in the front row of the betting ring at Cheltenham “You’d get off your death bed to be here,” he said. He could not know that, before the end of the Festival, he would be menaced by the possibility of making that journey in reverse.

Over the past few years, Williams has become celebrated as the most fearless bookmaker in the land. On Thursday night, that reputation finally exposed him not just to fear, but to downright terror.. It seems slightly ironic that, on the day when Duncan Fletcher, the England coach, is contemplating playing one of his prize assets when he may not be 100 per cent fit in order to reduce the amount of cricket the team have to play, the England and Wales Cricket Board is considering increasing the volume of cricket played by the national side. Stephen Harmison was ruled out of today’s third Test against India with an injured right shin yet England will keep him in Bombay in the hope that he can play in the opening two matches in the one-day series.