Sport

Spanish tennis armada sunk
MELBOURNE -- Christian Ruud, from skiing-mad Norway, left a gaping hole in the Australian men's singles draw when he sank the Spanish Armada flagship here yesterday. The 26-year-old Nor-wegian, ranked 86th in the world, outlasted second seed Alex...

Black-eyed Ponting dropped from team
HOBART -- Batsman Ricky Ponting's troubled cricket career took another turn for the worse yesterday when he was dropped from the Australian one-day team because of an incident in a Sydney nightclub. Australian Cricket Board chief executive Malcol...

Els on the beach while challengers practise
STELLENBOSCH -- While Ernie Els was reportedly sunning himself on a Cape Town beach, most of the other players in the international field were hard at work practising on the Stellenbosch Golf Club course, venue for the first time this week of the ...

Soccer fair play award
ZURICH -- Football's governing body, Fifa, has awarded its prize for fair play of the year to Iranian and US football for the model game between the two political rivals at the 1998 World Cup. During the World Cup in France, the Iranians and the ...

Etiquette plays an important role
BOWLS Don Wright THIS Saturday afternoon sees the continuation of the Border mixed pairs championship after a break last week. It will be the first round of knock-out play. Only one round will be played. After the three rounds of round-robin, pl...

Boot camp for All Blacks
AUCKLAND -- The All Blacks will start their World Cup rugby year in an SAS-style camp -- news which has left one former participant, Kiwis league fullback Richard Barnett, saying simply: "I'd hate to be in their shoes." The 40 members of the All ...

Aitken hangs up his boots
CAPE TOWN -- Springbok loose forward Andrew Aitken announced his retirement from rugby yesterday. Aitken, MD of the unit truts division of a big financial institution, said he was forced to make a choice because of time constraints. "I cannot pl...

It's inter-squad cricket - and it's for free
By Peter Martin EAST LONDON -- The public is invited to attend an inter-squad cricket match this afternoon which features all the leading players who have propelled Border to top spot in the Supersport rankings and high up on the limited-overs le...

IOC delegates were offered prostitutes
MELBOURNE -- The bribery scandal engulfing the Olympic movement yesterday threatened to taint the Commonwealth Games and overshadow Melbourne's bid to host the 2006 event. The Commonwealth Games Federation said it was prepared to investigate alle...

Border seven for junior rugby camp
JOHANNESBURG -- Seven junior rugby players from the Border have been included among 72 talented schoolboy players from all the provinces who will attend a five-day Nike rugby camp at Grey College, Bloemfontein, from April 1-5. The players are fro...

Kallis tops Test averages
JOHANNESBURG -- The averages of the South African and West indian cricket teams make interesting reading. South African batsmen scored five centuries during the series, while the highest score for the visitors was 86 compiled by Carl Hooper in the...

Kiwi captain doubtful
CHRISTCHURCH -- New Zealand cricket captain Stephen Fleming could be missing from the early limited-overs internationals against South Africa next month due to a groin injury and operation. Fleming suffered the injury during the opening one-dayer...

THE EAGLE HAS LANDED
Bianca Booth, 15, a pupil at Stirling High School, uses a mini-parachute during a mid-week athletics training session in East London last night. The drag effect of the parachute is designed to develop the upper thighs of sprinters. ...

Narrow win
EAST LONDON -- Hams recorded a narrow 4-3 win over Computech Crushers in a Hansa men's major softball fixture at Bunkers Hill on Tuesday. In another major league game, Hellfires scoered a convincing 8-2 win over Yankee Desires. * Tonight's fixtu...

Public hearings into netball next week
JOHANNESBURG -- A National Sports Council investigative task team says it is to start public hearings into netball next week. Netball -- the largest women's sport in the country with 1,1 million players -- has been under a cloud with a breakaway ...

Hour Of Truth could be a winner today
By Dave Mollett JOHANNESBURG -- Trainer Pat Shaw has a useful grey filly in J&B Met hope Wild Wolverine, and another of his greys, Hour of Truth, cold notch his third career win in the eighth race at the Vaal today. Bred at Alan Sutherland's...

Prince Of Dane wins tight finish
MARITZBURG -- In a closely contested finish, Prince Of Dane outran his rivals to win the R60 000 Polly Shorts Shopping Centre Handicap run over 1200 metres at Scottsville yesterday. Starting at 5-2, the Gauteng visitor was given a copybook ride b...

Durbanville results
FIRST RACE 5 Native American (Rampaging Native-Cafetera) M Sutherland 1 2 Dakota Express K Neisius 2 3 HenleyG Hatt 3 1 African Image H Runge .4 Then came: Whispers, Spanish Spirit Winner trained by: Geoff Woodruff Betting: 9-2, 5-1, 1-1,...

Scottsville results
FIRST RACE 7 Keep The Faith (All Fired Up-All in All) S Cormack 1 11 Salmon RoyaleG Schofield .2 12 Shock-Attack A Forbes 3 3 Daddy's Act R Fradd 4 Then came: Double Agent, Crystal Chalice, True Or False, What A Promise, About Tina, Nino's ...

El Picha wins
CAPE TOWN -- The infamous "Cape Crawl" nearly put paid to El Picha's chances in the R100 000 Peninsula Handicap at Durbanville yesterday. The Argentinian-bred gelding was backed to the exclusion of all else and started the race as the 5-10 favour...

Forecast betting
FIRST RACE 12-10 English Star 3-1 Pearly Shell 4-1 Solo Princess 7-1 Celestial Power, Strictly Taboo 10-1 and upwards others s/p unraced. SECOND RACE 7-10 Heart Pine 5-2 Al's Vision 6-1 Day Tripper 10-1upwards others THIRD RACE 16-10 Jungle Thatc...

RESULTS ROUND-UP
SOCCER ENGLISH FA CUP REPLAY Barnsley 3 Swindon 1 ENGLISH LEAGUE Division One: Bradford 2 Crystal Palace 1 SCOTTISH LEAGUE RESULTS Division one: Airdrie 0 Greenock Morton 2; Clydebank v Ayr United, match postponed. Division two: Arbroath 2 Forfar ...

VICTORY SHOUT
Jana Novotna of the Czech Republic gives vent to her feelings after beating Henrietta Nagyova 6-4, 2-6, 6-3 in the second round of the Australian Open tennis championships Eastern Cape   South Africa&nb...

Spice Girls of Sport may be on the way
MELBOURNE -- Martina Spice. Venus Spice. Serena Spice. Anna Spice. Britain's biggest pop music export since the Beatles should watch out -- the Spice Girls of sport may be on the way. Martina Hingis says the teen-age sensations of women's tennis...

Surfing switch to accommodate cricket
SURFING Steve Culbert STOP PRESS: Surfers taking part in this weekend's senior Border surfing trial are asked to note the trial has been moved forward from Sunday to Saturday. The late change has apparently been made to accommodate those wanting...

What surprises does Fifa have?
By Cecil Holbrook EAST LONDON -- The guessing game has started. Soccer's hierarchy, Fifa, will hold their annual meeting next month and the burning question is: What will they come up with this time? Leading the way in the guessing stakes is ...

ITF chief: tennis is not in crisis
MELBOURNE -- A dispute over the penalty for Petr Korda's positive drug test has hurt tennis more than doping itself, governing body president Brian Tobin said yesterday. Tobin said the sport was not rotten, a whole cache of dopers had not been un...