Basketball: The National Competitions Committee (NCC) of the Irish Basketball Association has expelled Clare Jets from the Men's Super League for the remainder of the season.
The Jets failed to fulfil their National Cup fixture against Notre Dame last Saturday and could not give the NCC assurances for their future participation in the competition.
The club have until midnight tomorrow to appeal the decision. The NCC stated that the Super League cannot tolerate this level of uncertainty and had no option but to expel Clare with immediate effect. Clare were in second last position in the table having lost all three fixtures to date.
Darts: Eight-times world champion Phil Taylor is feeling confident about his title chances for the Crosbie Cedars World Grand Prix which gets underway in Rosslare today.
"I've just come back from playing in China and Thailand and I've had some good practice, so I'm ready for the tournament," he said. "I've won it two years on the trot and I'm quite confident."
The tournament will be staged in Ireland for the first time and Taylor is relishing the prospect of showing a new audience just why he has dominated the darts world for the last decade.
Taylor is not due on the oche until tomorrow night when he will face the winner of this afternoon's tournament-opening encounter between Kevin Painter and Mitchell Crooks from Portadown.
Other highlights of today's first round include former world champion Ritchie Burnett's clash against Holland's Roland Scholten, who will fight it out for the right to meet number six seed and World Matchplay runner-up Alan Warriner in the last 16.
Former World Matchplay champion Peter Evison will meet three-times world champion John Lowe, with the winner advancing to play third-seed Shayne Burgess.
Rugby League: Lebanon captain Darren Maroon has been cleared to play in the Lincoln World Cup after successfully challenging a positive drugs test.
Maroon - a former South Sydney, Manly and Sydney Roosters first grader - flew into London with the Lebanon squad yesterday following a New South Wales Rugby League tribunal hearing.
After learning he had tested positive to the stimulant ephedrine following a Metropolitan Cup match, Maroon asked for his case to be expedited so the matter could be dealt with before the World Cup, which starts on Saturday.
The Sydney Bulls forward then convinced the three-man panel that he took the drug unknowingly, via a sports drink, and they decided not to impose any penalty.
Snooker: Fergal O'Brien was knocked out of the Scottish regional masters yesterday following a first round defeat to Alan McManus at the Motherwell Civic Centre. The Glaswegian booked an all-Scottish quarter-final showdown against seven-times world champion Stephen Hendry by doggedly recording a 5-3 victory. Runs of 87, 94 and 79 had carried O'Brien into a 3-2 lead and McManus looked in serious danger of suffering his first defeat in five career meetings with the Dubliner.
Last year's British Open champion also had first chance in the next but, playing what should have been a straightforward black to a middle pocket, he suffered a massive "kick". McManus pounced with a 38 break to draw level at 3-3, moved ahead by claiming the seventh with a well-controlled contribution of 74 - after O'Brien had jawed a simple black off its spot - and came through a marathon 51 minute eighth frame to progress.
"The kick was obviously a big turning point," admitted McManus, the eighth seed. "From a position of strength Fergal suddenly found himself 4-3 down and the pressure quickly shifted."
