DIGEST: A disillusioned Trish Conway has withdrawn from the Irish senior panel less than three weeks before the start of the European Nations Cup finals and has been replaced in the squad by Loreto's Nikki Symmons, who was omitted from the original panel named last week, writes Mary Hannigan.
The Old Alexandra player, who was recalled by coach Riet Kuper in June, five years after winning after her 10th cap, decided to pull out of the squad after "not been given the time of day" by Kuper who, she says, offered her no chance to prove herself since her return.
"I desperately want to play for my country and have worked hard over the past five years to get another chance, so this was the most difficult decision I could have made. But I'm at peace with it because I know it was the right thing to do.
"Riet Kuper dropped me five years ago and has had no change of opinion about me since then, despite bringing me back. She told me I had to prove myself but barely gave me the chance to do it," said Conway, whose performances at the club championships last season, which won her the player of the tournament award, earned her an international recall.
"I sat in the stands for two of our three games in Wales (at last weekend's Celtic Cup) and got about three minutes in the game on Sunday. How can any player prove themselves when they're not even on the pitch?"
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CRICKET: It seemed all over bar the shouting yesterday when Ireland A needed five runs from seven balls with five wickets left to win their first European Championship game in Belfast yesterday. But no one told the Danes.
The Ireland youngsters managed only three runs to crash to defeat as off-spinner Omar Hayat took a hat-trick in the most dramatic last over imaginable.
Simon Wells was caught off the last ball of the 49th over, but when David Simpson and CYM's Conor Kelly took a leg bye and a single of the first two balls of the last over, there seemed no cause to panic. Then Hayat struck.
First Kelly was caught at mid-off from the fourth ball, Simpson was stumped off the next ball - a wide to put Ireland within one run of the Denmark total of 216 - and then Roger Whelan was stumped first ball to leave number 11 Gary Kidd facing the game's final delivery. He swung and missed and Denmark had won by one run.
All this after Ireland openers Gary Wilson and Brian Allen had put on 93 for the first wicket in just 20 overs, and Wells then scored 59 to keep Ireland on course for a straightforward victory - or so they thought.
The result, together with Scotland A's victory over Holland in yesterday's other game, means the Scots will be champions and Ireland finish with the wooden spoon, no matter the result of today's game between the teams.
At Deramore: DENMARK A 216 (B Chawla 66, A Amjad 39, R Whelan 2 for 27, J Mooney 2 for 41, G Kidd 2 for 20) IRELAND A 215 (A Wilson 41, B Allen 43, S Wells 59, O Hayat 4 for 25, B Chawla 2 for 33). Denmark A beat Ireland A by one run.
At Upritchard Park: SCOTLAND A 220 (F Watts 72, S Smith 30, G Drummond 30, O Hussein 26; Vik Tewarie 3 for 44, A Raja 2 for 61) HOLLAND A 106 (K Kout 32; Majid Haq 3 for 23, A Rawlinson 2 for 22, I Cran 2 for 25). Scotland A beat Holland A by 14 runs.
TODAY (10.30): Ireland A v Scotland A , Holland A v Denmark A (both Shaw's Bridge).
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RUGBY: Wales star Colin Charvis says the private finance package that will enable him to go to the World Cup is a "lesson for everyone in Welsh rugby".
The owners of Cardiff restaurant Zero Zero 32 - former rugby internationals Glenn Webbe and Mark Ring and soccer international David Giles - were yesterday unveiled as the men who will pay Charvis' wages up to and during the tournament.
Reports Cardiff owner Peter Thomas was the man behind the deal have been denied.
