Snooker: The Irish senior men's team captured the Home International Championship in Prestatyn yesterday with a resounding 16-2 win over the Isle of Man.
Impressive wins over England and Northern Ireland saw the Republic firmly in the driving seat and they made light of their opponents with Jason Watson recording the highest break of the tournament with a superb 127.
And further wins from TJ Dowling, Robert Murphy, Gary Hardiman, Martin McCrudden and 1999 World under-21 champion Rodney Goggins saw Ireland collect the Prince of Wales cup for the first time since 1993.
Senior: Republic of Ireland 11 Wales 7; Republic of Ireland 16 Isle of Man 2. Junior: Republic of Ireland 9 Isle of Man 0, Scotland 5 Republic of Ireland 4. Women: England 6 Republic of Ireland 0.
Cycling: Mark Scanlon again topped the podium in the world-ranked Tour of Hokkaido in Japan yesterday. The 19-year-old Irishman proved fastest in the bunch sprint which decided the penultimate sixth stage, taking his second win in five days.
Scanlon's team-mate Paddy Moriarty is currently sixth overall, 46 seconds behind race leader Eric Wohlberg of Canada. The race ends today with a 60 km criterium in Saporro, after which Scanlon and David O'Loughlin will set their sights on their forthcoming guest slots with the Linda McCartney team next week.
Motor sport: Jaguar will today take the first step towards rejuvenating their faltering formula one team when they confirm that the chief executive for the United States Cart series, Bobby Rahal, is to become their chief executive officer from the start of next season.
Jaguar have chosen Indianapolis, the spiritual home of US motor racing, as the location for the announcement. In recruiting Rahal, Jaguar have aimed a blow at the US Cart indycar series in which the 47-year-old is also a team owner. Rahal has a celebrated racing career behind him. In the mid-70s he raced in Europe, surviving a multiple accident on the first lap of the formula three race supporting the 1978 British grand prix at Brands Hatch.
One of Rahal's tasks will be to motivate Jaguar's No1 driver Eddie Irvine. Last week Irvine said "it could take seven-to-10 years before Jaguar hits the big time in formula one - and I won't be around to see it." The Ulsterman said that he would be retired from the sport long before then - as perhaps would be the man who replaced him in the Jaguar squad.
Rugby: Jonah Lomu has accepted an invitation to play for the Barbarians against South Africa at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium on December 10th.
The New Zealand superstar is among a clutch of world-class performers who have made themselves available.
But Lomu's presence, above any other, should guarantee a capacity 72,000 crowd for the Sunday afternoon spectacular.
Joining Lomu on the list of players who have already accepted are fellow All Blacks Christian Cullen, Craig Dowd, Carlos Spencer, Norm Maxwell and Byron Kelleher.
Australian World Cup-winners Matt Burke, Owen Finegan, Richard Harry and David Giffin are further confirmed participants, with Welsh representation so far guaranteed through centre Mark Taylor. South Africa will conclude their European tour with the Barbarians' fixture. They will also play Wales at the same ground on November 26th, followed by England at Twickenham six days later.
The Barbarians will be coached by Australia's 1991 World Cupwinning supremo Bob Dwyer.
The Barbarians last played South Africa six years ago in Dublin, toppling the Springboks 23-15.
Motor sport: Michael Schumacher has revealed he thought about quitting Formula One after the death of fire marshal Paolo Ghislimberti during the Italian Grand Prix. Ghislimberti was killed after being hit by flying debris - believed to be the wheel of Heinz-Harald Frentzen's Jordan - following a five-car pile-up at Monza's second chicane on the opening lap.
Schumacher went on to win the race, which proved an emotional affair for the 31-year-old as he was reduced to tears in the post-race media conference, although he was not aware of what had happened to Ghislimberti at the time.
It was the German's 41st victory of his career - equalling the mark of the late Ayrton Senna - although one which was later tempered when Ghislimberti's death became public knowledge.
For Schumacher, it proved a low point, as did the death of Senna in the San Marino Grand Prix six years ago, and not for the first time Schumacher considered retiring.
