Today's other stories in brief
St Benildus positive from the start
COLLEGES FOOTBALL:A positive start from St Benildus in this Leinster Colleges' senior football A championship game saw them running out deserved 1-10 to 1-6 winners over St Mary's Academy at Dr Cullen Park, Carlow yesterday.
A fine goal on six minutes from Craig Diaz, supplemented by points from Fergal Duffy and Shane Horan, gave the visitors that fine start.
The Carlow lads fought back, thanks to a Michael Mullen penalty. However, Benildus held a 1-5 to 1-3 interval lead and they maintained a two- to three-point advantage until the final 10 minutes when they pulled away with a Duffy point and a brace of points from Horan.
ST BENILDUS: M O’Connor, S Fitzimons, M Cowan, J O’Connor, E Reilly, P O’Curry, C Coyne-Delaney, B Hanamy, J Dunning, C Diaz (1-1), C Rowe, F Duffy (0-4, 1 free), S Horan (0-4, 2 frees), L Murphy (0-1), K Lewins. Subs: A Christie for Dunning, C Haskins for Rower, S Tuite for Murphy.
ST MARY’S ACADEMY: D Murphy. C. Hanley, L Kearney, J Kenny, C Lawler, C Byrne (Tinryland), J Cahill, J Bolton, P Costelloe, E Fitzgerald, C Moran (0-1), A Brennan (0-1), P Whelan (0-1), D Hayden (0-1), M Mullen (1-2, 1-0 pen, 1 free). Subs: C Byrne (O’Hanrahans) for Lawler, S Harmon for Whelan.
Referee: F Barrett (Kildare).
Higgins gets rub of green baize to defeat Fu
SNOOKER:John Higgins defeated Marco Fu 6-4 yesterday in a see-saw battle to progress to the quarter-finals of the Masters at Wembley.
Higgins, who won the tournament in 1999 and 2006, raced into a two-frame lead which included a break of 140 – comfortably the best of the tournament so far – in the second. But Hong Kong’s Fu hauled himself level at the mid-session interval, requiring a respotted black in frame four to do so.
However, the real drama came in the last frame of the match. Fu built a healthy advantage but a reinvigorated Higgins fought back.
The world number five looked to have missed his chance when a pink rattled the jaws and stayed up, although Fu was snookered by the black and unable to take advantage. A brilliant shot by Higgins pocketed the pink and then, needing the black to win the frame and the match, he saw his shot ricochet on the jaws and roll along the bottom cushion into the opposite pocket – an outrageous way to seal victory.
Williams shows awesome form
TENNIS:Serena Williams rebounded from her shaky start to the year with an awesome demonstration of her Australian Open intent at the Sydney International yesterday.
The world number two showed no signs of rustiness in her scrappy first-round win over Samantha Stosur as she demolished Italy’s Sara Errani 6-1, 6-2. The American belted nine aces past her bewildered opponent in an ominous warning to her rivals ahead of next week’s first grand slam of the season.
The powerful Russian contingent also flexed their muscles, with Dinara Safina, Elena Dementieva and Svetlana Kuznetsova all advancing to today’s quarter-finals.
Yesterday’s men’s matches contained plenty of surprises with last year’s champion, Russian Dmitry Tursunov, bundled out by Richard Gasquet of France 7-6, 6-4 while last week’s Brisbane International winner, Czech Radek Stepanek, retired in the second set against France’s Jeremy Chardy while trailing 6-4, 3-0.
'Zero regrets' as Hayden retires
CRICKET: Matthew Hayden insists he walks away with "zero regrets" after announcing his retirement from cricket. The 37-year-old made his decision public in Brisbane yesterday.
Hayden, who brought an end to both his international and domestic careers, was afforded an emotional farewell with a lap of honour in front of his home crowd at the Gabba between innings in the Twenty20 international between Australia and South Africa.
Deflection denies Ireland A victory
WOMEN'S HOCKEY: Two goals from Canada in the last six minutes at Belfield yesterday denied the Ireland A team their second victory in as many days over the visitors, the match finishing 2-2, reports Mary Hannigan.
Ireland dominated much of the game, taking a deserved lead on 20 minutes when Cliodhna Sargent fired home from a short corner, with Nicola Evans making it 2-0 nine minutes later when she deflected a cross past the Canadian goalkeeper.
Canada had to wait until the 64th minute before pulling one back through Thea Culley and from their only short corner of the game they snatched a draw, Stephanie Jameson’s strike deflecting off an Irish stick to make it 2-2.
The Irish senior team will play three games against Canada over the weekend.
