A round-up of today's other stories in brief
Late wickets give hope to Pembroke
Two late wickets came with the last of the showers at Claremont Road on Saturday night as Pembroke gave themselves a glimmer of hope of beating Clontarf when the RSA Leinster Senior Cup resumes this evening at 6.0pm
Chasing a modest 237 Clontarf looked well set on 129 for one before Pembroke’s Andrew Leonard trapped Mitch Watterson leg-before for 53. Five balls later Allan Eastwood was rewarded for some fine seam bowling with the wicket of Clontarf skipper Bill Coghlan for 62 before the teams left the field with the score on 137 for three.
Clontarf will resume this evening with their two Irish internationals Andrew Poynter and Alex Cusack at the wicket and will fancy their chances of knocking off the 100 runs from 127 balls.
Pembroke came up a good 30 runs short os a testing total after a slow start to their innings, doubling their score from the 40th over thanks to Andrew Balbirnie's 57 not out from 60 balls after skipper Theo Lawson had made 79 at the top of the order. EMMET RIORDAN
Clare and Dublin in quarter-finals
Clare and Dublin will play in next Saturday’s All-Ireland senior quarter-finals, having come through their play-offs at O’Moore Park.
With Wexford and Galway already in the semi-finals, the two teams are now ranked in the top six in the country at worst.
Clare produced a stunning second half performance to prevail 1-19 to 1-7 against Tipperary, while Dublin needed extra time to edge past Kilkenny 0-17 to 2-10.
Clare reminded us of the talent in their ranks as Fiona Lafferty gave a player-of-the-match display that yielded four points, and Claire McMahon shooting ten points from placed balls.
There was little sign of what was in the offing in the first half, which ended with Clare leading by 0-7 to 0-5. Ailish Considine doubled on a McMahon delivery to score Clare’s goal as they took control after the break. Arlene Cushen sparked great celebrations for Dublin as her late point sealed victory after goals from Elaine Aylward and Katie Power had helped Kilkenny make it 2-7 to 0-13 at the end of normal time.
Mancini confident he will be able to buy new players
Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini has revealed he is confident of getting the players he needs to improve his squad.
The Italian, who signed a new five-year contract to stay with the Premier League champions this summer, remains optimistic he can land the players he wants, with the start of the season less than three weeks away.
Mancini said: “We need to work harder than last year and buy the players who can help our team. I’m confident.
“We don’t need big changes, not 10 players like two or three years ago – but we need three, four, five players.
“But they can be young guys for the future because it’s important to put them in the squad and make them good like the players we already have.”
Mancini has previously expressed his admiration for Robin van Persie and it has been confirmed that City are among the clubs to have lodged bids for last season’s Premier League top scorer.
However, the Dutch international striker has been linked with several other top teams following a 37-goal season with Arsenal.
Elusive Kate takes Group One honours at Deauville
Elusive Kate made every post a winning one in the Group One Prix Rothschild at Deauville yesterday.
The mile event for fillies, formerly known as the Prix d’Astarte, was for once taking place without the presence of the brilliant Goldikova, who was retired last year having completed four consecutive victories.
John Gosden’s filly had been campaigned in France for much of her juvenile season, including two victories at this course before winning the Group One Prix Marcel Boussac on her final start on the continent before taking in the Breeders Cup.
A series of niggling problems had kept her off the track until Newmarkets July meeting where she was overlooked by William Buick but ran a blinder.
Taylor in line to make his debut against South Africa
JAMES TAYLOR, the diminutive son of a National Hunt jockey, has been handed the big task of helping rescue England’s series after their crushing innings-defeat against South Africa at The Oval.
Taylor has replaced Ravi Bopara – who has withdrawn for personal reasons – in an otherwise unchanged 13-man England squad for the second Test, which starts at Headingley on Thursday.
This is despite the fact that Taylor has had difficulty adapting to life in Division One with Nottinghamshire this season, having moved up from Leicestershire of Division Two of the county championship.
But these days current form with a county is less important than it once was, and the 22-year-old Taylor was identified as a batsman of immense promise by the England management structure some years ago.
He also has a successful habit of being able to step up a level, as befits the shortest man on the county circuit (in the official books he is either 5ft 7in or 5ft 6in but that exaggerates his true height by two or three inches).
