SPORTS DIGEST: Jimmy White treated his London fan club to a vintage performance at the £695,000 UK Masters last night. White, who celebrates his 40th birthday in May, defeated 24-year-old Welshman Matthew Stevens 6-1 to set up a potential quarter-final with Ronnie O'Sullivan. "Matthew is such a class player that it's nice to show him I can still mix it with these young guns," said White.
White, a Masters ever-present since 1982, treated the 1,200 crowd to some vintage potting. He cleared up with 37 to take the first frame and made breaks of 85, 56 and 90 to lead 5-0 in only 85 minutes. Stevens, whitewashed by Fergal O'Brien in the recent Welsh Open, prevented a second drubbing by making 73 in frame six. He led 53-0 in the sixth but back-to-back efforts of 32 and 36 sent White through to the last eight. It was another setback for Stevens, whose form has dipped since the death of his father Morrell during last year's Masters.
BASKETBALL: Waterford made up for the disappointment of losing last year's final when they beat St Malachy's, Belfast, to capture the Schools U-19 A Cup at the National Basketball Arena yesterday. St Malachy's, coached by Star of The Sea's Adrian Fulton, trailed 49-33 at half-time and despite some good long baskets in the the second period, Waterford continuosly countered with Philip Cusack and Andrew Piper hitting them with a succession of baskets. And with international Robert Grant leading the scoring with a final contribution of 32 points, Waterford ran out deserved 91-78 winners.
SCHOOLS CUP FINALS: U-16 A: North Monastery Cork 49 (N Murphy 17, M Horgan 13, C Drummond 9) St Gerards Castlebar 25(J Kelly 8, K Mc Guinness 7); U-19 A: DLS Waterford 91(R Grant 32, P Cusack 29, A Piper 15) St Malachy's Belfast 78(B Mc Cotter 29, N Mellan 12, D Mc Cabe 11) U-16B: Belvedere College 54 (S Flynn 40, M Flynn 6, N O' Ciardha 8) Naas CBS 43(E Mc Dermot 23, D Wallace 11, J Holmes 6)
MOTOR SPORT: Jaguar technical director Steve Nichols resigned from the Milton Keynes-based team yesterday after the new 2002-spec R3 challenger car showed disappointing form in testing. Nichols leaves the team with immediate effect just two weeks after Jaguar said it would redesign the R3's front wing after its first on-track tests last month.
At the time, Jaguar cancelled a planned test in Barcelona because of aerodynamic problems and the team reverted to the 2001-spec car
The 54-year-old Nichols, formerly chief designer of Jordan and technical director at Sauber, joined Jaguar in December 2000 and will be replaced by Italian Guenther Steiner. Jaguar said in a statement they had agreed with Nichols that "there is a need for the design and the development activities of the company to recieve fresh impetus".
