The Sport Matrix: Monday 6 April 2015

Five-star Ronaldo leads Real rout

Cristiano Ronaldo emerged from a goal drought in style yesterday, scoring five goals in a match for the first time as Granada were thrashed 9-1 by Real Madrid.

Ronaldo (above) had struggled to match his early-season form, scoring in just two of his past five matches as Real lost the lead in La Liga to Barcelona, but resurrected his campaign in spectacular fashion. An eight-minute hat-trick before half-time followed Gareth Bale’s opener and he added two more after the break, with Karim Benzema (two) and an own goal completing the rout.

Barcelona re-established their four-point lead at the summit in the late kick-off, Jérémy Mathieu earning a 1-0 win at Celta Vigo.

England bounce back to clinch title

England picked up their first title in the Sevens World Series this season, beating championship leaders South Africa 21-14 in the final in Tokyo. Phil Burgess, Charlie Hayter and Tom Mitchell scored tries for England, who bounced back from a group stage loss to Fiji to win a first title since the Wellington Sevens in 2013. The 22 points put them ahead of Australia in the fourth and final Olympic qualifying position.

Kiyonari breaks Donington record

Ryuichi Kiyonari set a new Donington Park lap record to put his Buildbase BMW on pole for today’s opening round of the British Superbike Championship. Kiyonari’s time of 1min 29.455sec was 0.029sec ahead of JG Speedfit Kawasaki’s James Ellison.

Champion Shane Byrne completed the front row aboard the PBM Kawasaki.

Belles hit five to keep pace at top

Doncaster Rovers Belles comfortably eased past Aston Villa Ladies 5-0 to keep pace with leaders Reading at the top of the Women’s Super League 2. Sophie Barker and Emily Roberts both scored their first for the club before Rhiannon Roberts, Leandra Little and Courtney Sweetman-Kirk added gloss to the win. Elsewhere, Millwall beat Durham 3-2 while Everton drew 2-2 with the London Bees.

Neal and Shedden share Honda spoils

Matt Neal and Gordon Shedden made it a day to remember for the new Honda Civic Type R as they claimed back-to-back victories in the British Touring Car Championship at Brands Hatch.

Three-time champion Neal had not expected such success in the opening round of the season: “We never imagined we’d have a weekend like this.”

BMW driver Rob Collard took the honours in race one.