Cricket: Irish part-timers alarm South Africa

Commonwealth Games

NORTHERN IRELAND'S part-time cricketers gave South Africa's internationals a fright in their Group C match. South Africa were 23 for 4 and then 57 for 5 in the rain-affected match before Irish luck ran out.

South Africa faltered in their attempt to reach a revised target of 131 in 38 overs. But Dale Benkenstein and the captain Shaun Pollock enforced a stand of 58 before South Africa achieved the target with four wickets standing.

On the opening day of the squash, Peter Nicol, the Scottish World No 1, took only 13 minutes to beat Regan Pollard of Guyana, 9-0, 9-0, 9-1. Nicol had originally been given a bye into the second round but agreed to play in the first round after finding out that Pollard had travelled from Guyana only to find his name was not in the draw. "It seemed a long way to come, so I agreed to play him," Nicol said.

Among the domestic victories, Simon Parke cruised to a 9-0, 9-0, 9-1 win over the South African James Letlake. The Welsh pair, Alex Gough and David Evans, also fared well. Gough beat Tio Nkopane of Lesotho, 9-0, 9-1, 9-0, while Evans saw off Damien Tam of Papua New Guinea, 9-0, 9-0, 9-3.

David Heath, of Scotland, lost 9-2, 9-5, 9-5 to Pakistan's Shamsul Islam Khan, but his younger brother Martin fared better, beating Conrad Ntshebe of Botswana, 9-3, 9-3, 9-0.