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Ian Williams leads World Match Race

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 16:55:18 GMT

Britain's Ian Williams had already ensured he continued to lead the World Match Racing Tour just by making it to the semi-finals but he was gunning for back-to-back wins in St. Moritz today.

The road to the World Cup

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 13:34:03 GMT

They are still counting the medals in Bejing, which is just as well as China does not have much to look forward to when it comes to the next sporting jamboree. The British and Irish nations are yet to even kick off their 2010 World Cup qualifying campaigns but the globe’s most populous nation is already out. So are India, which means, 642 days before the opening ceremony, a third of the world is out of the World Cup.

Hamilton claims emphatic pole position

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 13:08:21 GMT

Lewis Hamilton cruised to the 11th pole position of his 30-race Formula One career ahead of tomorrow's Belgian Grand Prix.

World Cup Qualifiers - live

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 13:00:10 GMT

Live scores and updates from all the day's football

You Write the Caption - 06/09/08

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 23:00:39 GMT

You Write the Caption - 30/08/08

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 23:00:35 GMT

Andorra 0 England 2: Cole spares Capello's blushes

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 23:00:01 GMT

Joe Cole - the player Fabio Capello is reluctant to include in his starting line-up - again spared his blushes as England finally overcame the minnows of Andorra in their opening World Cup qualifier in Barcelona's Olympic Stadium.

Matthew Horne: It's the same old story... Spurs are still rubbish

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 23:00:01 GMT

Thud. Thud. Thud-thud-thud-thud Yids! Ahhh ... there it is: The familiar and unnervingly ominous chant welcoming 36,000 and me back to The Lane. All the same faces surround me: The frosty bloke and his son, who haven't uttered a single word to me in five seasons; Flicker and Steve, who've now exchanged the "Where's your Nan, Gav-lar?" gentle mickey-taking for some genuine interest – and, I think, some pride – in my career.

Depleted Scotland feel the heat in Macedonia

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 23:00:01 GMT

Macedonia's capital is notable for its Roman origins, its 15th century Stone Bridge and for surviving, just about, a massive earthquake in 1963. It was the birthplace of Mother Teresa, is twinned with Bradford and has a bazaar that is 1,000 years old. Yet the only gob-smacking thing that the Scotland squad cared a jot about here yesterday as they touched down at the Alexander the Great airport was the temperature.

Rain pain is worst for Yorkshire

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 23:00:01 GMT

Just 13 balls were bowled in the entire day's County Championship programme yesterday as rain forced the early abandonment of play in all seven games.

St Helens 16 Wigan 16: Richards salvages pride as Wigan stand up to rivals

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 23:00:01 GMT

Wigan went part of the way towards spoiling their neighbours' party last night, as they contributed fully to a memorable derby in appalling conditions.

Hick: the flawed genius

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 23:00:01 GMT

There are many who believe that once a cricketer plays a Test his first-class record becomes irrelevant. Suddenly, all that matters is how he fares in the game's most technically demanding and emotionally revealing format. It is how he performs here at the pinnacle of the game that ultimately defines how good a player he is.

Jankovic holds nerve to reach first Grand Slam final

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 23:00:01 GMT

Jelena Jankovic must have wondered whether she would ever reach a Grand Slam final but the 23-year-old Serb finally achieved her goal here last night. Putting aside the memory of four semi-final defeats, Jankovic beat Elena Dementieva 6-4, 6-4 to reach the final of the US Open. She will play Serena Williams, who beat Dinara Safina 6-3, 6-2 in the other semi-final.

Andy Murray: King of New York

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 23:00:01 GMT

Andy Murray is in heaven. Forget the fact that today, weather permitting, he will play his first Grand Slam semi-final, against Rafael Nadal here at the US Open. The Scot is in his favourite city, has breakfast every morning at Starbucks and can spend his spare afternoons shopping with his girlfriend or playing mini-Olympics with his coaching team at the Chelsea Piers Sports and Entertainment Complex on the waterfront. Best of all, a new season of the American comedy series Entourage, his favourite television programme, opens tomorrow night. Indeed if the weather forecast proves correct – a tropical storm was due to hit the city overnight and drench it for the next 24 hours – he could spend most of the weekend watching American TV.

England Under-21 2 Portugal Under-21 0: Agbonlahor keeps Under-21s on course for Sweden

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 23:00:01 GMT

Stuart Pearce's Under-21 side made sure of finishing top of their European Championship qualifying group with an ultimately comfortable victory last night, although to reach next summer's finals in Sweden they must still win a two-leg play-off.

Burley quietly going about his business

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 23:00:01 GMT

George Burley's teams have done his talking for him over the years, which is just as well. Because among the qualities he hopes to show as Scotland's manager, explaining himself effectively in public will not be among them.

Bolt win rounds off a golden summer

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 23:00:01 GMT

So that's it, then. With a suitable finishing flourish in the home straight of the Stade Roi Baudouin, Usain Bolt eased his 6ft 5in frame past Asafa Powell to sign off his ground-breaking track season with a 100 metres win in the final Golden League meeting of the summer in Brussels last night.

Shearer describes Newcastle system as 'dangerous'

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 23:00:01 GMT

Alan Shearer was never going to succeed Kevin Keegan under the current regime at Newcastle United and the former Newcastle captain made sure of that last night with strong criticism of the structure of management introduced by the club's owner, Mike Ashley. Shearer described the director of football position as "dangerous", a description that will not have pleased Dennis Wise.

Burley quietly going about his business

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 23:00:01 GMT

Matthew Horne: It's the same old story: Spurs are still rubbish

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 23:00:01 GMT

The week that changed the face of City – and the game

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 23:00:01 GMT

When Paul Scally, the Gillingham chairman, said he was moving to Dubai earlier this year to seek new investment for the League Two club his explanation was met with derision. While a sheikh has yet to be found to lift the Gills out of penury it could be Scally was ahead of the game after all.

James Lawton: Let's hope Capello can bring a roar from Rooney the quiet lion

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 23:00:01 GMT

Fabio Capello, Il Capo, per favore, take us away, at least for a few days, from all that afflicts our old love of football.

Brian Viner: Star turn from Bedser proves cricket is not just a batsman's game

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 23:00:01 GMT

On Monday evening, at the end of a splendid black-tie dinner at the Hilton on Park Lane, organised by the Lord's Taverners to celebrate cricket's 10 surviving centurions – the men who made at least 100 first-class hundreds – I sought out my colleague Angus Fraser and mused that such a glittering occasion would never be staged for comparable feats of bowling; celebrating the 10 bowlers who have taken more than 400 Test wickets, for example. Angus did not disagree. As every trundler knows, cricket has always been loaded in favour of batsmen, and the advent of Twenty20 tilts the balance even further, so it was gratifying, if a little paradoxical, that the star turn at Monday's event was a bowler, 90-year-old Sir Alec Bedser.

Stan Hey: 6-5 against

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 23:00:01 GMT

Most of Britain is likely to be turned into a mudbath this weekend, so it's appropriate that the Guinness Rugby Premiership returns, even if the game has long moved on from the image of the England forward Fran Cotton emerging from a swamp like Grendel. Rugby is seriously professional now, with big wages, specialist coaches, dieticians and that English sporting staple, overseas players.

Chris McGrath: Ground is real poser for Duke not spurious question of pacemakers

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 23:00:01 GMT

Until now, the governors of British racing have made a perfectly good job of developing their own, institutional paranoia. They have hired ex-policemen who seem convinced that there are reds under all our beds, credulous men who believe that "inside information" suppurates at the heart of the sport. Anyone who understands the game, of course, knows that the only thing that saves such "information" from being utterly worthless is its provision of an enticing, marketable veneer to the hopelessly capricious behaviour of thoroughbreds.