Letters

THIS First Test match has been so full of eccentricities that it has been easier than usual not to do justice to some of the more normal happenings. One of these has been the batting form of Jonty Rhodes, for he has looked a better player in this match than ever before.

Best discovery

Gary Elphick is PA to the owner of the Raymond Revue Bar

Q&A

The World Boxing Organisation middleweight championship proved a step too far for Ryan Rhodes in Sheffield on Saturday.

The precocious talent which made Ryan Rhodes the youngest post- war British champion and the fastest outright winner of a Lonsdale Belt proved not quite enough to carry him the final step to a world title. Last night, in front of his home town fans here, he found Canada's Otis Grant a shade too seasoned for him and was soundly outpointed in his bid to lift the vacant World Boxing Organisation middleweight title. The verdict was unanimous: Judge Nelson Vasquez of Puerto Rico scored it 115-114, American judges Larry Hazzard and Al Munoz had identical cards of 115- 113.

Ryan Rhodes is a young man in a hurry, swept along in the slipstream of Naseem Hamed's meteoric rise to prominence. But is Rhodes going too fast too soon? That is the major question waiting to be answered in his home city of Sheffield tonight.

Harry Mullan argues that the young Englishman is taking the biggest of gambles

BEST DISCOVERY

Ryan Rhodes made a slow start at the Rivermead Centre in Reading last night but he finally unleashed his power to stop Del Bryan, retain his British light-middleweight title and so capture a Lonsdale Belt in the record time.

South Africa 302 & 130 Australia 628-8 dec Australia win by an innings & 196 runs

Harry Mullan sees another Brendan Ingle prodigy emerge as a prince in his own right

RHODES: The Race for Africa by Antony Thomas BBC Books pounds 17.99