Michael Judge was the Republic of Ireland hero yesterday as the defending champions England suffered their first defeat in the Nations Cup at Reading.
Dubliner Judge produced a clearance hailed as “brilliant” by respective captains Ken Doherty and John Parrott to give the Irish trio a gripping 4-3 win that throws Group A wide open.Judge looked certain to suffer disappointment when trailing Stephen Lee 56-0. Instead, the 25-year-old produced a remarkable clearance of 68 to give the Irish trio their opening success of the competition.There was even a final twist on the last black as Judge, who had not previously won a frame in the tournament, fluked the ball into a bottom pocket after aiming for the opposite baulk pocket.”I felt I deserved it for the rest of the break,” said Judge, who had earlier lost to England substitute Anthony Hamilton.Delighted captain Doherty said: “The most important thing is we’re now in with a fighting chance of qualifying for the semi-finals.”Victory over China in their last group match should book the Republic a place in the last four. Doherty remained unbeaten in his three outings, including a doubles triumph with Fergal O’Brien.England, who will again be missing captain Ronnie O’Sullivan due to injury, must beat Northern Ireland to maintain their grip on the trophy.. The dual Grand National runner-up Suny Bay has been retired.

The 12-year-old grey, who was beaten 25 lengths by Lord Gyllene at Aintree in 1997 and 11 lengths by Earth Summit the following year, was pulled up at Warwick on Saturday. The dual Grand National runner-up Suny Bay has been retired. The 12-year-old grey, who was beaten 25 lengths by Lord Gyllene at Aintree in 1997 and 11 lengths by Earth Summit the following year, was pulled up at Warwick on Saturday.
Suny Bay was the highest-rated chaser in training at his peak and won the 1997 Hennessy Cognac Gold Cup by 13 lengths with 11st 8lb.His owner, Andrew Cohen, said: “I, in conjunction with my trainer Alex Hales, have decided to retire Suny Bay. Although he is fit and healthy and still shows a passion for his work, I find that, regretfully, it is in the best interests of the horse that I take this decision.”He will enjoy a well-earned retirement as a trainer’s hack and enjoy his new career teaching our youngsters how to jump.”. The England A captain, Mark Alleyne, has hinted at changes to the line-up for the Busta Cup third-round match against Guyana starting in Grenada on Friday, with the new arrival Michael Powell likely to take his place in the middle-order.

The reshuffle comes in the light of Sunday’s disappointing draw against Trinidad and Tobago here. The England A captain, Mark Alleyne, has hinted at changes to the line-up for the Busta Cup third-round match against Guyana starting in Grenada on Friday, with the new arrival Michael Powell likely to take his place in the middle-order. The reshuffle comes in the light of Sunday’s disappointing draw against Trinidad and Tobago here.
“We know what to expect in Grenada because we have played there before so I imagine there will be at least two or three changes for the next game,” Alleyne said.”We made a few mistakes with our batting [in Port of Spain] but we are still very much in the mix in terms of points. I would still back us to make the final four.”After four days of slow cricket which earned England A just two points, Alleyne said they had allowed Trinidad and Tobago to dictate the pace of the game, which had cost them vital runs and tournament points.”Ian Ward’s efforts to bat for four sessions was fantastic but the rest of us were negative,” said Alleyne “We got stuck in a rut and dug a big hole for ourselves.

We have got to be more conscious of playing our own game and not being dragged into negative tactics to keep the score ticking along.”England A started the final day believing they could bowl Trinidad out but an aggressive innings of 82 from the wicketkeeper Keno Mason dashed any hopes of victory.Final day of four; Trin and Tobago won tossTRINIDAD & TOBAGO – First Innings 249 (L A Roberts 62, K Mason 50; C E W Silverwood 4-45).ENGLAND A – First Innings 242 (I J Ward 109; D Ramnarine 5-71).TRINIDAD & TOBAGOSecond InningsI H Jan c Solanki b Brown 10 A Jackson c Read b Tudor 11 D Rampersad c Read b Tudor 6 R A M Smith b Brown 11 G Mahabir c Solanki b Brown 23 L A Roberts c Alleyne b Afzaal 10 ÿK Mason c Franks b Solanki 82 D Brown b Franks 18 D Ramnarine c Solanki b Franks 2 R Dhanraj not out 2 Extras (b1 lb2 w1 nb8) 12 Total (for 9 dec, 88.1 overs) 187Fall: 1-16 2-27 3-38 4-41 5-58 6-83 7-157 8-181 9-187.Did not bat: T Modeste.Bowling: Tudor 12-5-21-2; Silverwood 12-4-18-0; Brown 27-10-43-3; Franks 13-1-43-2; Afzaal 13-3-32-1; Solanki 4.1-2-4-1; Alleyne 7-0-23-0.ENGLAND A – Second InningsI J Ward not out 13 J P Crawley not out 9 Extras (nb3) 3 Total (for 0, 10 overs) 25Did Not Bat: V S Solanki, U Afzaal, A Habib, *M W Alleyne, ÿC M W Read, A J Tudor, C E W Silverwood, J F Brown, P J Franks.Bowling: Modeste 5-1-18-0; Brown 3-17-0; Dhanraj 2-2-0-0.Umpires: C Duncan and Z Macuum.. West Indies cricket captain Jimmy Adams, in the midst of one of his team’s worst tours, has accused his players of having unacceptably low standards. West Indies cricket captain Jimmy Adams, in the midst of one of his team’s worst tours, has accused his players of having unacceptably low standards.
Preparing for Wednesday’s limited-overs cricket match against Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground, the West Indies went through 45 minutes of fielding drills with apparently little intensity.Players laughed when their teammates dropped a catch, spent too long standing still with hands on hips and gave the general impression they cared little about their work.Adams said it was important the struggling West Indies remained in good spirits but admitted he was concerned that individuals were not pushing themselves hard enough.”What you’re talking about is standards,” said Adams. “As well as team standards you need fellows to have individual standards, standards that they themselves will carry.”Never mind whether they’re in a West Indies team or they’re playing county cricket in England or they’re playing club cricket back home, we need to have a system where each player has his own standards when they arrive in the test team.”On a whole our cricket in the Caribbean is failing a little bit in that we accept standards, individual standards, that are too low.”The formerly powerful West Indies are coming off a 5-0 thrashing in the tests and are playing for pride in the tri-series against Australia and Zimbabwe.”We were given 10 or 20 years of the highest example of cricket possible,” said Adams.