Time was when the 2,000 Guineas was regarded as the best trial for the Derby and, indeed, the mile Classic still holds the call historically. But it is now 13 years since an Epsom hero even ran on the Rowley Mile, let alone won there, that being Generous, who prefaced his glory day on the Downs with fourth place on the Heath. She dealt with a testing series of fights, producing a range of armlocks and throws. She was unexpectedly countered in her third fight by Marianne Charve, of France, but determinedly came back to win a bronze in the rep?age, settling the matter with a nifty foot throw in the golden score section after eight minutes of continuous fighting.Roberts surprised everyone by winning Howey’s category despite having no experience of middleweight competition, meaning she could have just opened a new chapter in her international judo career..

Fallon says that he will also miss the European championships in Bucharest in May. “I just want to peak once, in Athens,” declared Fallon, 21.Howey, 30, is coming to the end of her career and doesn’t avoid challenges. He decided to sidestep them by fighting up a weight at 66kg instead of 60kg, and showed, losing only one of six fights, that his exceptional talent allowed him relatively free reign there. Ministers have slashed funding for campaigns to improve the environment and have quietly scrapped an initiative designed to combat global warming and increase recycling in Britain.

But its funding, which stood at nearly £10m four years ago, was eliminated last year and there are no plans to revive the programme.The Government’s own figures show that its expenditure on environmental campaigns will total £7.7m this year, a 58 per cent decrease from 2000 to 2001, when funding stood at £19m.The cuts come as figures show that road traffic has increased by nearly 8 per cent in Britain and domestic energy consumption by almost 7 per cent. “By carrying out its survey before the British growing season is under way – and only asking its own members – the Soil Association is not giving a true picture of the amount of British organic produce sold through UK retail outlets.”. Big supermarkets are failing British farmers by importing “substantial amounts” of organic produce, the Soil Association says. I always understood that soldiers captured in a war were PoWs.JIM ARNISON Salford Chained tortoise Sir: Regarding Rolf Clayton’s elderly tortoises (letter, 16 April), just last week the tortoise at Powderham Castle in Devon died aged 160 years.Last year he was living chained in the garden – so he wouldn’t escape, presumably.MALGORZATA KITOWSKI London E14 Up and down Sir: A sign (letter, 10 April, etc) at Tottenham Court Road underground station, detailing repairs to an escalator, read: “Escalator Works” Clearly it did not.DANIEL ROSS Edgware, Middlesex. Mr Mills has got his priorities wrong.DAVID HURDLE Redhill, Surrey Axis of power Sir: Listening to the end of the joint Bush-Blair press conference on Friday the final exchange stunned me Mr Bush thanked Mr Blair: “Good work Prime Minister”. Mr Blair responded: “Thank you Sir.” There can be no clearer indication of the power balance in this relationship. No British leader should display inferiority to an American president.

What would have been wrong with responding: “Thank you Mr President” – treating Bush as an equal rather than a superior?ANDREW REEVE Milton Keynes Captured soldier Sir: I was astonished by reports of a US soldier who was taken “hostage” in Iraq. Four of my local post offices have closed in just over a year, causing longer journeys to those still open, and longer queues once there Post Office queues have been a problem for decades. It gives the adopted person the privilege of an avenue to solicit contact.In the past, couples made their decision to adopt in the belief that the child they were going to devote much of their life to was theirs, and the birth parents were not likely to suddenly reappear at some future date offering to provide “explanations” to the child as to why he or she was given up for adoption. The recent proposals seek to change the rules which were in place when parents took their decision to adopt. Whatever may be the justification for changing the rules for future adoptions, there is no case for making the changes retrospective.Your correspondent’s case for change is not helped by her failure to take account of the fact that people who adopted children in the past also have wishes and desires, and may not view with equanimity the prospect of someone who is, in truth, a complete stranger intruding into the lives of their children and grandchildren.Dr LES MAY Rochdale, Lancashire Post Office queues Sir: David Mills, the chief executive of the Post Office, is surely joking when he claims that queuing at his branches “is a social experience for most people” (Business, 17 April). But in 1917, when Britain was the superpower, the Foreign Secretary, Arthur Balfour, declared that “His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.”
The article was entitled On the Iron Wall (We and the Arabs). Jabotinsky stated that “a voluntary agreement between us and the Arabs of Palestine is inconceivable now or in the foreseeable future.” Of course, where we are today, 2004, is a bit beyond the “foreseeable future” of somebody writing in 1923; none the less, the prediction still holds.