And they're off - Sports Preview - April 3-5

Horse Racing

The world's most famous steeplechase will be run at Aintree Racecourse for the 162nd time on Saturday.

The talk in the Paddock is whether Comply or Die (16-1) can become the first horse since Red Rum to win two Nationals.

But the favourite over the 33 fences and 4m 4f course is My Will (7-1) as jockey Ruby Walsh seeks his third National success after winning on Papillon (2002) and Hedgehunter (2005).

For most casual punters, like myself, it's the equivalent case of sticking a pin on the page of the newspaper while blindfolded.

But one horse I will have to go for is Fleet Street, even if it is a 66-1 shot and even though there are no newspapers left in that area of London.

The beauty of the National, of course, is that it might be the only one left in the running.

The race starts at 4.15pm, in the middle of the second half of the Saturday 3pm football kick-offs...

Premier League football

Alan Shearer makes his return to Newcastle United as temporary manager with eight games left.

That starts on Saturday against third-placed Chelsea who are four points behind leaders Manchester United having played a match more.

Newcastle start the weekend in a perilous position in 18th on 29 points but Shearer insists his role is only on a temporary basis.

He said: "I'm definitely only here for eight weeks and that's all I'm concentrating on."

In the chase for the title, Liverpool could regain the lead if they succeed at Craven Cottage against Fulham where Manchester United failed.

But United can ensure it is a short stay at the summit by beating rapidly-unravelling Aston Villa at home on Sunday.

And Arsenal can stretch further ahead of Villa in fourth by beating travel-sick Manchester City at home.

Back at the bottom, Hull City (13th, 33 points) face Portsmouth (15th, 32 points) at home with the safety line in sight.

But Hull have the worst home record in the lead and Pompey's Peter Crouch seems to have hit a hot streak at the right time.

Middlesbrough (19th, 27 points) desperately need a win soon, being four points adrift of safety already.

But this weekend, they face a tough test against Bolton Wanderers (12th, 34 points).

West Brom (20th, 24 points) are even further adrift and to give themselves any hope surely must take three points against Stoke City (16th, 32 points) who are still without an away win all season.

Of the other teams in trouble, Sunderland (14th, 32 points) travel to the Boleyn Ground to face West Ham who will be without Carlton Cole after his injury on England duty.

And Blackburn Rovers (17th, 31 points) meet resurgent Tottenham Hotspur in the Saturday lunchtime kick-off.

Sunday's match between sixth-placed Everton and seventh-placed Wigan at Goodison rounds off gameweek 31. The reverse fixture ended up with Wigan winning 1-0.

In local non-league football, Whitley Bay travel to Lowestoft Town for the second leg of their FA Vase semi final, defending a narrow lead (2-1).

Away goals do not count in the competition and the Bay will hope to avenge last season's defeat at the same stage against the same team.

Meanwhile, Gateshead lost the lead at the top of the Blue Square North in midweek when second-placed Tamworth Town beat third-placed Southport in their game in hand.

With the teams around them still having games in hand, all the Heed can really do is win as many points as possible and see where they end up - starting away at Stafford Rangers on Saturday.

Cricket

England have managed to hang onto the coat-tails of the West Indies and have travelled to St Lucia for today's decider in the five-match series in good spirits.

The availability of Andrew Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen has given the squad a timely boost as they seek to secure a first-ever one-day series win in the Caribbean.

Meanwhile, the Windies have potentially been distracted after their players threatened a boycott because of a row with the WICB over payment.

But Gayle calmed fears that the match would not go ahead by confirming there are now talks between the WICB and the Players' Association (WIPA).

He will hope to continue his magnificent form as the Windies aim to win a Test/ODI-series double.

England will hope to emerge from this torrid winter with some credit.

Formula 1

The F1 circus has moved to Sepang in Malaysia for the second race of the new season which is already engulfed in controversy.

In my review of last weekend's sport, I congratulated Lewis Hamilton on his skill in getting his uncompetitive McLaren up to third, although this was only after Jarno Trulli's 25-second penalty.

But this was not the end of the matter and Hamilton was called to the governing body, the FIA, to explain emerging evidence.

The hearing discovered Hamilton, under instructions from team boss Dave Ryan, gave stewards "deliberately misleading" information about team radio instructions which told him to allow Trulli to pass him.

Hamilton has been stripped of his points with Trulli promoted back into third. Ryan has been suspended by McLaren.

"I'm not a liar or a dishonest person," said Hamilton.

But his reputation remains tarnished in the eyes of many F1 fans and it is doubtful if Hamilton will ever radiate the same glow as what followed when he won the world championship in Brazil.

Of course, he could start by racing brilliantly and fairly this weekend. But his chances are likely to be restricted by Brawn GP, Williams and Ferrari after they all impressed in practice.

In first practice, Niko Rosberg led a Williams one-two ahead of Kazuki Nakajima with the Brawns of Button and Barrichello in third and fourth, and the two Ferraris in fifth and sixth.

In the second practice, it was the Ferraris turn to enjoy a one-two with Kimi Raikkkonen faster than Felipe Massa and Sebastien Vettel in Red Bull in third.

Ice Hockey

In ice hockey, it's finals weekend for the Elite League.

Sheffield Steelers facing Cardiff Devils at 1pm and it's Coventry Blaze against Nottingham Panthers at 5pm at the National Ice Arena in Nottingham on Saturday.

The winners of the two semi-finals meet on Sunday.

Sheffield, playoff champions in 07/08, won the regular season by a clear 11 points from Nottingham and Coventry who both finished on 78 suggesting that the evening match-up could be very competitive indeed.

Cardiff are very much the outsiders, hacing finished fifth in the regular season on 63 points before surprisingly beating Belfast over two legs in the quarters.

The Weekend in Review

A review of the sporting weekend...

Formula 1
The return of F1 was well worth the wait as Brawn GP made a dream start with a one-two in their opening race.

Jenson Button rammed this correspondent's words down his throat by living up to the tag of favourite by leading from start to finish, but this was far from a boring procession.

While Button got off to a flier, team mate Rubens Barrichello was slow off the start and got involved in the usual first-corner mayhem at Albert Park which took out Heikki Kovalainen and ruined Mark Webber's home race.

Instead it was left to Sebastien Vettel in the Red Bull to carry the fight to Button but the main hindrance to the man from Frome was the appearance of the safety car on lap 19 which wiped out his lead.

Nevertheless, Button built it up again but Vettel looked good value for second place until a late crash with BMW's Robert Kubica which was followed shortly after by them both spinning out, promoting Barrichello back to 2nd.

World champion Lewis Hamilton confounded expectations and was classified as third after Jarno Trulli was handed a 25-second penalty for passing Hamilton under yellow flags.

He had started in 18th on the grid in his under-performing McLaren but had managed to find his way to 12th after the first lap before avoiding the carnage in the rest of the race.

Timo Glock finished fourth in another impressive race for the German and Fernando Alonso got his wish for a top-eight finish by coming in fifth.

Nico Rosberg's sixth-place finish would have surely been higher, had he not been let down by his pit team on lap 15. Debutant Sebastien Buemi and Torro Rosso teammate Sebastien Bourdais finished 7th and 8th in the final point-scoring positions.

It was an engrossing spectacle and the Beeb did a good job in its first coverage of F1 since 1996, a particular highlight being Richard Branson calling himself "a lucky bastard" live on air after seeing his investment pay immediate dividends.

Football
Mixed fortunes for the home countries with wins for England and Northern Ireland but losses for Scotland and Wales.

While Scotland's 3-0 loss in Amsterdam was to be expected - and was indeed a significant improvement on their last showing in the Dutch capital when they lost 6-0 - it leaves their qualification hopes resting on them beating Iceland on Wednesday and picking up enough points in their remaining matches to finish as one of the top eight second-placed teams.

At least Scotland have qualification in their own hands. Wales' meek defeat at home against Finland in front of a pitiful 22,600 has left their World Cup dreams in tatters already, although it was never a likely proposition considering they face Germany and Russia in their group.

But the only way Wales, who face the Germans next, will get easier draws is by improving their qualifying performance and home losses to Finland completely undermine any other efforts.

The Welsh could learn a lot from Northern Ireland who have had excellent home form in recent qualification campaigns and continued this with a fine 3-2 result at Windsor Park against Poland, for whom Celtic goalkeeper Artur Boric had a nightmare.

The result lifted the Irish to the top of their group although this is a somewhat misleading position considering they have played more matches than any of their rivals, including two games against group minnows San Marino.

The Republic of Ireland took the lead within a minute against Bulgaria through Richard Dunne but threatened rarely after the goal and will be happy that the draw keeps them seven points clear of their opponents.

The chase is not over yet, however. Bulgaria have a game in hand and the Irish must play Italy twice and Cyprus away where they have previously had problems before the campaign is over.

England could just about finish off their campaign on Wednesday if they beat Ukraine and they warmed up in convincing style with a fine 4-0 win over Slovakia with the two goals from Wayne Rooney particularly delightful.

The England forwards, however, failed to heed my warning about 'skating around Slovakian challenges' as Emile Heskey, Carlton Cole and Peter Crouch all limped off, although Crouch should be fit.

Cricket
England and West Indies traded victories over the weekend with the Windies the first to strike on Friday after another England batting collapse.

England were bowled out for 117 in the 42nd over, which the Windies had no problems chasing down.

Indeed, captain Chris Gayle looked set to record the fastest ODI century but his stunning attacking display was brought to an end on 80 when he was bowled by James Anderson.

The embarrassing loss for England came in the wake of comments by Kevin Pietersen in the Mail on Sunday, expressing his desire to go home.

And so it is to Andrew Strauss' great credit as England captain that he replied to Gayle's onslaught with one of his own in the next match.

Although it was less extravagant than Gayle's effort, Strauss hit an unbeaten 79 to level the series at 2-2 as England comfortably chased down a readjusted target of 136 from 20 overs.

The series decider on Friday in St Lucia will determine if England have anything at all to take from this hitherto fruitless winter.

Other sports
In ice hockey, the Elite League playoffs mainly went to form with Sheffield Steelers emerging victorious against Edinburgh Caps in a high-scoring tie (12-7 on aggregate: 8-2, 4-5) but one which was won in the first match.

Nottingham Panthers also did most of the damage in their home first leg against Manchester Phoenix, winning 9-5 on aggregate (6-3, 3-2).

And although Newcastle Vipers held Coventry Blaze to a 2-2 tie in the first leg, the Blaze were too difficult to overcome and won 6-4 on aggregate.

Cardiff Devils beat Belfast Giants in the most competitive of the ties, winning 6-5 on aggregate. The Devils beat the Giants 2-1 away before a 4-4 tie after OT in the return.

Thus, the semi finalists are Sheffield, Nottingham, Coventry and Cardiff.


Great Britain finished a disappointing third in the medal table at the World Track Championships behind Australia and France.

They managed just two golds from the efforts of Victoria Pendleton and the women's team pursuit trio of Wendy Houvenaghel, Joanna Rowsell and Lizzie Armitstead.

But the absence of Sir Chris Hoy, Bradley Wiggins and Rebecca Romero must also be factored as a genuine reason why Britain did not perform better.


In non-league football, Gateshead stayed top of the Blue Square North on goal difference with a smashing 5-0 win over Hinckley United, the best home win of the season. Lee Novak got two of the goals and an assist.

And Whitley Bay will take a 2-1 lead to Lowestoft after the first leg of their FA Vase semi final.


Finally, Oxford beat Cambridge by a comfortable three-and-a-half lengths on the Thames in the 155th staging of the Boat Race.

The victory was Oxford's fourth win in the last five years, although Cambridge still lead the series 79-75, with one dead-heat.