ireland.com - The Irish Times

Dry season set alight in Limerick
GAELIC GAMES: The parched grass howled for a drop of rain and the championship begged for a game like this. In the Gaelic Grounds yesterday Limerick and Tipperary fashioned a draw from circumstances which were unlikely from the moment in the 20th minute that Limerick's captain was dismissed for his second bookable foul on Eoin Kelly. p

Federer's prosaic ideas are squashed by Nadal
TENNIS: The emotions are always the same after finals. But the outcomes are rarely so weighted as they were yesterday. For Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, the French Open final at Roland Garros offered much more than the Coupe des Mousquetaires trophy and a cheque for €1 million. p

Gaelic Games

Kilkenny not seriously stretched
Leinster SHC Semi-final/Kilkenny 1-27 Offaly 1-13: Consider this: Offaly got a standing ovation at half-time - and were practically double scores behind at full time. That's what happens when Kilkenny just keep coming at you, ominously unstoppable, like a rolling stone. p
Considered ruthless in every way
Maybe it was the hot sun beaming on their foreheads all afternoon, maybe it was just us, but both John McIntyre and Brian Cody had some heated words after what was arguably one of the more competitive Leinster hurling semi-finals in years - despite the final score. p
Sore point for Dublin as Lambert strikes
Leinster SHC Semi-final/Wexford 2-14 Dublin 3-10: Where does the moral balance lie in sport? Where do you measure from? On Saturday night in Nowlan Park the hurlers of Dublin could hardly claim the soul-destroying manner of their defeat gave them a moral entitlement to anything better on the evening - Wexford had 18 wides after all - but on the run of misfortunes over the season and indeed over the years Dublin surely are due a break. p
Wayward Derry huff and puff
Ulster SFC Quarter-final/Derry . 1-13 Antrim 0-10: Derry were never going to lose yesterday's Ulster quarter-final at sunny Casement Park, yet the visitors struggled to put Antrim away. p
Tipperary are punished for not putting tie away
Munster SHC Semi-final/Limerick 1-19 Tipperary 1-19: As long as there's only three points in a match, hope springs eternal. Yesterday, the home side proved as much when clutching at the last straw of a match that at one stage had surely depressed their supporters' expectations to virtually nil. p
Reale leaves pitch in body, not spirit
Richie Bennis, face flushed florid by the sun and the excitement, was in full flow. Around him the crowd of journalists and onlookers swelled and pressed. p
Limerick may struggle when it's back to 15 each
From a Tipperary point of view I was expecting the equalising goal because Limerick had always seemed able to find scores during the match. Barry Foley got scores, Ollie Moran got scores at will and Pat Tobin made an impact when he came on. p
Monaghan's 20-year itch ends in Newry
Ulster SFC Quarter-final/Monaghan 2-15 Down 1-15: Monaghan gave their own spectacular interpretation of the 1960s Abbey Theatre hit Twenty Years A-Wooing. And their contribution to this upset in Newry was something of a revelation and an exercise in "sticking at the job". p
Harder test awaits clinical Offaly
Leinster SFC Quarter-final / Offaly 2-19 Carlow 3-7: It's a rarity in this profession that the mind wanders off to brighter pastures but as the sun beat down upon this non-event at O'Moore Park maintaining focus became a challenge. p
Sages of the sliotar outstanding in field
Locker Room: If you live in the clammy world of press boxes and deadlines you can without fear of being accused of bigotry, prejudice or intolerance say that soccer is in one way markedly different from GAA. They do things differently there, especially when it comes to the harvesting of post-match quotes. The quotes might be banal in either world, but in the GAA actually getting the quote after a match can be like harvesting cockles while the tide is out. If you don't move quickly you're in serious trouble. p

Soccer

Cultural strands learning to pull together
Letter From Australia: When I was a lad in the 1970s, my parents would pile my brothers and me into the family station wagon and we would drive about four hours north of Melbourne to visit my mother's people in a region in Australia's hinterland known as the Mallee. One of the pleasures of those visits, besides listening to my grandfather vent his frustrations on the sheep in language we never heard him utter around the dinner table, was watching the local Australian football competition. p
United growing in hope of Tevez deal
Manchester United hope to discover this week whether they have successfully negotiated a way through the intricate process necessary to make Carlos Tevez the fourth high-profile signing of a summer of heavy transfer expenditure at Old Trafford. p
Beckham not staying even as title looms large
David Beckham has no intention of remaining at Real Madrid despite the club president's desire to persuade the former England captain to stay on in Spain. p
Wenger allays fears of a hasty departure
Arsene Wenger has stressed he will be manager at Arsenal next season but he stopped short of committing his long-term future to the Premiership club. p
Soccer Shorts
Today's others stories in brief p

Rugby

Pumas continue on winning way
RUGBY/International round-up: Ireland's World Cup opponents Argentina enjoyed a comfortable 24-6 victory over Italy in Mendoza on Saturday. p
Injuries mar Wellington rout for rampant Blacks
New Zealand 61 France 10: New Zealand's record demolition of France in Wellington on Saturday came at a high price with locks Ali Williams and Keith Robinson both suffering injuries. p
Rugby digest
Today's other stories in brief p

Golf

Green does it the hard way
Austrian Open: Australian Richard Green has admitted it was a "huge relief" to finally claim his first European Tour title for a decade in a dramatic climax to the Austrian Open. p
Caldwell, Kilpatrick stay hot Irish
Amateur Close Championship: Jonathan Caldwell had a birthday to remember when he finished joint leader with a two-under-par round of 70 in the Golfsure Irish Amateur Open at Cork yesterday. p
Lincoln logs his first win
EUROPEAN SENIORS : South Africa's Bobby Lincoln won for the first time on the European Seniors Tour when he closed with a fine five-under-par 67 to win the Jersey Seniors Classic at La Moye Golf Club. p

Racing

Fallon lands Group Three at Chantilly
Kieren Fallon was in Group Three-winning form in France yesterday but failure to succeed in having corruption charges against him dropped at the High Court in London will have much greater reverberations for racing's most controversial figure. p
Lady can bring hurdles form to the flat
Today's home action is at Roscommon where the old team of Pat Smullen and Joanna Morgan can land the mile-and-a-half handicap with the rejuvenated Katcharto Lady. p

Other

Gillick sets Irish 400m record
ATHLETICS: Now that's more like it. A week after a puzzlingly slow performance, David Gillick has run a sensational Irish record over 400 metres, winning the European Premium meeting in Geneva in 45.23 seconds. It's the fastest time in Europe this year and edges Gillick ever closer to the 45-second barrier. p
Federer bows to the power of Nadal
TENNIS/French Open: From the beginning, when Rafael Nadal put his head down and sprinted from the net to the baseline after the toss, there was a sense that Roger Federer was chasing this final. p
Henin gifted title as Ivanovic implodes
TENNIS/French Open Women's final: The details are barely relevant. Ana Ivanovic began to feel nervous after a game and a half into her first French Open final against Justin Henin. The toss on her serve was first to go. Her most dangerous stroke, her forehand, then collapsed. After that it was a rout. p
TG4 take set and match despite reaching mute point
TV View: A rout in sport is about as enticing as elevator music. It degenerates into a background distraction that only periodically reverts to sharp focus. On Saturday morning this column decided to check whether all the verbal hurt that poured from the French camp following their first-Test defeat by New Zealand would trigger a more resolute display in the second outing. p
Irish stars put paid to Irish hopes
CRICKET: Two of Ireland's best players saw to it there were no surprises at a sun-baked Clontarf ground yesterday as Eoin Morgan and Ed Joyce contributed to a comfortable win for Middlesex by six wickets p
Windies could pull off unlikely Test win
CRICKET: Shivnarine Chanderpaul led the West Indies' fight at Old Trafford yesterday as England struggled on the fourth day of the third Test to claim the nine wickets needed to wrap up a series win. p
Incredible as rookie Hamilton takes over
MOTOR SPORT: It's hard to deny. Once you clamber past the hyperbole, the boiling hysteria and the rampaging headlines, the truth is this really is phenomenal. p
Irish riders on rampage
EQUESTRIAN: Ireland's show jumpers notched up an impressive 10 international victories over the weekend, with Billy Twomey claiming the biggest scalp of all when winning last night's French Grand Prix in St Tropez, reports Grania Willis . p
Connor climbs to victory
CYCLING: Ryan Connor raced to a dominant victory in the Ulster road race championships in Limavady yesterday, going clear as part of a small group on the first of three ascents of the tough Cam Forest climb, reports Shane Stokes . p
Barneveld does it again
DARTS: Raymond van Barneveld successfully defended his UK Open title last night with a 16-8 victory over Vincent van der Voort in an all-Dutch final at Bolton's Reebok Stadium. p
Stoner holds off Rossi
MOTO GP: Championship leader Casey Stoner produced an ice-cool performance to hold off a charging Valentino Rossi and claim his fourth victory of the season in a thrilling Catalan MotoGP. p
Bite worse than bark for Borg
TENNIS/DIGEST: Bjorn Borg is to miss his first return to grass court action in 26 years after being savaged by a dog called The Wolf. p
Police to give cause of death
CRICKET/DIGEST: Jamaica police have scheduled a news conference for tomorrow in which they will reveal former Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer's cause of death. p
Cotto retains WBA title
BOXING: Miguel Cotto retained his WBA welterweight championship with an 11th-round stoppage of Zab Judah in front of a capacity crowd of 20,000 at Madison Square Garden on Saturday. p

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