He came up through the Welsh system and was a member of the sponsored group of young sportspeople called Elite Cymru. They tell me that Carnoustie is going to be very difficult, too. Good, a hard course is a great equaliser and I’ll be sure to take a good attitude out with me. “I found it exhausting because every shot was a challenge but what pleased me was that I enjoyed it so much. When you get there gradually I think you are better at taking the bad days in your stride.”Price hasn’t met many bad days lately and that includes the US Open, in which he performed commendably over four tough days at Pinehurst. It is all very well being a meteoric riser but some of them don’t know why they’re so good And when it goes wrong they don’t know why, either. Welsh sportsmen do get a buzz from knowing their countrymen are behind them and I haven’t felt it in the past as much as I do now,” says Price, whose biggest advance has been in his self-belief.

“One of the advantages in moving up slowly through the ranks is that you learn how to cope with the bad days. Both are aware that they’ve suddenly acquired the extra baggage of their nation’s attention.”I’ve been enjoying the added interest. Dave Thomas lost in a 36-hole play-off to Peter Thomson in 1958 and was joint second to Jack Nicklaus in 1966.Their only major winner, Ian Woosnam, has not been a strong Open contender since the early Nineties and only now, with the advent of Price and Park, have the Welsh been able to muster a challenge that in any way could be termed concerted. Dai Rees was joint second to Ben Hogan at Carnoustie in 1953. The only Irishmen certain to be at Carnoustie with Clarke are another Tour veteran, Des Smyth, and the European amateur champion, Paddy Gribben.Last, and in this context least, come the Welsh, who have never had an Open winner They have had a few honourable near misses.

Stead has raced both at the Olympics in 1992 and 1996, where he finished fourth as Andy Beads-worth’s bowman, and in the 1997-98 Whitbread where he was part of a Silk Cut crew who promised a great deal but ultimately failed to deliver. For skippers looking to move on to the world stage, success at the Admiral’s Cup, the unofficial world championship of ocean racing which starts on Wednesday in Cowes, is exceeded in value only by the Olympics, the America’s Cup and the Volvo Ocean Race (formerly the Whitbread). As the opening pair in six matches earlier this season they did not pass 33.. ALTHOUGH HE won’t admit it, the next two weeks promise to be defining times in the sailing career of Adrian Stead, the skipper of the smallest of Britain’s three boats, the Mumm 36 Barlo Plastics, in the Champagne Mumm Admiral’s Cup. White made his first century of the season from 176 balls with 10 fours and Stephenson registered a half-century as they saved the follow-on. Nash had taken care of Hampshire’s KKK but Giles White and John Stephenson restored their fortunes. It was not spectacular but they put on 165 for the fifth wicket.

Will Kendall swished carelessly at the first ball after lunch to give Martyn Croy a second catch behind.The reserve wicketkeeper pouched a third when Derek Kenway edged on the forward push and Matthew Keech nicked the next ball to second slip. The New Zealanders declared, leaving Hampshire needing 221 to save the follow on.Jason Laney was caught down the leg side in the second over and they had not made much further progress to their initial target when Nash made several more interventions. Nash struck the first ball for a straight six out of the ground and the last high wide of midwicket.Doull whacked a couple of sixes over cow corner and then holed out to deep midwicket. The tourists made 96 in the first 70 minutes before declaring, 24 of which came in one seven-ball over from Simon Renshaw – six, one, four, four, a leg bye, four wides, four.

“But I feel it’s a positive step that there is more of a demand to hit the ball straight off the tee. However narrow the fairways are, I’d like them narrower.”Monty equalled the Carnoustie course record of 64 in 1995, but a year later had a last round of 81 in the wind. I need to be confident but sensible.”Monty has heard the stories of the high rough “It concerns everyone,” he said. “I can’t go into the Open with any more confidence,” he said “But I have to be careful to calm down and start again. A year later, in windy conditions, which included a gale on the last day, Ian Woosnam won at what was then one over but would now be five over.After his victory yesterday at Loch Lomond, Montgomerie is determined do something about an Open record which shows five missed cuts and one top 10 finish in nine starts.

I remember the ball was running a bit more and there was less rough It is quite unbelievable how the rough is I have never seen anything like it. I’ll be quite happy if the crowds come in and trample it down a bit.”In 1995 in generally good weather, the Scottish Open was won by Wayne Riley at what was then 12 under but would now, with the reduction in par, be eight under. “If I could get a good bet, I’d bet that four over will win,” said the South African. “The course is in excellent shape but looks totally different to what it was in 1996. It’s probably the toughest course they have over there,” he said.While Woods was warming up with some of his American pals in Ireland last week, Els broke off from his practising at Wentworth to venture up to Carnoustie What he saw almost blew his mind.

“We had basically every single different kind of condition imaginable: rain, wind, calm, sunny, cloudy, foggy, and I think that was all in one round. “I am controlling my trajectory well and I am going to Scotland very pleased and very confident.”Woods played in the two Scottish Opens at Carnoustie in the middle of the decade. Such was his commanding performance in the Western Open last weekend, Woods worked on his knockdown shots ready for the third major of the year.”There is no way it is going to be calm at The Open,” Woods said. Indeed, in the last four years, the winner has come from outside the world top 10.But that is hardly a reason to rule out a player who has won three of his last four tournaments and finished third in the other, the US Open.

There is an apprenticeship to be learned first and a time-honoured path to the accumulation of wisdom and experience. First, Tiger Woods walks straight out of college and not only starts shredding the record books, but hits the ball further than Alan Shepard on the moon (600 yards). Then there was the Justin Rose show at Royal Birkdale 12 months ago when the boy from Hook in Hampshire came within a couple of strokes of winning The Open (as a 17-year-old amateur for goodness sake) and now Garcia, the latest teenage sensation, is making the scoring of birdies look effortless, which it most certainly is not.
Professional golf, as performed in the solar system, is not meant to be child’s play. LUKE DONALD says, more with pride than conceit, that he has a claim to fame. “I have never lost to Sergio Garcia.” The membership of that particular club is dwindling by the week

The regular tour pros must be feeling their age. I want actually to be a world-class wicketkeeper batsman for three or four years.”.

But I don’t want to be remembered as world-class wicketkeeper batsman, you know. Who among other modern Test cricketers would come on a major tour, study for and sit a key exam as part of his law degree? Graham invigilated shortly after New Zealand were defeated in the World Cup semi-final Parore is pretty sure he passed “I’m enjoying it in this team We’re close. I got a few, 30 or 40, and that turned things.”The World Cup showed how much. He flayed the attacks of Australia and India with some joyous late-order pinch hitting and in the Edgbaston Test he stood almost alone in New Zealand’s first innings, assembling a beautifully crafted 73 The keeping matched it But he is a man of more parts than that. Before a one-day against India, John Graham came down to see me and I told him I was running on empty He said I should just go and play, enjoy it. As recently as last winter he was in desperately poor form with the bat and his keeping was suffering “One thing affects the other. I swear to God over Christmas I never thought I would score another run I tried everything, I’d run out of ideas.

My game under Steve has certainly come on because he was a wicketkeeper and it’s been like having your own personal coach.” Not that even under this pair has Parore had unbroken success It is not the nature of the fellow, never could be. “These are two men that I have complete respect for,” said Parore “They are honest and they are helpful. Turner, whose man management skills he disparages, was eventually removed from office, Germon followed not long afterwards.Parore, having been denied a contract with the Board for 1996-97 for comments he had made about the coach, found his career resurrected. John Graham, a former All Blacks rugby international, was installed as team manager and Steve Rixon, a former Australian Test cricketer, was appointed coach. “I must have been the worst Test number three there has ever been,” he said. “I resented it, because I thought I was the best man for the role I’d been filling.”The new strategy was put in place by a new coach, Glenn Turner, with a new wicketkeeper, Lee Germon, who also assumed the captaincy Parore’s world was in turmoil He was on the verge of quitting after a tour of West Indies. It was resonant stuff: he was the first Maori to do so, his great grandfather had been one of the signatories of the document.Six months later he was replaced as wicketkeeper and told to be a specialist batsman at number three or four.

“I teach PE and games at Mayfield Prep School in Walsall.”At 39, one month younger than Linford Christie, Mrs Cook also runs a thriving family. She and her husband Garry, a member of Britain’s Olympic silver medal-winning 4 x 400m relay team in 1984, have three children: Sarah, 11, Matthew, nine, and George, six. I was Britain’s number one last year but what does that mean when you put it up against the rest of the world? I mean, in Kathy Cook’s day were they chucking money at her? Probably not.”"Definitely not,” a telephone call to Kathy Cook confirmed. By the time I get to training I am physically and mentally tired. But I’ve still got bills to pay and food to buy.”Do I have a right to say that people should invest in me ? No, I don’t think I do. I’m not going to sit around with my hands open asking people to give me things. Balancing the demands of a full-time job, as a business administrator for Iron Trades Insurance, with a burgeoning life in the international fast lane has become an increasingly difficult act for her.”I can’t afford to be a part-time athlete and I can’t afford to be a full-time athlete,” she said “I work from 8.30am to 5pm at Tower Hill Then I’ve got to battle the traffic up to Haringey.

Next month she travels to Seville as a potential finalist in this year’s World Championships, her appearance in the CGU British trials meeting in Birmingham on 23, 24 and 25 July a mere formality.If Maduaka is struggling to catch up with the speed of her progress it is hardly surprising. Just two years ago Maduaka was still an also-ran on the domestic scene. She watched the world championships go by on the television set at her Thornton Heath home, having finished sixth in the British trials for Athens in a modest 11.87sec. Maduaka was quick enough at 18 to be called up for the world junior championships in 1992 – but only as a reserve for the 4 x 100m relay.

She never got to run for the British junior team in Seoul.It is only now, at the age of 25 and after seven years training with McFarlane’s squad at the New River track in Haringey that the extent of her high-speed talent is becoming apparent. McFarlane, who tied with Allan Wells for the Commonwealth 200m title in 1982, first made his mark as a 15-year-old, winning the intermediate boys 200m title at the English schools championships in Durham – the same meeting in which 15- year-old Kathryn Smallwood of Hampshire, the future Kathy Cook, finished second in the intermediate girls 200m. According to Mike McFarlane, the sprint guru who has guided her since her junior days: “You ain’t seen nothing yet.”Unlike her coach, Maduaka was no teenage prodigy. More scalps and more fast times would seem likely in the weeks ahead.

There was also a super collision between two fielders chasing a catch on the boundary, which led to the uncommon sight of a cricketer being carried off. Their opponents – Gloucestershire and Sussex play today – will do well to recall, however, that Yorkshire have never lost a Lord’s final. For Yorkshire, the result really was super because they have not appeared at Lord’s since 1987. IF THE Benson and Hedges Super Cup is going to live up to its billing, it will need to be a lot more super than Yorkshire’s semi-final win against Warwickshire, though there was a super run-out, a few super boundaries from Craig White, and a couple of super dropped catches by Warwickshire. Present them with anything else and paranoia sets in.Even before Fleming appeared Kent, dismissed for 119 before Worcestershire tumbled on Friday, had confirmed the estimation that they could hardly bat worse, although Andrew Symonds, out first ball to off-spinner Vikram Solanki, offering no stroke, bagged a king pair, having been the third victim of Sheriyar’s hat-trick the day before..

If anything needed looking at it was the quality of batting, found equally wanting on both sides.Slow and without much bounce, this has not been a very good surface but too many batsmen nowadays seem to trust nothing except fast tracks with an even bounce. Brind pronounced himself happy that the strip was not dangerous. His first 52 runs came off 96 balls with eight fours, the next 51 off 30 more, the majority after Patel had been dismissed at 249 for 9.He certainly ended all debate about the pitch. After both sides had been bowled out on day one, the mandatory alert brought pitch inspector Chris Wood and his predecessor, Harry Brind, hot foot from Lord’s.It was the second scrutinising of New Road this season but it seemed unnecessary given that neither umpire had seen any grounds for complaint.

More than a month after the announcement, nobody has received a penny. “Deals have been reneged on and deadlines missed,” an insider said. “Most EFDR meetings are very stormy,” Geoff Read, the London Irish chairman, admitted. “There’s nothing unusual in that.”

This one, however, reached such hurricane force that a “time out” had to be called to prevent several of the protagonists from coming to blows, and Tom Walkinshaw, the chairman, offered to resign.
EFDR want the number of clubs in the Premiership reduced from 14 to 12 and offered pounds 1.5m for the three London rivals to become one. THE SO-CALLED merger between London Irish, Richmond and London Scottish rugby clubs ran into huge problems last week when a meeting of English First Division Rugby ended in disarray. The Italian Polti team, who have their countryman Ivan Gotti, winner of the Giro, to service as well, might not leap to the Frenchman’s aid on draining afternoons over L’Alpe d’Huez and the Col du Galibier.

If formal charges are brought against Virenque by the prosecutor in Lille over the next 10 days, which is a possibility, Leblanc will have good reason to banish the Frenchman once again.If not, he might have to watch the most prestigious stage of his beloved Tour being hijacked by a tainted symbol of the past.. The hypocrisy at the moment is incredible.”The mountains, his favoured hunting ground, are two days away and the confidence is returning to Virenque’s handsome face. “I cannot believe that Leblanc has said publicly that he hopes Richard does not win the Tour,” said Didier Rous, a former team-mate of Virenque’s at Festina “He should be treated the same as everyone else. He has broken the laws of the playground by failing to own up, yet the peloton’s sense of justice has been equally infringed. “But you have to say that Virenque is the most popular rider with the people and in that sense his presence is good for the Tour.”Virenque has been keeping quiet, but in the village de depart on Friday morning, they clambered over fences to get an autograph, thrust forward copies of his autobiography, Ma Verite (My Truth), for him to endorse oblivious of the fact that, for many of the riders, Virenque represents the sport’s chemical brotherhood. “It’s a shame that there are 189 riders on the Tour and yet all the attention is devoted to just one,” said Cedric Vasseur, a rival for France’s cycling affections. If the mayor of the Vendee refused to shake hands with him before the first stage, most of the peloton have refused to speak to him.

At one time, Lebreton stretched his lead to nearly 11 minutes, but once the red train of the Saeco team had been ordered to prepare the path to history for Cipollini, there was a sense of inevitability about the finale. Starting seven minutes behind his countryman, the leader of the Mobistar-Lotto team slowly reeled in the leader until the duo joined forces at 170km. As neither rider threatened the overall lead, the peloton’s reluctance to chase was understandable.For 198km of the 227km stage Lebreton forged his way towards the finish in Thionville Durand’s chase was no less memorable. The French love a spectacular dash for freedom and when Lebreton was joined in his chase by the familiar piratical figure of Jacky Durand, it seemed one for the connoisseurs of the long-distance break. The terrain through the Ardennes, down the Meuse and the Moselle, was undulating enough to discourage the sprint teams from chasing, long and tough enough to favour the rouleurs, those riders who are not quite quick enough for the sprints and not quite light enough for the climbs. All of the main contenders stayed well hidden yesterday on the sort of stage ideal for some unheralded heroics.The riders had barely engaged a gear before Lylian Lebreton, a 27-year- old from Nantes riding for the BigMat-Auber team, sent journalists rushing to their handbooks and team chiefs scanning through their notes. A return to the peloton beckons for Jaan Kirsipuu, holder of the yellow jersey for the past five days, a return to his home in Tuscany for Cipollini.

It is time for Bobby Julich, Lance Armstrong and Abraham Olano, among others, to fulfil the Tour’s search for a worthy new champion. Zabel, his feet splayed like a child riding for the first time without stabilisers, performed miracles to keep his bike balanced at a speed approaching 55kph.Today, the Tour reaches a decisive stage with a 56km time trial round Metz, the capital of Lorraine; by the time the leaders reach the summit of L’Alpe d’Huez on Wednesday evening after the second of the two Alpine stages, the patterns of the race will be more clearly defined. Thoughts returned to a crash in the sprint finish at Armentieres five years ago which in effect ended the career of the Belgian Wilfred Nelissen. With his 13th stage win, the charismatic sprinter has now overtaken Gino Bartali as the most successful Italian rider in the Tour de France, a sweet response to the critics who had written him off earlier in the week.
When his despair has eased, Zabel will realise that his fate could have been much more painful. Whether the German would have won is open to doubt, but no one could begrudge Cipollini his moment of history. Erik Zabel had hauled himself back into the sprint after a mid-race fall only for his foot to slip out of its cleat within 25 metres of the finishing line.

Schumacher’s response disappeared with a slide on his final run “In the second to last corner I lost the back end,” he said “I was just trying to go quicker than the car could do. There was a little bit left in it, but certainly not enough to have taken pole.”Coulthard came up short, too, though he defended third place. Despite the less favourable conditions Hakkinen pushed down to 1min 24.804sec and threw pole position beyond his rivals for the sixth time this season. This time, however, the track conditions had deteriorated slightly and both aborted their missions, intent on saving tyres.

“The first 20 minutes was the best time to be out,” Hakkinen confirmed. “After that the track temperature just got hotter, and the wind changed.”Schumacher failed again on his next try, too, but then McLaren went on the attack. As Hakkinen then headed down the pit road to commence his second run, he found Schumacher squeezing past on their way to the exit. If that bit of gamesmanship was intended to intimidate or destabilise the world champion, it was futile. No sooner had Michael done the business than Mika did it better, with another 0.3sec lopped off the baseline.

And all of a sudden Justin Leonard got on a roll and I was playing catch-up for the rest of the day It was very hard At the 17th I made a bogey and after that it was all over. Although I was not on top of my game, I felt like I was going to win the tournament. When I had a two-shot lead going into the last round I didn’t feel anyone was going to catch me. What I thought was that it would top off my career to be able to feel what he felt then. That must be the best feeling ever on a golf course.”Troon was different because I felt so strong going into The Open. I couldn’t do anything about Nick Price knocking in that huge putt on the 17th.

That’s when he hits some of his best shots, but when he is on the fairway, he doesn’t know what to do That’s a little bit how my game is. When I get to picture those extreme, funny shots, that’s when I play my best.”Parnevik departed the scenes of his two near-misses with differing emotions “At Turnberry I really didn’t expect to be up there I remember I was in a trance somehow. I made five birdies on the back nine and all I could remember was telling myself to make more birdies. I think I play my best golf when I am playing a lot of different shots and not lulled into boring target golf.”It’s like Seve [Ballesteros] He is most focused when he is out in the woods. Sometimes you wish you had a putter with a driving shaft on it just to keep it on the ground and keep it going forward. At Troon, I putted one from 60 yards off the green and two-putted You never see those shots anywhere else.