I see Emirates airline have done a deal with Grant Dalton to sponsor an America's Cup team for New Zealand.
"If the plane should land on water ......"

AS ONE DOOR OPENS ......

Frenchman Thomas Levet made a successful last gasp attempt to gain entry to next week’s Open Championship by storming to a win in the Scottish Open at the exclusive Loch Lomond course. His final round 63 included a back nine of just 29 strokes that left Michael Campbell needing to birdie the eighteenth to force a play-off. His putt slid by the hole and Levet was in.

The other automatic entry spot up for grabs last weekend was for the winner of the John Deere Classic in Illinois, and it produced an unintentional bit of theatre. Aussie Mark Hensby won in a play-off, but declared that he would not be accepting the Open place as he was not familiar with links style courses and did not have time to gain the necessary experience. This left the organisers to inform runner-up John Morgan from Bristol that he would inherit the coveted entry spot. Unfortunately a short time later they had to back-track, having received advice from the R&A that in such circumstances the available place did not cascade to the runner-up, but would be allocated to the first reserve from one of the qualifying tournaments! Still, I suppose that he was mollified with the $410,000 second place prize money, which was considerably more than any previous season’s winnings. (If, like me, you did not recall hearing of Mark Hensby before, you might like to learn that he is in 13^th place on the US Tour money list this season, with a tad under $2 million, of which the John Deere winner’s cheque contributed only 35%, so he isn’t exactly a nobody!)

And the money’s just as good for the grey-haired brigade too. In Michigan, Ilkley’s Mark James became the first European to win on the US Seniors Tour, and pocketed the largest cheque of his entire career ($375.000)!

The European Seniors Tour competed in the Nigel Mansell Sunseeker International Classic at Woodbury Park in Devon last weekend, and Mansell himself carded his first sub-par round in a professional tournament. Intrigued by this report, I dug deeper to find out more about his new sporting challenge, but could only find a record of three appearances on the Tour, including the same event last year. However, all was revealed when I read further and discovered that he actually owns Woodbury Park!

The Kiwis had a good week. Firstly the All Blacks saw off another tough challenge from the impressively improving new Pacific Islanders team. Rokocoko’s two tries took his total to 24 in 16 Tests, and stressed the potency of the All Black back line. The Aussies will have their work cut out in the Tri Nations opener on Saturday, particularly as Gregan misses out through injury.

Then the cricketers demolished the Windies in the NatWest ODI final at Lords, having previously ensured the exclusion of hosts England. With the arguable exception of Fleming’s batting the New Zealand one-day squad seems to be lacking in top class individual skills, but as with the Greeks’ Euro 2004 win, they have formed a well-balanced, and motivated team whose capability is much more than the sum of its parts.

Their down-under counterparts came close to beating Sri Lanka by a large margin in Cairns, but the tourists held on for a draw, and in the process denied Shane Warne of the outright world record. He equalled Murali’s mark when he grabbed the eighth wicket of Sri Lanka’s second innings, but they held on for another 10 overs to force the draw. Murali is virtually certain to pull ahead again, as Sri Lanka play their next Test series before Australia do, but the pair could keep yo-yoing for some time.

Despite the promise of a well-liked track with fast corners and plenty of overtaking opportunities, the British GP at Silverstone dealt up another unpalatable dollop of non-entertainment. The qualifying sessions were a farce that had spectators initially bewildered and then disgruntled at being short-changed. The forecast of rain towards the end of the second, and decisive, period of qualifying had teams trying to ensure that their first session times were successively slower than those of their predecessors, in an attempt to get out early in the final session. Hence we had the fastest cars in the world trying to go as slowly as possible. In the end it didn’t rain, so it was all a bit of an embarrassment. Then in the race proper, the men in red did it again, with Schumi performing another sleight of hand to get from 4^th to first without overtaking anyone. No wonder Bernie Ecclestone is fuming at the teams’ intransigence at accepting any changes, and Max Mosley has accompanied his retirement announcement with an expression of his own frustration. Of course, if you’re at the helm then you can expect that people will hold you responsible, but it does seem myopic of all the parties to be stubbornly heading towards the motorised equivalent of a lemming dive. Perhaps the most self-serving statement of the weekend was Kimi Raikkonen’s view on the qualifying charade;

“We are trying to do the best we can and unfortunately it’s not always the best thing for the spectators. We can do what we want.”

The only bright spot came with the news that the Dubai ruling family wants to spread its already considerable involvement in world-class sport to include ownership of a Formula 1 team, with Jordan rumoured to be the most likely target. These guys are really switched on, and we can only hope that their clout will be used to good effect in re-vitalising the way in which the supposedly premier version of motor racing is currently conducted.

Last week I said that the Tour de France had started with a bang. Well, this week it continued with a crash, or rather a series of them. Commentators are beginning to call it ‘the year of the crash’, but no-one has suggested any single underlying cause (cobblestones, mass finishes and even a dog have contributed). What we have seen is that Armstrong’s US Postal team are the cycling equivalent of Ferrari. Whatever happens they always seem to be able to keep out of the worst of the trouble, and be in a position to take advantage of any opportunity to profit. The race goes into the mountains this week, so the big shakeout will determine whether the main contenders really do rise to the top, and whether Armstrong still has enough power and motivation to win his sixth Tour.

A number of riders have already retired through injury, but five have been pulled out by the organisers as they are under investigation for drug offences. How many more?

ON THE LIGHTER SIDE

Thomas Levet obviously wasn't tempting fate when he prepared for the Scottish Open. The confirmation that his win would entitle him to start The Open at Troon next week prompted this admission;
"I don't have any more clothes with me and I don't think I'll make my flight back tonight to pick any up. Also, my wife was planning to go on holiday, but now she'll be coming to Troon with me." 

A 100-year-old South African man ran (yes, ran) the 100 metres in a centenarian world record time recently, but the performance was not ratified as an official record because the electronic timing equipment did not work properly. Must have been a really devastating blow after such a once-in-a-lifetime achievement, eh? Well, not exactly, because he marshalled not only his own willpower, but also the officials and timekeepers, for a repeat attempt last week, which was successful, both in terms of his achievement, and the correct operation of the timing equipment. (What hasn't yet been reported is whether he passed the drug test!)

"I hope they don't give me a sheep, a pig, a donkey or anything this year."
So said Roger Federer ahead of the tennis tournament in Gstaad, which traditionally follows Wimbledon. (Last year the organisers decided to present him with a cow to commemorate his Wimbledon win.) So instead they gave him a 10-foot long alpenhorn, and now he'll be able to call in his herd without having to climb halfway up a mountain! 

A few centuries ago the Scots invented a game, and named it after the initials of one of the key rules; Gentlemen Only - Ladies Forbidden. The tradition lives on in the halls of Augusta and several other outposts.

Thanks to Tony in Doha for an ad from the local paper, which shows that living in the Middle East can indeed be dangerous;
'for rent - villa - lies on the vital intersection of 2 important roads......'

Last weekend Lynda & I sampled the new golf course in the northern emirate of Ras al Khaimah (very good incidentally). On our return trip we took the inland 'scenic route' to avoid the Dubai/Sharjah/Ajman conurbation, and in doing so passed through the small village of Madam (whose roundabout those of you who travel between Oman and UAE will know well). The UAE rulers are commendably insistent on continuously improving the standard and availability of education in the country, but Lynda spotted a sign which raises some doubt as to the kind of young ladies that one local establishment will be turning out. It read, 'Madam Girls School'.

ON THE BOX  
(All live on Supersport; Abu Dhabi timings; GMT +4)

Rugby Tri-Nations from Wellington

Saturday            11:15            New Zealand – Australia 

Rugby International from Gosford, NSW

Saturday            13:45              Pacific Islanders – S. Africa

Rugby Currie Cup from S. Africa

Friday               21:00            Blue Bulls – Pumas
Saturday           16:45            Sharks – Lions
                        19:00            W. Province – Cheetahs

Golf     The Open from Troon

Thu/Fri             11:45 – 22:30
Saturday            12:30 – 22:30
Sunday               13:30 – 21:30

Golf     BC Open from En-Joie GC, Endicott, NY

Thu/Fri            24:00
Sat/Sun            23:00

Cycling            Tour de France

Tuesday             16:15 – 19:45   Stage 9
Wednesday        12:30 – 19:30   Stage 10
Thursday            16:15 – 19:15   Stage 11
Friday                16:15 – 19:45   Stage 12
Saturday            12:30 – 19:30   Stage 13
Sunday               16:00 – 19:45   Stage 14
Tuesday             16:15 – 19:45   Stage 15

Motorcycling            MotoGP from Sachsenring, Germany

Sunday              13:00            125cc
                        14:10            250cc
                        15:30            MotoGP

Athletics            Junior World Championships from Grosseto, Italy

Sunday              19:00 – 22:00   Finals

Athletics            IAAF GP events

Saturday            20:45 – 24:00            Madrid
Monday              18:45 – 22:00            Thessalonika