Sports DigestCRICKET: Ireland have won the toss for home advantage in their three-game play-off with Denmark for the third European Zone spot in the Intercontinental Cup. The competition, for the 12 non-Test nations, will be introduced next year, and the two countries must play each other in three successive one-day internationals in September, venues and dates to be decided.
Each of the four continents is allowed only three teams in the regional legs of the International Cup, and Scotland and Holland, as World League First Division countries, were automatically selected for Europe.
Denmark finished above Ireland in the 2001 ICC Trophy in Toronto but that was reversed in last year's European Championship in Belfast, and the final European place will thus be decided by the September matches.
Ireland or Denmark will play Scotland and Holland next summer in a league series to decide the European winners.
SAILING: Shifty winds and a foul tide conspired against Ireland's Tim Goodbody yesterday for the final two races in the Alfa Romeo Sigma European Championship on Dublin Bay. Still, the Dun Laoghaire sailor prevailed and took the event with three points to spare.
For a time it seemed that Alan Milton's Clyde-based crew on Pepsi had continued their week-long form to edge out the overnight leader, in spite of Goodbody's nine-point lead. The Scot defeated the local skipper in both races, though the defender was careful not to lose touch and sacrifice his points cushion.
Anxious to get stuck into the final race, officials went straight to a Black Flag start following one general recall after half the fleet was pushed over the line early.
Which was just as well for Milton as he had been the first to start early and, only for the others crossing early, the contest for him might have been over then. Which would have left the way clear for Kevin Aitken's White Tub to take up the running. This Scottish boat eventually ended in third place, just four points behind Goodbody although they beat the Irish boat twice yesterday.
TENNIS: Three members of Tennis Ireland's Elite Junior Development Squad, Niall Murphy (Tramore), Conall McLoughlin (Castleknock) and Conor O'Kane (Belfast Boat Club), yesterday reached the semi-finals of European Grade One tournaments.
Murphy is figuring in the Italian event at Correggio while McLoughlin and O'Kane have reached the penultimate stage of the Birkerod event in Denmark.
HOCKEY: Jenny Burke has confirmed her retirement from the women's international squad, bringing to eight the number of Irish players in last year's World Cup squad who are gone from the panel.
Burke made her senior debut in February 1995 and won 124 caps, the last coming against Russia in the World Cup, when she scored the winning goal.
IRISH PANEL: B McKeever, L McVicker, A Platt (all Ballymoney), S Beaney, J McDonough (both Belfast Harlequins), E Bromell, R Kohler (both Cork Harlequins), L Caulfield, F Connery, D Sixsmith (all Hermes), C McKean, N Symmons (both Loreto), T Conway, N King (both Old Alexandra), K Maybin (Pegasus), M Goode (Pembroke Wanderers), J Orbinson (Portadown), P Orr (Randalstown), C O'Brien, L O'Neill (both UCD), E Cregan (Univ of Limerick).
