A round-up of today's other stories in brief...
Dunbar advances from tight contest
GOLF:Defending champion Alan Dunbar squeezed into this morning's third round in the Magners North of Ireland Amateur Open Championship, at Royal Portrush, after a mighty tussle with Darren Crowe yesterday evening, one up.
Walker Cup prospect Dunbar had to sweat it out in the summer sunshine before dismissing the challenge of the 2006 champion from Dunmurry who has sent Colin McCleneghan (Rockmount) packing by 86 in the morning first round.
Dunbar also had an easy morning as he squashed the hopes of Chris Carroll (Shandon Pk) by 76.
Making a big impression is Kedleston Club member George Thacker who clashes with in-form Aaron Kearney, who wasted no time yesterday in winning his two matches.
First he squashed the hopes of Shaun O’Connor (Skerries) by 54 and then whitewashed former North titleholder Michael Sinclair (Knock) by 65.
Thomond bid for league World Cup
RUGBY LEAGUE:Ireland have launched a bid to take the 2013 World Cup to the Munster rugby union fortress of Thomond Park.
The bid, which was the last of 25 submitted to the Rugby Football League before last Friday’s deadline, is backed by Shannon Development and the Shannon Region Conference and Sports Bureau.
The revamped 25,600-capacity Thomond Park will stage its first rugby league fixture on November 4th when Ireland play France, and Rugby League Ireland (RLE) are hoping it will also host their World Cup group game against Australia.
RLE general manager Gordon Matthews said: “Ireland had a very successful 2008 World Cup in Australia and we are hoping to build on that success further in 2013.
“The boost to rugby league in Ireland to potentially host the likes of Australia or Fiji in a venue such as Thomond Park would be enormous.”
Cricket Ireland make appeal
CRICKET:Cricket Ireland has launched an appeal for information after three laptops and two external hard drives belonging to assistant coach and video analyst Pete Johnston went missing following last week's game against Namibia at Stormont in Belfast, writes Emmet Riordan.
The equipment, which was contained in a black Autograph flight case bag, was taken at the conclusion of the game at the Civil Service club on Tuesday, July 5th.
“The external hard drives contain footage of our matches, with game plans for the opposition and tactics which we employ,” said Johnston “It’s an accumulation of work over the past four years, and is irreplaceable.”
An Ireland cricket shirt autographed by the World Cup squad will be given as a reward for any information which leads to the retrieval of the missing equipment.
Doherty apologises over manner of Egypt victory
SNOOKER:Ken Doherty apologised for his performance and offered to "give people their money back" despite leading the Republic of Ireland to their first win of the World Cup with a 4-1 victory over Group A rivals Egypt in Bangkok yesterday.
Doherty and team-mate Fergal O’Brien, who were part of the team that reached the final of the last World Cup back in 1996, needed to win after crashing to a 3-2 defeat to Pakistan on Monday.
But Doherty felt the yesterday’s victory came at the expense of entertaining snooker.
“I’m really sorry and want to apologise for that match. We should give the people their money back for having to sit through it,” he said.
“It was a battle, but we don’t care. On paper it says 4-1 and it doesn’t matter how you got the four – we needed to win by that scoreline to get us back into contention.
“The other players will take the mick but we don’t care – I started off clean shaven and I now have a beard.”
