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| Buderus returns after RFL quash ban • Australian hooker had been handed one-match suspension• Jones-Buchanan could also make return for RhinosDanny Buderus will be free to play when the Super League champions Leeds aim to reach their fourth consecutive Grand Final after the Rugby Football League's appeals panel quashed a suspension imposed by the disciplinary committee for the second time in a week.The Australian hooker had been banned for one match after being found guilty of a spear tackle in the Rhinos' 27-26 win at Wigan in the first round of the play-offs last Sunday night. But the appeals panel agreed to lift the ban having been shown the incident from a different angle, just as they had in rescinding a one-match suspension imposed on the Hull forward Lee Radford last Wednesday night.To add to the confusion, they refused Buderus's appeal against the guilty verdict and his £300 fine. But the latter will be a small price to pay for him or Leeds, who have already lost the England internationals Jamie Peacock and Danny McGuire to serious knee ligament injuries, but could yet be boosted by the return of Jamie Jones-Buchanan for their qualifying semi-final on Saturday week at home to one of the winners of this weekend's elimination semis.Paul Deacon has been omitted from Wigan's squad for the first of those games against Hull KR, apparently confirming initial fears that the recurrence of a groin problem he suffered against Leeds will rule him out for the rest of the season.Leeds RhinosSuper LeagueRugby leagueAndy Wilsonguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Workforce gets amber light for Arc after Sandown racecourse gallop • Derby winner's track workout gets thumbs up• Third favourite not certain to run in Paris raceIt was a very big day for the men and women of Air Products plc, who came to their local racecourse for a conference and found themselves watching the Derby winner being tuned up for a possible run in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe on Sunday week.Twenty-odd suits sipped coffee and looked down from the balcony of a private box as Workforce took on two of his stablemates over a mile in a hastily arranged and unheralded contest that may as well have been laid on as a cabaret for the executive-types since there were only a dozen others present.Among those was Sir Michael Stoute, Workforce's trainer, who would probably have preferred to be the only person in the grandstand. As the three horses cantered round to the far side of the track Stoute began pacing, then humming to himself, eventually moving away from everyone else and watching alone from the top of a low wall.His edginess was unsurprising. Stoute has never won the Arc and Workforce, 5-1 third favourite and a seven-length winner of the Derby, would be a strong contender if in peak form, but the colt turned in a dire effort in the King George and has not been seen in public since.He looked fit and healthy yesterday and there was nothing wrong with his effort on the track, though it was possibly a shade underwhelming in light of the breathless reports of how fast he had been zipping up the Newmarket gallops recently. Official Style, who won a Windsor maiden last month, set the pace before being swept aside by Workforce at the two-furlong pole.Confront, the third horse, played a puzzling role. Having been Workforce's pacemaker in the King George, he was settled in last place for this gallop and was not hard pressed to follow his stablemate to the line at a respectful distance of five lengths. While Ryan Moore made sure that Workforce stretched out to the finish, Confront gave the impression he could have got closer. This is hardly great news for Stoute since Confront has failed to win since October.It was "a very satisfactory workout", the trainer said. "He's nice and relaxed, we're pleased with him." The important thing, Stoute added, was to get the horse back to Newmarket and see how he recovered from his exertions. We had a bad experience at Ascot, so that's why we're being cautious and there's nothing wrong with that. We can't confirm him [as an Arc runner] until we're really sure."Moore offered little to the press ("He's in good shape") and appears to have said little more to his employers. "He's never very effusive one way or the other but he seemed happy," was the report from Lord Grimthorpe, spokesman for Workforce's owner, Khalid Abdulla."I think what we're looking for is for the horse to show himself happy again, not only physically but mentally as well," Grimthorpe said. "Now we have to see him go the right way, check out fine, see how he does. And obviously Prince Khalid's got to be confident enough to give the go-ahead."You can never be sure about horses but we want to try. He is an important horse for us, so we don't want to go for the sake of it but equally we want to give him the best chance we can of winning a huge prize, one of the biggest in racing."All of the owner's eggs are in this basket, since his Byword is now an unlikely runner after disappointing in his trial, according to Grimthorpe. Nor will Workforce have a pacemaker, if he runs, as connections feel they can rely on the Arc being run at a searching gallop."I think you have to be happy," Grimthorpe said. "He's stretched nicely, he's done it. The important thing now is that he comes out of it well and continues to thrive. If he goes the other way, then we have to think again."Obviously this is another box ticked, so it's encouraging. Is there a green light? No. There's probably an amber."The executives turned back to their private box, apparently pleased by the diverting start to the day's toil. "That's worked really well," said a Sandown official. "Maybe we should keep a few old nags here and do that whenever there's a conference."Horse racingSir Michael StoutePrix de l'Arc de TriompheRyan MooreChris Cookguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Martin Kelner: Sky's 3D golf coverage a damp squib Much of the day was spent watching the Welsh weather in three dimensions, an experience not entirely new to meI am no technophobe. I have an electric kettle, and cordless pyjamas, and I was one of the first people round here to embrace the new pyramid-shaped tea bags when they came in. If anything, I am what is known as an early adopter, as the various minidisc players and digital radios doing sterling work around the house as paperweights and draught excluders will testify.Even so, Sky is going to have to try a good deal harder to persuade me to buy one of the new 3D television sets. The Ryder Cup, continuing today thanks to the weather (rain in Wales in October, who would have thought it?), is Sky's biggest 3D broadcast to date and the broadcaster is clearly hoping the event will give 3D telly a big push, with display adverts in the newspapers and lots of promotion on those hopelessly low-tech HD channels in which lots of us have recently invested.A chap from Sky Sports called me on Thursday in a state of high excitement, assuring me that I really had not lived until I had watched golf in 3D. The company, he said, had diverted all of its 3D cameras from the weekend's football to give the golf the full benefit. He invited me to Sky's gaff in the purlieus of west London to feel the magic but, as that would have involved a round trip of 400 miles and there was no guarantee the white wine and canapés would not be hidden behind a paywall, I passed and made arrangements closer to home.I have watched a few football matches in 3D without being overwhelmed, nor in fairness particularly underwhelmed – just whelmed, I suppose. The 3D pictures look quite pretty at set pieces, especially corners, and give you an idea of depth of field, but in general play little is added, unless you have a fetish about captions whooshing out of the screen at you. But I kept an open mind as I made for Wakefield's only fully tooled‑up 3D venue, an unashamedly unreconstructed working man's pub, the kind of place where if you ask for a pint of lager and lime you will be told they do not do cocktails.My idea was to watch the start of the contest at home in the morning and hie me down to the pub for lunch to drink in some of the much-vaunted 3D coverage. When I say lunch, by the way, I was not expecting wilted leaves and shaved parmesan but something more on the lines of what Stuart Hall, reporting from Barnsley on BBC 5 Live on Saturday, called a "various" pie – drizzled with brown sauce possibly.Disappointingly much of the day was spent watching the Welsh rain in three dimensions, an experience not entirely new to me, having once spent a holiday with my parents in a caravan at Abersoch. In fact, the narrative unfolding on the rain was remarkably similar to that of that long ago summer, with presenter David Livingstone constantly saying things like, "The wind has picked up, so it's hoped the rain might blow away now to another part of Wales or south-west England." It's the kind of talk that makes you want to say, "Oh forget it, get the Monopoly out." There was less optimism from his reporter in the field, Richard Boxall, who memorably began one of his updates with: "I've just discovered these trousers are not waterproof."When play did get under way, the 3D became properly noticeable only on close-ups of spectators, bushes and the fluttering Ryder Cup flag, on which cameras focused rather pointlessly after the breaks. The commentators Robert Lee and Ross McFarlane, presumably under a three-line whip to talk up the joys of 3D, made frequent reference to the beauty of what we were seeing. "Wonderful shot there, player and crowd," said Lee. "Lovely pictures."For fully paid-up subscribers to the cult of golf, I am told the 3D pictures give a better idea of what faces the player in terms of his shot but for golf agnostics like myself the excellent analyst Butch Harmon, who does that Sky thing of buttonholing you by staring straight down the barrel of the camera, performs that function perfectly well.Back home the disjointed nature of the match did invite flipping and, as I was receiving pictures of LFC TV, Liverpool's in-house channel, for some reason – I assume they were having a free weekend – I decided to intrude on private grief for a while. But it was all very upbeat. Being the official channel, they tend to be a little North Korean about the Reds' current plight. The adverts, however, revealed worries for fans beyond the football.The first commercial I saw was for a product to treat male pattern baldness, which chuntered on about microfibres, but was basically just hair in a jar you slap on your bald patches. Hair issues of one sort or another clearly afflict Liverpool fans, because the very next ad was for an electric razor that allows you to shave underwater. I do not know how popular this practice is on Merseyside but I am getting one to go with my laserdisc player.Ryder CupGolfSport TVTelevisionMartin Kelnerguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Rafael Nadal cruises to Japan Open triumph by defeating Gaël Monfils • Spaniard takes title with 6-1, 7-5 win over Frenchman• World No1 looking forward to ATP Tour finals in LondonThe world No1 Rafael Nadal overpowered Frenchman Gaël Monfils 6-1, 7-5 to win the Japan Open in Tokyo.It was the Spaniard's seventh title of the year after a flawless match in which Monfils failed to force a single break point."I want to finish the season well and winning titles is a prefect way to finish," said Nadal, who improved his tour-best record to 66 wins and only eight defeats. "It's difficult to keep winning. I have to enjoy these moments because you never know when they will end. I'm going to try to keep it going in Shanghai [next week] and the rest of the season and in London [ATP Tour Finals in November] – the most difficult tournament for me."Gaël is a great player. He beat me in 2009 and we had a tough match at the US Open the same year. But I played really well today."Nadal bounced onto the court like a prizefighter and quickly had the No5 seed on the ropes with some brutal hitting from the baseline. He wrapped up the first set with a ferocious forehand down the line but Monfils, who survived a fright when he took an early tumble and turned his ankle, raised his game in the second.The Frenchman's extra energy gave the match its best point in the 10th game when he scrambled to return two overheads from Nadal. Monfils charged the net after clawing back the second and dived in front of Nadal, whose third smash narrowly missed giving Monfils a sore backside, after which the two men touched hands.Luck deserted Monfils in the next game, a net cord giving Nadal break point and the Spaniard nosed ahead 6-5 when a sliced backhand return floated past Monfils and landed flush on the line.Nadal delivered the knockout punch in the next game, a big serve to the body ending the match and giving this year's triple grand slam tournament champion a 43rd career title. He pocketed $260,000 for winning on his debut in Japan.TennisRafael Nadalguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Federer wins Stockholm Open, ties Sampras with 64 ATP titles Roger Federer beat Germany's Florian Mayer 6-4, 6-3 to win the Stockholm Open on Sunday, matching Pete Sampras' record of 64 career titles. rssfeeds.usatoday.com |