Strategic leaks from Mourinho's camp had suggested that he wanted to leave Spain and return to the Premier League early in the new year and there had been discussions with Chelsea but the Portuguese has chosen to stay in Spain. The club's website announced the renewal in a single phrase, under the headline: "Best coach in the world extends contract with Real Madrid to 2016".
Few details have emerged of the new deal. Mourinho was already the world's best-paid coach. He was brought to Real Madrid to seek to end Barcelona's stranglehold on domestic and European football. He finished his first season with a Copa del Rey success while Barcelona won a league and Champions League double; his second season ends with Madrid reclaiming the league title after a gap of four years and second semi-final exit in Europe. Cristiano Ronaldo insisted on Tuesday that there was a "change of cycle" in Spain.
There had been intense speculation over Mourinho's future. Leaks in the new year were followed by a much-reported trip to London. Those events can be reinterpreted now as a negotiating tool in conversations with Madrid and as part of a process in which his camp drew out possible interest from English clubs.
Ultimately, though, Mourinho was not convinced by the range of options open to him. He was, by contrast, increasingly convinced by the change in direction at Real Madrid as he is granted greater authority than any of his predecessors. Madrid, he has noted, are moving in the right direction. They will move forward with Mourinho.
• Spaniard not expected to be sanctioned for his comments • Emotional Didier Drogba confirms his departure
Didier Drogba has confirmed he will leave Chelsea this summer but Fernando Torres will not be following his fellow striker out of the club despite the Champions League winners' hierarchy having been left distinctly unimpressed by the timing of the Spaniard's publicly expressed frustration at life as a bit-part player at Stamford Bridge.
Drogba is expected to join the money-flushed Chinese side Shanghai Shenhua, who could offer wages of up to £250,000 a week, after telling France Football magazine that he broke down when telling his team-mates that he will be moving on.
The 34-year-old said he did not "envisage sitting on the bench watching others play at a time when the club is looking at putting together a new team" – and it appears this fresh Chelsea will have room for Torres, who within hours of the European Cup triumph voiced exasperation at playing second fiddle to Drogba.
The Spaniard claimed starting on the substitutes' bench that night represented "perhaps the biggest disappointment of my life" and called for clarity from the club's management as to what role he is to play in the future. No meeting is planned with either Torres, who has since departed for a holiday on Ibiza ahead of linking up with the Spain squad, or his representative, though there was dismay among club officials that such a high-profile player should potentially sour the otherwise buoyant mood.
Torres's comments, delivered in the mixed zone at the Allianz Arena as the players departed the stadium still digesting their victory, came with Drogba's eight-year spell at Chelsea drawing to a close. The Ivorian's contract will expire next month and he told France Football: "We [he and his team-mates] will not be together next season," he said. "As I have decided to leave, I wanted to tell them to their faces.
"They made me break down. I found it hard to admit that it was finished with me and the club. But I don't envisage sitting on the bench watching others play at a time when the club is looking at putting together a new team. So there we go, I am readying myself for a great leap into the unknown. It will be another adventure."
Drogba's departure will have implications for Torres. The Spaniard, who has scored 12 goals in 67 appearances for the club, is not agitating for a move despite suggestions of interest from Málaga and will not be sanctioned for his comments. Ron Gourlay, Chelsea's chief executive, in an interview with Sky Sports News, put the outburst down to emotion.
"Everybody wants to play and I would be very surprised if Fernando [hadn't]," said Gourlay. "I'm sure he wanted to play more games, and more time on the field as every professional player does. But it's the emotion of the time as well, the biggest day in our history. You've got to take these things into account."
One option open to Abramovich is to offer Di Matteo a deal for a further year, to be reassessed next summer when Guardiola may be ready to return to football. How Di Matteo, who will attract no shortage of offers following his feats at Stamford Bridge, would react to that remains to be seen. "He's done fantastically well," said Gourlay. "Everybody got behind him and here we are. Now we've got to sit down over the next week or two, or however long it takes, and do what's right for the club. I know the fans will be pushing for Robbie but we're not going to jump into anything rash.
"We've got to look at the season, see what worked for us, see what mistakes we made – and we did make mistakes – and put those right and take it forward."
Di Matteo is due to play in a PGA Championship Pro-Am event at Wentworth on Wednesday alongside Redknapp, whose Tottenham Hotspur side he condemned to the Europa League by claiming the European Cup, before departing for Barbados later in the week as a member of a Chelsea veterans' side competing in a 'football legends' tournament. His own family holidays are due to begin after that event.
• Cole targets unfinished business on return to Liverpool • Lille and West Ham both interested in signing player
Despite being targeted by West Ham United, Joe Cole has insisted he still wants to prove himself at Liverpool, where he returned this week, after a successful period on loan with Lille.
"When I signed for Liverpool, it startled me a bit," said Cole. "I don't know if I felt the pressure but the city is so in love with football. It's a religion. If I go back, I will be more prepared for it this time."
The Lille coach, Rudi Garcia, however, has expressed an interest in having Cole back at the French club next season, while West Ham, his first club, are also understood to be keen to bring the midfielder to Upton Park. But the 30-year-old told the Daily Mail he has unfinished business in the Premier League with Liverpool.
"I can see why people say [joining Liverpool] is a culture shock. It is a small place but it has this great buzz. How can there not be in a city that has produced five prime ministers and The Beatles?" he said. "The people are so sharp, quite a bit like Londoners really.
"There is still a part of me that would really love to make it work there and I don't want to have a bad spell at Anfield on my CV. But it is out of my hands now. At the minute I can't rule anything in or out. We have got to speak to Liverpool and see what happens there," he concluded.
Roy Hodgson brought Cole to Anfield on a free transfer from Chelsea, but having failed to impress in his first season he was sent on loan to Lille by the then manager Kenny Dalglish. Cole impressed and now Garcia would like to have him back for next season.
"From a sporting angle we would like to keep him," said Garcia, who is resigned to losing his Belgian playmaker Eden Hazard in a multi-million deal during the summer. "But he does not belong to us and he has not discussed matters with Liverpool.
"It is a very fluid situation. The only certainty for the moment is that he is returning to Liverpool, the club to which he belongs."
Cole added about his season in France: "I've definitely broaden my horizons. I managed to do an interview the other day completely in French. It's very basic but it's just the aspect of living in another country.
"Now I can appreciate the difficulties that foreign players have coming to England. We have got this great league on our doorstep and I am glad I have experienced it. There were a lot of hurdles to overcome. But this is something we will be able to look back on with great fondness. Who is to say it is going to end?
"It was exactly what I needed. It is a bit slower, a bit more tactical. But this has helped me gain confidence in my body again. I have been able to learn about the tactical side of the game. Foreign players tend to embrace that more than we do."
Nonetheless, he is aware a return to the Premier League would still require a step up. "I will have to do extra work because it will be going back to that 100mph pace but I'm sure it will be OK," he explained.
"It's not England, it's not Spain – they are the two top leagues. But it is comparable with Germany and Italy. This is a very good league. Now I have got to keep thinking ahead."
Cole also remains optimistic about securing a place at the Olympic Games, despite Hodgson not naming him for the Euro 2012 squad. "I haven't played for England for two years," he said. "I know there is a new manager but I was never contacted. I heard there were strange things going on with the odds of me being cut to make the squad and that made me think 'maybe'.
"But I have got my eyes on the Olympics now. I am in the mix and it would be amazing to play in that but, again, it is out of my hands. We will just have to wait and see what happens. Whatever is the case, it has been a great year it has been a great season. I am delighted with how things have gone."
• Winter Test series to begin on 15 November in Ahmedabad • Two Twenty20 matches also included on England's itinerary
The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has announced that England's winter tour to India will comprise four Tests, five one-day internationals and two Twenty20s.
England will leave on 25 October for a three-day training camp at the ICC Global Cricket Academy in Dubai before heading to India four days later, with the first Test to begin on 15 November in Ahmedabad.
Following further Tests in Mumbai, Kolkata and Nagpur, England will then playT20s in Pune and Mumbai on 20 and 22 December respectively before travelling home for Christmas.
The first 50-over game begins on 11 January in Rajkot, with all five of them day-night encounters.
England went to the top of the Test world rankings when Andrew Strauss led the team to a 4-0 whitewash over the World Cup winners at home last year but a similar result appears highly unlikely given England's woes last winter. They were thrashed 3-0 by Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates before drawing the two-Test series in Sri Lanka.
They will be looking to take some momentum into the winter, however, following home series with West Indies and South Africa.
England Cricket's managing director Hugh Morris said: "This will be England's first full tour of India since 2008 and I am sure that fans in both countries will be eagerly anticipating an exciting series of contests. [The] ECB will also be seeking to finalise an England Performance Programme camp in India before Christmas, which will help prepare members of both our Test and T20 squads."
Against a backdrop of violence, the Belfast pentathlete defeated age and the home favourite to briefly unite Northern Ireland
"Mary Peters is a protestant and has won a medal for Britain. An attempt will be made on her life and it will be blamed on the IRA ... Her home will be going up in the near future." The death threat came just after her victory, phoned into the BBC in Munich by a man with an Irish accent. Most people would heed such a threat to their life. Peters was different. "Bollocks," she replied. "I'm going straight to Belfast."
The Olympics in Munich had been billed as "the Games of peace and joy" but neither of these were to be found in abundance in Belfast in 1972.
Just 44 days before Peters' performance in the pentathlon at Munich, the Provisional IRA detonated 22 bombs in 75 terror-filled minutes that shook Belfast and Northern Ireland to its core. "People walking in the streets around 2.30pm seemed to hear a bomb a minute and in the city centre some women became shocked and hysterical and had to be treated ... Few events in the past awful year have so appalled people," reported the Irish Times.
On the day that came to be known as Bloody Friday, nine people were killed but many more were mutilated, injured or scarred, mentally and physically. This was Belfast in 1972; this was Northern Ireland in 1972. This was where Peters was so desperate to return to.
Peters was born in Liverpool in 1939 but moved to Ballymena and then Belfast when her father's job was relocated to Northern Ireland. When she was first told of the move she reacted with tears. "One day he came back and I remember sitting on the stairs and hearing him tell my mother that we were all going to live in Northern Ireland. I went to bed and sobbed my heart out," she said. But it was in Northern Ireland that Peters' journey towards Olympic gold first took shape. Her first family holiday in her new home was spent at the seaside resort of Portrush, country Antrim and there, among the reeds and the rushes, Peters, racing her brother John up and down the dunes, discovered her love for athletics.
The family holidays came to an end when her mother died of cancer a few years later. After that, athletics became Peters' escape, and she began to see it as more than just a hobby. To help her on her way, her ambitious father gave her two tonnes of sand as a 16th birthday present and built a pit in a neighbouring field for her to practise long jump. Her next birthday present was a lorry load of cement to make a shot put circle.
Peters qualified first as a teacher and then as an Olympian. In Tokyo in 1964, she finished in a respectable fourth place; in Mexico in 1968, a disappointing ninth – "I don't think I was as committed as I should have been at that stage in my career". But that all changed with the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh in 1970. Peters won the shot put and the pentathlon and discovered that she liked the feeling of success: "For the first time in my career I wanted to win. I'd always had the fear that if I was successful people would be jealous and their attitude to me would change. I never felt I really gave 100%. This time I did and ... I realised it was wonderful to be an achiever."
At 33 years of age, Peters was all too aware that the Games in Munich would be her last shot at Olympic glory but her initial preparations were far from ideal. Despite working full-time, she didn't have a car and so had to drag her shot and starting blocks through a two-bus journey to reach the dilapidated running track at Queen's University, "often having to turn back because there were bombs going off". Luckily, her success in Edinburgh meant she won a scholarship to train for six weeks in California.
A new climate and a new environment paid immediate dividends and she soon believed that "if everything went right in Munich" she could win. Conscious of events back home, Peters was motivated by the desire "to make people at home happy in some small way" and once there, she became even more bullish about her medal prospects: "I was so focused on winning. No way was I going home without a gold medal." With some civilized preparation and her aversion to winning conquered, the last thing standing between Peters and gold was the competition. Her main rival was a 26-year-old local woman and hotly tipped favourite, Heide Rosendahl.
The women's pentathlon was divided into two days and Peters had the perfect opening. She was drawn in lane seven for the 100m hurdles but still managed to equal her personal best. Spurred on by the attention of the large crowd at the Olympic Stadium – "it was the first time in my life and career I had a real audience and I performed for them" – she repeated the feat in both the shot put and high jump. By the end of the first day, she had an impressive 300-point lead over the West German.
That night, she could not sleep. "Every time I looked at my watch it seemed the hands had moved backwards." She was anxious and had every right to be. The second day consisted of Rosendahl's two strongest events and Peters' two weakest events – the long jump and the 200m. The West German, who had already been crowned Olympic long jump champion, leapt 6.83m to land within a single centimetre of her then world record. Peters could not even get past the 6m barrier, landing at 5.95m. Her lead had been cut to just 47 points and there was still one event to go. If Peters wanted gold, she would have to run faster than she had ever done before.
Both athletes started well in the 200m, and after the first bend, Peters was still within touching distance of Rosendahl. She was urged on by the BBC commentator – "Come on Mary, you need the run of your life now" – but could not match the West German for pace. In the final 80m, Rosendahl accelerated to finish in a time of 22.96sec. Peters finished fourth, 10m and 1.12sec behind her. It looked like she had blown it.
After the race, the athletes, crowded by photographers, stared anxiously at the scoreboard, waiting for the results. Arms were folded, lips were bitten. Rosendahl, head bowed, paced nervously up and down; Peters stood behind another competitor and peeked out from behind her hands. It was not until the West German came over and shook her hand that Peters realised she had won the gold medal – by 10 points – setting a new world record in the process.
When the death threat was made in the wake of her victory, Peters' father – now living in Australia and who had made a surprise visit to see her in action – wanted her to return to Australia with him. But she refused: "My home was in Belfast, my life was there and the people I loved were there."
She was greeted at the barbwire-wrapped Belfast airport with fans carrying flowers, a gold Rolls-Royce, a band playing Congratulations and an open-top lorry that ferried her through the thronged streets of Belfast, those same streets that had been ripped to shreds by the IRA bombs just two months previously. "It was the first time people were on the streets with happy faces for a long while," Peters said.
Those smiling faces belonged to both sides of the great divide and for a short time, during the bloodiest year the Troubles would serve up, the two communities of Northern Ireland rejoiced as one, celebrating their 33-year-old hero who had conquered age and a home favourite to win Olympic gold. After her success, Peters was offered jobs in the US and Australia but she refused: "I wouldn't have been happy. My family is the Northern Ireland people".
What happened next?
Peters was not allowed back in her flat for three months. She was appointed an MBE that year, a CBE in 1990 and made a Dame in 2000. She set up the Mary Peters Trust to help young people with sport throughout Northern Ireland, and the running track on the outskirts of Belfast is called the Mary Peters track. She is the current Lord Lieutenant of Belfast and lives in Lisburn, country Antrim.
What the Guardian said
Everything seemed to move at world record pace in the Olympic Stadium here yesterday. Lasse Viren put Finland back again at the top of the 10,000 metre running when he beat Ron Clarke's world record by 1sec, with a time of 27min 38.4sec. The Bavarians cramming the stadium fell in love with Mary Peters who won the gold medal in the pentathlon and set a world record points score of 4,801 points; and Hildegard Falck, another attractive blonde, broke the Olympic record for the 800 metres with 1min. 58.6sec, a bare tenth of a second outside her own world record.
Miss Peters has been delighting the crowd for the past two days. She began her pentathlon as one of those within reach of a medal. She started with 100 metres hurdles performance in 13.29sec for 960 points. She then put the shot 53ft 1½in and, as the stadium lights went up on Saturday evening, she went higher and higher in the high jump, finishing with a personal best of 5ft 10½in. Every time she Fosbury-flopped over the bar to a new height she leapt from the landing area to acknowledge immediately the cheers of the crowd.
They began a soccer-like chant of her name and she finished the day with a points score of 2,969 which was 97 more than Burglinde Pollack of East Germany. But the real danger was Heide Rosendahl, of West Germany, who was 300 points behind but who is the gold medal holder in the long jump and an excellent sprinter, which were the last two events.
Miss Peters achieved personal best performances in four out of the five events and in the long jump she was only 2in short of her best marks. She told me afterwards that she had no intention of retiring and hopes to compete in this event at the Commonwealth Games in two years' time.
Miss Peters went to bed realising that, while the Bavarians have a striking nationalistic fervour, she had won their hearts and when she competed this morning there were shouts of "Mary Mary" all over the stadium.
Miss Rosendahl gave quick notice that she was not content with one gold medal at the Games, for she long-jumped 22ft 5in – half an inch behind her own world record. Miss Peters managed a jump of 19ft 7½in and so the points score had been whittled away. There was some lunchtime juggling with times and pentathlon table scores and, for the final event, the balance was such that if Miss Rosendahl achieved her best performance of 23.1sec and Miss Peters was up to the same level (24.2sec in her case) the gold medal would go to Britain. They were drawn in the same heat which Miss Rosendahl won in 22.9, but Miss Peters went faster than was needed, 24.08sec, this bringing her a total of 4,081 points.
Miss Peters has made a long and valuable contribution to British Athletics. She was fourth in this event in Tokyo and ninth in Mexico and she is Britain's leading shot putter. But while these are achievements of the arena her personality, her effervescence, her delightful smile and her attitude of genuine warmth and friendliness has many times raised the spirits of athletic team members and those who travel with them. This has been her most difficult year for she lives in the Antrim Road, Belfast, amid the explosions and strife of that city.
Organisers warn people trying to buy last batch of tickets to the Games on general sale that they face half-hour wait
London 2012 organisers have warned that customers are likely to be held in virtual queues for more than half an hour when the last remaining Olympic tickets go on general sale on Wednesay.
Following a sales phase in which those who missed out in the initial ballot last spring were offered the chance to get their hands on 928,000 remaining tickets, those that are left will be put on general sale on Wednesday at 11am. There are around 500,000 left, plus a further 1.4m football tickets.
Organisers released a long list of sports that have sold out, including events in the aquatics centre, the main stadium and the velodrome.
The full list of sold out sports are: athletics, canoe slalom, all cycling events, all equestrian events, rhythmic gymnastics, modern pentathlon, swimming, marathon swimming, synchronised swimming, tennis, triathlon and the opening and closing ceremonies.
Aside from paying for a hospitality ticket or one bundled with a short break from Thomas Cook, the only way to see those sports will be to try to secure one of a final batch of between 150,000 and 200,000 tickets that will be released for sale through public box offices when the final seat configurations are decided.
Locog, which has come under fire for its ticketing policy in the face of huge demand for the 6.6m tickets available to the general public, said there were still £20 tickets remaining in the following sports: boxing, fencing, football, table tennis, taekwondo, volleyball, weightlifting and, with limited availability, in judo and wrestling.
There is "good availability" in the following sports, but at higher price points from £45 to £450: archery, badminton, basketball, beach volleyball, canoe sprint, diving, handball, hockey.
There is limited availability and only at higher prices for the race walk, mountain biking, artistic gymnastics, rowing, sailing and water polo. There is a handful of tickets left for shooting and trampolining at £40 to £185.
General entry tickets for the Olympic Park, put on sale at £10 towards the end of the last sales phase, will also be available. Organisers have launched the website today in order to allow prospective purchasers to see what is available, before the scramble for tickets begins at 11am on Wednesday.
As the first opportunity for those who didn't enter the initial ballot to purchase tickets on a first come, first served basis the general sales window will be a severe test for ticketing partner Ticketmaster, which has had technical issues in the past.
"Our priority has been to get as many people who missed out in the sales process last year to the Games. We have delivered on our promise and now another 150,000 people have successfully purchased up to four tickets each," said Locog commercial director Chris Townsend.
"We are now putting the remaining tickets back on general sale. Wednesday's sale is a live sale, and, like other high-demand events including pop concerts, we expect the website to be very busy and customers may well be held in queues for over 30 minutes at peak times."
• RFU meets on Wednesday to examine London Welsh bid • Exiles have right of appeal should RFU rule against them
London Welsh will not find out whether they have met the minimum standards criteria for entry into the Aviva Premiership until a few hours before the first leg of their Championship play-off final against Cornish Pirates in Penzance on Wednesday night.
The Rugby Football Union's board of directors meets that morning and will examinethe issue of whether London Welsh, who propose to move out of their Old Deer Park home and play at Oxford United's Kassam Stadium if they are promoted, fulfil the criteria.
The Professional Game Board last Thursday discussed the report of the auditors who assessed London Welsh's bid – the Pirates are not candidates for promotion because they knew they would not meet the criteria – but did not make a recommendationto the RFU.
It is understood that the PGB was divided, with representatives from Premiership Rugby questioning whether London Welsh met the stipulation regarding primacy of tenure. The Kassam Stadium should meet the criteria: it has a capacity of 12,000 and staged two Challenge Cup finals in the 2000s.
London Welsh are not concerned that if the RFU ruled against them it would have a negative impact on their players ahead of the game at a ground where they lost by 21 points in the regular season. The Exiles have an immediate right to appeal, something they would exercise with alacrity through their chairman, Bleddyn Phillips, a senior partner at a major law firm.
London Welsh have told the RFU that it would rather the governing body take its time than rush into a decision. The fact that the board of directors is discussing the matter as part of its regular monthly meeting, rather than deciding by conference call on Monday would indicate that the club's case is considered to have merit.
Leicester's director of rugby, Richard Cockerill, has settled his differences with the England coach, Stuart Lancaster, following their public spat last week over the fitness of the fly-half Toby Flood. The Tigers refused to allow England's physio to assess the player last week but diplomatic relations have been restored ahead of this weekend's Premiership grand final.
Cockerill said he and Lancaster have had "a healthy discussion" and considers the matter closed, although he is still declining to confirm who will start at No10 against Harlequins at Twickenham. "Me and Stuart get on pretty well," said Cockerill, who last week described the England coach as "naive" in his handling of the Flood issue.
"In the future we will discuss things a bit more closely and hopefully avoid any flashpoint or confrontation. He's a good guy. Occasionally we're going to be at odds with our opinions but that's OK."
The 19-year-old George Ford remains on standby to start at fly-half for the Tigers unless Flood makes a miracle recovery from his ankle injury. "Floody is working hard and improving day by day," said Cockerill. "He's not training today [on Monday] but he'll train tomorrow [on Tuesday] and we'll see where he's at. Fordy's an intelligent player … it's not the end of the world." Saturday's game will be Leicester's eighth successive grand final appearance.
The Australia wing James O'Connor will miss next month's three-Test series against Wales because of liver damage, but the outside-half Quade Cooper is expected to be named in the Wallabies' squad after recovering from a knee injury he sustained against Wales in the World Cup third place play-off.
The Wales caretaker head coach, Rob Howley, remains hopeful Warren Gatland will be able to join the squad at some stage in Australia.
Gatland, the head coach, is recovering from the serious heel injuries he suffered in a fall at his holiday home in New Zealand in April.
Speaking after his release from prison, Liam Stacey describes his abuse of the collapsed Bolton footballer as 'disgusting'
A student jailed for posting offensive and racist comments on Twitter following footballer Fabrice Muamba's on-pitch collapse has been banned from university for the rest of the year.
Liam Stacey, who has been released from prison after serving half of his 56-day sentence, was told not to return to Swansea University's campus.
Speaking after leaving prison, 21-year-old Stacey expressed deep sorrow for what he had done, saying he had been drunk, and spoke of his shock that his abuse had gone "nationwide". He said his comments had been "disgusting".
Stacey sparked an outcry following Muamba's cardiac arrest in March when he tweeted: "LOL, Fuck Muamba. He's dead." Other Twitter users immediately criticised Stacey, prompting him to post further offensive and racist comments. He branded some people who censured him as "wogs" and told one to "go pick some cotton." Stacey was quickly traced by police, arrested and jailed by magistrates in Swansea.
He was also suspended from university, where he was a final year biology student. The university has now imposed a full suspension until the end of the academic year. Stacey, from Pontypridd, south Wales, will be allowed to sit his final exams as an external candidate next year. But even if successful he will not be invited to the graduation ceremony.
A university spokesman said: "We take the actions of this student very seriously, which is why he is no longer part of our campus community."
In an interview with BBC Wales' Week In Week Out programme, which is being broadcast on Tuesday, Stacey said he was "massively sorry" for what he had done.
He said he heard about the collapse of the Bolton Wanderers midfielder during a day of heavy drinking as he watched the climax of the Six Nations rugby on television.
Stacey said: "I had had a lot to drink. I don't know why, I decided to tweet about it. Then about half hour, hour later I was getting responses back and I wasn't in the right frame of mind to think what was going on. It just got all out of hand then. I didn't intend being a racist when I got up that morning, I just wanted to go out and have a good time with my friends and watch the rugby. Within about an hour, two hours, everything escalated."
Stacey said he hit back when other Twitter users criticised him. "I was retaliating to what they said about me. I realised about an hour later it had gone nationwide and it was like a witch-hunt on Twitter for me. I didn't realise what I had done, the enormity of it, it was huge, across Great Britain. I was on the phone to my mother then, on the phone to one of my mates, crying.
"I didn't know what was going to happen to me. There were threats towards me and my family. I was kind of defending myself but the way I did it was disgusting. It was stupid, disgusting. If I could turn back the clocks I would, 100%."
He also told the programme: "What I struggle to get my head around was the week or two before I was just a normal kid getting on with my work in university, getting on with life, playing rugby with all my mates, then a week or two later I was just going to prison, everything had been turned upside down."
Stacey pleaded guilty to an offence under the Public Order Act 1986. He admitted that he used threatening, abusive or insulting words with intent to cause harassment, alarm or distress. He also accepted that his offence was racially aggravated.
Los Angeles Lakers and Clippers eliminated, setting up a Oklahoma City Thunder vs San Antonio Spurs final in the West; Boston Celtics and Philadelphia 76ers could head to Game 7, as could the Miami Heat and the Indiana Pacers
The NBA Playoffs will continue without Los Angeles. On back-to-back nights, the Oklahoma City Thunder and the San Antonio Spurs, the two best teams in the West and possibly in the NBA, both dispatched their L.A.-based opponents on route to what could be a brilliant Western Conference Finals. Nothing is settled in the East, however, as the Boston Celtics continue to struggle with the pesky Philadelphia 76ers, and the series between the Miami Heat and the Indiana Pacers is tied up at 2-2. Of course, considering how well the Spurs and Thunder are playing, there's a possibility that all four teams in the Eastern Conference are merely fighting for the honor of losing in the Finals.
1. The Oklahoma City Thunder drained the Los Angeles Lakers
The Oklahoma City Thunder knocked off the Los Angeles Lakers on Monday night, pulling away in the last quarter and beating them by a score of 106-90. Although the Lakers played the Thunder close most of the game, Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook spurred their team to the next level in the fourth, ensuring there would be no last minute drama in this fifth and final game. Now, Oklahoma City is advancing to the Western Conference Finals, leaving behind a Lakers team that may be headed for some major offseason changes. Russell Westbrook made the defining play of the game, perhaps of the Playoffs, when he stole the ball late and made an impossible shot in the process of being fouled. Westbrook's "and one" play was a momentum shifter that energized the home crowd and provided visual shorthand for how the Thunder were about to treat the Lakers.
Meanwhile, Kobe Bryant finished the game with a very Kobe Bryant line where he scored 42 points without earning a single assist. To be fair, it wasn't as if Bryant's teammates gave him much reason to be confident in them. Pau Gasol had a 5 from 14 shooting night, while center Andrew Bynum had a grand total of 10 points (4-for-10 shooting from the field) and four rebounds. One imagines that that it will be a difficult homecoming for this Lakers squad:
(Setting: Tuesday evening at a certain Los Angeles bar, well frequented by NBA players. The jukebox is playing mournful saxophone-heavy heavy smooth jazz. Lakers scout CHAZ THE BARTENDER is behind the bar, nervously checking his watch. KOBE BRYANT, PAU GASOL, ANDREW BYNUM and METTA WORLD PEACE are sitting glumly at the bar. Kobe has four glasses full of beer in front of him.) Pau: You've been hoarding those glasses for several minutes now, aren't you going to pass one to any of us? (Kobe just glares at Pau.) Metta: Yeah, all we ask for you is to pass at least one. What kind of team player are you? Chaz: (Smiles at his watch.) LAST CALL everyone! You don't have to go home, but… No actually you all do have to go home. Kobe Bryant: LAST CALL? That's a BS call, I know for a fact that this clock is fast, we still have at least fifteen more minutes! Chaz: You can complain about the call all you want but this is your last chance to take a shot. Hey, where's the coach? Kobe: What are you talking about? I'm right here. Pau: He means Mike Brown Andrew: Wait, Phil Jackson isn't the coach anymore? (Kobe glares at Andrew.) Chaz: Does anyone want to make an order? Pau: Why? It's not like Kobe will let us have anything. Kobe: (Kobe glares at Pau.) You just need to be more aggressive! Metta: I'll have a park bench. Chaz: I don't know that drink. Metta: No, I want an actual park bench. Do you sell those here? Chaz: (Sighs.) We're all out of park benches, Mr. World Peace, we just have drinks left. Metta: Drinks, eh? So, can I have a... park bench… on the rocks? Kobe: So, you're part of the scouting department Chaz, how do you think the Lakers organization is going to fix things? Chaz: Well, certainly there will be some big changes to be made. I doubt that all four of you will be back here next season. Pau: Hey, I still want to play in Los Angeles. We all want to keep playing in Los Angeles, right guys. (Kobe glares at Pau.) Andrew: (Shrugs.) I'll play wherever. I don't care. I mean, I really don't care. Kobe: We know. Chaz: Okay, listen, it's closing time, boys. See you guys next season, or at least some of you guys. (The music suddenly stops. The players head for the exits.) Andrew: So what time's the game tomorrow? Kobe: (Shakes head. Grabs phone and begins to make a call.) Dwight, yeah it's Kobe… Tell your boys in Orlando that we might need to make a deal… (The players exit, leaving behind only Chaz.) Chaz: (Stares at floor.) What a mess these NBA guys leave. At least when Duncan and Parker were here they had the decency to sweep.
2. The San Antonio Spurs ended the Los Angeles Clippers' season
It looked like the Los Angeles Clippers were going to pull off a victory, but the San Antonio Spurs were not going to be denied their 18th straight win, defeating the Clippers 102-99. The Clippers gave the Spurs the toughest challenge of the Playoffs in the series' game four, but they learned that playing the Spurs close isn't the same as playing the Memphis Grizzlies close. As soon as the Clippers lost a six point lead late, a Spurs win seemed inevitable. Even when they shaved the Spurs' lead to a single point in the game's closing minutes, it felt more like the Clippers were down double-digits. The series might have gone differently had Chris Paul, who had 23 points and 11 assists but missed his two final shots, been fully healthy. The series might have gone differently if Blake Griffin hadn't suffered a variety of injuries throughout the playoffs, or had Designated Veteran Presence Chauncey Billups been available or had someone other than Vinny del Negro been coaching the team. But who knows? Considering how good San Antonio has been paying this postseason, the best case scenario for the Clippers might have been a game six.
Beyond del Negro's pretty much inevitable firing, the future of the Clippers franchise is murky. If Blake Griffin decides not to sign an extension with the team, he will be a free agent after next season. Meanwhile, Chris Paul, despite having nixed an opt-out clause for next season after the New Orleans Hornets traded him to L.A., still could also conceivably be gone as early as 2013. If the Clippers want to add pieces from free agency to win in the short or long term, they not only have to compete with the Lakers but also owner Donald Sterling's beyond ugly reputation. Worst case scenario, Lob City could shortly become a ghost town.
Meanwhile, the unlikely Juggernaut that is the San Antonio Spurs marches on to face the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference Finals on Sunday. It's difficult to predict which teams will win the series, but if it's a long one then the NBA will be the clear winner.
Wait, we have to wait until SUNDAY until the series starts? No fair.
3. Boston Celtics have pushed Philadelphia 76ers to the brink
Monday night, after one of the worst playoff performances of the season, Brandon Bass exploded with a 27 point effort to carry the Boston Celtics to a 101-85 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers. The Celtics, who struggled early while playing without the defense of the injured Avery Bradley, now have two games to put away the 76ers, not that this seems likely considering how difficult Boston likes to make things for itself.
Of course it wouldn't be Rondo or KG or the Truth who would come through for the C's, but the Bass-O-Matic, because this is the 2012 NBA Playoffs and the Eastern Conference's new motto is "Nothing Makes Sense Anymore". The Celtics tried to run the offense through Bass in game two, only for Bass to have a "in school in your underwear" nightmare of a performance, missing nine out of ten shots at one point. So, of course, he went on to have an epic game five performance that puts the Celtics a win away from the Western Conference Finals. Bass wasn't alone in the unlikely hero category. Greg Stiemsma, the big man whose position with the team has varied throughout the season from unknown quantity to inside joke to reliable contributor, had a five-for-five night including a thunderous dunk courtesy of Rajon Rondo.
Things seem bleak for the Philadelphia 76ers, having to win their next two games to survive, but they know that the Celtics have a notorious history when it comes to close out games. Under Doc Rivers, Boston is only 2-10 on the road in games where they could put away a series, a fact that Rivers reluctantly acknowledged in his post-game conference. When Philadelphia's Elton Brand told a Celtics ball-boy that he'd see him Saturday, essentially guaranteeing a 76ers win in Philly Wednesday night, Brand might not have just been being cocky. History suggests that a game seven might be close to inevitable.
4. The Miami Heat evened up their series with the Indiana Pacers
It seems so long ago now, but there was a moment Sunday afternoon when, in the words of Warren Zevon, "that the righteous might just, might just, might just come". The Indiana Pacers had already shocked the basketball world by taking a 2-1 series lead against the hated Miami Heat and built up a ten point lead at home seeking to put their opponent one game away from a shocking elimination. Then LeBron James and Dwyane Wade took over, and the Miami Heat won 101-93 to even up the series.
In retrospect, it seems kind of foolish to think that Wade and James wouldn't take over at least one game in this series like they did on Sunday afternoon when they combined for 70 points. It almost feels as if basketball fans everywhere were trying to will the Pacers into being that classic underdog team, the David to the Heat's Goliath. The wishing didn't work, of course it didn't, giants don't fall that quickly or that easily. In winning game four on the road, the Heat have regained home court advantage. If Indiana is going to win this series, which resumes Tuesday night in Miami, they will have to steal at least one game on the road. Good luck with that.
No, seriously, good luck with that. Pretty much all of us want to see you win, Indiana.
5. Other Things We've Learned
• Opposite of Shocking News Department: the Orlando Dwight Howards have dismissed head coach Stan Van Gundy. Hey, major networks, he's now available! Feel free to jettison anyone for him, even Shaq. We'll get by without Shaq, we promise.
At the end of a long season the coaches are attempting to keep their players fresh for a hard and sunny HQ
It was interesting to listen to Richard Cockerill's training plans ahead of Leicester's eighth successive Premiership final. "We're going to be simple and boring and have a standard week," said the Tigers' director of rugby, fully aware Harlequins flew out to Abu Dhabi to prepare last week. "Last year, in hindsight, we probably did too much work in advance and we've learned our lesson from that. Going to Abu Dhabi is not really our thing."
Even driving up the road to Melton Mowbray, he could have added, is not Leicester's thing if it deviates from their familiar routine. The rationale is easy enough to justify. Leicester have been finishing the season like a runaway locomotive and they see little value in doing anything to disrupt that momentum. "The lads are away from home enough and, with a lot of players going on tour, there didn't seem any point in them spending another four or five days out of the country," said Cockerill.
Few, frankly, have had more experience of this delicate balancing act than Leicester, whose season ticket for the final tends to be renewed annually without fuss. Perhaps you might expect them to have a better record than three wins in seven finals. Wasps (twice), Sale and Saracens have upset them on the big day.
Which brings us to Conor O'Shea, Cockerill's opposite number. Quins have been front-running since September but ploughing the same old furrow is not necessarily guaranteed to yield the peak of performance they need to win a final against such hardy opponents. They need something extra and O'Shea has been relentlessly in pursuit of it. He sent his captain, Chris Robshaw, away on holiday following the Six Nations and, way in advance of the Abu Dhabi trip, has deliberately tailored his players' training to replicate the more intense knockout environment. Wasps used to do something similar and won three Premiership grand finals on the trot.
As long ago as March, O'Shea was planning for this week, sending his players off for a week of netball, handball and rock-climbing to ensure they stayed fresh for the closing furlongs. "You have to take a view of how the season is going to pan out. We have to keep the players physically and mentally fresh until 26 May. Saracens, Northampton and Leicester have been at the top for a long time and where we are now is where we want to be every season. We are learning about the pressures of competing at the top. It's all about peaking at the right time. I'm pretty confident we can do that."
Two contrasting methods, only one possible winner. The defending champions Saracens, like Quins, have also favoured unorthodox mental stimulation – remember their trips to the Oktoberfest and the heavyweight title fight last year between Wladimir Klitschko and David Haye? – as an aid to performance. On this occasion Test calls and a rising injury toll have scuppered their normal late-season surge but they recognised that an all-or-nothing Twickenham final, particularly in warm, fast conditions, demands different qualities from back-to-back league games at Newcastle and Sale in the January slush.
Leicester, in that respect, will miss Tom Croft, who provides a different dimension on such occasions. They remain ultimate fighters but if their teenage fly-half George Ford starts it will be a serious test of his precocious ability. The memory of Bath's similarly youthful No10 Tom Heathcote being shouldered out of a March league game at the Stoop by the onrushing Maurie Fa'asavalu has not entirely faded and Quins now possess a harder edge than some appreciate. They also have Nick Evans, a fly-half who seldom disappoints on days like these.
This, perhaps, is the area Cup final pundits can underestimate. Certain players raise the bar when the stadum is full and the stakes are at their highest. Leinster are a good example; how often do Jonathan Sexton, Brian O'Driscoll, Rob Kearney or Isa Nacewa under-perform for their province when it really matters? They aim high and never settle for dreary mediocrity. If there were two performances by English clubs that really stood out in the Heineken Cup this season they were the victories by Harlequins and Gloucester over Toulouse. Both dared to play, both took the half-chances their sense of adventure created and both were spectacularly rewarded. Quins can now play it tight as well as expansive, but you suspect they will try to run Leicester around. Beneath a bright sun on a hard Twickenham track they should not be underestimated.
Fast forward
Talking of fast rugby, the International Rugby Board's latest law trials all have a common theme: doing away with the slack periods of a game teams are increasingly happy to exploit. Get your stopwatch out this weekend and see how many goalkickers in the two finals, the Aviva Premiership and the RaboDirect Pro12, get the ball over the posts within 90 seconds of a try being scored, as they will have to do in future. Check out the scrum-halves taking an age at the back of a ruck to prepare for their next box-kick and console yourself they will soon have just five seconds to do so. Even "Crouch, Touch, Pause, Engage" has been concertinaed to "Crouch, Touch, Set". I'd have preferred "Ready, Steady, Go" (less fussy, understandable to all ages and intellects) but anything that de-clutters the scrum process – currently 56 seconds per scrum at Tier One level – has to be a step forward. Players are not getting any smaller but reducing the forwards' recovery time should theoretically free up more space for backs to exploit.
Worth watching this week
The grand finals. Harlequins v Leicester and Leinster v Ospreys feature the leading two clubs from the respective domestic campaigns. Both games will feature a host of international players about to head off on tour to the sourthern hemisphere. A couple of thunderclap contests would be the perfect send-off for all concerned.
Olympic bob skeleton gold medallist Amy Williams kicks off day four of London 2012 torch relay from Taunton to Bristol
There was a more tranquil start to day four of the Olympic flame's circuitous tour of the UK as torchbearers, including the bob skeleton gold medallist Amy Williams, plodded through Somerset in glorious sunshine.
Following Monday's drama, when the flame briefly went out and bearers came in for criticism for auctioning off their torches, the London 2012 organising committee must have been pleased at the respite.
Williams said carrying the torch – through Yeovil – was an "amazing feeling" and had made her "very proud to be British". She received huge cheers from the crowd as she walked past, waving and smiling broadly.
The athlete announced her retirement from her sporting discipline earlier this month, bringing an end to a career that culminated in a gold medal at the Vancouver Winter Olympics in 2010. She was Great Britain's first individual female gold medallist at a winter games for 58 years.
Hundreds of people from Taunton, Glastonbury, Bath, Bristol and across Wiltshire turned out to watch dozens of less celebrated individuals have their moment in the spotlight.
Ninety-one-year-old Doris Whiting, who was to carry the flame through Shepton Mallet, was one of the oldest of the 8,000 people taking part in the relay. She was nominated for her 30 years of community work.
Carrying the torch in Frome was Sergeant Gavin Harvey, 31, a soldier who lost both legs while serving in Afghanistan in 2009.
Richard Harrison, who became a marathon runner after losing 14 stone in 18 months, was taking his turn in Bath. "I've completely turned my life around. I'm healthy, active and happy. I'm so excited about the future," he said.
The organising committee will hope there is no repeat of the burner "malfunction" when the flame went out in Devon on day three. It was quickly relit from the "mother flame" that is carried around as part of the relay convoy.
But the issue of bearers selling off their torches via eBay rumbled on as it emerged that a £150,000 bid for Sarah Milner Simonds's torch could be a hoax.
Milner Simonds, who was planning to give the proceeds to charity, said the winning bidder had not yet been in touch and she feared it could have been a cruel joke. "The buyer seems to have disappeared," she said.
England win first cricket Test; Sharapova and Nadal prevail in Rome tennis; Colsaerts takes World Match Play golf cheque
After nine years, $1.6bn, seven managers and countless nights spent frowning in his executive box, Roman Abramovich's grand Euro-dream was realised as Chelsea beat Bayern Munich to win the Champions' League. Didier Drogba's late equaliser dragged the match into extra-time, before Petr Cech saved two Bayern penalties in the shoot-out. Chelsea pocketed $80m, small change compared with English Championship playoff winners West Ham, who beat Blackpool to take a Premier League place worth $142m.
England cook up victory
Just as the stage looked set for a classic England batting collapse, Alistair Cook and Ian Bell eased them to a five-wicket victory over West Indies in the first cricket Test at Lord's. For a while England's much-trumpeted world No 1 ranking looked precarious as West Indies, supposedly a rabble, provided heartening resistance. The unyielding Shiv Chanderpaul batted for 625 minutes, defying the dank, chilly weather and an 11-wicket haul for Stuart Broad. Elsewhere, ex-Australia international Adam Gilchrist played his final match after five years spent mostly in the venerable pantomime of the Indian Premier League. Gilchrist announced his retirement after Kings XI Punjab's exit from the interminable play-offs, a soft-pedalled goodbye from a boisterously talented all-time great.
Sharapova wheezes back
The most daintily styled raging bull in recent tennis memory, Maria Sharapova continued to heave and wheeze her way towards a renewed mid-career ascendancy. In Rome Sharapova beat Li Na in the Italian Open final, her 26th career title. "It was a crazy match. There really is no loser," Sharapova gushed, incorrectly. In the men's tournament Rafael Nadal prevailed 7-5, 6-4 over Novak Djokovic, reclaiming the world No 2 ranking in the bargain.
Colsaerts cashes in
Europe may be in the throes of collapse, but golf will always be there. Belgian Nicolas Colsaerts beat Graeme McDowell in the final of the World Match Play in AndalucÃa to take the $900,000 prize (Note to Nicolas: bank it now, but maybe get over the border first). Earlier in the week an airport mix-up saw Brandt Snedeker beat Thomas Bjorn in the first round playing with a set of borrowed clubs, including a putter bought for $130 from the club shop.
While Stuart Broad was lighting up Lord's on Sunday, England's one-time top bowler was sitting in the shadows at The Oval
While England were hacksawing their way through some steely West Indies resistance on the Sunday of the Lord's Test, the Spin was across London at The Oval watching Surrey play Durham in the CB40 competition. In fact when news filtered through of Stuart Broad's career-best 11 for 165, the Spin was actually out under the lights on the hallowed Oval turf playing impromptu plastic-ball cricket with a group of small boys during the break between innings. It is a lovely thing that you're still allowed to do this at many grounds, albeit at The Oval there was something alarming about watching a bunch of seven-year-olds swishing away in the midst of the Surrey bowlers' warm-ups, which in the case of the bicep-rippling Stuart Meaker seems to involve hurling a medicine ball into the skies over his shoulder like an ancient Greek warrior ripping the head off a Cyclops.
Away from the frolics, though, a lone figure could be seen lurking, hands in tracksuit pockets, stretching a hamstring, loitering with an air of eminent exile. That rolling walk. The height. The rueful diffidence.
It's ... Actually it took a while to register that it was Steve Harmison.
Grievous Bodily Harmison! England's white West Indian, one-time No1 ranked bowler in the world, and a man who for a period of about eight months in 2002-03 reached peaks of superlative accurate hostility unwitnessed in an England bowler ... well, for quite some time anyway. For a moment, watching Harmison stalk the fringes, the Spin imagined one of its youthful charges stopping and asking: "Who's that old-timer over there?" At which point the Spin, in rueful close-up, would sigh. "Him? Why ... He's ... He's nobody son", before rather sadly going back to being repeatedly leg before to a succession of searing junior yorkers.
Until today's County Championship match against Somerset, Harmison had yet to play for Durham this year. He has been steadily regaining his pace and rhythm - it is now Durham not England who must worry about when Harmy is going to "click" - in the second XI. But for an ankle injury in pre-season he might even have already been playing regularly, although this is far from certain. Late-period Harmison has been a stuttering affair. The last time the Spin saw him in the flesh was at the wretched Titans of Cricket extravaganza at the O2 last year. Harmison sat on a sofa for three hours, eventually bowling a single delivery right at the end. No one seemed to mind.
There was, though, something salutary about this glimpse of England's most distinctive new-ball spearhead of the last decade; coming as it did just as Broad - seven years younger, the same height, the same build - took the bowling honours at Lord's. It would be standard practice here to formulate a comparison between bowlers and indeed attacks. The 2005 pace quartet of Harmison-Hoggard-Flintoff-Jones was rightly lionised, as is the current three-man-plus-back-up.
The more meaningful comparison, though, is not one of quality, but of texture and tone. There is a divergence of personality here that tells us much more about the way this current team is put together, and also about Broad himself, who is now English cricket's most rapidly-improving player, a cricketer reaching up before our eyes towards the ceiling of his considerable talent.
If comparisons must be made, Jimmy Anderson would presumably be the Matthew Hoggard, albeit he is a more varied bowler now. Tim Bresnan would be Simon Jones, the reverse-swing beefcake. But who would Broad be? For a while he did seem to be trying to recreate some of Harmison's missing menace, notably during the ill-fated Enforcer period, albeit this was more short-lived than is often suggested. Broad has also at times been Andrew Flintoff-esque, showing steadiness without penetration, a go-to miser with bounce and height and stamina.
Right now he's a bit of both: able to bowl long accurate spells but also penetrative (Broad has five five-wicket hauls in 46 Tests to Flintoff's three in 79). More than that he is a key peg in what is a strangulating, suffocating attack. Where the 2005 bunch were more obviously hostile (Harmison's opening spell to Justin Langer at Lord's was notably brutal) and perhaps more likely to provide something briefly explosive from their mixed bag of tricks, this lot are sharp and shrewd and unrelenting and essentially carved in the same flinty style as their head coach, Andy Flower. And if Broad is any kind of Harmison, it is simply that in between his steadiness he seems best equipped to provide explosive wicket-taking spells, those moments where his length rather than his brain "clicks" and an opposition can be scattered.
He is also statistically a better bowler as each series passes. Current debates about who is the best in the world tend to circle around Dale Steyn (who is the best) and Anderson. Maybe by the end of the summer it will be Broad's turn. Just look at those figures! In the year since his return, looking a little lost after injury against Sri Lanka last summer, he has taken 59 wickets at 21.54 in Tests, while remaining a very good bowler in one-day cricket and a Twenty20 marvel. Plus what he seems to do well is very simple and therefore repeatable, not beholden to conditions or the caprices of the "click". A full accurate length, bounce, seam-nibble, occasional late swing: these are portable virtues.
It is only really injuries that seem likely to derail a career that should see him take more Test wickets than any of the short-lived Fab Four and more even than Anderson who leads the way among England's post-Botham bowlers. That and any suggestion of trying to do or be too much. Simplicity has been the key for Broad, just as Harmison's own complexity - the rather overplayed moments of big-stage implosion, the slow retreat from that brief untouchable period, into a chugging sputtering thoroughbred - came to define his own career. This current England attack may end up more effective than the 2005 breed. But the Harmy bunch were perhaps a bit more zany, a bit more fun in their relative unevenness, the dizzy surprise of those glorious peaks.
This is an extract from the Spin, the Guardian's free weekly cricket email. To sign up, click here.
• Hip complaint forces Leamy to call time on rugby career • Back-row player thanks colleagues from Munster and Ireland
Denis Leamy has become the third Munster player this season to announce an early retirement due to injury.
The 30-year-old Ireland international, capped 57 times, was plagued by a hip complaint, which has limited him to playing just three RaboDirect Pro12 games and Munster's four opening games in the Heineken Cup following his return from the World Cup.
He had signed a two-year contract extension in February but now joins the experienced duo Jerry Flannery and David Wallace in calling an early end to his career in this campaign.
Leamy made the first of his 144 Munster appearances in September 2001 and went on to represent the province in both the 2006 and 2008 Heineken Cup finals while he also had an illustrious international career for Ireland. A member of the 2009 grand slam-winning side, he was also twice winner of the triple crown and played in two World Cup tournaments.
He said: "I find it hard to put into words how much it has meant to me to play for Munster and Ireland. It was a dream come true and I was very lucky to play with some of the greatest players ever to wear the jerseys and feel blessed that I was part of winning teams.
"I've had a great career, wish it had gone on a little longer but I'd like to thank all the coaches, players, medical staff and management who have helped me over the past decade.
"It's been a great honour to be involved with such an outstanding group of people.
"I'd also like to thank the fans most sincerely. I fully appreciate the sacrifices they've made, spending their hard‑earned cash to cheer us on, be it Munster or Ireland, at home games and all over Europe. Their support has been truly fantastic and a memory I'll carry forever."
The Munster chief executive, Garrett Fitzgerald, said: "We are obviously very disappointed that Denis has been forced to call it a day particularly when he is in the prime of his career.
"An outstanding back-row player throughout his career, I believe his contribution to Munster and Irish rugby has been inestimable.
"His fierce determination on the field was mirrored by his work ethic off it and he leaves Munster rugby with our gratitude and best wishes for the future."
With no festival to organise this year, Emily Eavis joins the crowds as the Olympic flame passes through Wells
The sun's out and all the children have the morning off school. Parking is free and there's great excitement in the air. It's almost as if the Glastonbury festival circus has rolled into Somerset a year ahead of time (2012 is a "year off" for us – although we are already very busy planning new things for our return next summer).
From the earliest days of my childhood, the festival has had much the same rhythm. First, all the stress of the licence and the booking, pretty much from the end of the event right through the autumn and winter. Then it gets a bit warmer and the first workers begin to move on to the farm, all the familiar faces. After that it gets quite a lot warmer and everyone starts arriving …
But this time, instead of packed cars and trains streaming into Glastonbury and Castle Cary for a week-long revel, Glastonbury and nearby Wells are all-too-brief hosts to the Olympic flame on the fourth day of the marathon torch relay.
I do like the way festival culture has added something to these big, very British, public celebrations (some of our top creative talents at the festival are working on great shows in London for the Olympics and the Paralympics). There is a bit of rebellion and humour in the air to line up against all the sponsorship and branding. And thousands of young kids screaming at anyone coming past – police, ambulance, stewards …
We worked out a long time ago that we would benefit from natural breaks in our festival schedule; fallow years where we have the time and the energy to move the festival up a gear. And we also decided a long time ago to leave the path clear for the Olympics this summer.
The building excitement is all-too evident on my doorstep in Wells. I can see yellow roadblock signs, while police vans and ambulances are discreetly parked in side streets. Outside broadcast vans are filling the waiting time in our sunny market place by blasting out dedications, traffic updates and requests.
The rolling convoy has also gone Royal – a patriotic overlay to the sponsors' signs. Bunting for next week's Diamond Jubilee is already in place, while every outrider seems to be equipped with some kind of clip-on union flag. This is as much of a set dress for the old cathedral city as there was for the filming of Hot Fuzz, directed by one of Wells's former Blue School pupils, Edgar Wright. Another day, another bit of history.
The birthplace of more than one great Olympian, Wells has a permanent marker plaque in the market square to remind everyone of the first: Mary (Bignal) Rand, whose triple medal winning feat at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo, included gold for a world record breaking 6.76-metre long jump. A year later, at Buckingham Palace to receive her MBE, Mary was nominated by Mick Jagger in one newspaper as the woman he would most like to date.
In the time it takes my son to toddle the full 22ft 2.1in of Mary's trailblazing jump marked out in the square, the torch and its cavalcade has passed down Sadler Street and on down the High Street, bound for the open countryside.
Mary will finally be back in Wells in July to receive the freedom of the city, alongside fellow Olympic gold medallist from 1976, the modern pentathlete Danny Nightingale. The children, meanwhile, are all safely back in school by noon for lunch.
Team Sky's Michael Barry talks us through the final climb on stage 17 of the Giro d'Italia as well as the ensuing descent, where riders will reach speeds of up 130kph
European championships in Montpelier will show how far men's team has progressed since the Beijing Olympics
Four years ago few would have tipped British men's gymnastics to be among the best in the world and pushing for medals at the London Olympics. As little as two years ago Britain's men had never qualified for the team final at the European championships.
How things have changed. On Wednesday the men's European championships begin in Montpellier and, even without Daniel Keatings, the injured world all-around silver medallist and European pommels champion, Great Britain is expected to impress. Five senior gymnasts will be hoping to make their mark on the competition that forms an important staging post on the journey to the Olympic Games. Germany and Russia are the favourites to take the team title, but after Great Britain's silver medal finish in 2010 the nation now expect to be in the running for a podium place.
What has been the transformative factor in their success? Team dynamics says Louis Smith, who captained the team to Olympic qualification at the test event held in London this year. "We cry and bleed together, which is what you need in terms of a team," says Smith. "Well, some people cry – but pretty much all of us bleeds."
Smith, the first individual British gymnast to win an Olympic medal in 80 years when he took bronze on the pommel horse in Beijing, has witnessed the change over the past four years. In Beijing, the 23-year-old admits, the competition was a lonely experience with just two British men qualifying for the individual finals. "Even before that we'd go to a Europeans [as a team] and we knew we were going to come 10th, and we knew we weren't going to make any finals apart from me on pommels, so it was nerve-racking knowing a lot of it depended on me. Now it's very different. We've got everyone making finals and everyone doing very well. It's very positive, we're all taking steps in the right direction."
"The belief is there that we can do well. We now know that we're contestants on a world stage at the top level, with that belief everyone's improving and because everyone's improving it's harder to get into the team, the standard is so high now. It's made life a lot more difficult for people trying to qualify and get into the team but that's good. We want to have a selection of 10 guys instead of four."
There are at least seven world-class Britons in a squad of 12 competing for five places in the men's team, announced on 4 July, at the Olympics. One of those set to make a name for himself in London is 21-year-old Daniel Purvis who took bronze on the floor at the world championships in 2010. He was ranked No1 in the world last year after a series of impressive World Cup performances and finished fourth in the world championships last October.
"The main priority at the Europeans is the team," said Purvis. "We came second in Birmingham in 2010 so if we can do the same again or even get the gold that would be awesome. Individually it will be about apparatus finals – if I can make the floor and P-bar finals that would be great. This is the last big competition ahead of the Olympics so if we can do well it might help put the idea in the judges' minds where we could be placed. It is important."
"In terms of what it means for the Olympics, everyone's fighting for a place on the team. The Europeans are going to be a good landmark to see who's in the team. There's a bit of pressure for everyone."
• Drinkhall is joined by Liam Pitchford and Andrew Baggaley • Joanna Parker, Kelly Sibley and Na Liu make up women's team
Paul Drinkhall heads a group of six athletes selected by the British Olympic Association to represent Team GB in the London 2012 table tennis competition.
The Middlesbrough-born 22-year-old recently broke into the world's top 100 having enjoyed success at junior level, including three European junior titles and a silver medal at the World Junior Championships.
Drinkhall is joined by the 18-year-old Liam Pitchford, who won two medals at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi. Pitchford demonstrated his potential at the European Championships, where he beat four players ranked in the world top 100 including the world No9 Vladimir Samsonov and No20 Alexey Smirnov.
The men's squad is completed by the experienced Andrew Baggaley, 29, who has won five Commonwealth Games medals and is a three-times English singles national champion.
Drinkhall said: "It's a great achievement to be selected for Team GB. It's a once in a lifetime opportunity to play in a home Games. I can only guess how it will feel, but it's a fantastic opportunity."
The women's team includes the English national champion Joanna Parker, 25. Joining her is Kelly Sibley, who celebrated her 24th birthday on Monday.
Sibley is also a national champion and won 10 matches in a row at the 2011 European Championships in Poland to help the women's team to promotion to the top tier. The team is completed by Na Liu, 29, who is a regular competitor on the ITTF Pro Tour.
The Team GB chef de mission Andy Hunt said: "Both the male and female teams include a good balance of youth and experience. The likes of Paul Drinkhall and Liam Pitchford have demonstrated great potential at junior level, which bodes well for the future of British table tennis."
• Nsekera is president of the Burundi Football Association • Appointment to be finalised at Fifa congress on Friday
Fifa has appointed a first female member of its executive committee.
Lydia Nsekera, president of the Burundi Football Association, has been co-opted on to the executive committee of the world game's governing body and will be formally installed at the Fifa congress in Budapest on Friday.
Nsekera is a member of several Fifa committees – for women's football, the women's World Cup and the organising committee for the Olympic football tournaments.
The executive committee has also proposed the Swiss industrialist Domenico Scala to chair a new audit committee. The 208-member countries must finalise the appointments at the congress on Friday.
• Back problem incurred during first Test rules Gabriel out • Best, who has 14 caps, last played for West Indies in 2009
The West Indies paceman Shannon Gabriel has been ruled out of the remainder of the Test series against England, with Tino Best recalled to the squad in his place.
Gabriel was a surprise call-up for the tour but impressed on his debut at Lord's, returning three for 60 in the first innings and adding the scalp of Kevin Pietersen as England chased victory on the final day.
But he managed just five overs in that second innings before leaving the field with back spasms. Having been assessed by the tourists' medical team ahead of Friday's second Test at Trent Bridge, Gabriel has now been told to fly home.
The West Indies team physiotherapist, C J Clark, said: "Shannon made the complaint late in the first Test against England and scans conducted following the match showed a stress reaction in the lower spine.
"He was subsequently ruled out of the second Test and, after further consultation, we feel that to prevent this injury developing any further it is in Shannon's best interest for him to return to T&T for rest and rehabilitation to ensure he is fully fit when selected for West Indies in the future."
Best, 30, has 14 Test caps and 12 one-day international appearances to his name, but last represented the West Indies in 2009.
• I think I'm headed in the right direction, says Woods • World No7 seeking first win in four tournaments
Tiger Woods has claimed he is close to putting himself in contention on a weekly basis, even if recent results suggest otherwise, saying: "I think I'm headed in the right direction."
"I'm going to try and continue to improve in incremental steps in every facet of my game and try to make every facet of my game more efficient," he said.
Woods was speaking at the Congressional club in Maryland, where he was promoting the AT&T National which takes place from 28 June to 1 July.
The world No7 has had one US PGA Tour victory this year but his game has hit a slump recently, with a missed cut in Charlotte as well as 40th-place finishes at the Masters and the Players Championship. "I've just played three events – I won a tournament [four] tournaments ago," he said. "If I get more efficient at what I'm doing, then I'm going to win golf tournaments."
Woods won at Congressional in 2009 before the event moved to suburban Philadelphia to make way for last year's US Open, where injury prevented him from participating in Rory McIlroy's big win.
"Unfortunately, I was in a position where I couldn't play and it was tough because I missed out on a golf course I know, that I've won on and that I love," Woods said. "Those factors made it difficult to sit back and watch. What Rory did was extraordinary. He played some beautiful golf."
McIlroy dominated at Congressional, finishing at 16-under. He is not among the early commitments for the AT&T National, but in addition to Woods, past tournament champions Nick Watney, Justin Rose and KJ Choi will play in the $6.5m (£4.1m) event.
Par on Congressional's Blue Course will be 71 playing across 7,535 yards. Woods has finishes of tied for 16th (1997 US Open), tied for sixth (2008 AT&T National) and the win three years ago.
"The difficulty is that it's a big ballpark," Woods said. "If you get to where there's a little moisture in the fairways and [tee shots] aren't running and aren't chasing, this course gets really long ... It's a fantastic tee-to-green golf course. You have to drive the ball well and once you get on to the greens, there's a lot of pitch and movement, usually back to front.
"Playing here this year, I would like to see it difficult, there's no doubt," he added.
The latest news and best bets in our daily horse racing blog, plus your chance to win tickets to the Oaks at Epsom
1.55pm Trainer bullish about Hermival's Irish 2,000 Guineas prospects
Will Hayler: It was 6-1 the field for Saturday's Irish 2,000 Guineas before Jim Bolger started getting so excited about Parish Hall's prospects, but Bolger's bullishness has seen that horse emerge as clear favourite with several firms on Tuesday morning.
However, others prefer the claims of Hermival, third at Newmarket earlier this month, who has now been confirmed on course for the race where he will renew rivalries with fourth-home Trumpet Major. Trainer Mikel Dezangles told At The Races that he felt Hermival was disadvantaged by racing in a small group on four on the far side at Newmarket, especially as he'd had to do much of his own pace work when his three rivals began to fall away.
"He had to take the lead of his group quite early and for an inexperienced horse like him it was a bit difficult," he said.
"We have that problem [of horses spreading across the course in small groups] in France sometimes at some tracks. I don't know what the solution is. I just don't know.
"He's definitely going to go to Ireland, he's been very well, he recovered very quickly and I hope he has improved a bit. We've been debating between running him there and in the Prix du Jockey-Club but I think we'll stay at a mile. We'll see afterwards, but he looks more like a miler than anything else so we'll stick at a mile for now."
Tuesday's best bets, by Will Hayler
Having been actively touting Parish Hall after his Dewhurst Stakes victory last season, it looks very much to me as if Jim Bolger is still officially 'open to offers' and unofficially 'very keen to sell' the same colt before his reappearance in this weekend's Irish 2000 Guineas.
The likes of Teofilo and New Approach have previously been sold by the Bolgers to join Sheikh Mohammed's team – indeed it was the Sheikh who helpfully steered Bolger towards winning the Derby with New Approach after informing him that's where the colt should be running.
But for some reason, despite Bolger telling the Racing Post that Parish Hall is "as good a colt as I've had", nobody seems to be taking the bait this time. Interesting.
It's not an easy day for plucking out tasty betting opportunities, despite a reasonably appealing card at Nottingham.
Descaro (3.15) didn't get home having travelled strongly in a marathon handicap at Pontefract last time, but the combination of the drop back down in trip with the re-application of the visor he wore when last successful could produce an improved result.
Raffinn (5.15) is moving up in distance having shaped quite pleasingly on his handicap debut at Wolverhampton last time out. He represents the Sylvester Kirk yard, which remains in unusually good form at present – another winner on Monday supplemented two more last week.
Of Handsome Ransom's (6.00) nine brothers and sisters to have so far made it to the track, seven are already winners and several have performed at a high level. Trained like most of the rest by John Gosden, this good-looking colt shaped nicely enough on his reappearance without appearing to be too wound up for his return and that experience can prove all important at Kempton against a couple of debutante fillies with potential.
Tipping competition, day two
No doubles on day one, so the lead is shared by waltersobchak, orso, WalthamstowLad and glavintoby, the four who found Ramona Chase (12-1). Close behind are the three who had Lady Kashaan (10-1), followed by
the Dean's Grange (7-1) dozen.
Today, we'd like your tips, please, for these races: 3.45 Nottingham, 5.00 Brighton, 6.30 Kempton.
This week's prize is a pair of tickets to Epsom on Investec Oaks Day, Friday 1 June, next week. Those who don't manage to win this excellent prize can get further information and book tickets by visiting Epsom's website or call Epsom Downs Racecourse on 0844 579 3004.
As ever, our champion will be the tipster who returns the best profit to notional level stakes of £1 at starting price on our nominatedraces, of which there will be three each day up until Friday. Non-runners count as losers. If you have not joined in so far this week, you are welcome to do so today, but you will start on -3.
In the event of a tie at the end of the week, the winner will be the tipster who, from among those tied on the highest score, posted their tips earliest on the final day.
Forget the Premier League for a moment and celebrate these extraordinary goals, from Iñigo MartÃnez's 50-yard belter to Eren Derdiyok's acrobatics. And then let us know your favourites
Just to prove that there is life outside the Premier League – and away from Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo for good measure – here are 10 stunning goals that you might not have seen, with their origins in Italy, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, Israel, Belgium, Greece, Turkey, Portugal and Finland.
There are no favourites here, or rather 10 equal favourites. While the goals are numbered, they are in no particular order: I just needed to make sure I chose the right number. Enjoy.
Not that one. This is emphatically not the large, lumbering Israeli defender Tal Ben Haim, but rather the young, speedy Israeli forward Tal Ben Haim. The fact that there is another footballing Tal Ben Haim represents such an unlikely coincidence that Uefa has had to label him "Tal Ben Haim II", for the avoidance of confusion. And here he proved just how emphatically not-the-other-Tal-Ben-Haim he is by running at great pace from one end of the field to the other before producing a finish of most estimable nonchalance to send the ball looping over the goalkeeeper. Ben Haim thus wins the peg-it-down-the-pitch award ahead of Juan Gillermo Cuadrado of Lecce, whose remarkably similar goal against Siena in February was also quite something. Picks up ball well inside his own half? Check. Takes the ball past pretty much an entire team? Check. A couple of ostentatious nutmegs on the edge of the penalty area? Check. Nonchalant finish at the end of it? Check. Having to deal with any kind of tackle worthy of the name? Er, nope.
As the ball connected with Lex Immers' toe 25 yards from goal there was, at a conservative estimate, an 83% chance that it was about to scud into a perfectly innocent woman in Row 48, in all likelihood breaking her jaw. Instead it rocketed into the top corner of the net so fast that Utrecht's veteran goalkeeper Rob van Dijk scarcely had time to arch his 42-year-old eyebrow, let alone attempt a save. "A goal like that you only score once in your career, and I scored mine today," Immers said afterwards. "Could it be goal of the year? Let's hope so." It's not far off. And of course it does help that Immers shares a first name with a superhero villain.
A corner is pulled back to someone lurking on the edge of the area, who volleys it into the back of the net. It's a modern classic, and a goal type that Turkey knows all about since Hamit Altintop's effort in their Euro 2012 qualifying victory over Kazakhstan in September 2010 earned him the Fifa Puskas Award for the best goal in the entire world that year. They saw another stonking riff on the theme this season, courtesy of the young Slovakian winger Miroslav Stoch. Hannover's Jan Schlaudraff's effort against Hamburg in November deserves a mention while we're here.
Iñigo MartÃnez is a young centre-back who turned 21 only last week and scored just three goals this season. One was a header thumped into the back of the net from five yards after a free kick – the kind of goal, in other words, that centre-backs are supposed to score. The other two were scored from a combined distance of over 100 yards, as first he equalised against Athletic Bilbao in October, and then, one minute into stoppage time and with the game poised at 2-2, he repeated the feat against Real Betis at the end of November. The goals are stunning, struck with his left boot at such force that they don't just sail over the goalkeeper's head and plop over the line, as own-half goals are prone to doing, but fly into the top corner of the net at such velocity that even had the keeper been on the line – and on neither occasion were they terribly far away – they might still have failed to keep it out. The next best long-distance wonderstrike from a centre-back this season? Alexander Milosevic for AIK v GIF Sundsvall in April.
Lots of players chip goalkeepers, but this one was special. Fetfatzidis – rather sensibly known as Fetfa – was standing 17 yards from goal when the ball left his foot, with the goalkeeper roughly on the penalty spot. The challenge here is to get the ball up and down; Fetfa got it up, and up, and up, and down. There could have been three keepers standing on top of each other, on stilts, and they still would have been grasping at thin air. The height the lad got on that chip was, frankly, astonishing. "All football players want to score such difficult and beautiful goals," Fetfa deadpanned afterwards, "but what really matters in the end is for our team to claim victory." A noble sentiment, but clearly a load of old rot.
As it happened, the Bundesliga goal of the season and the best goal in Ligue 1 were pretty similar, involving a player setting the ball up for himself before converting acrobatically, like a one-man beach volleyball team only without a beach, and with overhead kicks. Younès Belhanda's effort for Montpellier against Marseille in April was only just less amazing than Derdiyok's, and made more memorable by presence of a pair of French commentators channelling Kenneth Williams. In their defence, there are occasions when saying "oooooooh!" a lot is simply the right thing to do.
Undisputed hat-trick of the season, for these reasons: it ticks the one-with-the-left-one-with-the-right-and-a-header box; it was scored by a 17-year-old making his full debut on the first day of a new season; and between the header with which he equalised and the low drive from 20 yards with which he completed his hat-trick and ended the contest in the 74th minute, just 162 seconds had elapsed. Just a few weeks earlier he had been on trial at Liverpool; fortunately it seems he left before their coaching methods could have too much of an influence.
There were some brilliant bicycle kicks this season, but this won out on the basis that while many of the others make you say "wow", this one makes your mouth gape wide and your brain give up entirely. "Such a goal you might score once in your life," Veselinovic said. "It was a goal like Ronaldinho would score. I saw all the pictures and it is incredibly beautiful." And he's not wrong. Next best Low Countries overhead of the season: Maya Yoshida, in VVV Venlo's 3-3 draw against PSV Eindhoven in September. A couple of other brilliant contenders from Italy: Stefano Mauri for Lazio against Napoli in April; and David Di Michele for Lecce against Parma in December. Any of them could have made the list, frankly.
Perhaps the most emphatic finish of our 10. The kind of goal which should be reported in capital letters, preferably using the words "blunderbuss" and "exocet", and followed by an indecent number of exclamation marks. The ball is laid back into his path and Shaffer judges his run-up perfectly before unleashing an unstoppable drive across goal and into the far top corner of the net, the ball moving at all times with hideously violent intent. Nice hit, mate. Though it's from a couple of yards closer to goal, and the goalkeeper doesn't so much dive to save it but kneel to worship it, Maicon's recent strike for Internazionale against Milan should also be mentioned here, mainly because it looks uncannily like a mirror image of Shaffer's.
• Batista and China's Shanghai Shenhua in negotiation • Didier Drogba also remains a target for Chinese club
The former Argentina coach Sergio Batista is close to signing a contract with big-spending Chinese club Shanghai Shenhua, who are on the lookout to replace the former incumbent Jean Tigana.
A successful swoop for Batista would come in the wake of 2006 World Cup-winning Italian coach, Marcello Lippi, taking charge of rivals Guangzhou Evergrande last week.
"[The contract] has not been signed so far. The two sides [Batista and the Shenhua Club] are still in negotiation," Ma Yue, the club's spokesperson, said.
Batista coached Argentina to Olympic gold at the 2008 Beijing Games before replacing Diego Maradona as the coach of the national side. He was sacked after only a year following Argentina's failure to end an 18-year wait for a major title at the 2011 Copa America.
Shanghai fired the Frenchman Tigana in April after a poor start to the season, replacing him with interim coach Jean-Florent Ibenge.
The French striker Nicolas Anelka, who joined Shanghai from Chelsea in January, will continue to combine playing as well as helping to coach the side, while Anelka's former striker partner, Didier Drogba, is still a possible target.
• Saints to employ wing as a replacement for Chris Ashton • Shepherd to join club at end of the Super Rugby season
Northampton Saints have signed the Australia international Cameron Shepherd as a direct replacement for the departing England wing Chris Ashton.
Shepherd, who has won nine caps for the Wallabies, can also play full-back and will offer Saints director of rugby, Jim Mallinder, an additional goal-kicking option.
The 28-year-old is currently the leading points scorer for the Perth side Western Force, and will move to Franklin's Gardens at the end of the Super Rugby season.
"Cameron is a very talented player who has shown regularly that he has the ability and temperament to compete at the highest level," said Mallinder.
"He has a positive impact for his team's attacking capability but is also solid defensively and under the high ball. His versatility and quality will give us added depth in the back three positions. We're looking forward to welcoming him to Franklin's Gardens and believe that he will contribute a good deal to the squad."
Shepherd said: "It's an exciting opportunity for me. Jim has got the team playing a great brand of rugby which I believe suits my style of play and to which I think I've got a lot to offer. It is definitely going to be a new challenge for me. The Premiership is a tough competition and there are a lot of teams which like to play exciting rugby, especially the Saints.
"You can see that with the quality of player that there is at the club, players like Ben Foden and George Pisi, who are established internationals."
Ashton is leaving Premiership semi-finalists Northampton to join Saracens.
Having enviously watched Chelsea's Saturday cavorting from their chaise longue in Catalunya, Barcelona have decided a different South American full-back is the key to getting their hands back on the big trophy. They want Manchester City's rugged Argentinian macho man Pablo Zabaleta as a replacement for Dani Alves.
QPR will celebrate their Premier League survival by handing Wigan £5m in exchange for Victor Moses, while Wolfsburg have revived their interest in Rangers' Adel Taarabt.
Good news for Arsenal fans: Juventus have ended their interest in Robin van Persie. Bad news for Liverpool fans/indifferent news for Manchester City fans: they will instead concentrate their efforts on Luis Suárez and/or Edin Dzeko.
And in the bit that nobody really reads, Blackpool want to keep Swansea's Stephen Dobbie, Swansea want Burnley's Chris McCann, and West Ham want Kieron Richardson of Sunderland and Craig Gordon, formerly of Sunderland.
New York Yankees slide; Life's Beachy in Atlanta; Injuries are everywhere; Boston Red Sox are surging; Kerry Wood retires
Yankee doodle dud
In case anyone was wondering what Mark Teixeira's name was, the Yankees first baseman reminded reporters before his team were shut out 6-0 on Monday night by the Kansas City Royals. "I'm still Mark Teixeira," said Mark Teixeira. "I still put up some pretty good numbers in my career, so I don't think they're going to just start underhanding it to me. I wish they would, but I don't think that's going to happen." Mark Teixeira was front and center before taking the field, answering questions relating to his being dropped to seventh in the batting order by his manager Joe Girardi. A notoriously slow starter, Teixeira, a lifetime .280 hitter, averages .238 in March/April, but this May, the struggling slugger hasn't come around as usual. He recently took three days off to deal with a cough, but his health troubles apparently began way before that, telling the Daily News' Mark Feinsand that the last time he felt good was the first week of the season. Not that Teixeira was making excuses.
Unfortunately for Girardi, Teixeira, hitting .227/.280/.387 with five home runs, isn't the only Yankee who is struggling with the bat right now. Want to take a stab at who leads the Yankees in OPS? What's that you say? Alex Rodriguez? Nope. Curtis Granderson? He's close but it's not him. Robinson Cano? Nope. It's gotta be Nick Swisher right? Sorry buddy. If you had soon-to-be 40-year-old Raul Ibanez, then you are either a Yankees fan or you have him on your fantasy team. Who is third in Yankees production behind Curtis Granderson? It's the Yankees captain himself, 37-year-old Derek Jeter, whose slugging percentage has leaped by nearly 140 points from last year, his highest since 2006. All this means that Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez have been underperforming in 2012, while the team is flirting with a .200 batting average over the past week. The New York Times did a great job breaking down the decline of A-Rod last week, and there's an argument to be made that Teixeira is also heading downhill at age 32. Since 2009, his OPS has declined by 71 points, not counting the dramatic decline this season. Now, when you consider the heights from which he came, that doesn't mean Teixeira, who signed an eight year $180m contract in 2009, is in danger of falling off the map, but it's certainly worth mentioning during a season in which A-Rod and Albert Pujols, two other huge contracts, aren't looking like great long term investments.
The Yankees pitching woes are well documented, with Mariano Rivera, David Robertson, Joba Chamberlain and Michael Pineda out, while Phil Hughes, Hiroki Kuroda, Freddie Garcia and Ivan Nova struggle. The Yankees are 21-21, tied for last place with the resurgent Boston Red Sox. With the pitching staff a mess, the Bronx Bombers need to start living up to their nickname, otherwise, they'll likely miss the playoffs for only the second time since 1995.
Beachy keen
In April, before you could blink and eye, the Braves were 0-4, four games behind, answering questions about their infamous 2011 September collapse carrying over into this season. Then Chipper Jones returned to the lineup, Atlanta won 11 out of 12 games, and suddenly those questions went away. Holding a slim half game lead over the Washington Nationals in the NL East, the first place Braves are 26-12 since they stuttered at the start, while their offense, led by the banged up 40-year-old soon to be retiring Jones, and Martin Prado, a doubles machine hitting over .320 for the season. If not for an offense that has put up the second most runs in the NL, Atlanta might be buried, as their pitching staff has been slow to come around. One Bravo who has had it all season long is Brandon Beachy, who is carrying a 1.33 ERA. Future hall-of-famer and long-time Atlanta pitcher Greg Maddux was the last hurler with an ERA of under 1.50 this deep into the season--wildly impressive. Beachy, a rookie a year ago, has been the ace of a pitching staff that has been inconsistent at best, throwing a complete game shutout vs. Miami his last time out, striking out six without walking a batter, an impressive line when you consider that he pitched from behind all night, issuing just 12 first-pitch strikes. This is even more impressive when you consider that the 25-year-old from Kokomo Indiana wasn't even drafted, meaning that not one Major League team was willing to take a shot on Beachy while over 1500 players were selected in the 50 round event. By comparison, Jeremy Lin was ignored by NBA teams during a draft of just two rounds, with just 60 players being selected. That makes what's going with Brandon Beachy one heck of a story. As faketeams.com points out, Beachy's strikeouts per nine innings has dropped from 10.7 in his rookie season, to 6.5 this year. With that sort of drop, and the fact that he threw only 12 first-pitch strikes, it seems like there's some luck in his allowing just one home run in his first 54 innings. Then again, luck seems to be following around the unheralded early Cy Young favorite in 2012.
Costly Injuries
Injuries are part of the game of course, but you can't help but notice that there's a lot of talent on the sidelines right now. Having said that, I thought I would throw together an all-DL team:
Lineup:
1. Alex Gonzalez, Brewers SS - $4.25m 2. Chase Utley, Phillies 2B - $15.285m 3. Ryan Howard, Phillies 1B - $20m 4. Matt Kemp, Dodgers OF - $10m 5. Lance Berkman, Cardinals DH - $12m 6. Jacoby Ellsbury, Red Sox OF - $8m 7. Yoenis Cespedes, A's OF - $6.5m 8. Geovany Soto, Cubs, C - $4.3m 9. Pablo Sandoval, Giants 3B - $3.2m
Bench:
Kevin Youkilis, Red Sox 3B - $12m Carl Crawford, Red Sox OF - $19.5m Jayson Werth, Nationals OF - $13m Mike Morse, Nationals 1B - $3.250m
Starting Pitching:
Chris Carpenter, Cardinals - $10.5m John Lackey, Red Sox - $15.250m Dallas Braden, Athletics - $3.35m Neftali Feliz, Rangers - $500k Daniel Hudson, Diamondbacks $504k
Relievers:
Mariano Rivera, Yankees - $15m Brian Wilson, Giants - $8.5m Drew Storen, Nationals - $498,750k Andrew Bailey, Red Sox - $3.9m Ryan Madson, Reds - $6m Joakim Soria, Royals - $6m David Robertson, Yankees - $1.6m
The lineup needs tinkering, and there's some flaws, sure, but that's a pretty decent team isn't it? The payroll? Over $200m!
Surging Sox
Jason Gay of the Wall Street Journal had the tweet of the day on Monday:
"Yankees 1 game ahead of the Red Sox (8-2 in last 10) but this is not a story because it does not fit the RED SOX BOBBY V DISASTER NARRATIVE"
It's a tweet that had me laughing out loud, known as LOL to some. There's a good deal of truth behind his words, and after Boston came from behind to beat Baltimore 8-6 on Monday, while the Yanks lost to the Royals 6-0, the Sox are tied for fourth place with their arch rivals. The Old Towne Team have now won nine of their previous 11 games, a stretch that began after Josh Beckett was booed off the mound during "golf-gate". What's changed? Easy, the pitching staff. The starters are 8-2 in this period, with the team getting at least six innings a game from their rotation, cutting the beleaguered bullpen a break. Meanwhile, the offense has continued to pump out runs with the best of the American League. Really, it was the pitching that was missing all along, and now that they are getting it, Bobby V's Red Sox have gone from being outscored by 14 runs as of May 10th, to outscoring their opponents by 19 runs overall. That's a 33 run swing in 11 days, not too shabby. It also shows you just how quickly talented but struggling teams can turn it around. Of course, it's never all good news with the Red Sox, Cody Ross is heading to the DL with a non-displaced fracture in his left foot, fouling a ball off it on Friday night vs. the Phillies. The Sox will have no less than six outfielders on the DL, with a staggering total of 14 players on the list.
Kerry Wood does it his way
For many baseball fans, Kerry Wood will always be 21 years old, standing on the mound at Wrigley Field, striking out a National League record 20 Houston Astros. The Chicago Cubs pitching phenom allowed just one hit that afternoon, and didn't walk a single batter. It was just the sixth start of an eventful career that any of us would sign up for, but alas, never measured up to the promise of that day. Regardless, we'll never forget that final strikeout, when his ball moved magically away from the bat of Derek Bell, before Wood celebrated a record setting performance with a measured fist pump and hugs from his teammates.
Fourteen years later, with several surgeries behind him, and struggling with his control, Kerry Wood surprised many by announcing he would retire after the Cubs Friday afternoon game with the White Sox after facing one last batter. "Kid K" got the call in the eighth inning, and struck out Dayan Viciedo on three pitches to retire the side. A fitting conclusion for a player whose signature moment is frozen in time.
Kevin McCloud says his corner of Somerset has a strong local flavour, and a touch of Olympian energy might help keep it that way
It may seem to be charging through the British countryside like an express train, but the Olympic torch is actually following more of a pre-Beeching branch line route, complete with local timetable. It departed Taunton at 6.12am and, having received a rapturous Somerset welcome in Yeovil, Ilchester and the old county town of Somerton, the torch passes through Street (9am), Glastonbury (9.52), Coxley (10.24), Wells, Croscombe (short platform) and Shepton Mallet (11.23) before pulling into Frome at 11.55am.
I don't think there's a buffet car on board, so for anyone involved in the torch's progress (its retinue is mighty), I can recommend the coffee and homemade ice cream in La Strada in Cheap Street, or the beautifully restored Archangel pub for food.
Frome, on whose fringes I am proud to live, is a good place for the Olympic team to stop for lunch. Architecturally, it possesses more than 500 listed buildings. Gastronomically, all roads lead to Frome, which – together with its Olympically spurned neighbour, Bruton – is food central for Somerset.
Home to the majestic Frome cheese show, it is thus the adopted home of cheddar cheese. The happy, organic cows of Yeo Valley are not far away. Frome hosts its own farmers' market, and has a healthy crop of small restaurants and cafes serving good local produce – not least the Black Swan Gallery caff, run by Leia Mercer. At its outskirts sits Whiterow farm shop, which won the local food farmer of the year award in 2009. Any greedy Olympian can come back on a Sunday to feast at the artisan market on Catherine Hill. Or you could return in July for the Frome festival.
We think of the culture of a place as a mix of music, stories, high art, architecture and traditional craftsmanship. But food is a stronger binder and identifier of place than all of these – at its best, literally regenerating every day the soil of that place into its produce.
Sadly, Frome is now facing a possible threat to its town centre from Tesco or perhaps another supermarket chain – effectively, the fifth big food retailer to arrive in just a few years. But the town has been armoured (partly thanks to its civic society) with a progressive and enlightened planning report – drawn up with the residents and adopted by Mendip district council as long ago as 2005 – that suggests what its centre actually needs are more small- and medium-sized retailers, and a sustainable development programme that introduces housing and small businesses right into the heart of the place.
Frome isn't short on vitality, but its economic and social success is recent and fragile. If the Olympic torch team stop even for a cuppa, then a little bit of sporting fairy soot might settle long enough to contribute to the energy of the town and help it prevail.
Kevin McCloud is a sustainability ambassador for the Olympics
• LA Lakers out of NBA playoffs after 106-90 defeat to OKC • Thunder vs San Antonio Spurs in Western Conference finals • Boston Celtics beat Philadelphia 76ers to lead series 3-2 • Hunter Felt's NBA playoffs blog will be online later
Oklahoma City Thunder 106, Los Angeles Lakers 90 OKC wins series 4-1 Russell Westbrook scored 28 points and Kevin Durant added 25 as Oklahoma City Thunder beat Los Angeles 106-90 in Game 5 on Monday night and eliminate the Lakers from the playoffs.
After several lead changes, Westbrook had a pair of three-point plays during a 14-3 burst that put Oklahoma City ahead to stay late in the third quarter, and Durant hit two 3-pointers as the Thunder scored the first 10 points of the fourth to push their lead to 93-77.
Kobe Bryant scored 42 points for the Lakers - the 13th 40-point game of his playoff career
After getting eliminated by Los Angeles in 2010 and Dallas in 2011 before both of those teams went on to win it all, the Thunder knocked both out on their way to the West finals for the second straight year.
Boston Celtics 101, Philadelphia 76ers 85 Boston leads series 3-2 Boston's Brandon Bass scored 27 points to s park the Celtics to a 101-85 win over Philadelphia on Monday and move within one victory of a place in the NBA Eastern Conference Finals.
Bass found his shooting touch in the third quarter, where he scored 18 points to net a playoff career-high and help the Celtics pull away from the 76ers.
The Game Five win gave Boston a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven second-round series. Kevin Garnett added 20, while Rajon Rondo tallied 13 points and 14 assists for Boston, who trailed early but outscored the 76ers 54-35 in the final two quarters.
New Jersey Devils beat New York Rangers 4-1 to tie NHL Eastern Conference finals series 2-2
The New Jersey Devils beat the New York Rangers 4-1 in a spiteful encounter on Monday to tie the NHL Eastern Conference final series at 2-2 as escalating tension between the cross-river rivals boiled over.
The best-of-seven series between the two neighboring foes has now become the best-of-three and is living up to all the fiery expectations, with the teams and coaching staff trading insults and blows on and off the ice.
Three players, Mike Rupp and Stu Bickel from the top-ranked Rangers, and New Jersey's Ryan Carter, were each given 10-minute misconduct penalties after a brawl in the third period that began when Rupp knocked Devils goalie Martin Brodeur on his backside with a punch to the chest.
"I was minding my own business," Brodeur said. "I think it's a good sign when they take liberties on players because it means they're off their game a little bit."
The Rangers' Ryan McDonagh and Devils' Adam Henrique were given five minute majors when they dropped the gloves in the opening period and squared off for the first fist-fight of the series.
New York captain Ryan Callahan and New Jersey's Russian winger Jersey's Ilya Kovalchuk continued to taunt each other from their opposing penalty boxes after they came to blows.
A total of 18 penalties, 12 against the Rangers and six against New Jersey, were issued during the hostile game, triggering a spat between the opposing coaches, the Devils' Peter DeBoer and the Rangers' John Tortorella, who began shouting at each other during the final period.
The pair had already been bad-mouthing each other in the lead-up after New York forward Brandon Prust was suspended for elbowing New Jersey Devils defenseman Anton Volchenkov in Game Three on Saturday, but neither wanted to talk about the latest incident.
"This isn't about John and I, this is about the guys on the ice," said DeBoer. "We're trying to win a series and get to the Stanley Cup, we don't need any extra fuel. You've got two competitive teams, there's a lot at stake, they're battling to the buzzer, that's the way I saw it."
Unlike Saturday's third game, when sixth-seeded New Jersey failed to score despite firing 36 shots at the New York net, the Devils took their chances this time. They finally found a way past the impenetrable defense of New York goalie Henrik Lundqvist, who recorded shutouts in two of the previous three games, when Brian Salvador scored with a wrist shot then Travis Zajac netted a slap shot less than four minutes later in the opening period.
New Jersey captain Zach Parise added two more goals in the final period, the first off a power play and the latter into an empty net when Lundqvist was pulled after the Rangers had scored a consolation goal through Ruslan Fedotenko five minutes from the end.
"It was a struggle for a number of our guys but we have to move on and have a short-term memory," said Tortorella. "I'm truly confident that we'll respond the right way because we've done it all through the playoffs."
There is never any love lost between the teams but with a place in the Stanley Cup final at stake, the animosity has been steadily building with each game, and there are no signs of it letting up with the sides heading back to the cauldron-like Madison Square Garden on Wednesday for Game Five.
"Throughout a seven game series, both teams are going to get frustrated at certain things," said Parise. "I think the intensity is only going to rise from here, there's a lot at stake, and we're up for the challenge."
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