CURRENT champions Hastings Priory continue to lead the Sussex Premier League after enjoying their fifth outright win of the season.
Preston Nomads, champions for the previous three seasons lie in second place, they, too, have won five games. Third-placed Roffey suffered their first defeat of the season at home to East Grinstead.
Horsham enjoyed a comfortable win at home to Bexhill to consolidate fourth place whilst the battle at the bottom saw Eastbourne win for the first time this season in their away game at Worthing.
Another fine innings from Kirk Werners set up Hastings for a convincing home win against Chichester. The young Sussex all-rounder made 109 not out as Hastings were dismissed for 195.
John Morgan made 38 as Aussie Adam Zampa grabbed 4 for 78.
Morgan then stepped up with the ball to take 7 for 38 and with Werners taking 3 for 16 the visitors crashed to 59 all out.
Joe Gatting used his day off from county duties to whack a 63-ball century to take Preston Nomads to victory by four wickets at home to Brighton and Hove.
Brighton were bowled out for 198 despite 76 from Craig Young and 31 from Tim Jarvis, Carl Simon taking 5 for 39.
Gatting then hit 106 despite being dropped a costly three times. Rob Wakeford added 35 not out as Chris Liddle and Matt Wood each took two wickets.
Another Sussex youngster proved the match winner for East Grinstead at Roffey.
Will Adkin carried his bat for 86 not out as Grinstead made 176 for 6 facing a Roffey score of 175 for 6 declared.
For Roffey, Michael Norris made 44 and Christ Plaister 32 as Craig Fowle took 4 for 62.
Adkin was dropped twice early in his innings but played a mature innings to see his side home despite drizzle and poor light for much of the time.
Andy McGorian and Stuart Whittingham each took two wickets for the home side.
Bexhill are finding life in the Premier League a tough battle after their promotion last year.
At Horsham they were dismissed for 138 despite 31 from skipper Malcolm Johnson and 26 from Tom Powell. Two leg spinners did the damage, Michael Munday taking 3 for 39 and Will Beer 2 for 21.
In reply, Horsham cruised to 142 for 2 in just 25 overs as James Johnson made 60 not out and John Burroughs 40.
The Sussex success story continued as Luke Wells made 130 for Eastbourne at Worthing to take his side to their first win of the season.
Eastbourne looked in trouble at 30 for 3 but Aaron Mullins (55) joined Wells to rebuild the innings, Luke Vinter took 3 for 55 for Worthing.
Worthing then tumbled to 112 all out as Ed Giddins took 4 for 28.
Three Bridges continue to lead Division 2 by 21 points despite being held to a draw at Findon.
Bridges were dismissed for 168 as Jack Metters took 4 for 31.
Mick Demetriou then held the Findon innings together as they reached stumps at 132 for 8, he made 76.
Glynde, who finished third last season, are currently in second place following a six wicket win at Haywards Heath who they bowled out for 145.
In that total Ollie Graham top scored with 32 as Dale Tranter took 3 for 62.
Glynde them moved smoothly to 146 for 4 with 49 from Dominic Shepheard and 35 not out from Ollie Bailey.
St James’s lie third following their draw at Cuckfield where the home side made 209 with a hard hit 48 from Jamie Newson as George Taylor took 5 for 42.
In the visitors’ 189 for 8 Adam Davies made 31 as Ebrel Erwee took 4 for 60.
Ifield found it very easy at home to Sidley who they bowled out for just 122. Sam Steel was top scorer, he made 25 as Dan Groves took 3 for 36.
Raza Alli with 51 not out and Jovan Nel (53) took the home side to victory by nine wickets at 123 for 1.
Goring made short work of dismissing Pulborough for just 94 as Ellis Woolley took 4 for 19 and Matt Keen 4 for 34.
The home side then won by five wickets at 85 for 5 with 27 from Dan Pitham, Kuldeep Rawat took 3 for 43.
All league positions in Division 3 West remain unchanged after each of the top five beat one of the bottom five.
Middleton’s Brandon Hanley enjoyed a fine all round game top scoring with 69 in their 218-9. Ben Hansford added 56 whilst Slinfold’s Guy Thorne took 4-68.
In reply, Slinfold were blown away for just 50 as Hanley’s 4-28 was surpassed by Tom Davies who took 6-17.
Bognor remain second just three points behind after an equally resounding victory at home to Wisborough Green. The visitors were bowled out for just 89 with Elliott Clarke making 45 as Bognor won by seven wickets.
Billingshurst also scored a maximum after a four-wicket success at Arundel. Arundel’s 149 was marked by Dhanushka Mitipolaarachchi snaring 5-30 and Mike Burroughs 50 not out led them to victory.
Stirlands remain fourth after a 131-run win at Littlehampton. Sean Heather (129) also scored a personal fourth (century in succession) and, as last week was ably supported by Will Gubbins with 73 not out.
Stirlands declared on 241-4 and bowled out Littlehampton for 110 with Chris May taking 3-11.
The result left Littlehampton pointless from the game and rooted at the foot of the table.
Steyning won a relatively low scoring game at Pagham making just 144. Pagham however were knocked over for just 92 after 6-37 from Matheesha Ranasinghe.
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London athletes get top healthcare - Yahoo! Eurosport
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Source: uk.eurosport.yahoo.com
London 2012: IOC suspends ticket sales for 2014 during investigation - The Guardian
The International Olympic Committee is to suspend the sales process for the Sochi 2014 Winter Games while it investigates allegations that Olympic officials and agents representing 54 countries offered London 2012 tickets on the black market.
In the wake of a Sunday Times investigation that sparked an immediate IOC probe, it is understood that the process of approving the list of Authorised Ticket Resellers contracted by the Sochi organising committee has been suspended until after it reports. The investigation is expected to lead to a shake-up of the way Olympic tickets are allocated ahead of the Rio 2016 Olympics.
The London 2012 organising committee chairman, Lord Coe, said the revelations were "deeply depressing", especially after he had warned the Association of National Olympic Committees of the risks of breaking IOC rules on the resale of tickets at their general assembly in Acapulco in 2010.
The Sunday Times, which is expected to hand its dossier of evidence to the IOC this week, alleged that 27 agents representing 54 countries were prepared to sell thousands of tickets for up to £6,000 each.
Spyros Capralos, the president of the Hellenic Olympic Committee who was implicated in the illicit sale of tickets to undercover reporters, claimed the allegations were "untrue and misleading".
"The whole process was totally transparent and in accordance with the laws of the Greek state," the HOC said in a statement. "Therefore, there can be no issue on creating a 'black market' by the HOC which did not buy any tickets, whatsoever."
The HOC also claimed that quotes attributed to Capralos were "fragmentary and a patchwork of answers, made in a way that served the authors of the article".
It added: "The journalists of the Sunday Time, violated all principles of journalistic ethics, pretended to be representatives of a ticket selling company, and had even created a fake webpage."
It said that its entire allocation had been signed over to a company controlled by the Ipswich Town owner, Marcus Evans, so it did not have any tickets to sell.
Evans paid €300,000 – 10 times more than the HOC received during the Beijing Games – for the exclusive rights to resell the tickets but it said all the money went towards team preparation.
"The whole sum was exclusively allocated to the preparation of Olympic athletes of top level, at a time when, due to difficult economic conditions, the state stopped funding the Olympic preparation," it said. They claimed that the conversation with The Sunday Times journalist referred to the Sochi Games.
The former Olympic swimmer Yoav Bruck, authorised to sell tickets in Israel and Cyprus, also denied allegations that he offered undercover reporters the best seats in the house at the 100m final.
"The report is swamped with untruths, lies and inventions that cries to the heavens," he told Israel's Channel 2 TV. "I am saying that we are clean … we are not selling anything we are not allowed to."
London 2012 organisers will continue to lobby to return any unsold tickets from the 1.1 million allocated overseas to the British public. They claim that more than 50% of unsold tickets have already been re-routed for UK sale, the first time that has happened. But they will not seek to requisition tickets already allocated to the regions implicated, for fear of disadvantaging genuine purchasers in those regions.
Denis Oswald, the head of the IOC's co-ordination commission and a member of the executive board that held an emergency meeting in response to the claims, has said anyone found guilty of breaking IOC rules should be expelled from the Olympic movement.
"If you know you are breaking the rules and still do it, it is unacceptable. It is an attitude which is not acceptable and which is why I am sure the IOC want to take this very seriously and take appropriate sanctions," he said.
The IOC ethics commission is highly unlikely to report before London Games, although interim action could be taken against a handful of individuals in the meantime.
The report was the latest in a string of similar allegations. In May, a top Ukrainian Olympic official resigned following allegations that he offered to sell tickets for the London Games on the black market.
Volodymyr Gerashchenko, secretary general of Ukraine's national Olympic committee, was accused by the BBC of telling an undercover reporter posing as an unauthorised dealer that he was willing to sell up to 100 tickets for cash.
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
London 2012 Olympics: Scottish fencer Keith Cook to continue fight against Team GB omission - Daily Telegraph
It has, though, also emerged that national fencing coach Ziemek Wojciechowski contacted other members of the British foil team, including fencers ranked lower than Cook, urging them to resubmit their details to performance manager Newton ahead of the deadline.
Leading Scottish sports lawyer Rod Mckenzie, senior partner at Harper Macleod, who acts for the Scottish Premier League and is the legal adviser to the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, has taken up Cook's case on a pro bono basis and sent a letter to British Fencing, as well as copying representation to the British Olympic Association.
Cook said: "I feel utterly sickened. To find out they had excluded me from the Olympic selection because of an email address was insane – surreal.
"I am going to fight this injustice tooth and nail – I don't want this happening to any of the amazing young kids I coach. I have taught them that the way to succeed is through hard work and dedication."
British Fencing were unavailable for any immediate response, but have always maintained their selection process is transparent and robust, with several fencers having seen their appeals against non-selection already rejected.
Communications director David King said in a statement last week: "British Fencing strongly denies any bias or inappropriate action in the non-selection of Keith Cook for a discretionary Home Nation place at the London 2012 Olympics.
"Like the other 25 athletes in contention for an Olympic spot, Mr Cook would have been fully aware of what was required to achieve consideration.
"We certainly understand the disappointment that any athlete feels when devoting one's life to training and working to achieve a goal like this and coming short."
Britain's top fencer Richard Kruse, who qualified directed for the London Games, delivered a bronze medal at the European Championships in Italy this weekend.
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
London bound: Blinded warrior to represent U.S. at 2012 Paralympics - msnbc.com
Dan Koeck for msnbc.com
Blind swimmer Tharon Drake, right, seeks the hand of fellow swimmer Lt. Bradley Snyder to congratulate him on winning the 400-meter freestyle event in record time on Thursday at the 2012 U.S. Paralympics Swimming Trials in Bismarck, N.D. Snyder earned a spot on Team USA's swim team for the Paralympics later this summer in London.
London is calling for Lt. Brad Snyder.
The former Navy bomb defuser, who last September lost both eyes in an Afghan explosion, formally gained a roster spot Sunday on the U.S. Paralympic team bound for England, after swimming what he agreed was the race of his life.
“I’m super excited,” said Snyder, 28. “Normally, I’m a little too prideful to admit I am nervous before a race. But I was a little nervous. There was a pretty sizable uncertainly” that he would swim well enough to qualify.
To earn a ticket to London later this summer, Snyder needed to swim at least 41 seconds faster than his previous best in his top event, the 400-meter freestyle. In competitive swimming, where outcomes usually are measured in tenths of seconds, 41 seconds is an eternity.
But Snyder didn’t simply meet his goal. He demolished it, going 54 seconds faster than he ever had since losing his sight. Snyder clocked a 4:35.62 – now the current, world-best time at that distance for fully blind swimmers.
Need more context? That time was just 1.5 seconds behind the mark he posted at that distance while swimming for the Naval Academy seven years ago, when he could see the lane lines, the competition and, most importantly, the wall.
Editor's note: This is the third installment that chronicles Lt. Brad Snyder's efforts to earn a spot on Team USA's roster for the 2012 London Paralympics. Read the first story here and read the second story here.
Lucky No. 12
Still, he had to wait until Sunday morning when the U.S. Paralympic swimming coaches announced the 14 names on the American men’s roster. To hear the news, hundreds of athletes, family members and coaches packed an academic hall at Bismarck State College, host of the meet. Dozens more people couldn’t be seated and waited for news while standing in a nearby hallway. Eleven names already had been read before Snyder finally heard his.
He stood, felt a massive wave of emotion rising in his throat and then walked, led via one arm by his brother, Mitchell, toward most of the rest of the men’s team already gathered at the front of the room.
Lt. Brad Snyder lost his sight in an IED explosion in Afghanistan last September. The Navy officer is now training to represent the U.S. at the London 2012 Paralympics.
“As I was walking him over, I was just staring down at the floor. I didn’t want look at anyone because I thought I was going to cry,” said Mitchell Snyder. “I was mostly thinking how far he’s come since September. I couldn’t have been prouder.”
At the swimming trials, Mitchell served as his brother’s “tapper” – a person assigned to touch a blind swimmer on the head or shoulder with a walking cane to warn him or her that the wall is near and that a flip turn or a finishing kick is needed. No other communication is allowed between the tapper and a swimmer.
“The moment his name was announced everyone erupted and I guess he got a standing ovation,” said Mitchell Snyder, 25. “He couldn’t see it. And I didn’t want to see it because I thought I was going to lose it.”
Snyder joins a rising corps of wounded U.S. servicemen and servicewomen who will again battle for their nation overseas – this time as Paralympians vying for gold medals in track, cycling, archery, wheelchair tennis and an array of other sports. More than 30 active-duty and retired soldiers and sailors are expected to make the 2012 American Paralymic team – double the number that competed for Team USA at the Beijing Paralympic Games four years ago.
Golden favorite
“You can look at it and say, unfortunately, we’re having a lot of guys hurt. But at the same time we’re having a lot of guys hurt who are finding relevancy in going out there and succeeding post-injury,” Brad Snyder said. “We’re finding a way to get past, finding a way to strive for success just the way we were in the military.
“After joining the military, you want to be the best in the world at your job because it means life or death. (After injury) we’re stripped of the ability to do that the way we used to do. But we can still find an avenue through elite competition.”
Lt. Brad Snyder, blinded by an IED explosion in Afghanistan, is now training for the London 2012 Paralympics.
This week, Snyder will return to his intern job at a Baltimore software company. And he will continue training at a Baltimore aquatic center with his coach, Brian Loeffler, in preparation for the London Games. At the 2012 Paralympics, he also will be considered a front runner for a gold medal in the 100-meter freestyle. At the Bismarck trials, Snyder swam that event in 57.75 seconds – now the current, world-best time for blind athletes.
But he’ll never forget, he said, his very first race in Bismarck – the chase that offered Snyder his first solid proof that he could, once again, be the best in the world at something.
With an entry time of 5:29, Snyder wasn’t fully sure he could finish close to the 4:43 mark held by Spaniard Enhamed Enhamed – formerly the holder of the record in the 400-meter freestyle. Among blind swimmers, Enhamed has been a giant for years, collecting four gold medals at the Beijing Paralympics.
Unforgettable performance
Last Thursday morning, amid the preliminary heat for that same event, Mitchell Snyder glanced at the pool clock several times from his tapper position as his brother churned his arms and kicked his feet.
“But I was at the finishing end, so I had to make sure he was going to hit the wall safe and I couldn’t watch the clock when he touched,” Mitchell Snyder said. “Earlier in the race, though, it became abundantly clear during the first hundred meters, and the second hundred and the third hundred that, unless something drastically wrong happened, we had a No. 1 time in the world on our hands.”
“They’re strict in what the tapper can or can’t say,” Brad Snyder added. “So when I finished, I didn’t know what my time was. I can’t look at the scoreboard. And none of the people in front of the (starting) blocks can tell me. But I was fortunate that the announcer of the meet – and only by virtue of the fact that I was the first one to the wall – announced the time, 4:39. I kind of heard it. And I thought, 4:39, wow that’s kind of fast.”
Knowing he had a world-best time already tucked away in the prelim, Snyder said he was able to relax and swim the event’s final race that night much more freely.
But again, after he touched the wall at the finish, he didn’t know how he had fared.
Then somebody – somebody who was sitting behind the blocks – and I don’t even know who it was, whispered to me, “4:35!” I had shaved four more seconds off my time. They weren’t supposed to tell me. But I could definitely hear the excitement in their voice.”
Bill Briggs is a frequent contributor to msnbc.com and author of “The Third Miracle.”
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Source: usnews.msnbc.msn.com
New buyers may lift London art sales to $1 billion - Reuters UK
LONDON |
LONDON (Reuters) - London's art market is attracting the lion's share of business from an emerging class of super-wealthy collectors from Russia, the Middle East and China, and they are likely to be a big factor in a summer season of sales valued at up to $1 billion (638 million pounds).
Christie's, Sotheby's and smaller rivals like Phillips de Pury hold a three-week series of auctions featuring works by artists as diverse as Rembrandt, Renoir and Gerhard Richter.
Euro zone turmoil and slowing Chinese economic growth are giving investors the jitters, yet the high-end art market has defied gravity on a record-breaking streak.
New York has long been considered the global capital of the auction world -- most recent records have been set there, including the $120 million paid for Edvard Munch's "The Scream" at a Sotheby's sale in May.
London, a more natural fit for Russian tycoons who have homes in the city and Middle Eastern buyers just a mid-haul flight away, may be closing that gap.
Sotheby's has calculated that, while the number of lots sold to buyers from "new" markets has risen in both cities so far this year, the increase has been far more marked in London (33 percent) than New York (six percent).
"Particularly the Russians feel very comfortable bidding in the London sales as many of them have second homes and are very active here," said Helena Newman, chairman of Sotheby's impressionist and modern art department in Europe.
"I think that because of our geographic situation, we are the gateway to the East ... Central Asia, the Middle East and the East," she told Reuters at the company's London headquarters where star lots from the upcoming sales were on display.
"We definitely see that in the sales of recent years. It is a growing trend."
BILLION-DOLLAR BONANZA?
Beyond bragging rights, auctioneers are not overly concerned with who buys what where. Key lots for sale in London come from the United States, for example, and the market overall has become more globalised.
One of the prize lots of the season is English artist John Constable's "The Lock", being offered by Christie's for 20-25 million pounds and the only one of a series of six important landscapes by the painter to be in private hands.
It goes under the hammer on July 3 and should eclipse the 10.8 million pounds raised when it was sold in 1990 - a British painting record it held for 16 years.
On the same night, Rembrandt's "A Man in a Gorget and Cap" is on course to raise 8-12 million pounds.
On Wednesday, a Renoir nude is set to fetch 12-18 million pounds and the next week the same auctioneer offers Yves Klein's "Le Rose du Bleu", estimated at 17-20 million pounds and Francis Bacon's "Study For Self-Portrait" (1964) (15-20 million).
Christie's, the world's largest auction house, expects to raise at least 310 million pounds from its sales of impressionist, modern, contemporary art as well as those of British paintings and Old Masters.
The upper estimate is closer to 500 million pounds, and combined with Sotheby's low target of 210 million pounds, a billion-dollar art bonanza looks within reach.
"The four week summer season of major international auctions at Christie's ... is set to become one of the richest and most valuable series of auctions in company history," said Jussi Pylkkanen, head of Christie's Europe.
MIRO RECORD IN SIGHT
At Sotheby's, the top work of the season could be Joan Miro's "Peinture (Etoile Bleue), valued at 15-20 million pounds and in sight of the artist record set this year of 16.8 million.
Its appearance so soon after the February record is no coincidence -- auction houses tailor sales to reflect the latest tastes, and the Miro, along with works by Henry Moore and Surrealist Paul Delvaux, all follow recent auction highs.
The prominence of large, colourful, figurative works at Sotheby's, including Kees van Dongen's "Lailla", Marc Chagall's "L'Arbre de Jesse" and Delvaux's "Deux Femmes couchees", also reflects emerging market tastes.
Soaring prices for coveted works of art at a time of global economic uncertainty have long prompted warnings of a sharp correction and even collapse, but time and again in the last three years the market has defied the gloomiest predictions.
There has been weakening in Chinese demand and tastes can be fickle, but the very best works of art have generally risen in value since a sharp but brief drop in auction turnover in 2009.
The contraction was as much a reflection of sellers backing away as of falling demand, experts say, and auction houses believe they are back in a "virtuous cycle" of rising prices in turn attracting the very best works on to the market.
Institutional acquisitions have also played a key role in the recovery, with Qatar emerging as one of the biggest buyers of art in recent years as it fills a growing network of museums.
Widespread reports said the Gulf state paid $250 million for Paul Cezanne's "The Card Players" in a private deal, believed to be the highest price ever paid for a work of art. (Reporting by Mike Collett-White, editing by Paul Casciato)
Source: uk.reuters.com
London 2012: Olympic Games portal opens on Facebook - BBC News
Facebook has announced a dedicated portal for London 2012 to allow fans to "connect with their favourite Olympians" at the Games.
The section features dedicated pages for athletes and sports, including a complete timeline history of the competition since the 1800s.
The IOC said the portal would create a "social media stadium".
However, restrictions on what athletes can or cannot post will restrict some content from being published.
Participants are subject to tight guidelines over content posted on Facebook and Twitter, particularly in relation to brands and broadcasting deals.
It restricts the posting of any video from within an Olympic venue.
'Ambush'Mark Adams, from the International Olympic Committee (IOC), said that while visitors to the Games would be able to post videos and stills, athletes' activities would be curbed.
“Start Quote
End Quote Boris BeckerIt's impossible to think all day and all night about the next match, interacting with fans is a good thing”
"It depends on where they are," he said.
"If they're in a stadium, they can't. We have a relationship with various broadcasters around the world which provides the funding [for the Games]."
In addition, he said, the IOC would be watching for any attempted "ambush" marketing.
"It's something we always have to keep in our mind," he said.
"It does take away money from the Olympic movement. It's something that we have to protect."
Facebook, which announced the portal at its central London offices, said it hoped the portal would mean Olympics fans could interact with athletes in a way that had not been possible in previous Games.
Alex Balfour, from the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (Locog) said there was now a "perfect storm" of technology to allow a "really rich experience" wherever fans were in the world.
"We want make sure our Games is available to that new audience of digital consumers," he added.
Facebook said it would allow fans to use the network to discover footage of their favourite athletes - but some content would be geo-targeted, meaning certain footage might not be available in certain regions of the world.
Mr Adams admitted that the IOC had been slow to adopt social networking, but was now ready to embrace it for London 2012.
"The way I like to think about the IOC and our relationship with social media is that the Olympics is one of the oldest social networks that has ever been.
"Everyone has an experience and shares that experience with their friends and their family - everyone has an emotional attachment to the Games. We're just digitising that experience."
Hot waterFormer world tennis number one and Olympic gold medallist Boris Becker told the BBC that using social media could help athletes prepare.
"It's very positive. It gives athletes the chance to get real opinions and real questions and to answer back.
"It's fun - everyone's online anyway. It's impossible to think all day and all night about the next match, interacting with fans is a good thing."
However, he warned that it was inevitable that some athletes might not think before they tweeted and so land themselves in hot water during the Games.
"The world and people are not perfect," he said.
"There will always be athletes who will take it out of line, but that doesn't mean that the platform is wrong."
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
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