The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
ATHLETICS
Following an unsure start international orienteer Kristian Jones had little trouble in finding his way around Callendar Park, Falkirk, winning the senior men’s title at Lindsay’s Scottish National Cross-Country Championships, writes our athletics correspondent.
Against the magnificent backdrop of Callendar House the Dundee Hawkhill Harrier, who finished second to Olympian Callum Hawkins 12 months ago, convincingly went one better this time around.
With a field of 630 competitors Jones recovered from finding himself stuck amongst the masses but lost little time in navigating his way up to the leading group. Shettleston’s Lachlan Oates, third last year, Andrew Douglas (Inverclyde) and Logan Rees (Fife AC) soon had Jones for company until the final lap of three when the Welsh internationalist broke away. Jones had an untroubled run-in to the finish completing the 10km in 33 minutes 05 seconds followed by Oates 24 seconds adrift. International hill runners Douglas and Rees battled out the final climb to the Antonine Wall with Douglas prevailing to take individual bronze. In fourth Rees led Fife AC to a commendable 10th team place.
Jones, who will now race the Big Half Marathon in London this weekend, commented: “The conditions were completely different from last year, much drier, and it was a completely different race. I got caught really far back at the start and it took about 1km to get up with the leaders. Then, on one of the short, steep hills I got a bit of a gap and I thought ‘just keep it and put the pedal down”.
The team honours went to Central AC for a record-equalling eighth consecutive year beating Corstorphine and Shettleston Harriers. Having won last week’s North of England women’s title in the colours of Morpeth, Mhairi Maclennan headed the senior women’s 10km field pulling away from Edinburgh University colleague Stephie Pennycook. The battle between the two pulled them clear of the chasing pack with Anna Tait (VP Glasgow) finishing a distant third. Only eight points separated the top three teams with the Edinburgh students taking team gold ahead of Shettleston. Fife AC took team bronze courtesy of Helen Sharpe, Megan Crawford, Alison McGill and Halina Rees – the club placed 9 runners in the top 50 as 271 completed the race.
Sol Sweeney (Perth Strathtay) and Tristan Rees (Fife AC) swopped their club colours for the black of Glasgow University placing first and second respectively in the under 20 men’s race
Sweeney was a clear winner 19 seconds ahead of Rees, who powered his way through to second having been fourth commencing the final climb, Edinburgh AC’s Freddie Carcas was third with James Donald (Dundee Hawkhill) in fourth. Glasgow University took the team title ahead of Edinburgh University and Edinburgh AC.
Fourth place also went to Ben Sandilands (Fife AC) in the Under 15 boy’s championship, surviving a gashed foot having been spiked early on in the race. As predicted the under 15 girl’s race saw a battle between Lily-Jane Evans-Haggerty (VP Glasgow) and Fife’s Anna Hedley with Evans-Haggerty defending her title just 10 seconds ahead of Hedley. The under 13 girls race saw Fife AC claim team silver led home by Isla Thoms 6th, Isla Hedley 7th, Ruby Methven 32nd and Ruby Russell 37th.
BOWLS
ARBROATH AND DISTRICT – Men’s evening triples A&B – C Smith 16 G Nicol 5, P Carnegie 11 M Andrews 7, L Kinnear 7 A Laing 16,T Mill 14 T Cargill 14, W Stevenson 21 M McGreavey 3, I Dorricott 25 A Towns 9. JR pairs D –I Farquhar 15 J Wynne 20, A Cameron 14 J Fairweather 10, C McMillan 8 M Cargill19, B Robb 18 R Ritchie 9, J Webster 19 E Johnson 5. Senior fours quarter-finals – J Arthur 13 B Taylor 9, J Clarke 3 N Clark 16, K Moir 13 H Burnett 16, K Tosh w/o B Carr scr. Ladies championship singles quarter-finals – C Ruxton 21 B McIntyre 16, M Armstrong 12 M Wilson 21, H Martin 21 S Simpson 9, C Clark 19 T McKay 18.
CRICKET
FIRST ONE DAY INTERNATIONAL ENGLAND 284-8 (J C Buttler 79, J E Root 71) v NEW ZEALAND 287-7 (L R P L Taylor 113, T W M Latham 79). New Zealand beat England by three wickets. In Hamilton.
CYCLING
Alejandro Valverde won the Abu Dhabi Tour after claiming victory in the final stage yesterday.
The 37-year-old Spaniard, riding for Movistar, went head-to-head with Astana’s Miguel Angel Lopez on the summit of Jebel Hafeet after the pair broke clear with four kilometres remaining.
And it was Valverde who came out on top to win the stage and the overall race, finishing 17 seconds ahead of Team Sunweb’s Wilco Kelderman.
GOLF
Selected final round scores & totals in the European Tour Commercial Bank Qatar Masters, Doha GC, Doha, Qatar. (Gbr & Irl unless stated, par 72):
270 Eddie Pepperell 65 69 66 70 271 Oliver Fisher 66 69 65 71
272 Marcus Kinhult (Swe) 68 69 67 68 273 Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Spa) 68 68 69 68, Gregory Havret (Fra) 65 69 70 69, Pablo Larrazabal (Spa) 68 67 70 68, Renato Paratore (Ita) 71 66 70 66
274 Sebastian Heisele (Ger) 67 68 71 68, George Coetzee (Rsa) 69 66 71 68, 275 Mike Lorenzo-Vera (Fra) 68 68 69 70, Matthew Baldwin 68 70 68 69, Adrian Otaegui (Spa) 67 66 73 69 276 Seung-su Han (USA) 69 71 69 67, Chris Wood 68 69 68 71, Andrea Pavan (Ita) 68 69 67 72, Matthew Nixon 69 68 69 70, David Horsey 71 68 65 72, Mark Foster 71 68 68 69 Selected others:
280 Stephen Gallacher 68 66 74 72 282 Marc Warren 68 70 70 74, Grant Forrest 70 70 74 68
284 Scott Jamieson 69 71 75 69, Paul Lawrie 68 72 71 73.
ARBROATH ARTISAN – Saturday Spoon (CSS 67). 0-10 – J Blake (2) 41pts, I Stuart (10) 39, G Fairweather (9) 38. 11-28 – A Brown (12) 37, C Robb (14) bih K Graham (11) bih D Riddle (14) 36. Sunday Sweep (CSS 67). 0-11 – S Cooper (11) 38, R Cargill (8) bih D Young (9) 37. 12-28 – A Laing (14) 37, D Wood (19) 36, S Laing (15) 35. CARNOUSTIE – Championship Course, 16-holes stableford – P Healy (13) 32pts, A Harrison (18) F Johnstone (10) 31. Burnside Course, 14-holes stableford – B Allan (19) 28, P Cardno (15) D Marshall (8) P Goodrum (4) 26. Buddon Links, stableford – B Clarke (2) 36. Winter League – J Watson lost to A Brown 5&4, J Watson lost to D Taylor 2&1, A Boath/S Cadden bt J Gilbert/P Gordon 2&1, C Saunders/C Smith bt N Merchant/S Norrie 3&1, D Kydd/N Watson lost to G Duncan/S Fairweather 2&1, C Boath/E Kerr lost to G Robson/T Convery 3&2. Sweep – Scr – A Boath 73. Hcp – S Cadden (7) 67.
DOWNFIELD – Winter League, Week 16. B Allardice/F Flood bt A Green/L Ramage 3&2, B Ferguson/J Walker bt C Booth/R Donaldson 3&2, B Burns/G Christie halved with N Drummond/D Anderson, D Caswell/J Pearson halved with C Donaldson/H Brown, G Donaldson/D Bruce bt GD Caswell/P Brown 3&1, B Williamson/J Brown bt D Hayes/A Menzies 1 hole, D Stark/R McGill bt S Robb/J Mannion 3&2. Sweepstake – G Donaldson/D Bruce 66, B Allardice/F Flood 67.
GRANGE – Winter Stableford (CSS 70). Sunday. Sect 1 – B McKaig (4) 40pts, B Will (12) 38. Sect 2 – S Dolan
(15) J Rue (13) 37. Winter Stableford (CSS 70). Saturday. Sect 1 – R Wallace (11) 39, D McGreal (9) I Strachan (7) 38. Sect 2 – J Butchart Jr (15) 45, G Davie (17) 39, L Malloy (13) 36. Ashludie Course (CSS 65) – M Watson (15) 42.
GRANGE LADIES – Winter League (13 holes) – M Latto (17) bih A MacKinnon (13) bih M Laing (18) 27pts.
HOLE-IN-ONE – Don Stark holed his six-iron tee shot at Downfield’s 17th hole on Saturday. His playing partner was Benny Curran.
LETHAM GRANGE – Winter Stableford (CSS 69) – J Vannet (16) C Thomson (3) 39pts, M Nelson (5) 35.
MONIFIETH – Winter League, Week 18. D Eastaugh/D Smart halved with A McKay/B Rose, L Munro /I Kelly bt I Hutcheon/K Scott 4&3, M Strachan/J Ferrie bt S McDonald/G Reekie 1 hole, S Hills/A McClymont halved with D Mitchell/R Long, P Guilcher/T Lumsden bt C Cairnie/G Smith 6&5, C McKay/I Newlove bt C Mitchell/A Boyle 2 holes. Sweepstake – Scr – C McKay 67, I Hutcheon D Eastaugh 70. Hcp – A McKay (5) 62, S McDonald (7) K Scott (14) 63.
ST REGULUS LADIES – February 9-hole medal, Strathtyrum Course
– A Jeffrey 19pts, G Mitchell L Shepherd 18.
HOCKEY
Men – National League Div 1 – Western Wildcats 3 Uddingston 6, Edinburgh Univ 1 Inverleith 1, Grove Menzieshill 2 Grange 2, Kelburne 2 Clydesdale 1. Div 2 – Falkirk 2 Glasgow Univ 0, Dunfermline Carnegie 5 Granite City Wanderers 3, Harris 2 St Andrews Univ 2.
Central div 1 – Grove Menzieshill II 4 Clydesdale II 2. Midland League div
1 – Madras 0 Perthshire II 6
Women – Eurohockey Indoor Club Cup, Disc, Dundee – Amsterdam 3 Rotweiss Wettingen 1, Ritm Grodno 0 MC Sumchanka 3, SV Arminen 1 Campo de Madrid 2, UHC Hamburg 4 MJV Dundee Wanderers 0. Pool C – MJV Wanderers 2 Ritm Grodno 6, Arminen 0 Rot Weiss Wettingen 6. Semi-finals – Hamburg 4 Sumchanka 3, Amsterdam 2.1 Madrid 2.2. Classification matches (5th-8th places) – Wettingen 6 MJV Wanderers 0, Arminen 1 Grodno 3, 3rd-place – Amsterdam 1.2 Sumchanka 1.1. Final – Hamburg 6 Madrid 2
SPORT ON TV
FOOTBALL: Bundesliga, Borussia Dortmund v FC Augsburg – BT Sport 1 7.15pm.
TENNIS: ATP, Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships – Sky Sports Main Event 10am and 3pm; ATP, Abierto Mexicano Telcel – Sky Sports Main Event and Action midnight (Tuesday).
SNOOKER: Welsh Open – Eurosport 1 10am, 12.45pm and 6.45pm.
BASKETBALL: NBA, Warriors @ Knicks – BT Sport 1 12.30am (Tuesday).