WE WILL GO TO WAR Glasgow owner vows to fight for Rocks to be handed title
‘Ryder Cup will survive virus’ Nolan backs Irish call
EUROPEAN captain Padraig Harrington expects this year’s Ryder Cup to go ahead as planned, despite the sporting calendar being decimated by the coronavirus pandemic.
The year’s first two majors, the Masters and the US PGA Championship, have been postponed due to the outbreak, while six European Tour events have been called off and the PGA Tour has cancelled all tournaments until late May.
GLASGOW ROCKS were on course to make history this season, only for the coronavirus crisis to snatch it away from them in the home straight.
The Rocks were sitting top of the British Basketball League (BBL) with only five games to go, only for the global pandemic that has called a halt to almost the entire sporting world to end the campaign prematurely, with it announced earlier this week the 2019-2020 season has been postponed indefinitely.
Glasgow Rocks owner, Duncan Smillie, however, firmly believes his side should be crowned BBL champions, and he will fight to the last for his team to be awarded the league title, which would see the Glasgow side become league winners for the first time in their history.
So rather than the current position which leaves everyone in limbo, waiting for the league to be completed at some unspecified time, Smillie wants his side to be confirmed as champions, and he will stop at nothing to ensure it happens.
“Rather than this postponement, I’d prefer for it to be decided that the league is finished early,” said Smillie.
“We’ve completed 75 per cent of games so we’re well through the season.
“I’ll be going to war for the players to make sure we get this championship. These guys are professional athletes and this just isn’t right.
“This could have been a historic season – although it might not have been, you just
However, Harrington believes the biennial contest between Europe and the United States will take place at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin from September 25-27.
“September is a long way off so there’s no change to the situation at all at this stage,” the three-time major winner told The Ian Dempsey Breakfast Show on Today FM.
“I know there’s been some rumours and they had to put out a statement to say there’s been no change, but definitely no change.
“I’m on the inside of these things. Normally you’re looking at ‘anonymous source says this...’ but now I’m on the inside you go ‘wow, it really is made-up stuff’. “There was a big announcement by the PGA Tour about events being cancelled until May and now the PGA Championship has been postponed as well, so that’s as far as they’ve gotten – until the middle of the May is where they’ve taken steps to.” there’s
MULTIPLE Grade One-winning trainer Paul Nolan was among those to back Horse Racing Ireland’s decision to let the sport continue behind closed doors despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
He said: “It’s obviously good news if we can keep racing, as long as everybody is mindful of the situation and is conscientious in washing their hands and doing everything they can to keep people safe.
“You see what’s going on worldwide and obviously the main thing we need to do is keep everybody safe and well.
“I was racing in Wexford on Tuesday and it is a little bit strange. There was obviously no public there and jockeys had to come out of the weighing room one by one and a certain distance apart.
“It is going to be a little bit different, but it’s not that hard to do all these extra things and if it stops of the spread of the virus and keeps us all racing, then it’s definitely worth it.” to suspend the league rather then end it now.
“Nobody believes that this season is going to continue.
The clubs don’t, the players don’t, the officials don’t so to think otherwise is futile,” he said.
“I believe it’s a financial and political decision. Sport is posturing and is waiting for government to call it.
“Everybody wants to finish the season, of course they do, but let’s not kid ourselves here – nobody is going to be playing any sport until the back-end of the summer.”
With no clear guidance coming from the BBL, Smillie has chosen to take the lead himself and has made his priority getting his players back to their home countries. Suggesting they remain in Scotland while waiting for a decision on the league recommencing was, he says, just not an option for him.
“We as a league need to take responsibility. I’m a big believer in you do the right thing and then you deal with the consequences.
“I think the right thing to do is to call the league, finish it early and that then allows clubs to release players and get players home,” he said.
“So I’ve called it and I’m in the process of getting the players home. This week, we’ve got a player on a flight home to Lithuania, we’ve got one but hopefully three players going back to the States and there’s a couple going back to France.
“You have to put the wellbeing of your players and coaches first and for me, the right thing to do is to have them back with their families. I don’t want them hanging about for a league that’s postponed indefinitely.”
batsman Jacques Kallis in the second Test in Trinidad.
2004 A consortium headed by local businessman Gerald Krasner bought financiallytroubled Leeds.
2007 Andrew Flintoff admitted he was “upset and embarrassed” at being
stripped of the England vice-captaincy and being left out of the World Cup game against Canada after his late-night drinking antics. 2008 Eddie O’Sullivan confirmed his resignation as head coach of the Ireland rugby team.