After that though she mixed up the spins tried to pin Svensson on

After that, though, she mixed up the spins, tried to pin Svensson on the back-hand and risked more attacks herself. After Holt had saved a game-point at 19-20 in the third game she knew she could win.Against Vriesekoop she had only one brief hope - a game- point in the second game at 19-20 but Holt missed it by putting a backhand chop into the net.Results, Sporting Digest, page 28. Vikings, the Danish national side, won the DTZ Midland's Invitation Indoor Tournament at Kidderminster yesterday when they beat Stourport, three times past winners, 3-2 in an exciting, tactical final. Stourport showed all their vast experience of the indoor game in shutting out the high- scoring Danes in the first half. Indeed they went into the interval leading 1-0 after their captain Craig Parnham had converted a penalty stroke after his corner shothad been illegally stopped by a Danish foot on the line. The second half was just 40 seconds old when Chris Rasmussen scored the first of his three goals for Denmark. Although Owen Jones replied within a minute for Stourport Rasmussen converted two corners - the winner coming after a sloppy clearance from Parnham, who otherwise had had an outstanding game, and was subsequently named player of the tournament.n Nick Conway, England's captain, scored a hat-trick as his side beat Italy 3-1 in their final match of of the Under-21 Four Nations Tournament in Barcelona yesterday, to finish third behind Germany and Spain Germany beat Spain 2-0 in their final game.Results, page 28. Sheffield Sharks opened up a six-point lead in the Budweiser League with an 80-62 win at Manchester Giants, while Doncaster Panthers helped their title bid by beating Thames Valley Tigers, the defending champions, 86-84.

Jim Brandon, the Sheffield coach, was determined that his players should have a complete break over the holiday period. "I knew I risked my players losing a little fitness during their lay-off, but they needed a long rest to get back their mental freshness," he said of the theory behind his apparent generosity. London Leopards joined Thames Valley Tigers in second place by carving out a hard-fought 73-69 victory at Worthing Bears, despite being deprived of the services of their England international, Karl Brown, who sat out the match as he began a two-game suspension.Results, Sporting Digest, page 28. England go into their penultimate World Series qualifying match against Australia here tomorrow with the slight motivational problem of knowing that the match is largely irrelevant. The same could probably be said of the entire competition, althou gh England could certainly do without the negative aspects of failing to make the three-match final.

In simple terms, England's only requirement is to beat Australia's A team in their final qualifier in Sydney on Thursday, regardless of the result at the MCG. Should they lose to both Australian sides they will be eliminated, and even if they beat Australia, Australia A could still qualify ahead of them on overall run-rate. Currently, only a handful of runs separates England and Australia A, who are level on four points each behind the already qualified Australia. The run-rate is unlikely to be hugely affected here, where the pitch is generally unsatisfactory for one-day cricket, and a par score is not much above 200.Australia's second victory over their reserves yesterday also meant that England's win against Zimbabwe was largely without relevance - apart, that is, from finally managing to beat them for the first time in international competition. Zimbabwe had won both their previous one-day meetings, and losing to England may be regarded as a big enough shock to prompt them to burn a pair of bails and send them back to Harare inside an urn.There was, as is now the custom with England, a price to pay for winning.

Shaun Udal damaged a side muscle in the field, possibly as seriously as Craig White, while Graham Thorpe spent four hours after the match on a saline drip in a Brisbane hospital. Queensland's tropical capital was at its most steamy on Saturday, and Thorpe's 155-minute innings left him acutely dehydrated.As Thorpe has suffered from this problem twice before (once, would you believe, in England) he must be more susceptible than most to heat exposure, and he spent the last hour of his innings downing bottles of water every other over. "I felt knackered andfaint, and couldn't keep anything down," Thorpe said. "The most frightening thing was lying down in the dressing-room, with several guys in a circle talking about me, and I didn't really know what was happening."Thorpe's temperature went up to 103 at one stage, but he has now made a decent recovery, and is hoping to play here tomorrow. As Melbourne's climate is the most unpredictable of almost any city in the world, Thorpe could either spend another night on a saline drip, or wrapped in electric blankets suffering from hypothermia.Darren Gough has a bruised left foot, which was strapped up on Saturday, but X-rays have happily revealed no stress fracture. Devon Malcolm and Joey Benjamin are carrying minor strains, but Alec Stewart's twice broken finger is healing well enough for him to be back in the nets this week.The only other obvious medical condition during the Zimbabwe game belonged to the recently arrived Neil Fairbrother. But in the frenzy of the moment I said to him: "Just f*** off will, you?" I didn't have a microphone in my hand, thought no more of it and managed to get a minute or so with Tyson.

Mike Tyson had just defended his world heavyweight title in a manner which did nothing to suggest he was beatable. The players rejected the offer after a teleconference phone call between the NHLPA and player-representatives of the 26NHL teams, who have been locked out since 1 October. The contentious issue is the "luxury tax" the owners want to use to curb salaries.. In his first bout as a yokozuna (grand champion), Takanohana suffered an upset yesterday and ended his winning streak on 30 bouts.