Author: AP

By winning a second straight match for the first time in two months, defending champion United went two points behind leader Chelsea, which is at Arsenal on Sunday.

Manchester City slumped to a seventh successive draw after Hull held the big-spending club 1-1, while West Ham defeated Burnley 5-3 and Bolton remained in the relegation zone after drawing 1-1 at Fulham.

In Saturday's other matches, Blackburn was held to a 0-0 draw by Stoke, Wigan beat Sunderland 1-0 ( Read more... )
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Author: By Martin Hickman

Trescothick ?who remains England's 11th best run scorer, with an average of 43.75, described the bouts of homesickness, sleeplessness and anxiety which forced him to fly home during Test series against India in February 2006 and from Australia in November of the same year.

In a serialisation of his forthcoming book, Coming Back to Me, Trescothick, 32, said: "I would not have wished my illness on my worst enemy ... Depression is not the same as feeling down or fed up. People might say 'I'm ( Read more... )
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Author: By Dave Hadfield

The chairman of St Helens, Eamonn McManus, is to be the subject of an official complaint for allegedly dropping his trousers in Salford's VIP lounge after the match last Friday.

McManus, who last month sacked his coach, Ian Millward, for failing to uphold "family values", has been accused of twice lowering his trousers to show a wound in his thigh.

McManus claimed to have done the damage climbing over a rusty fence at The Willows after the match, which Saints won 33-22.

"I ( Read more... )
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Author: By Andrew Fifield

The Italian is the sixth manager to have been employed by Abramovich since he completed his takeover in 2003, with only Jose Mourinho, who remained in situ for three years, enjoying a prolonged spell in charge. The last three men to be ensconced in the Chelsea dug-out ? Avram Grant, Luiz Felipe Scolari and, as a caretaker, Guus Hiddink ? all failed to see out a complete season before departing amid varying levels of acrimony.

Chelsea's revolving-door approach stands in ( Read more... )
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They have been here so long, after all ? through so many births, deaths and marriages, so many fights and parties, all the laughter and tears, all the memories that make a house a home.

Not that they want to stay, as such. It is just that if they are going to take out a mortgage on a swanky new place, at least they want to call it their own. Which is rather poignant, really, because the deeds to their present address are tucked into the back pocket of a bank that itself ( Read more... )
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From now on I'll post my occasional column in the Saturday Magazine here. Scoll down for today's story of a strange encounter in the hills of Kent. In the meantime, catch up on what's been published since I took on the cyclotherapy mantle last April.

Keen but rarely cool 25 April
Mont Ventoux build-up 9 May
The inevitable crash 23 May
Tack Man sabotage 30 May
Parking problems 6 June
Cyclefit fiting 27 June
Shotgun on the Giro 18 July
Girls on Bikes 25 July
Mont Ventoux report 8 August
Helmet debate 15 August
Headphones on 22 August
Red light jumping 29 August
Enter the YikeBike 5 September
Satnav road test 12 September
Cycling as meditation 19 September
London to Brighton 26 September
Montreal bikehire roadtest 21 November

Today's column:

The kindred relationship between cyclists is usually coupled with a fierce sense of competition

By Simon Usborne
Saturday, 28 November 2009

On Sunday mornings all over the country, riders leave disbelieving families in their beds to take a kind of two-wheeled communion. Part of the credo that joins this peculiar congregation requires strangers to doff a helmet or exchange nods or waves. On solo rides, a nod sometimes turns into chat. I usually limit those exchanges to pleasantries, but on a recent morning in Kent, I was picked up by a 50-something Frenchman.

I had been pedalling fast, halfway into a 60-mile circuit through the North Downs of Kent, when a whippet-like man whirred past with enviable souplesse, a blur of Lycra and tanned forearms. He quickly opened a gap but I tried to keep him in sight – at least for as long as I could. We turned out to be following the same route and, as I approached the Pilgrim's Way near Sevenoaks, I saw that he had stopped at a deserted junction.

Preparing to give him the obligatory nod and, feeling relatively friendly, a "Morning!", I realised he was waiting for me. "'Allo," he said as I unclipped a shoe. "If you want, I can show you some 'ills." Some hills? Wow, er, yes, why not? I'll follow you. And so the French guy was off. The lanes too narrow to ride in a pair, I sat on his wheel in a strange silence during which Denis (we did at least introduce ourselves) seemed to be building up speed.

The kindred relationship between cyclists is usually coupled with an unspoken, fierce sense of competition. I got the sense Denis was testing me and a pointless sense of pride wasn't going to let me fail. After half a mile or so, during which my heart rate had already risen, he got out of his saddle and dropped through the gears as he took a sharp left up a steep ribbon of asphalt.

In our only other exchange beyond sharing names, I learned that Denis spends his summers back home, hauling himself up proper hills in the Alps. That and a significant weight advantage left me fighting to stay with him. I managed – just – and, failing to hide my breathlessness at the top, a serene Denis looked at me and said, "Okay. Good. I go zis way. You can go zat way." And that was that – he sprinted south and I plodded home, leaving behind the weird world of road cycling for another weekend. Back in London, the day was just beginning.

s.usborne@independent.co.uk

Author: By Paul Newman at the 02 Arena

Two players went through to the semi-finals from both four-man sections in the round-robin phase of the tournament and Group B finished last night in much the same way as Group A had 24 hours earlier. Djokovic's 7-6, 6-3 victory over Nadal and Davydenko's 7-6, 4-6, 6-3 win against Soderling left three of the four men on two victories apiece, with Djokovic losing out as the player with the lowest percentage of sets won.

Nadal had already been the first to be eliminated ( Read more... )
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Reports that Tiger Woods had sustained facial injuries while driving one of his fleet of cars, a Cadillac, into a fire hydrant and tree a few yards from his home in the small hours of yesterday morning invited many more questions than they answered. The most insistent one coming from those who know the world's No 1 golfer best asked what he was doing leaving home at a time when most Americans were sleeping off their Thanksgiving celebrations.

Tom Callahan, biographer of ( Read more... )
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Arsenal would turn back the Chelsea juggernaut with an explosion of creativity and finishing artistry from Cesc Fabregas and Andrei Arshavin and Arsène Wenger would immediately end his rather disconcerting flirtation with the F word, thus reassuring us that the world is not about to fall off its axis.

Hugely relieved and exhilarated, we would then watch his fierce admirer Pep Guardiola guide Barcelona, so thrillingly restored in the obliteration of Jose Mourinho's Internazionale ( Read more... )
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Author: By James Corrigan

Initial reports suggested the world No 1 had suffered serious injuries when his Cadillac sports crashed first into a fire hydrant and then into a neighbour's tree at 2.28am yesterday morning. But later it emerged that the extent of the damage amounted to "facial lacerations".

Nevertheless, the 33-year-old did require hospital treatment before being released. The Florida Highway Patrol issued a statement saying it was not "alcohol related", although other charges may still ( Read more... )
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Author: By Alex Crook and Graham Chase

The surroundings could hardly have been more of a contrast yesterday when Grant was officially paraded as Portsmouth's new manager at the dilapidated Eastleigh training ground of the Premier League's bottom club.

The pomp and ceremony of the magnificent Luzhniki Stadium were replaced by a makeshift press conference held in the players' gym. Television crews and photographers scrambled to obtain the best position, while the waiting written press were crammed into a single-decker bus in a ( Read more... )
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Author: By Pete Jenson

It will not quite be a repeat of the treatment his fellow Portugal international Luis Figo received the first season he returned to Barcelona after signing for Real Madrid ? there will be no flying pigs' heads ? but it will not be friendly. Ronaldo might not be a traitor but he is the biggest threat Barça have faced since the days of his Brazilian namesake.

"I know that I will be welcomed badly," he said. "That's normal. After the World Cup in 2006 I was received badly ( Read more... )
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Author: PA

The Nerazzurri slumped to their first defeat in this season's Champions League, falling 2-0 at the Nou Camp to put their hopes of progressing in Europe in jeopardy.

Reports in the Italian press today claimed coach Mourinho's job is on the line.

But when asked if the Portuguese coach was in danger of losing his job, Moratti said on the club4s official website, www.inter.it: "Absolutely not. I spoke to him yesterday and there is no problem whatsoever.

"The ( Read more... )
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Author: PA

The 29-year-old has netted just two goals in 25 Barclays Premier League games for the Potters since a £5.5m move from Reading - where he returned on loan last season - in the summer of 2008.

He is the second striker to join on loan since the arrival of manager Gordon Strachan following the capture of Marcus Bent from Birmingham.

Strachan told the club's official website: "I'm delighted Dave is coming in to bolster the squad's numbers and give us more options.

( Read more... )
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Author: By Sam Wallace

Terry did not deny yesterday that he had an agreement in place with Riviera Entertainment, the Enfield-based marketing company which circulated a crass speculative email this week inviting commercial deals on his behalf. Instead, the Chelsea captain released a hard-hitting statement claiming that neither he nor his advisers had "authorised" the email itself.

However, on Riviera's website Terry is quoted as describing the company as his "ideal partner" in negotiating commercial deals. Terry ( Read more... )
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Author: By Graham Chase

The United manager was given the ban by the Football Association earlier this month for comments about referee Alan Wiley in the wake of last month's 2-2 draw with Sunderland and will also be absent from the dugout for Tuesday's Carling Cup tie with Tottenham Hotspur.

Ferguson is allowed to speak to the players before the game and at half-time, unlike under the stricter Uefa bans, but acknowledges that the atmosphere will make it hard to stay in touch with his assistant, Mike Phelan.

"We've ( Read more... )
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Author: By Paul Newman at The O2 Arena

Rafael Nadal had arrived here knowing that he could end the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals as world No 1, but instead left with the worst record of all the players in the eight-strong field.

Nadal had already been the first to be eliminated after losing his first two matches in straight sets and the 23-year-old Spaniard made it a hat-trick yesterday when he went down 7-6, 6-3 to Novak Djokovic. It was Nadal's fourth defeat in a row ? the last time he had such a run was ( Read more... )
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Author: By Sam Wallace, Football Correspondent

Yesterday, as he prepared his team for tomorrow's game with the Premier League leaders at the Emirates, Wenger was asked to consider the suspension of Chelsea's Fifa transfer embargo that has allowed them to trade again in the January transfer window. The Arsenal manager cannot help but say what he thinks and on this occasion he was outspoken once again. "It is no punishment," he said.

Chelsea have escaped, or at the very least postponed, the sanctions that were heading ( Read more... )
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Author: By Chris Brereton

It is a quirk of rugby's rules that dictates a referee does not become responsible for either side's welfare until the kick-off. That anomaly allowed Wasps to legally take one long look at the sodden but by no means inundated playing field in Stockport and head for the hills.

And an indicator of how much Wasps did not want to play this match can be drawn from the fact six pizzas were delivered to their team bus before the match was actually officially called off at 7.59pm. ( Read more... )
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Author: By Kevin Rawlinson

Mr Blair already runs a computer gaming business with his housemate, 22-year-old Gabriel Moraes. Now the pair have reportedly set themselves up as football agents. However, they are not understood to have any players on their books yet.

Agents represent footballers' interests and can make a lot of money out of conducting transfers, as well as other deals for their clients. Many sign up hot young prospects from South America and Africa, handling their careers off the field.

Mark Steele, ( Read more... )
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