UFO Info Week-End

Catt got a try while Guscott crossed twice and the other second half tries were scored by Hatley and Russell Earnshaw who replaced

Catt got a try, while Guscott crossed twice and the other second half tries were scored by Hatley and Russell Earnshaw, who replaced Sturnham.West Hartlepool: E Farrell; J Benson (H Bishop), P Tanginoa, J Connolly, S John; S Vile, R Strong; S Sparks (B Cullinane), A Peacock, P Beal, P Farner (capt), W Fuller, J Ponton, M Brewer, D Hyde.Bath: I Balshaw; I Evans, P de Glanville, J Guscott, K Maggs; M Catt, S Hatley; D Hilton, A Long, V Ubogu (K Yates), M Haag, N Redman, N Thomas, R Webster (capt), B Sturnham (R Earnshaw).Referee: R Goodliffe (Yorkshire).. The weather did not help, but a crowd of no more than 1,200 will raise doubts about their ability to fund new signings.They expect to unveil a new hooker tomorrow and will have the Australian Under-21 winger, Tim Lough, making his debut against Saracens, but the fact that Bath had five internationals on the bench underlined the difference between the squads.West hardly saw the ball in the first 20 minutes, when Bath’s slick close- quarters handling proved very effective into the wind, coupled with the barnstorming runs of Victor Ubogu and Ben Sturnham.After an early penalty from under the posts by Mike Catt, who totted up a personal tally of 20 points playing in the outside-half role that he still hopes to regain for England, Bath’s two first-half tries were the result ofskilful inter-passing down the left.Phil de Glanville was twice involved before full-back Iain Balshaw raced over then Ubogu made good ground before his fellow prop Dave Hilton sent scrum-half Steve Hatley streaking home from 30 yards out to score the try of the game for a Bath side beaten only once this season, on their previous visit to the North-east when they lost to champions Newcastle.West came back with two penalties by Steve Vile, one from just inside halfway, and a penalty try awarded when scrum-half Richard Stone was illegally impeded when going for the line from a tap penalty.Bath scored 21 points in the first ten minutes of the second half, with Catt and Jeremy Guscott both looking extremely sharp. West Hartlepool 20

Bath 50
PLAYING IN a sparsely-populated football stadium in inhospitable Hartlepool weather failed to dampen Bath’s appetite for the title as they proved too strong and clinical for West Hartlepool.Facing a biting wind on a surface saturated by several hours of torrential rain, the Premiership leaders were 15-0 up after 17 minutes and although West fought back they would have had more chance of staying afloat in the adjacent marina.Top versus bottom threatened to produce a total mismatch, but West reduced the gap to 15-13 at half-time when Bath capsized into the wind.The rain stopped shortly before the kick-off but, with Saracens due at Victoria Park on Tuesday, the Hartlepool football club’s ground staff will not be relishing the task of returning the pitch to its pristine condition.Of greater concern to West will be the lack of support. Then he had to survive a stewards inquiry to keep the race, one of the main trials for next month’s Melbourne Cup.His jockey Ray Cochrane, however, was handed a month’s ban – which means he will miss the big one – and a pounds 7,600 fine after he was judged to have interfered with two rivals. But his victory, by a short-neck from the 100-1 shot Lisa’s Game with the favourite Tie The Knot third and the other raider, Faithful Son, fourth, was not without controversy.The seven-year-old gelding, trained in Sussex by Lady Herries, had been allowed into the pounds 577,000 contest only at the 11th-hour discretion of the local officials after it was discovered his earnings did not qualify him.

The three-year-old and his Mark Johnson-trained stablemate Etterby Park went past the leader three furlongs out; one drew steadily away and the other repelled the nearest other boarder, Spunkie, by a short-head.On the other side of the world yesterday morning Taufan’s Melody became the first British-trained horse to win at Group One level in Australia when he took the Caulfield Cup in Melbourne at 66-1. “Although it sounds somewhat fanciful, she was special from the word go,” said Rausing. “And she is tough, too; she broke a foot as a foal and had to come through 11 weeks confined to her box.”The marathon handicap the Cesarewitch was remarkable for the small number of the 29 contenders who were ever in contention. The nine-length winner Spirit of Love, an 11-1 chance ridden by Olivier Peslier, was one of a small group who detached themselves from the rest in pursuit of Bridie’s Pride. The market leader Daylami, feeling the effects of his recent trip to New York, battled on to take third place, two lengths adrift, in front of Mutamam. Prescott said: “George has ridden faultlessly every time he’s got on this filly, but I’m glad the post came when it did.”Alborada – which means break of day in Spanish – saw her first dawn only a few miles from the track at Rausing’s Lanwades Stud, still home of her dam and grand-dam.

But he has a very good character and attitude.”The favourite was also turned over in the other Group One feature, the Champion Stakes, though the result in this case was less of a shock as Alborada, 6-1, inched home from Insatiable for his 51-year-old jockey George Duffield. The filly, owned and bred by Kirsten Rausing and trained locally by Sir Mark Prescott, had chased the peerless Swain home in the Irish Champion Stakes and, given an inch-perfect ride by her partner, continued her upwardly mobile progress to hold Insatiable’s late thrust by a neck. “The ground at York last time was a little too firm for him and he came back sore. I thought he would run well today, but I did not really think we would beat all the top ones, and especially not so easily. Lujain was another whose stamina was found wanting as he beat only Indian Danehill, the most disappointing French colt.There is always a danger that Maktoum-owned two-year-olds will be whisked to Dubai for the winter but Dunlop will keep control of Mujahid, his first Dewhurst winner. But once the bullet had to be bitten in the final quarter mile and on the uphill run to the post, he was the one with the necessary reserves as Richard Hills sent him though a narrow gap between Enrique and Raise A Grand, for which manoeuvre he earned a two-day ban from the stewards.Stravinsky, the Irish challenger, launched a challenge which petered out in the closing stages, allowing Auction House to stay on again into the runner-up spot. Mujahid’s performance – and the defeat of the perceived cracks – has promoted him to second favourite, behind the Godolphin candidate Aljabr, for next year’s 2,000 Guineas in most bookmakers’ lists.
It is just as well, horses cannot read the scripts prepared for them, otherwise Mujahid, easy winner of his first two races but a disappointing fifth in the Gimcrack Stakes, would not have had the temerity to jump out of the stalls in company with the likes of Stravinsky, Enrique and Lujain.And at the mid-point of the seven-furlong contest he appeared outpaced as Auction House took the field along.

Although Scenic, who shared the spoils ten years ago at 33-1, virtually disappeared without trace the same cannot be said of Generous, who scored at 50-1 two years later. Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum’s home-bred son of Danzig came home two lengths clear of another outsider, the 20-1 chance Auction House, with the two joint-favourites Stravinsky and Enrique only third and fourth

But unexpected does not always mean mediocre. When asked what would happen if an England Ashes victory clashed with the 3.30 from Haydock on a Saturday afternoon, Jackson replied: “We’ll have a firework party.” The deal was as good as done.Now it is up to Channel 4 to deliver cricket’s “core audience” and to cross wider cultural boundaries. Richie Benaud will almost certainly be approached, but there will be new faces and new voices, not all English, for the series against New Zealand next summer and the full five-Test series against the West Indies and Australia in the following two summers “The BBC was a window on sport,” said Kennerley “We want to get inside the window.”. MUJAHID, a handsome bay colt trained by John Dunlop, blew away some mighty reputations on the wind-blasted heath here yesterday as he produced a 25-1 surprise in the season’s premier two-year-old contest, the Dewhurst Stakes. “It very professionally hit our objectives of trying to create a wider appeal to the game,” Blake said.