Aloud , who were masterminding the sales, really cracked the problems.”Last year, people stayed up all night buying tickets and were too tired to go to work in the morning.” To avoid touting, all ticket-holders must provide photo identification. Mr Eavis said: “Touting has gone on for years, and I find it really offensive. People have to pay through the nose with touts, and I think this year we have knocked that on the head.”Many agreed the system had worked well. Jessica Doughty, 24, a design student at Goldsmiths College in London, said: “Last year I stayed up all night trying to get tickets; this year it was easy. At 9am, they logged on to computers and pressed redial on phones, but the chaos of last year, when phones and website were blocked, was not repeated. By midday yesterday, music fans had snapped up all 115,000 tickets – at £125 apiece – for this year’s Glastonbury festival, a record in the event’s history.

I phoned British Telecom last year and complained about the telephone exchange, and they told me the tickets should go on sale on a Sunday, when the exchange is quieter. Sadly for Newcastle, it was only a congratulatory shake of the hand to the Stade Fran?s scrum-half, Agustin Pichot, an hour after the final whistle: just about the only sighting of Golden Oval Balls on a day when his club could have done with every man-jack of their injury-ravaged squad, and probably then some. Jonny Wilkinson sized up his target, moved into position and executed the manoeuvre with perfect style and grace. “Home” in this context translates as anywhere in France, but they will certainly head back to the Parc des Princes, which in attracting an extraordinary crowd of almost 45,000 for this one-sided quarter-final was colourfully and noisily reminiscent of Stade’s previous appearance in the Heineken Cup final, the defeat by Leicester in 2001.The result, following on from Toulouse’s dismissal of Northampton in the first quarter-final, suggested a Gallic ascendancy at sub-international level, and there are certainly differing approaches to the club game in England and France. But as Rene Magritte, a fellow who knocked around Paris for a while, might have said, appearances can be deceptive.Pichot, the neon-bright Argentina No 9 who played for six seasons with Richmond and Bristol, argues the English clubs overplay their stars.

Rob Andrew, Newcastle’s director of rugby, is more concerned at the French overpaying.”We want to increase the salary cap in England to increase the size of the squads,” Andrew said, “but goodness knows what the playing budgets of Toulouse, Stade Fran?s and Biarritz are.” The answer is anything up to three times as much as that of a middling Premiership side like Newcastle.Though Stade can only register the same number of players for Europe as any English side they were able – with an international back three of Christophe Dominici, Juan Hernandez and Ignacio Corleto all injured – to bring in the scarcely less effective Olivier Sarramea, Rapha?Poulain and Julien Arias. His fervent wish was to have control of the last moments of his life. I am driven by John’s death at Dignitas to try to change the law in Britain. He would have preferred to die in the bay window of his flat at sunset with the help of his own GP.”. He wants Britain to introduce a system like the one in the US state of Oregon, where doctors can help people who are certified as terminally ill and within six months of dying to end their lives.A spokesman for the Voluntary Euthanasia Society said: “A negative report on Monday from the Lords will fuel an increase in death tourism.”In 2003, Reg Crew, 74, became the second British man to travel to Zurich to commit suicide, the first to do so publicly. Mrs Z, a woman suffering from an incurable brain disease, was not stopped by the courts in December last year from travelling to Switzerland. There was an inquest after Bob and Jenny Stokes, who were seriously but not terminally ill, committed suicide there.Lesley Close travelled to Zurich to be with her brother, John, who suffered from motor neurone disease, when he died.

Ms Close, who has also seen the Dignitas figures, said yesterday: “If you had seen my brother .. He couldn’t speak, stand or swallow. The capacity crowd loved it – especially when Nadal punctuated his best shots with a leap and an uppercut.Federer was less enchanted. The winner of the ATP Tour sportsmanship award in 2004, he became so frustrated that when he shanked an overhead to fall behind 5-4 in the third set, he slammed his racket to the concrete.Nadal was two points from victory in the next game, and again in the third-set tiebreaker before Federer won four consecutive points, the first on an 18-stroke rally, to save the set.From there, Federer settled into his characteristic groove, winning the last six games. “I consider myself lucky to get through.”The performance by Nadal, the youngest men’s finalist in tournament history, was no fluke. The left-hander was a Davis Cup hero in Spain’s victory over the United States last December, and he’ll be among the favorites at this year’s French Open – and future major events as well.Nadal’s deep groundstrokes with heavy topspin often forced Federer to hit balls chest high behind the baseline, and the result was a rash of mistakes by the four-time Grand Slam champion. He finished with 74 unforced errors.Nadal also passed Federer repeatedly, kept him off balance with 177 kph (110 mph) serves and crowd-pleasing athleticism as he yanked winners crosscourt or down the line from either corner. Like Kim Clijsters, who beat Maria Sharapova in the women’s final Saturday, Federer earned his first Key Biscayne title.”It was extremely close,” he said.

Top-ranked Roger Federer rallied from two points from defeat and won the Nasdaq-100 Open by beating 18-year-old Spaniard Rafael Nadal 2-6, 6-7 (4), 7-6 (5), 6-3, 6-1 Sunday.
Federer trailed 4-2 in the third set and 5-3 in the ensuing tiebreaker, but his shots became more accurate and aggressive as he overtook a tiring Nadal in the three-hour, 42-minute marathon.Wearing long white shorts, an orange sleeveless shirt and a white headband, Nadal appeared ready for a day at the beach – and made the match look like one for a while.”I thought Roger was a little nervous in the beginning, and I took full advantage of that,” Nadal said.An upset would have been a streak-buster: Federer has won 22 consecutive matches this year, and 18 consecutive finals since July 2003. For two-thirds of that spell Leeds were down to 14 men after Diego Albanese was sent to the sin bin. He was adjudged to have deliberately knocked-on with Worcester pressing and a penalty try was awarded. Two further tries were scored in his absence and the match was effectively over.Stimpson, however, looked at the margin of nine points and said later: “Worcester should not feel secure with that lead when they come to us on 22 April.” By then one or both of them might be feeling even less secure about their Premiership status.Worcester: Tries Hylton, Delport 2, Penalty, Sampson, Trueman; Conversions Hayes 5; Penalty Hayes. Leeds: Tries Hooper, Bell, Stimpson 2; Conversions Stimpson 4; Penalties Stimpson 2.Worcester: T Delport; P Sampson (J Brown, 73), B Hinshelwood, G Trueman, J Hylton (D Roke, 30); T Hayes, N Cole; S Sparks, A van Niekirk (B Daly, h-t), L Fortey (T Windo, h-t; C Hall, 58), P Murphy, B MacLeod-Henderson, S Vaili, N Mason, D Hickey.Leeds: T Stimpson; D Rees, P Christophers, C Bell (D Albanese, h-t), T Biggs; C McMullen, A Dickens (M McMillan, 55); M Cusack, R Rawlinson, M Holt, S Hooper (capt), T Palmer (S Morgan, 55), J Dunbar, D Hyde, A Popham.Referee: N Owen (Wales)..