Straw asked the ECB to consider whether a high-profile England tour would be consistent with that approach.”We regard this as fairly explicit advice, in the coded, political language of Whitehall,” Lamb said. In his letter, Straw fell short of ordering the England team to boycott the scheduled trip in the autumn but underlined the fact that Britain is a major player in an international community which “maintain targeted restrictive measures against leading members of the Zimbabwean regime”. The England and Wales Cricket Board will hold further dialogue with the Government before making a decision on whether to fulfil the tour of Zimbabwe later this year.
The ECB’s chief executive, Tim Lamb, yesterday confirmed that talks were needed in the wake of the Foreign Secretary Jack Straw’s correspondence last week. Davis fought back to make it 7-5, then 8-5.But O’Sullivan closed to make it 8-7, then produced a steely 48 clearance to take the final its full distance before winning the nervy decider.. Ronnie O’Sullivan launched a stirring comeback in Cardiff last night to deny Steve Davis his first ranking title in nine years. Davis threatened to race away with the final as he opened a shock 4-1 lead.

A 40 clearance in the opening frame, followed runs of 74 and 42 carried the 46-year-old 3-0 ahead. O’Sullivan closed to 4-2 before ending the session with back-to-back centuries of 125 and 139 to leave the match all square.Davis won the first two frames of the final session but then O’Sullivan rediscovered his touch to fly through the 11th frame. But I’ve got other candidates for the novices race.”LEOPARDSTOWN RESULTS1.40 1 KICKING KING (B J Geraghty) 11-10 fav; 2 Central House 3-1; 3 Colca Canyon 25-1 7 ran 31/2, 21/2 (T Taaffe) Tote: £2.00; £1.60, £1.80 Exacta: £3.70 CSF: £5.13.2.40 1 FOREMAN (T Doumen) 8-1; 2 Georges Girl 25-1; 3 Fota Island 20-1 8 ran 5-2 fav Spirit Leader (4th) Hd, 11/2 (T Doumen) Tote: £11.00; £2.20, £3.10, £2.90 Exacta: £135.80 CSF: £158.45. But mine goes well there too and if they met it would create much interest.”Therealbandit, still favourite for the Royal & SunAlliance Chase, is undergoing physiotherapy on his neck after his tumble “He’s OK,” said his owner, David Johnson “I’ll be guided by Tony McCoy over the Gold Cup It’s not ruled in or out. Jair Du Cochet has the Cathcart Chase as an alternative and trainer Guillaume Macaire said yesterday: “It is Best Mate’s kingdom and it will be difficult to beat him in the Gold Cup. Some farmers in southern England are already allowing organised boar hunting on their land, but perhaps the most notable enthusiast is Martin Goudling, a former Defra zoologist who has not only intensively studied wild boar in Britain and written a book about them, but set up a website devoted to them.

“In Europe, they are the single biggest agricultural pests,” he says. Unlikely as it may sound, it is also thought that wild boars will kill and eat young lambs.The possibility of their being carriers of livestock disease, specifically foot-and-mouth disease and, or, classical swine fever, is taken even more seriously, as once such infection got established in the boar herd, it could be spread by their extensive nightly foraging of up to twenty miles at a time. “He was very good as a young horse,” added Doumen after the first Grade One success of his training career. “He struggled a bit when he took on older horses for the first time but is catching up with them now He is still improving and getting stronger all the time. The left-hand track here suited him.”Spirit Leader and Davenport Milenium are still on course for Cheltenham, their connections undismayed by their efforts. “She needs a gallop and didn’t run a bad race at all.”In the Arkle Challenge Cup Kicking King jumped competently to the forefront of the Irish challenge for the similarly-titled novices’ test at the Festival with a workmanlike defeat of old rival Central House.Gold Cup decisions about Jair Du Cochet, winner of the Pillar Property Chase, and the novice Therealbandit, who looked likely to give him a race when he fell four out, are on hold. “I have already been thinking about it,” said Doumen, “but it is a long way to travel, a 20-hour drive, and it might be better to wait until Cheltenham to meet him.”Foreman had some decent form as a novice – he was fifth in last year’s Royal & SunAlliance Hurdle – but was a well-beaten fourth to Intersky Falcon in the Christmas Hurdle at Kempton on his last trip to Britain.