Cardiff draw Athlone in Women's Champions League
Welsh double winners Cardiff City will take on Athlone Town in the first qualifying round of the Uefa Women's Champions League.The Bluebirds will face the Irish side in a Group 5 semi-final on Wednesday, 30 July at a venue to be decided.The winners will face Croatian champions ZNK Agram in the group final on Saturday, 3 August to decide who progresses to the second round of qualifying.In March, Cardiff lifted the Adran Premier League title for a third successive season with victory against The New Saints. They then beat Wrexham 3-1 in April to secure a fourth successive Bute Energy Welsh Cup triumph.
However, Iain Derbyshire's side have lost all seven matches they have played in the Champions League, without scoring a goal.Last season they were eliminated 7-0 by FC Twente in Enschede, though Derbyshire said afterwards he was "so proud of the players" performance against the Dutch champions.Athlone are currently top of the SSE Airtricity Women's Premier Division after an unbeaten start to their year, winning nine games and drawing one.
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The Independent
39 minutes ago
- The Independent
The genius behind Ben Duckett and an England innings that twisted reality
Ben Duckett reverse swept once, twice, three times. And eventually twelve. A modern man, conquering the most traditional role in Test cricket - opening the batting - in the least traditional of ways. With that shot alone, he made 31 runs. In total, he made 149 as he guided England to their second-highest run chase in history. Duckett, whose highest score remains 182 against Ireland in 2023, has quietly, and consistently, built a record that places him in the upper echelons of England's greatest ever openers. In a batting line-up where Joe Root 's and Ben Stokes ' legends are already made. Where Harry Brook is the next generational talent elect, Zak Crawley and Ollie Pope spend their lives under a microscope. Duckett's consistency at the top of the order has gone, if not unnoticed, underappreciated. Since his return to the Test side in 2022, he has averaged 47 with a strike rate of 88. In terms of average, it is higher than either Sir Alastair Cook or Sir Andrew Strauss managed. The last two men to nail the role of opener in an England shirt both ended up taking one knee in front of the Queen, knighted for their efforts. As a strike rate, it is higher than Virender Sehwag's. The man widely considered to be the greatest aggressive opener in history. In 2025, it may seem too early, hyperbolic even, to put Duckett's name in the same bracket as the greats. But continue as he has been since his return to the side, and by 2035 it'll have been there for years. Brendon McCullum's team have twisted reality to the point that arriving at Headingley on day five, with 350 runs still required for victory, England's pursuit of their second highest ever run chase felt eminently possible rather than the opinion of a madman. These run chases didn't happen even three years ago. The dial has been changed. And this England team is the reason. Along with Crawley, Duckett gave England their dream start. The fifty partnership between the two came in the seventeenth over of the innings - the slowest they have ever shared as a pair - but in murky, bowler-friendly conditions, it was perfect. Duckett, watchful, punched the ball airily off the bowling of Mohammed Siraj. It dropped just in front of the fielder before skipping past him and away for four. Duckett celebrated with a mini fist pump to himself. Duckett's strength lies in his versatility. Against fast bowlers, he hits the same ball in three different directions. And against the spinners, he has an arsenal of sweeps to call upon. Sometimes he keeps his hands the same on the bat. Sometimes he swaps them over. Sometimes he steps forward with his right foot. And sometimes he swaps round and leads with his left. The crowning shot of Duckett's innings was his reverse sweep for six off Ravindra Jadeja that sailed into the East Stand. But his best was his on-drive against Jasprit Bumrah. The greatest bowler in the world, greeted with a perfect technique. People often talk about footwork when it comes to batting. But as the pace goes up in cricket, the opportunity for players to make large movements either forwards or backwards disappears. At the highest level, there simply isn't time. Instead, batting becomes about weight transfer. Subtle shifts that allow batters to manipulate their stance and access all areas. Duckett, short in stature, rarely, if ever, moves his feet. Crouched low in his stance, he cuts anything slightly wide. He pulls anything slightly short. And drives anything remotely full. He is a call and response cricketer with the answers pre-loaded before the ball has even arrived. His talents have made him an all-format England opener, and furthers the case that Duckett is one of England's most complete batters. Only he and Harry Brook command a spot in all three XIs. In ODI cricket, Duckett's average is even higher than it is in Tests, standing at 49. And since becoming the undisputed first-choice opener in 2024, it is 56. Headingley is the home of the run chase. One of the very first Bazball chases happened here in 2022 when England blitzed 296 for three against New Zealand; Shai Hope's twin tons downed England in 2017; and a little-known cricketer named Ben Stokes made 135 not out two years ago against Australia when England hauled in 362. Today, Duckett added his name to that list with one of the greatest innings played in an England shirt. 18 months ago, England went one-nil up in a series against India after Pope made 196 in the Heist of Hyderabad. That innings felt like a miracle. The perfect combination of a thousand factors coming together. Duckett's innings today, rather than a miracle, felt like a coming of age. The next step for a player who is making his legend in front of our eyes. In India's history, they have only failed to defend a target of north of 350 twice. The first time was in England in 2022 when the home team chased in 378. And the second was today in their very next match on these shores. In total, four of England's ten highest successful run chases in Test history have come during the Bazball era. And the man leading from the front is Ben Duckett.
Times
43 minutes ago
- Times
John Clark obituary: European Cup winner with Celtic's Lisbon Lions
May 25, 1967 is a date etched in Scottish footballing history as the day Celtic beat Inter Milan, the much-fancied Italian giants, by two goals to one at the Estadio Nacional in Lisbon to become the first British club to lift the European Cup. John 'the Brush' Clark, renowned for his unassuming but dependable performance as sweeper, was one of the 'Lisbon Lions', all born within a 30-mile radius of Glasgow, who roared for Celtic that night. Yet hours after captain Billy McNeill (obituary, April 23, 2019), known as Caesar, lifted the trophy, the Celtic pride were herded into a pokey hotel room and invited to collect their medals from the equivalent of a shoebox perched on a grubby table. 'It felt a bit demeaning,' Clark recalled. 'We had just become the champions of Europe, the first British club to do so, and the best they could do was honour us like this. It felt a bit low key.' • Celtic legend and Lisbon Lion John Clark dies aged 84 Between 1965 and 1971 Clark was not only a member of the Celtic team that triumphed in Europe but also picked up four league championships, three Scottish Cups and four League Cups. He made 316 appearances in the green-and-white hoops, including an unbroken run of 140 consecutive matches between April 1965 and September 1967 that included friendlies, a North American tour and a head-to-head with Manchester United. A quiet, mild-mannered defender known as Wee Luggy after acquiring a cauliflower ear from an accidental collision with McNeill in training, Clark hit the net for Celtic on three occasions. 'I always say that I scored the best goal ever,' he told Celtic View magazine. 'It was in a replay at Easter Road against Hibs and I beat a defender at the byline, cut in and poked the ball through Ronnie Simpson's legs and said to him, 'You couldn't get any better than that, could you?'' John Clark was born in Chapelhall, Lanarkshire, in 1941, the eldest child of John Clark, a railwayman who moved south to England for work, and his wife, Lilly. Young John was ten when one morning a letter arrived to say that his father had found a house for the family and that they would all be joining him, but on the day the letter arrived his father was killed by a train. 'He'd been working on the tracks and a signal was supposed to operate, but it never did. The train appeared from nowhere and killed him instantly,' Clark told The Herald. 'It left my mother a widow, with two young kids, and six months pregnant with another. I'll never forget that day.' The family remained in Scotland with John taking on a series of 'wee jobs' to support his mother. 'A local farmer let me sell his eggs and potatoes. I did all sorts to help bring a few bob into the house,' he told The Scotsman. He grew up supporting Celtic. 'The first major game I saw was Celtic against Clyde at Hampden in the Scottish Cup final in 1955, and Celtic lost the replay,' he told the club's website. 'When I left school, the first game I can remember was Celtic against Manchester United at Celtic Park. It took place in the afternoon because it was in our pre-floodlight days. I had just got a job, it was my first day at work and I asked if I could get away early.' By 16 he was playing for Larkhall Thistle, attracting the attention of scouts. 'Birmingham [City] asked me down for a trial and then asked me to sign,' he told The Celtic Star. 'But there was some argument between Birmingham and Larkhall about the fee. I never really got to the bottom of it but all I know is that I was not allowed to go.' Instead, he played a few games with Celtic's reserves coached by Jock Stein. By 1958 he was a fully fledged Celtic player, making his first-team match debut in a 5-0 win at Arbroath in October the next year. 'Signing for Celtic was like winning the pools,' he said, adding on another occasion that the club 'was always a way of life for me'. Having started his career at left-half he switched to sweeper beside McNeill when Stein became manager in 1965. He recalled Stein as a stickler for timekeeping. 'I remember Billy and I arriving early at St Enoch Square for the one o'clock bus to a game at Dumbarton so we took a wee stroll along Argyle Street. When we got back Jock was raging, 'What the hell time do you call this?' It was only a minute after one but we were never late for anything ever again,' he told The Scotsman. Clark also appeared for the national team on four occasions, his debut being at Hampden Park against Brazil in their 1966 World Cup warm-up game, which ended in 1-1 draw. Afterwards he was singled out for praise by Pelé, having by all accounts marked him out of the game. Many years later they had ran into each other in a lift in New York. Pelé chatted about the game, recalling how his old foe wore No 6, but after the Brazilian stepped out, Clark turned to Davie Provan, his Celtic colleague, and asked: 'Who the hell was that?' In the early 1960s he married Eileen. She survives him with their daughter Marie, whose birth was announced over the public address system at Celtic Park and who trained as a teacher, and their son Martin, also a professional footballer who played with Partick Thistle. Clark's final game for Celtic was on May 1, 1971, when Stein brought the Lisbon Lions together for a final bow in a 6-1 win against Clyde. He then moved to Morton, where on one occasion he scored an own goal, ironically in a match against Celtic in his team's 3-1 defeat. Two years later he retired from playing and returned to Celtic as reserve team coach. He went on to have various coaching and managerial roles, including at Aberdeen, Cowdenbeath, Stranraer and Clyde, but was regularly drawn back to his old club, where he was widely known as 'Mr Celtic'. Despite his unblemished record on the pitch, in 1980 he was given a two-year ban by Uefa for 'extremely grave insults to the referee' after a match against Politehnica Timisoara of Romania in the European Cup Winners' Cup. By 1997 Clark was Celtic's kit man, a position he held for more than 20 years. He could be seen by airport luggage carousels, lifting the players' bags on to carts as they stood around chatting on their phones, many of them unfamiliar with his status as a Lisbon Lion. 'I don't go about telling them,' he said in 2014. 'But the players spread the word. They will come up and ask if it's true. If they are down in my room I just show them the photograph of us with the European Cup. I'll say to them, 'There have been big changes since then but take a look at that. The thing in the middle with the big handles is the thing you'll always want to win. I won it.'' John Clark, footballer, was born on March 13, 1941. He died on June 23, 2025, aged 84
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Nottingham Forest target £20m double swoop of Juventus wingers after club REJECTED £45m bid from Newcastle for ex-Man United star
Nottingham Forest hope to seal a cut-price deal for Juventus wingers Timothy Weah and Samuel Mbangula amid continued interest from Newcastle in Anthony Elanga. With Newcastle pushing for Elanga and able to offer Champions League football, Forest may need reinforcements in wide areas and believe they can sign both Mbangula and Weah for less than £20m combined. The relatively low price is thought to be due to Juventus' need to raise funds to rebuild their squad, with former Tottenham and Liverpool chief Damien Comolli now in charge of transfers. Forest are likely to sell at least one key player this summer and with Manchester City appearing to have cooled their interest in Morgan Gibbs-White, Newcastle believe they have a chance of landing Elanga this summer. The former Manchester United winger is valued at about £60m. Meanwhile, Neco Williams is set to sign a new four-year deal at the City Ground, elevating him closer to the top pay bracket at the club. Forest also hope to agree a deal for Brazilian forward Igor Jesus once his club, Botafogo, have completed their Club World Cup campaign. They face fellow Brazilian side Palmeiras in the last 16.
