Hooker Fletcher signs new two-year Newcastle deal
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BBC News
8 minutes ago
- BBC News
Alexander on new Bradford deal and recruitment
Bradford City boss Graham Alexander has been speaking to the media ahead of his side's opening League One game against Wycombe Wanderers on Saturday at 15:00 are the key lines:Alexander says his new three-year deal as manager is not a reward for the club's dramatic final day promotion to League One last season but a validation of the work that's been done by himself and his backroom staff. He revealed that club CEO Ryan Sparks had first mentioned a new deal months believes there is still a lot of potential at Valley Parade and is passionate that more can be achieved over the next three club have made nine signings this window and Alexander says they're still looking to recruit further, specifically on an unnamed area. They're yet to identify that went on to explain their current budget allows for one more addition. "Any more than that, we'll have to trade. We'll have to have outgoings.""A couple of individuals" were told on the first day of pre-season it's likely they won't be in Alexander's plans. There is nothing close regarding their departures, with Alexander confirming interest has been shown but deals have not asked about the use of the loan market, he said the club were open to it but stressed the importance of Bradford owning players and the need for long-term consistency. The club are yet to make a loan signing this defenders Paul Huntington, who made 21 appearances last season, and Jack Hunt have both been training with the squad during pre-season. Alexander is yet to decide whether they will be offered Neill Byrne is out for at least two months with a knee problem, with fellow defender Ciaran Kelly (groin) and forward Calum Kavanagh (shin) doubts for this to the full pre-match press conference with Graham Alexander and more on BBC Sounds.
The Independent
10 minutes ago
- The Independent
The key quality behind Andy Farrell's selection for third Lions Test
Spare a thought for the travelling loved ones of the collection of British and Irish Lions who have spent the Test series with a watching brief. The pride will not at all be dimmed for those fans in question, and there has been plenty to enjoy about their kin's contributions to a trip upon which history is within reach, but it is a long way to come for family and friends to not see them feature. But perhaps that is an overly cynical view – and it is certainly not one shared by the wider squad. Four fewer (27) players have featured in this Test series than four years ago in South Africa, but the buy-in from each and every member of a bloated squad has been, according to Andy Farrell, outstanding. 'We all came together from day the only thing that matters is the squad and that's it, full stop,' the Lions head coach explained. 'We've all been in this together from day one. 'Every single one of us, there's been no separation, we've all trained together, it doesn't matter whether you've played the day before or whatever, you've always helped the next team that's going out there. The modern day game is always about the 23 that take the field, not the 15 anymore, but it's way beyond that for us. It was about the 38 or the 41 or the 44, whichever way you want to look at it.' It cannot have been easy for those on the outside to look in at each squad unveiling – some frustration, perhaps even anger, is natural. For a Farrell stalwart like Josh van der Flier, who never misses a game when fit for Ireland, these might have been particularly tricky weeks with Tom Curry, Jac Morgan and Ben Earl ahead in a brutal pecking order of prized fighting hens. There is a thought, meanwhile, that Fin Smith remains Farrell's second choice as a pure fly half were misfortune to strike Finn Russell, and yet the Scot's unimpeachable form and the versatility offered by Marcus Smith and Owen Farrell has meant that he will have to wait four more years at least to pull on a Test jersey. Yet the Northampton youngster has been spoken about as a key character in running the opposition side in training with the intensity and accuracy required to properly prepare the Test team. And on Saturday night, with the series won, it was he and some of the other non-playing reserves leading the celebration charge. 'You come in after such a big victory on Saturday night, and I just left them to it because I couldn't get a word in. The ones that were celebrating most were the ones who hadn't put the shirt on. It says it all, to be honest. It actually touches you. It does. It touches you in the sense of how much it means to them.' Perhaps that collective buy-in is why Farrell has felt able to rotate minimally as his side go in search of a 3-0 whitewash. The insertion of Blair Kinghorn comes as little surprise given the efficacy of the Scot off the bench last week, with his aerial acumen likely to be valuable with the forecast for a dreich night more akin to Stranraer than Sydney. 'Blair is obviously a great athlete but the unpredictability of his game makes him very dangerous,' Farrell explained. 'The conditions that we're expecting as far as the aerial game is concerned will be at its premium, so I think this game suits him.' Likewise, James Ryan 's work both seen and unseen in those final second Test minutes has earned him the nod ahead of Ollie Chessum as Maro Itoje 's third lock partner of the tour. 'His physicality when he has come off the bench, when he has put the jersey on over the last three or four weeks has been there for all to see, so we think he's the right person to start the Test.' Certainly there will be some in Lions red running slightly on fumes, engines empty after an ever-lengthening season further elongated by this tour. Itoje, Andrew Porter and Tadhg Beirne, particularly, have played mighty minutes across the campaign, but will strap up weary bodies and go again against a Wallabies pack weakened slightly by a couple of key absentees. Not so heavy on workload in another injury-hit season but nonetheless well weathered is Tadhg Furlong, for whom this is a ninth consecutive, and probably final, Lions Test start. Willie John McBride's record of 15 straight outings will probably never be challenged yet the longevity of the tighthead is testament to his diligence. There were warm words on Thursday from Australia head coach Joe Schmidt, who gave Furlong his Ireland debut, as well as Farrell. 'It just always happens that when this comes around, how much it means to him means he gets himself in the right frame of mind to be able to do what he's done,' Farrell said. 'It isn't just the performances that has been through the roof. It's also his manner on a Lions tour as well. I've never seen him in such good spirits, so he's ready to go again. He's had to adapt his training and how he looks after himself and understanding his body a lot more over the last couple of years. But to be honest, he's unbelievably diligent in all of that now. 'But the nature of a tour like this works in somebody like Tadhg's favour because when you've not got a normal week, which is a seven day process of warming up and warming down and having to do all sorts of stuff to tick boxes, you get out of your own way on a tour like this because you have to just roll with the punches of what's thrown in front of you.' Furlong's example – and indeed the rest of the squad's – is one that Farrell will hope future Lions will be able to follow.
The Guardian
10 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Nottinghamshire v Somerset, Durham v Surrey, and more: county cricket day three
Update: Date: 2025-07-31T09:20:58.000Z Title: Wednesday's round-up Content: Yorkshire's Adam Lyth zinged to his fifth first-class century, nimble as the weasel that darted about Anne Brontë's grave in the morning sun. The Scarborough faithful delighted in his innings and his passage past a thousand runs for the summer, as they did in James Wharton's seventh fifty – though he once more missed out on a hundred, shuffling away after being bowled for 85. With a lead of 70 over Sussex, Yorkshire are well placed in what feels like a must-win game to avoid relegation. Emilio Gay's sparkling 99 gave Durham an outside chance of causing the leaders, Surrey, a few headaches, though two late wickets stacked the equation southwards. The morning session at Chester-le-Street was taken up by Surrey hot-trotting another 140 runs, spearheaded by Jordan Clark's 82; Ben Raine finished with five for 72. Meanwhile Nottinghamshire kept in the game at Trent Bridge, thanks to a third century of the season from Haseeb Hameed – who also passed 1,000 runs. Somerset lost seven for 100 in a hurry. Kent defied Leicestershire, built largely by an unbeaten 101 from Ben Compton, another 1,000-run graduate. Earlier Tom Scriven missed out on his first first-class century by one run. Jimmy Anderson's 43rd birthday present from his Lancashire teammates was a collapse of seven wickets for 30 at Old Trafford as Glamorgan's Mason Crane collected six for 19. Essex piled up 602 for six declared against Warwickshire, with hundreds from Charlie Allison, Tom Westley and Michael Pepper. Half-centuries from Luke Procter, George Bartlett and Justin Broad kept Northants in the game against Derbyshire. Middlesex are on top against Gloucestershire, Kane Williamson collecting 153. And an unbeaten partnership of 126 between Jake Libby and Adam Hose steadied Worcestershire against Hampshire at New Road. Update: Date: 2025-07-31T09:20:26.000Z Title: Scores on the doors Content: DIVISION ONE Chester-le-Street: Durham 153 and 222-5 v Surrey 322 Chelmsford: Essex 602-6dec v Warwickshire 140-2 Trent Bridge: Nottinghamshire 189-2 v Somerset 438 New Road: Worcestershire 187-2 v Hampshire 293 Scarborough: Yorkshire 292-4 v Sussex 222 DIVISION TWO Cheltenham: Gloucestershire 54-1 v Middlesex 445 Canterbury: Kent 203-3 v Leicestershire 471 Old Trafford: Lancashire 137 v Glamorgan 261 and 95-2 Northamptonshire: Northants 265-5 v Derbyshire 377 Update: Date: 2025-07-31T09:18:11.000Z Title: Preamble Content: Hello from the north Yorkshire coast. The Scarborough micro-climate continues to be kind, and the players are all out in the middle stretching this and that. A morning walk around Marine Drive has given me an excellent potted history of Scarborough thanks to some 'portholes in time'. The most interesting of many interesting facts is that in 1253 Henry III granted the town a royal charter to hold an annual summer fair for 45 days. It was the biggest fair in Western Europe and inspired the traditional love ballad Scarborough Fair. I'll stop there before I get embroiled in secret wireless stations and 11,000 year-old archaeological remains. Play starts at 11am here, and around the grounds. Come dip your toe in, the water is lovely.
