The Age from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia • Page 27

Sport Extra THE AGE, Tuesday 24 April 1184 -27 One week to salvage tarnished reputations i -ill Allan Border: success if Jlk jfrorn PETER McFARLINe" xaSli iiiSi lIllllliliiRjltt teiSM" lip Graham Yallop has had a paralysing effect on the Australian side. Yet captain Kim Hughes and his senior players were entitled to expect, and to give more than they have. Hughes, of course, will be under considerable fire to hold his position as team leader, although there have been only complimentary remarks about the improvement in his leadership here. It is his batting that has caused the Australians so much embarrassment, as yet failing to score more than 33 in any one innings in the important No. 4 position.

Those coming as they have after poor starts from the openers, have exposed the middle order to the fury of the West Indies pace attack. Only Border, whose 420 runs have come at the rate of 70 runs an innings, has been able to withstand the pressure. He must now be rated among the top three batsmen in the world. The bowlers, too, have been dis- cause, but even when fit they have been disappointing. Most upsetting, however, has been the failure of wicketkeeper Roger Woolley to justify the faith put in him as Marsh's successor.

His tour with the gloves has been as poor as I have seen in this class of cricket It resulted in Wayne Phillips, a man of talent but not yet the capacity to understand that talent being placed in a position of keeping as well as opening. If Phillips can improve behind the stumps this season at home which means David Hookes must insist he has the job for South Australia he will in time become a bonus, batting at No. 7. But bonuses on this tour have been few and far between. The fact that Australia's next encounter is against the same enemy is doing nothing for hopes of an optimistic future.

added to that list, although he was here for only two matches before a severe finger injury sent him on the same path back to Australia as Kepler Wessels, the man he replaced. The lack of consistency among the batsmen, except Border, and the failure of the fast bowlers, including Lawson, to make important inroads into the West Indies, batting, have been the major contributing factors to the Australian demise. Not that that demise was unexpected. The loss of Dennis Lillee, Greg Chappell, Rod Marsh and Stawell A victory hug and handshake for Englishman Nicfe Faldo from his excited caddie Dave McNeilly Faldo breaks long drought ''p8' -sLSL HILTON HEAD ISLAND, South Carolina, 22 April Nick Faldo became the first Englishman to win on American soil in 12 years yesterday when he scored a one-stroke victory in the Sea Pines Heritage classic. Faldo, 26, the leading player in Europe last season, shot a two-un-der-par 69 for a 72-hole total of 270, 14 under par and equalling the Harbor Town golf links record.

American Tom Kite, a contender in the Masters last week until he hit into the water on the 12th hole, pressured Faldo with a brilliant 66 and a total of 271. He came from four shots off the pace in cloudy, hazy weather to tie Faldo for the lead with a birdie on the 12th hole. But Faldo, winner of five European titles last season, regained sole control of the top spot with a two-metre putt for a birdie four the 15th, then parred the renu fling holes. He clinched victory with a gritty performance on the 18th. His approach ran through the green and stopped on the edge of a bunker.

Using a putter, he ran it back to within tap-in distance while Kite watched from beside the green. Martina ends Lloyd's clay run MONTEGO BAY (Jamaica), 23 April. The touring Australian cricketers, physically and emotionally drained after a strenuous tour, are about to face up to a most important week in their careers. It starts on Thursday with the final one-day international at Sa-bina Park, Kingston, and ends the following Thursday, the last day of the fifth Test Most of the 15 remaining tourists need good performances to convince the national selectors 22,000 kilometres away that they are still the men to represent their country. Only a handful vice-captain Allan Border, fast bowler Geoff Lawson and, to a lesser extent, left-arm spinner Tom Hogan and wicketkeeper-batsman Wayne Phillips have enhanced their reputations in 10 weeks in the Caribbean.

Opener Graeme Wood can be ncturn: GCOFF AMPT But he immediately said that his draw had been easier than some of his more fancied rivals, and he described his back mark handicap as an advantage. "I had the advantage of being behind my main rival Kirsopp and could see how I was pick ing mm up," he said. When he was hoisted on to friendly shoulders for a victory march, Singleton said: "Let me down, fellers. I'll walk, that'll be OK." On the victory dias surrounded by the Premier, Mr Cain, and other dignitaries. Singleton praised his training partners "If you don't have good training you can't train and then said: "Well, that'll do me.

I don't like talking much." His trainer and adviser, Peter Quick, said Singleton trained once a week on sand for his beach sprinting with Wamberal Surf Life Saving Club, near Gosford. "A good beach sprinter should be able to do well here at Stawell," Quick said. Earlier, after he had recorded the carnival's fastest time of 1 1.89 in his semi-final, Singleton said: "I love this wet track. It's like the beach." Mine Hillardt: confident "It happens when you are young and inexperienced. I let my mental state get the better of my physical That's what happened at the 1S82 Brisbane Commonwealth Games when Hillardt came in fifth despite the frantic urging of partisan spectators packing the stands.

Hillardt now responds positively the challenge and ran his best time for the ISM metres of Jmin 34sec when he beat Ovett in Sydney last month. "I know I can get down to 3:31 in LA," he said with confidence. And that's within reach of Ovetfs world time of 340.77. In the meantime, until he proves himself at the very top level, be feels he is still serving his apprenticeship. "I've beaten a few people but I am still an To which a a growing army of supporters are ready to add for much longer.

joiias 'y LAST I CHMCE RUNS FOR 122,000 appointing. Not one has taken more than nine wickets in the series so far, compared with the 26 of West Indies spearhead Joel Garner. Lawson has tried desperately hard, as he always does, and Hogan has improved his concentration and method, if not his penetration. Injuries to Rod Hogg and Carl Rackemann have not helped the resits and 10 in the world, finished the pre-Games tournament with two straight losses 8-7 to China on Friday and 7-2 to Spain yesterday. "The match against China can be summed up as just one of those days when nothing went right" Mills said.

"The Chinese thought we were trying to let them win to help them but nothing could be further from the truth. "Against Spain we had a lot of opportunities but we didn't take them. I think the boys were slightly off the ball after a long trip." The Games build up has taken its toll in other ways, too. Some of the players lost their jobs, some suspended their studies, and others have opted not to work until after LA. Team member Ray Mayers said he had lost his job as a sales representative in Sydney.

"Others have, too. There are about three or four of us on the dole," he said. "This trip, because it was in an Olympic year, has been paid for, but previous tours have been paid for out of our own pockets." Despite this, both Mayers and-Mills said that team spirit was high. "Being out of work doesn't seem to worry them. They have made their commitment and are prepared to stick it out" Mills said.

The groups for Los Angeles are: GROUP China. Hungary. Soam. Cuba. CROUP Yugoslavia.

Gram. USSR. US. CROUP Australia. Nethtrlands.

Italy. West Germany. 4v2SM-Y'''i ABOVE: Backmarker Paul Sin- sp! Ston races to thene to win SeCnC 'aCC behind Dallas BELOW: A congratulatory kiss ff W0 vWwSi mW ft from Singleton's girl friend Sue Navratilova Roger Woottey: failed Singleton wins off five metres From MATTHEW RICK ET SON STA WELL Wearing a pair of borrowed spikes at only his second professional athletics meeting, Paul Singleton ran with power off five metres yesterday to win the 103rd Stawell Gift by a metre from Sam Kirsopp. Despite patches of rain and a bitter wind at Central Park, some 10,500 people attended the final day of the weekend carnival. They were rewarded by a memorable run from the 21-year-old backmarker, whose crisp, compact style on the heavy track helped him sweep up the field by the 80-metre mark and finish in the swift time of 11.95 sec.

His performance, which netted him $16,000 of the Esanda Gift's $27,500 prizemoney, was more than six yards inside even time (that is inside 10 sec for 100 yards on the old scale). Only a handful of backmarkers have won the Stawell Gift and a similarly select group have won from a handicap of five metres or less. For those shrewd enough to back Singleton last Friday night at the army drill hall, bookmakers were offering odds as long as 201. Before the semi-finals yesterday the odds had been slashed to between 41 and 21. Singleton said after the race that he had backed himself, but he would not say for how much.

Nor was he certain whether he would return to Stawell to try to become only the second runner to win consecutive Gifts. An engine fitter with the RAAF, Singleton's first pro athletics meeting was the 1983 Stawell Gift where be was a close runner-up to Dallas O'Brien. Just over an hour after his Gift win, Singleton, from Jilliby, NSW, completed a rare double by winning the Arthur Postle 70 metres race in another quick time 7.31 sec, even though his handicap was cut by three quarters of a metre following the Gift Singleton, who is two-time Australian 90 metre beach sprint champion, was not overwhelmed by his victories in fact he must have been one of the calmest Gift winners in years. He said after the race that he was "really pleased" to win and agreed that his victory was some consolation for his narrow defeat last year. Hillardt treads warily in LA build-up from Gil MBTKREUTZ, of AAP TOWNSVILLE.

The worst thing that can happen to Mike Hillardt between now and the Los Angeles Olympics in August is to fall over. "I'm fearful of being injured, even slightly, because this will throw my tight training schedule ff 'Course," the Australian 15N metres champion said here after competing in the North Queensland Games. The 23-year-old former Brisbane barman, now based in Melbourne, senses that he is on the verge of a big performance at the Olympics and doesnt want anything to jolt his careful preparations. Hillardt has beaten Britain's world champion Steve Overt twice this year and regards those wins as important stepping stones to Olympic success. "I know there are plenty of world-class middle-distance runners around like Steve Cram and Steve Scott But at long last I believe la myself," Hillardt said.

"I used to' look around at the start of the race and see these famous overseas athletes lining up and wonder how I could beat them. fPffilll. Soviets told of kidnap fears at Games From ROBERT GILLETTE MOSCOW, 23 April A leading Soviet newspaper has alleged that anti-Soviet groups in Los Angeles are planning to kidnap the Soviet Union's top Olympic athletes and coaches and force them to defect "It's unbelievable but a fact" the influential weekly 'Literary Gazette' assured its readers, mostly intellectuals. The allegation is the latest twist in a continuing campaign by the official Press to disparage preparations for the Games. Los Angeles is broadly depicted as a place where Soviet bloc athletes, at best face unfair psychological pressures and at worst risk their lives simply by attending the Games.

Western diplomats consider such attacks to be largely a war of nerves on the Los Angeles Olympic organising committee, one designed to win more favorable treatment for Soviet bloc teams. Moscow is also clearly building a justification for not attending the Games if it should decide on a boycott a step most foreign diplomats here still consider unlikely. In the latest broadside, 'Literary Gazette' also appeared to be laying the groundwork for shifting the blame to the US for any barrassing defections that might occur during the Games. "Before the very eyes of the (US) authorities, a whole series of conspiratorial actions against renowned athletes, leading coaches, and sports experts is being per-sistntly prepared simply because they are Soviet" said the weekly. "People will be seized and whisked away to clandestine hideouts.

And there, all conceivable methods will be used to extort from them betrayal of their motherland. They will be wrapped in the Stars and Stripes all in the light of the Olympic flame." In keeping with the current Press campaign, the newspaper also alleged that Los Angeles is being swept by a foaming tide of anti-Soviet hysteria. It said the Los Angeles Olympic organising committee, despite a "grimace of ostentatious is barely able to conceal its "ill-disposition and sometimes outright malice toward everything marked with the letters The newspaper offered no evidence of ill-will on the part of the organising committee. But for proof of general anti-Soviet feelings, the Soviet Press has seized on statements by the Ban the Soviets Coalition, a small southern California group opposed to Soviet participation in the Games. The organisation, which enjoys far greater prominence in the Press here than in Los Angeles, is depicted in 'Literary Gazette's' vivid prose as the spearhead of an army of "rabid conservatives, religious fanatics, (Soviet) emigres still flaming with hatred, and bands of mercenaries not averse to earning a buck by hunting down The newspaper suggested that David spokesman for the group, should be removed from Los Angeles during the Games: "Is it not a universal custom to invite violent cranks to some remote and quiet place for the duration of important international events?" During the 1980 Moscow Olympics, police and KGB agents rounded up large numbers of suspected dissidents, holding some in jails and psychiatric hospitals and ordering others to leave town during the Games.

The authorities in Los Angeles, 'Literary Gazette' lamented, are likely to do no such thing. "Instead of holding a festival of youth and peace, they plan to offer us 16 days of the foulest provocations, escapades and outright physical abductions." Los Angeles Times IOC talks on Budd case BONN, 23 April. Willi Daume, West German chairman of the International Olympic Committee's eligibility commission, said today the commission would discuss this week whether South African-born runner Zola Budd could compete for Britain in the Los Angeles Olympics later this year. The 17-y ear-old Budd, whose grandfather was born in Britain, was granted British citizenship 10 days after arriving in the country. MIAMI, 23 April.

Top-seeded Martina Navratilova ended Chris Evert Lloyd's unbeaten record on Florida rlav in rlpvastntino ctvio vesterdav. winnins the $250 nnn Women's Tennis Association Championship at Amelia Island 6-2. 6-0. "I don't know whv. but I niaveri a terrible match," Lloyd, the No.

2 seed, said. "I'm embarrassed. She never let me in the match." Navratilova has now beaten Lloyd, her only real rival on the women's circuit the last 10 times they have met, but this was clearly her most impressive victory. Lloyd had not lost in Florida on clay in 84 matches. "I felt bad for Chris," Navratilova said.

"It was obvious she wasn't playing well. The last thing I expected was a match like this. We've been in so many finals. If I ever feel sorry for someone after a match, it's Chris. "But at least she won two games.

That's more than I won three years ago." Faldo collected from the total purse of The last Englishman to win in the US was Tony Jacklin, in the 1972 Jacksonville Open, although Peter Oosterhuis won the Canadian Open, a US PGA tour event three years ago. Gil Morgan, who tied for second last week in the Masters, again came from well back to claim a share of third. He had a closing 66 and tied at 274 with Ronnie Black. Black shot a 67. Australians Greg Norman and Bob Shearer finished on 281 and 291 respectively.

Leading scares (US players unless stated): 270 N. Faldo (GB) 66. 67. 68. 69.

271 T. Kite 68. 67. 70. 66.

274 G. Morgan 64. 73. 71. 66: R.

Black 69. 67. 71. 67. 276 O.

Pohl 69. 67. 69. 71. 278 H.

Sutton 69. 70. 69. 70: A. Bean 70.

74. 67. 67: Beck 72. 68. 68.

70. 279 H. Green 69. 70. 68.

72; J. Thorpe 69. 71. 70. 69.

280 L. Mm 76. 71. 66. 67.

281 G. Norman (Aust) 7S. 69. 71. 68: I.

Mahatley 72. 69. 69. 71: M. Donald 71.

72. 69. 69. 282 O. Watson (S Af) 74.

73. 63. 72: T. Watson 68. 73.

66. 75. Others included: 289 B. Shearer (Aust) 74. 72.

74. 69. 291 P. Oosterhuis (GB) 7a 74. 73.

74. 292 -S. Lyle (GB) 73. 69. 77.

73. Lloyd In their last meeting on clay, in 1981. Lloyd swept her fellow-American away 6-0, 6-0. Yesterday, Navratilova played as if clay, and not the faster grass or indoor carpets, was her preferred surface. She broke Lloyd's service in the first game of the match and dropped only the third and sixth games.

"It didn't mean anything to me that the score was what it was," Navratilova said. "A win is a win. The points don't matter. It's whether you win or lose." Lloyd said Navratilova kept her so off-balance that she was never able to perfect her ground strokes. Her usually impenetrable baseline game failed her repeatedly.

"Now I know what to expect at the French Open," Lloyd said. "She's a different player than when I killed her here three years ago. I learn from my losses and I will learn from this one." Navratilova said the win had made her more optimistic about taking the French title in May. 7-5, 6-2 in the final of the SUS405.000 Monte Carlo Open tennis tournament The unseeded 20 year-old had beaten top-seeded Ivan Lendl of Czechoslovakia in the quarter-finals and third-seeded American Jimmy Arias in the semis. Australian Mark Edmondson and American Sherwood Stewart beat Swedes Mats Wilander and Jan Gunnarsson 6-1, 6-2 in the doubles final.

PARIS, 23 April Dutch pair Henk van der Mark and Dirk Brand won the Le Mans 24-hour motorcycle race here yesterday on an unofficial 998cc Suzuki. In second place was another unofficial crew, England's Lees and Oxley with Finland's Kultahlati on an 858cc Honda, third. KAANAPALI (Hawaii) 23 April Mai Anderson defeated fellow-Australian Ken Rosewall 7-6, 6-3 yesterday to win the 5US20.000 Grand Masters tennis tournament on Maui Island. Fred Stolle and Roy Emerson won the doubles title, beating Anderson and Neale Fraser 7-6, 7-5 in an all-Australian final. Dream draw for water polo Long wait for win ROME, 23 April.

The Australian men's water polo team has a dream draw for the Los Angeles Olympics after finishing third in the Games qualifying tournament here. Australia has beaten all its opponents in its group West Germany, Holland and Italy in the past 12 months. And team officials and players today were excitedly contemplating the real chance of making the final six. Considering the side's good Games build up, a medal is not out of the question, but manager Ian Injury delays selection ST. PETERSBURG (Florida) 23 April Vicki Fergon fired a 69 yesterday to ease past Betsy King and Hollis Stacy for a one-shot win in the SUS150.000 LPGA S-and-H Classic her first victory in five years.

Fereon started the dav twn shots behind third-round leaders Kins. Stacv and Ta nan's Avalrn Okamoto and finished with a 72- noie total of 13-under-par 275. Kine. who sent a ninp-fnnt mitt for a birdie on the 18th hole just ngnt of tne cup, was next at 276, While two-time riefenriino rhumni. on Stacy finished on 277.

Alice Miller shot a 66 and Climbed tn fnurth nlnro Ihros strokes behind Fergon. fergon, wno won $22,500 to boost her 1984 parninoc tn. $28,846, bogeyed the first hole but imisnea wun iour oiraies on the front nine to make the turn tiaH with King at 13-under-par. Okamoto carded a 76 to finish five shots behind Fergon. 275 Vicki Fergon 68.

67. 71. 69 44S tln "i 72 277 HolW Stacy 69, 69. 66. 73 70.

71. 71 fJi i 72. 67. 69. 71 uw, no.

oo, zo: turn Bunkowskijan) 7). 69. 66. 74; loan Joyce 72, ou Ayo ukamoto uao) iz. 66.

66. 76: Barb '7 wvt.M viwtn or, OS, 1 1 MONTE CARLO, 23 April Henrik Sundstrom comnleted a memorable week here bv beatine fellow-Swede Mats Wilander 6-3, WATCH Mills is guarded. "We have a very good draw and we should do well and make the final six, but as for a medal let's talk about that after we make the six," he said. "Really, any one of 10 teams could win a medal." Australia, ranked between eight a few days and should be fine in a week or two. "But we were unable to solve all of our problems because of his absence.

There were difficulties in establishing the right roles for some players so we must wait till Phil recovers before major selection decisions are taken." Gaze said that apart from this aspect the camp had proved very satisfactory. "There was a vast improvement in players' form this weekend over their scrimmages last weekend," Gaze said. Soon after the team is announced it will play a three-match series against crack Yugoslavian club side Buducnost in Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne. SYDNEY. Injured Canberra Cannons guard Phil Smythe re-' mains the central figure in speculation over selection of the Australian men's Olympic basketball team.

The Olympic squad of 22 players spent the weekend in camp at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra, their last training session together before national coach Lindsay Gaze announces the 12-man team on 3 May. Smythe, 25, who has a stress fracture in his foot wanted to train but decided not to risk aggravating the injury. "The doctor said if Phil trained on the injury he could have worsened it considerably," Gaze said yesterday. "He'll have an X-ray in.