The Age from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia • Page 54

4 SPORT THE SUNDAY AGE NEWS 26 JUNE 1994 Doohan further ahead MOTOR CYCLING Assen, Saturday ustralian Michael Doohan A mance produced at a the masterly Dutch perfor- Grand Prix here today to win his fifth title of the season after a bitter dogfight with Brazilian Alex Barros. Doohan increased his lead at the top of the riders' championships to a massive 42 points while reigning champion Kevin Schwantz, riding with a fracture and four dislocated bones in his left wrist, finished fifth. Doohan, on his Honda, and Barros, on a Suzuki, exchanged the lead throughout the final stages. Doohan dominated the straights and the Brazilian crept back through turns, while podium finisher Alex Criville of Spain grimly tried to stay in contact. Doohan, a winner in Germany earlier in the month, bided his time before going back in front with two laps to go and then opened up the power to storm away for the 15th of his career.

"I tried to make a break earlier but Alex came with me. I tried again, and again he came by," he said. "But I decided to give him my best shot with two laps to go and this time I was lucky and he did not come back." Schwantz, Doohan's main challenger for the title and who injured his wrist during a crash on Thursday, needed a specially designed left hand grip to race. He actually took the lead early on after former world 250cc champion John Kocinski of the United States had stolen the lead at the first bend. But the Texan's moment of gloty then did not Doohan last long hurtled as Barros and by.

Kocinski, dropping out of the reckoning, then made a huge misJudgment and rode straight off the course and was forced to do a u- turn to regain the track. I Honda rider Anthony Gobert has claimed pole position for today's seventh round of the Shell Oils Australian Superbike Championship at Mallala. Gobert's time of 1 min 9.75 sec was only .06 sec quicker than second fastest qualifier, Ducati rider Scott Doohan and came after the 19-year-old had tumbled harmlessly from his bike during yesterday's opening session. Gobert leads the championship on 183 points, 27 points clear of Doohan, with Kirk McCarthy third on 153 points. Bolden fires as Magic cruises BASKETBALL By Andrew Johnstone TITH just under nine night's second minutes to National quarter play of in Basket- last the ball League game at the National Tennis Centre, the Newcastle Falcons led the South East Melbourne Magic by two points.

Eleven minutes later, the Magic led by 19. Game over. That 33-12 Magic run was the backbone of the home team's 116-88 eclipse of the visitors. In the showdown between the Magic's Adonis Jordan and Newcastle's Derek Rucker, the points were clearly Jordan's. The time they spent pitted directly against each other was minimal the Magic preferring to deal with Rucker with the pit-bull defence of Darren Lucas but Jordan's performance was the better.

He finished with 17 points and 12 assists while Rucker, one of the league's leading scorers was held to just eight points on 19 per cent shooting, (3-16). The Magic's last two Tennis Centre outings stirring wins against Melbourne and Perth ranked among regular-season classics. Last night's game was anything but. The Falcons, on a -game winning streak, threatened to press Magic when they skipped to a sixpoint lead in the first quarter, but as a contest the game was over at halftime, with the Magic ahead 56-44. Newcastle rallied behind a flurry of three-pointers from guard Martin McLean to reduce the margin to eight after the Magic had opened a 19-point break early in the third quarter.

But his good work was wasted when a series of turnovers resulted in the Magic's lead swelling to 20 at three- time. The blowout continued through the fourth quarter when the Magic went ahead by as many as 31. Bruce Bolden, in his classiest outing for the Magic this year, led all scorers with 26 points despite sitting out most of the last quarter. He grabbed 14 rebounds, and Lucas added 21 points, most of them coming from fast-break lay-ups. Terry Dozier and McLean finished with 15 for the Falcons.

Bolden's assignment was made a little easier after three early fouls kept his opponent, Grant Kruger, on the bench for most of the night. In fact, Kruger's best work came in the dying minutes, when he got Frustration of defeat: Terry Dozier Falcons' 28-point loss at the Tennis involved in a slanging match with Magic coach Brian Goorjian. Sadly for the Falcons, it was the only time the Magic was stopped all night. In Geelong, the Supercats beat Hobart for the second time this season after a dramatic mid-game revival. Hobart looked in control in the first half but could not hold out the Supercats, who won 111-98.

Hobart's Keith Nelson was dominant, shooting 31 points to halftime. At one stage, Geelong trailed by 18 points in the second term. However Nelson played just over half the third quarter after he hit foul trouble and was eventually sent off with just under three minutes left. He had 38 points and 17 rebounds. In Sydney, forward Mario Donaldson provided the impetus for the Kings in their 117-106 victory over the Brisbane Bullets.

gives vent to his feelings after the Centre. Picture: JIM HOOPER Donaldson scored a game high 37 points, while fellow American Leon Trimmingham contributed 27 and guard Damian Keogh 20. For the Bullets, forward Leroy Loggins top scored with 25 points while forward David Colbert notched 23. The win was Sydney's first regular season victory over Brisbane for more than three years. In Canberra, centre Jason Reese, in an inspired return to form, led the Cannons to a heart-stopping 100-98 victory over the Gold Coast Rollers.

The Cannons led by 19 points at half-time and at the three-quarter break, but a three-point bombardment from the Rollers brought the game to 98-98 with 10 seconds to play. Cannons' guard David Close was fouled and went to the line to score two of his 18 points to seal victory. A new lease of life Sport 8 All the leagues Sport 22 Angry showdown looms for Keas factions AST Wednesday's State League almost netball played competition without was the reigning premier. Keas had privately threatened to boycott its round12 match in protest at the off-court events that have plunged the club into crisis. Instead, a team meeting after the 37-goal win over Kyabram-Diamond Creek decided to finish the season.

After that a mass player walkout has not been ruled out. The team sponsor, Kea Australia, would follow. The issue will peak tomorrow night at the club's annual general meeting at Methodist Ladies' College, with the group comprising players' parents and supporters, headed by Bert Gaudion, claiming a technicality has cost it the right to vote and therefore seek election. Dale will I be replaced as Reds boss BASEBALL By John McDonald DHIL Waverley DALE, Reds who has since led their the inception, will not manage the club next season. Dale will remain as a player and pitching coach but will be replaced by a manager from the Atlanta Braves organisation for the 1994-95 Australian Baseball League season.

But he denied that he had been sacked as a result of the Reds' medioere performance last- -summer, when they finished sixth in the eight-team competition. "We all felt that we needed a change of manager," Dale said. "I was finding it pretty tough trying to play and make the decisions at the same time. On a day-to-day basis, it's a tough thing to have to do. "The standard of competition has increased dramatically and so have the demands on managers.

Sure I'll miss it, but the main issue is success for the team. "Other ABL clubs have been successful by bringing out managers from their American affiliates and it's probably the way to go." With Dale as manager, the Reds won the first ABL title in 1989-90 but have finished fourth, third, fourth and sixth in the past four seasons. Last summer's sixth placing was the first losing season (22 wins, 31 losses) in the Reds' history. Dale, 31, has been the ABL's most valuable player (1989-90), pitcher of the year (89-90) and twice manager of the year (89-90 and 92-93). His replacement has not been named, but it will most likely be a manager of one of Atlanta's Rookie League or single A-class teams.

Meanwhile, Dale leaves today with the Australian under-19 squad to play in the world youth championship in Canada. The Australians will play warm-up matches in American Samoa and at colleges in Georgia and Texas before the world championship, which begins on 21 July in Brandon, Manitoba. The team has been weakened by the unavailability of Waverley Reds pitcher Micheal Nakamura, who is studying for his VCE. Even so, Dale says the Australians are capable of finishing in the top three. "Our players have a good skill level and a sound knowledge of the game," Dale said.

"If they play to their potential, I don't see why we can't get among the medals." The Australian squad is: Pitchers: David Gooda, Brett Griffiths, Luke Hutbert, Craig Lewis, Daniel McGrath, Jason Roberts, Russell Spear, Adam Widdison. Catchers: Ben Keats, Andrew Utting. Infielders: Clayton Barnes, Gavin Fingleson, Grant Hayes, Shane Hogan, Adrian Versaico. Outfielders: Sam Grant, Dean Marnell, Matthew McDougall. By Linda Pearce The origin of what has become a nasty and destructive split can be traced to differences between cocoaches Leanne Mackie and Robyn English, which festered all season and erupted last month when Mackie was sacked by the committee.

English was then forced to resign after a unanimous vote of no-confidence from the players, who back Mackie. A new coach, Lyn Jenkins, was appointed earlier this month, but the team has not trained for 12 weeks and lost two games at the height of the dispute, leaving the Melbourne Pumas as title favorites. Meanwhile, off the court: The club's recent incorporation has been challenged by the Gaudion group and doubt cast on the validity of the constitution governing tomorrow night's meeting; I Kea Australia managing director Mick Erwin believes the club is on the verge of self-destruction. Erwin, CORNC whose membership application was one of those rejected, has also queried the election procedure; I the Gaudion group has received letters from the Mountain District Netball Association distancing itself from a member soliciting proxy votes on behalf of the present committee. Of the 271 names on the voting register, many are proxies.

Mackie, also the team's goal shooter, claims the players have suffered "horrendously', possibly causing irreparable harm to their title defence and Super League quest. "The team will be lucky to recover from the damage that's been done, both mentally, in the slanderous things that have been said about a lot of the players, and through their game, which has suffered because they have not trained," Mackie said. Gaudion said his group's attempt to register 64 legitimate new memubers chad failed because none, had, been made aware that a particular application form was required. "It's just ludicrous," he said. "Our applications were in the specified form, but not necessarily on the specified form.

We did more than what we had to, in good faith. "People like Bev and Graeme O'Donnell, parents of an Australian player (Shelley), have been rejected as members in preference to the proxy of someone from Glenrowan, who couldn't recognise a player and has never attended a game." But Kea president Trish Ayers, who is not seeking re-election, said the committee had acted properly. "Our legal advice says we must go by the book on this," she said. "Their votes were invalid, unfortunately, and some were signed by members who were not financial." Captain Shelley O'Donnell said the players had dissociated themselves from English, who is seeking ate election at. overall club Norman closes on leader GOLF Hartford, Saturday REG Norman shot a five-underG par 65 to vault to within two strokes of the lead after the second round of the Greater Hartford Open yesterday then said he was not "really happy" with his form.

"I'm not really crisp," said Norman, who was one shot short of equalling the course record. He had a six-under-par halfway total of 134 to be sharing third place, with American Dave Stockton junior in the lead. Steve Elkington was seven off the pace. Said Norman: "I'm putting terribly, probably as bad as I have all year." Australians to miss the cut of 141 were Brad King (142), Brett Ogle (143), Brad Hughes (144), Ian Baker-Finch (145), Steve Rintoul (145) and Jeff Woodland (148)..