The Guardian from London, Greater London, England • 19

THE GUARDIAN Tuesday March 12 1991 SPORTS NEWS 19 Cycling Toshiba team get it white Rugby Union WeflsGn poDBce decDDedl casta Robert Armstrong Alex Harding "Police officers are subject to a special set of regulations regarding their employment," he said, adding that their selection for the national side would not be affected by a purely commercial issue. Ironically the four policemen in the England team Dean Richards, Paul Ackford, Wade Dooley and Nigel Heslop may fare better than their Welsh counterparts even though the Rugby Football Union has been reluctant to establish a players' pool. Yesterday a Home Office spokesman said the question of fringe benefits for rugby-playing policemen would in each case be a matter for the local chief constable to determine. Dudley Wood, the RFU secretary, said he was "amazed" that the issue had taken so long to surface. "This is something policemen and servicemen will have to settle with their employers," he said.

"The RFU is not a clearing house for commercial deals on behalf of players." Servicemen such as Rory Underwood of the RAF will not learn what they can accept from the England players' pool until the Ministry of Defence has completed a detailed review of the matter. It is thought that the MoD may adopt the same pragmatic line as the Home Office in leaving each case to the discretion of the appropriate unit commanding officer. UGBY-playing police-men in South Wales have been warned by their nnHre authority not to he party to any commercial spin-off from playing the game. The official directive is aimed chiefly at international players who would stand to benefit from the new commercial arrangements made by the Welsh Rugby Union. Two policemen in the current Wales squad, Martyn Morris and Emyr Lewis, may in consequence lose each this year as a result of their employer's policy, for last week the WRU appointed a players' agency, First Artist Corporation, which promised to generate 100,000 for the national squad from sponsors and advertisers in the first 12 months of its three-year contract "We have looked at the matter very closely," David Rees, a spokesman for South Wales Pnliro oaiH veatontav.

"Our players have been told they are not allowed to receive rewaras. If they do accept them they have been warned that then-careers could be in jeopardy." Jonathan Price, the WRU commercial executive, con-ripri that nnliramen mieht not be able to benefit from the mon ies paid into the trust fund created for the players by the WRU. TONY ROMINGER of Switzerland became the sole leader of the Paris-Nice "race to the sun" after his Toshiba team scored a convincing win in yesterday's team time-trial around the town of Nevers. Both Rominger and the Frenchman Thierry Marie began the stage wearing the race-leader's white jersey after they had clocked identical times in Sunday's prologue time-trial. Yesterday, though, Marie's Castorama squad finished third and he slipped to eighth overall.

Rominger and six of his seven team-mates completed the 45km course at an average speed of almost 30 mph to finish an emphatic 56 seconds ahead of the seven-times race winner Sean Kelly's PDM team, who were slowed by two punctures. Toshiba's superiority in the test of collective strength placed Rominger lmin 12sec ahead of the Irishman, who moved from 22nd to ninth overall. The Swiss rider's team now hold the first six places, so they are well placed to defend his lead by marking Kelly and any other rivals. Their cohesion came as a surprise: over the winter the team came close to losing their sponsorship, their manager was fired, and Rominger's former co-leader, Jean-Francois Bernard, walked out in a huff. The new manager, Bernard Vallet, made his riders spend three days last week training on the course, and this accounted for their success, according to Rominger.

"I didn't expect the team to do so well," he said. "On Sunday, however, we had three riders in the first four in the prologue, and if they are strong individually they can also do well as a team." Motor Racing SA in World Cup bid Nevers on time Martin Earley of Ireland does Ms stint at the front of the PDM team who finished second in the time-trial around the French town Athletics SOUTH AFRICA is one of four countries bidding to host the third World Cup In 1995. Argentina, Canada and New Zealand are also making bids and all will be considered at the International Board's annual meeting in London next week. No decision will be taken until after the four countries have been given the chance to submit detailed presentations to the board when it meets in London at the end of this year's World Cup in November. New Zealand co-hosted the first World Cup four years ago with Australia.

South Africa's chances depend on the progress made by the Pre- Tennis No Spanish ayes Ominous deja vu of Senna Ison's hard work earns him match with No. 1 seed often akin to carrying a piano along a tightrope. "McLaren's great strength is that they have a very even temperament as a team," he explained, "whereas Ferrari's is very emotional. On Friday when Alesi took the overnight pole position they were delighted, almost saying that the world championship was ours. When Senna beat me to pole on Saturday they were suddenly in the depths of despair.

I tried to tell them, 'Look, it's one lap in one practice session for one race. Don't worry-' But it is a challenge." Prost believes the Ferrari will be more competitive on the faster circuits, but if the car looks no stronger in the Brazilian Grand Prix in a fortnight the warning bells will start to clang back at Maranello. For Canon Williams, Phoenix was frustrating. Nigel Mansell and Riccardo Patrese showed that the new Renault-engined car could hang on to the leaders, but failures in the electro-hydraulic gearchange system mean an intensive test session Alan Hsnry In Phoenix IT MAY be unduly pessimistic to suggest that Ayrton Senna's crushing victory in Sunday's US Grand Prix here heralds a season of McLaren domination, but there certainly was an uncomfortable feeling of deja vu in the paddock as the dust settled after the race. Senna's success with the new Marlboro McLaren MP46 and its totally new Honda VX2 engine caught the Formula One fraternity slightly off balance.

The car was late being finished and the Brazilian's initial assessment of the winter's engine-development programme was not encouraging. Yet through that maze of barriers lining the Arizona city's streets the opposition was totally overwhelmed. In objectively analytical terms, a post mortem on the weekend makes bleak reading for Ferrari, Williams and Benetton. These three teams had been tipped to cut into the SennaMcLaren advantage dur- Golf JohnRodda THE power games in Seville being played out among members of the International Amateur Athletic Federation were almost as exciting as some of the events in the arena of the world indoor championships; but not all of them knew what was, and is, going on, and of those who did, or thought they did, not ail were prepared to tell. This August in Tokyo, on the eve of the outdoor world championships there, the IAAF holds elections.

It is a chance to pronounce on the performance of Primo Nebiolo, the president who was re-elected four years ago in Rome just before the scandalous rigging of the long-jump result by Italian officials trying to give their compatriot Giovanni Evangelisti a medal. For months the row raged in the Italian media, which shared the not uncommon view that Nebiolo, as president of the IAAF, the organising committee and the Italian federation, should have offered to resign from at least one of those bodies. Eventually he stood down from his Italian post. Most of the world has forgotten the affair though, to stir memories, poor Evangelisti took bronze at Seville but there are some in athletics who would like to voice the opinion that Nebiolo has become far more dominant a figure than is healthy for the sport. However, finding someone to stand against him is proving hard, largely because the candi Ice Hockey toria government in dismantling apartheid and the integration of the black and white rugby organisations.

South Africa's acceptance back into the sporting world moved a step closer yesterday after a meeting in Botswana when a new group, the Interim National Olympic Committee of South Africa, agreed to oversee the unification of the country's divided sporting community. Bill McLaren, the voice of rugby for millions of BBC TV viewers, will be heard on Radio 5 during this year's World Cup. ITV has the contract to televise the cup, so McLaren returns to radio after an absence of 30 years. idly dispatched the Finn Pasi As at Coventry two weeks ago Chris Wilkinson was too strong for the promising 16-year-old Andrew Richardson of Lincoln, handling the youngster's big serve well to win 6-3, 6-3. But in another domestic contest James Lenton played confidently to upset the higher-ranked Paul Hand 7-6, 7-6.

Today Mark Petchey, the champion at Telford last week, opens his challenge against Kirk, while Ison faces the No. 1 seed, Nicola Bruno of Italy. Should Petchey win again he would receive 36 precious ATP computer points. way at last also won the doubles title. "All the best players who were healthy, except for Lendl, were here, so for me it was a big honour to win the title.

"To be able to play with the top guys was something I doubted in the past, but this erases those doubts." Since teaming up in November with the former Spanish Davis Cup stalwart Jose Higueras, who now works as a coach for the United States Tennis Association at his base in nearby Palm Springs, Courier has changed from a hit-hard-and-hope player to a thinker. Steffi Graf, relegated to No. 2 in the world rankings by Monica Seles after a record 186 weeks at the top, fell victim to another of her major rivals, Gabiiela Saba-tini, in the final of the Virginia Slims tournament at Boca Raton, Florida. Saba-tini, currently ranked No. 4, won the title for the second successive year by beating Graf 6-4, 7-6 (8-fi).

5 0 whitewash the third and fourth before an early 50 break in the fifth helped complete the whitewash. The 22-year-old from Bristol said: "I know I can play the game. I've been practising well and when you can't get results it's heartbreaking. I came here with a new attitude. I wasn't attacking enough." He now plays the winner of tonight's match between Dean Reynolds and Dene O'Kane for a place in the semi-finals.

Richardson streaks into Ryder Cup contention date is unlikely to win and could subsequently expect few favours from the president Now the opposition has been distracted by a resolution that would allow the IAAF council to move the organisation's HQ out of London, its home since it was founded 79 years ago. The belief is that Nebiolo wants the power centre in Monte Carlo, sitting alongside the International Athletic Foundation he created and which has large funds drawn from athletics used for the promotion of the sport. The fact that control of this foundation is removed from the democratic process of the IAAF has already caused concern. Some in Seville felt the possible shift out of London might be a smokescreen to divert Nebiolo's opponents from finding a suitable presidential candidate before the May closing date. There is also a move to dispense with the office of treasurer, at present held by Robert Stinson, one of the very few Britons holding office in an international sporting federation.

And Nebiolo intends to increase the size of his council again, to 25, and the number of vice-presidents to five; those who are tempted are hardly likely to back a candidate against him. Meanwhile, close attention should be given to the competition side of the sport The event in Seville was hardly worthy of a "world championships" tag; soon a sponsor will surely raise the question of quality. Worldwide, there are too many competitions; it is time for a touch on the brake. the Fife Flyers in the relegation play-offs. Sims believes Henderson is the man to ensure there is no repetition of this season's close call.

"He has already agreed to advise us through the play-offs and is close to finalising a more permanent agreement," he said of the Calgary native who left Murrayfield "by mutual consent" last month. "What we need is three years of stability on the coaching level, somebody to run that level all the way through the club from the under-12s up to the Barons. Somebody tough enough to take the responsibility and do the whole thing. And I think Archie is the man to do that." Henderson's former club won the Scottish Cup for a fourth consecutive year at the weekend. Tony Hand scored hat-tricks in each game as Murray-field beat the Glasgow Saints 11-7 on Saturday and the Ayr Raiders 9-4 in Sunday's final.

In Bulgaria, Great Britain's under-18 team won the gold medal at the European Junior Championship Pool tournament and with it promotion to Pool for next season. They beat Hungary 11-1, Bulgaria 4-3 and Belgium 13-1 on Sunday. this week. Mansell remains confident at this early stage, aiming for a top-three finish in Brazil; that is possible, but the Williams FW14 needs quickly to develop the mechanical consistency of Senna's McLaren. Benetton came away from Phoenix with a strong third place, thanks to Nelson Piquet's consistency, and one wrecked chassis after Roberto Moreno hit Patrese's spun Williams.

Fourth and fifth places went to the impressive new Tyrrell-Hondas of Stefano Modena and Satoru Nakajima, both of whom performed with an unobtrusive efficiency throughout the race. The performance of the 22-year-old Mika Hakkinen in the Lotus 102 was astounding. On his Fl debut he took 13th place on the grid, quite unQustered by the rarefied competition though in the race he somehow managed to activate the quick-release catch on the steering column, which meant the wheel virtually came off in his hands at 165 mph. He eventually retired from the race with a fire. Davies earns $60,000 by scrapping wood GNORING her driver and her own principles, Laura Davies has gained her first United States tournament victory for nearly two years.

She shot a five-under-par 67 on Sunday to take the Inamorl Classic and $60,000 (about 30,000) in Poway, California. Propelled by a run of four birdies in five holes on the outward half, she came from three strokes behind Tina Barrett to win by four strokes from Judy Dickinson and Lynn Connelly. When her drives became increasingly erratic recently Davies lost confidence in her woods, and she decided to use only irons In the Inamorl tournament. The LPGA's longest hitter succumbed just three times in four rounds, all at the par-five 10th, where she used the driver for her approach shot. She bogeyed that hole each time, parring it only on the day she kept the driver in her bag.

"This is the sort of coarse where possibly I need to use irons," Davies said. "But you need to hit your woods in golf. I don't like not playing with my woods." Dickinson, a 13-year LPGA veteran, was especially impressed with Davies's play off the tee considering she used only Irons. "There aren't many that could do that," she said. "We've had some girls on tour that were long but couldn't keep it on the golf course.

But Laura has it alL" ing the year ahead, but the magnitude of the struggle facing them has been graphically redefined. Prost was philosophical about his own chances before the race. "I'm always going to be something like a second a lap slower than Ayrton round a street circuit like this," he said. Despite qualifying second on the grid he made no secret of his dislike for the Phoenix track, with its geometric cor-i ners approached blind through a tunnel of concrete. He also pointed out that the Ferrari 642 is not at its best on such tracks: "I don't think the car you saw out there this afternoon was the car we have spent the winter testing, as far as performance potential is concerned.

It doesn't work terribly well on a street circuit" Coming from some of his rivals, this would sound like the excuse of a beaten man. From Prost it is an attempt logically to rationalise the situation and at the same time sustain the Ferrari team's psychological equilibrium, a task all too He has begun this year rather better than he left off. He won the season opener, the Girona Open at Pals, finished joint 19th in the Mediterranean Open at St Raphael, then came second on Sunday. That adds up to over 120,000 in his last five tournaments, with his 76,755 this year making him a comfortable leader, by 10,000 over Ian Woosnam, of the order of merit The popular estimate of what will be needed to gain an automatic place in the Ryder Cup team is around 180,000 and clearly Richardson is a substantial proportion of the way there. He has a further 22 tournaments, in theory, to win the remainder; not a difficult proposition, on the face of it But Richardson knows that there will now be a weight of expectation on him.

People are wondering not if he will become a good player, but how good a player? Might he take his game to the next, championship, level? There will also be speculation about a place in the Ryder Cup team, and the pressures produced by that can destroy players. In 1989, for instance, Denis Durnian missed eight successive half-way cuts when he needed only to get through one to be in that year's team. He has still not recovered, he confessed recently. There is also the fact that the tournament fields will be becoming tougher; money harder to make. Nick Faldo, Bernhard Langer and Sandy Lyle have David Irvine IGHT British players, half the remaining field, are through to the second round of the British Satellite Masters event at Bramhall today; three having earned a bye, three by beating compatriots, and the remaining two David Ison and Darren Kirk by defeating overseas opponents.

Ison, a 23-year-old from Leicestershire, made heavy work of finishing off Bret Richardson, allowing the Australian back from 0-5 to 3-5 and 30-30 in the deciding set before winning 6-3, 6-7, 6-3, but Kirk rap Courier finds his Martin Jamee In Indian Welle OR most, a world ranking of 26 would be considered an achievement. Not for Jim Courier, though; having seen his US junior contemporaries Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras and Michael Chang sweep past him into the spotlight ne was desperate to taste the big time for himself. Courier, now 20, often won dered if he had missed the boat, but those doubts disappeared here yesterday as he reflected on his 4-6, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-4) victory over the third seed Guy Forget in the final of the Newsweek Cham pions Cup. Not only had he won nts first $1 million tournament on the D3MATP tour, he had beaten three top-10 players (Agassi, Emilio Sanchez and Forget) along the way and he had displayed a variety to his game not seen before. "There is no question that this is the best week ot my career," said Courier, who Snooker Hendry suffers MARK JOHNSTON-ALLEN, ranked 59th in the world, sprang the upset of the season with a 5-0 win over Stephen Hendry, the winner of five of the previous six world-ranking events, to reach the European Open quarter-finals in Rotterdam, writes Clive Everton.

After taking a scrappy opening frame, Johnston-Allen made a break of 114 in the second and scrambled home on pink and black respectively in Barons build the Archie way not yet put in an appearance, nor have any of the strong contingent of Australians Craig Parry, Rodger Davis, Harwood nor most of the South Africans, as represented by John Bland and Hugh Baiocchi. So what does Richardson, a reticent man, think of his chances? Prior to Sunday he refused to contemplate them. Now he concedes that the thought has to be dealt with and the only way to do that is in the best tradition, "by taking one tournament at a But he will be reassured by two things. The first is that despite the imminent influx of good players he has proved, at Valderrama, that he can do well against a full field. The second is that he has finished first, equal nineteenth and second so far this year without playing, or putting, as well as he can.

At 6ft l'in and 14 stone this former English Amateur champion only has to time the ball well to send it miles. He is a "streak" putter, too, employing an unusual method that involves standing very open, taking the putter back outside the line and then fractionally slicing across the ball. His father, a professional himself, does not like the action and it does look suspect on the curlier putts. In a year or two it will probably look very different. But for the moment, like everything else in Richardson's game, it works; and, as they say in the United States, if it ain't broke don't Ox it David Davie In Santa Ponsa THE little putt that Steven Richardson missed on the 15th green at Santa Ponsa, in the last round of the Balearic Open in Palma, Majorca on Sunday, may or may not keep him out of the Ryder Cup team.

But it did almost certainly cost him his second win in the first four tournaments of the season. The putt, barely three feet, gave the eventual winner Gavin Levenson renewed hope. When he realised the leaders were faltering he saw the chance of the biggest cheque of his career, 45,825, and played the last three difficult holes in one under par to win. Levenson, a 24-year-old South African, is not qualified for the Ryder Cup, but Richardson emphatically is. Born of Scottish parents, he has opted to play as an Englishman.

His second place on Sunday, winning 30,530, was a repeat of his placing in October's Volvo Masters at Valderrama; the 45,000 he won there was not quite enough to dislodge Russell Claydon from the Rookie of the Year title but it did serve notice that this strapping young man had talent. The Volvo Masters, with one of the year's strongest fields and a good but difficult course, is a proper test of both ability and temperament; and Richardson did not just survive those tests, he almost won, with only some inspired putting by Mike Har-wood keeping him out Vic BatcheMer AFTER completing a remarkable escape from the relegation zone with Sunday's 12-9 home win over the Cleveland Bombers, the Soli hull Barons have enlisted the aid of the former Murrayfield coach Archie Henderson. Henderson will advise Soli hull as they switch from a search for survival to a run at the national championship, the difference between ending the season in eighth or ninth place in the Premier Division. Six weeks ago Barons had won only two of their previous 18 games and were rooted at the foot of the division. Since then they have taken 14 points from a possible 20, climbing two places to safety in the process.

The manager uaviu aims cites the December arrival of the Canadian forward Brent Sa-pergia as a major factor in his team's transformation from relegation candidates to champi onship contenders. "Brent has lifted the whole squad and we must have a chance of making Wembley now, the way he is fir-ine." said Sims after the Cana dian had scored five times against Cleveland, who will join.