The Spar South African women’s hockey team came back from losing 3-2 to Spain on Wednesday to beat Spain 2-1 in Barcelona on Friday. South Africa led 2-0 at the break. The goals were scored by Johke Koornhof and Pietie Coetzee. Coach Ros Howell said she was very pleased with the result of Friday’s match.
A British couple has been reported missing in the Transkei region of the Eastern Cape and relatives fear they may have been hijacked, radio station Algoa FM News reported on Friday. Matthew James Henderson (34) and his wife, Daphne (30), were last heard of on Saturday.
Serena Williams rallied from a set and 3-1 down — winning three key points with a cracked racket — to defeat Amelie Mauresmo and advance to the Wimbledon final for the third straight year. Williams will face 17-year-old Maria Sharapova in Saturday’s final.
Defending champion Roger Federer is happy to prove that big is not always better at Wimbledon. On rapid-fire grass courts, the big servers traditionally dominate but the Swiss top seed is showing that the man with the biggest gun doesn’t always win the war.
There were mixed emotions for victorious Greece pair Georgios Karagounis and Zisis Vryzas after their dramatic silver goal triumph over the Czech Republic sealed a place in the final of Euro 2004. While Vryzas was jumping for joy at realising his dream, Karagounis was reflecting on the yellow card he received that rules him out of Sunday’s final against hosts Portugal.
Paul Gascoigne stares at the huge crowd curling round staircase after staircase at Waterstones in Newcastle city centre. He is here to sign copies of his autobiography. ”Strange,” he says. ”I used to pinch stuff from here, y’know?” He grins the famous Gazza grin — cheeky, provocative, infuriating, irresistible.
Newcastle United have agreed terms with Manchester United for the transfer of the midfielder Nicky Butt to St James’ Park. A fee of about £4-million is believed to have been agreed and Butt will end his long association with Old Trafford in the next fortnight.
It is more than physical genius that makes Wayne Rooney special – he’s a bit of rough, an antidote to the glitzy Beckham years. As things stand, having dominated the opening stages of Euro 2004, there is no time like the present for the 18-year-old wonder-kid from Liverpool.
A finding of guilty with exacerbating circumstances was handed down in the Hate Speech Special Court yesterday, with sentences of imprisonment and corrective re-education passed on three defendants, Rudolph Crasston, Herbert Driver-Fullman and Josephine Jolson, all of Sandton. The trial arose from charges made under provisions of the Prohibition of Hate Speech Act of 2004. (Extract from Mail & Guardian April 14 2008)
Growing up in a formerly coloured suburb in Johannesburg, the closest I got to seeing real ”wild” animals were the scrawny, unhappy lions or cheetahs at the zoo. So it was with scepticism that after 27 years of my life I was dragged on holiday to the Kruger National Park to check out the ”Big Five”. First exposure to the rituals of visiting a national park can be bewildering.