• Galway forced to leave vacancies

  Injury problems have forced Galway to leave two vacant spots in their team to face Clare in the All-Ireland hurling quarter-final replay at Croke Park on Bank Holiday Monday. p
  

• Dublin v Meath: The Leinster final meetings this decade

  Dublin and Meath have met four times in the Leinster Football final this decade, with two victories each. Dublin have the biggest winning margin (10 points) from 1995 but also the smallest (one point) from the previous year. p
  

• Lawrie stays calm

  Earlier this week, four-year-old Craig Lawrie brought some of his pals into his parents' middle-class family home in Aberdeen. Seeing a rather special, silver claret jug sitting on a mantlepiece in the living room, one of the youngsters went over and began kissing it. p
  

• Swedes can reap another rich harvest

  It could be the turn of Joakim Haeggman or Michael Jonzon, or perhaps one of the younger brigade such as Christopher Hanell. With 18 of them in the field, it's not easy picking a Swedish winner of the Stg£1.35 million Smurfit European Open, which begins at The K Club this morning. p
  

• Give youth a chance and level the playing field

  Many people have the impression that prizemoney distribution is about to be altered so that those who miss the cut will still be able to turn a profit. This is not the case: the discussions taking place are aimed merely at trying to reduce the losses incurred by those missing the cut - rather a different scenario. p
  

• Four share lead in US

  Kevin Sutherland, Mike Springer, Tom Scherrer and Skip Kendall all fired seven-under-par 63s to share the first round lead at the Greater Hartford Open in Connecticut yesterday. p
  

• Festival bonanza in new year calendar

  There will be a festival overload next year when the Fairyhouse Grand National meeting and the Punchestown festival will be run on consecutive weeks. p
  

• Champions at the helm

  In possibly the greatest move yet to revitalise the national Helmsmans championship, the Irish Sailing Association (ISA) has changed the name of the event and announced a new sponsor for the regatta, that has its origins in the 1940s. p
  

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