Cricket: Former England batsman Cyril Washbrook, who was recalled for an Ashes test at the age of 41 while serving as a selector and scored 98, has died at the age of 84.

Making his debut in 1933, Washbrook served his county Lancashire staunchly, scoring 34,101 runs, while his Test career was marked by century opening partnerships with Len Hutton soon after the second World War. He made 37 Test appearances.

Badminton: Irish champion Sonya McGinn suffered a disappointing second-round exit in the Austrian Open yesterday, losing in straight sets to Ginny Severien of the Netherlands.

McGinn, ranked five in Europe, had beaten Bulgaria's Petia Nedeltcheva in the opening round earlier in the morning but missed out on a quarter-final place, winning just four points against the Dutch number four.

Austrian Open (at Pressbaum) - First round: S McGinn (Ire) bt P Nedeltcheva (Bul) 11-6, 11-2; second round: McGinn lost to G Severien (Neth) 1-11, 3-11.

Squash: Derek Ryan has regained his place in the world top 10, rising one place in the latest rankings, issued yesterday by the Professional Squash Association. The Irish champion, currently in action at the European Team Championships in Austria, has not played in a major ranking event since January because of the near financial collapse of the professional circuit but has benefited from players above him losing their ranking points from last year's British Open. Ryan's next ranking event is in Amsterdam at the beginning of June.

World Top 10: 1 J Power (Can), 2 P Nicol (Scot), 3 A Barada (Egy), 4 P Johnson (Eng), 5 M Heath (Scot), 6 A Gough (Wales), 7 S Parke (Eng), 8 A Hill (Aus), 9 R Eyles (Aus), 10 D Ryan (Ire).