Hermes have title in sights

The final match of the Statoil Leinster Senior A hockey season takes places at Belfield tonight (8.15), with Hermes needing two points from the game against Muckross to overtake Old Alexandra at the top of the table and retain their title.

When the teams met at Rathdown in November their match finished 0-0 - a repeat of that result tonight would leave Hermes and Alexandra level on points and a title play-off would be required. A score draw (two points) or a win (three points) would secure Hermes their first ever league and Irish Senior Cup double and put them through to next month's All-Ireland League finals.

Snooker: Dennis Taylor, one of snooker's most easily recognisable faces, has made an anti-climatic exit from what could well prove to be his swansong appearance in the Embassy World Championship.

The 50-year-old from Northern Ireland, who so greatly enriched the folklore of the game's leading event by squeezing past Steve Davies 18-17 on the black in the 1985 final, went out in the seventh qualifying round at Telford last night. Taylor was defeated 10-3 by Nick Walker, the world number 67 from Chester, and later admitted: "That was a pathetic way to end."

Swimming: Andrew Bree (18) will make his own small piece of history this week in Hong Kong when he becomes the first man from Northern Ireland to compete at the world short course championships. A 200 metre breast stroke British championship silver medallist in December, Bree said his aim was to compete in the next Olympics.

Rowing: Oxford have drawn first blood in the battle for Boat Race honours and will boast a slight weight advantage - 14st 10lb compared to their rivals' 14st 9 1/2 lb - for the clash on the Thames on Saturday.

Records show that the heaviest crew usually emerge victorious but Oxford may be concerned that five of the last seven victories have gone to the lighter team. Cambridge are on course for a record seven successive wins.