Sports digest

A round-up of today's other stories in brief

Resilient Clarke stands tall

CRICKET: Michael Clarke produced the best innings of his young Australia captaincy but South Africa edged an enthralling opening day of the first Test at Cape Town.

Clarke stood alone with an unbeaten century to help the tourists reach the close of a day shortened by rain and bad light at 214 for eight.

The 30-year-old defied a seaming Newlands wicket to score rapidly, finishing the day on 107 from 114 balls, all while his team-mates struggled against a Proteas attack led again by Dale Steyn.

He snared four wickets and could have added Clarke to that list early on when he tested the Australian skipper to the full with a torrid onslaught of short-pitched bowling.

Only Shaun Marsh (44) and Mitchell Johnson (20) joined their captain in reaching double figures.

Death of Carlow's Tommy O'Neill

GAELIC GAMES: The GAA in Carlow is mourning the sudden death yesterday afternoon of Tommy O'Neill, County GAA Board secretary. Aged 63, Tommy had served as county secretary since April 1986, succeeding the late Jim O'Brien, and was regarded as one of the leading GAA officials in the country.

A well-known figure at GAA headquarters in Croke Park, Tommy was a regular Carlow delegate to the association’s annual congress.

He played his club football for Tinryland, winning SFC titles in 1971, ’72, ’75, ‘79 and ’81. Tommy held the record as top scorer in a Carlow SFC final, recording 1-8 in the 1972 decider when Tinryland defeated Eire Og. He also represented his county at intercounty level.

He is survived by his wife Goretti, son Shane, daughters Emer and Grainne, brother Paddy and sister Mary.

Fennelly out of All Star games

HURLING:Kilkenny's Michael Fennelly will play no part in the All Stars games in the US. The 2011 Hurler of the Year will miss the games in San Francisco after it was confirmed he had broken a bone in his left wrist.

Fennelly suffered the injury while playing for his club Ballyhale Shamrocks in the county final replay against James Stephens. Fennelly is due to fly out with the All Stars on November 30th, but will not feature in any games there.

Peddlers Cross off to flying start

RACING: Donald McCain was able to breathe a sigh of relief after his stable star Peddlers Cross made a flawless start to his chasing career at Bangor.

The six-year-old was unbeaten in his first seven starts under Rules and when he did finally meet with defeat in last season’s Champion Hurdle, he went down fighting to finish a narrow second to Hurricane Fly.

That titanic tussle looked to have left its mark when he turned in a disappointing display at Aintree in the spring, but McCain blamed himself for that no-show and was confident his pride and joy was back on song for his seasonal return.

In truth, the 170-rated hurdler did not have to be at his best to beat two rivals rated vastly inferior in the Golden Bear Beginners’ Chase, but it was hard not to be impressed by a simply immaculate round of jumping.

Coral and Betfred both left the gelding unchanged as the 6 to 1 favourite for the Arkle Trophy back at Cheltenham in March.

Butt launches appeal against prison sentence

CRICKET:Former Pakistan cricket captain Salman Butt has filed an appeal against a 30-month prison sentence for fixing parts of a Test match last year, his lawyer said.

Butt and bowlers Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir were jailed last week for their part in a gambling-inspired plot to bowl no-balls at pre-arranged times during the match against England at Lord’s in August 2010.

Lawyer Yasin Patel said that an appeal has been lodged against the sentence handed down at London’s Southwark Crown Court.

Butt and Asif have been held in London’s Wandsworth Prison while teenager Amir is in a young offenders’ institute. Judge Jeremy Cooke told the court that the offences had damaged the integrity of a game famed for its fairness and left cricket fans to wonder if matches were a genuine contest between bat and ball. Asif was jailed for a year and Amir for six months in sentences seen as sending a strong message to sporting cheats.

Djokovic cashes in at Paris Masters

TENNIS: Novak Djokovic pocketed a €1.2-million bonus just for turning up on court before making light of shoulder pains to beat Croatian Ivan Dodig 6-4 6-3 in the Paris Masters second round yesterday.

An ATP rule designed to entice top players to take part in the main events states that, as world number one, Djokovic is entitled to a €1.5-million bonus if he plays in all eight Masters tournaments.

The bonus drops to €1.2 million if he misses one – and to nothing if he misses two. Having skipped the Shanghai Masters through injury, the Serbian suffered a recurrence of a shoulder problem in his semi-final defeat in Basel by Japan’s Kei Nishikori last week.

Djokovic, though, dismissed talk that he had turned up in Paris just to cash in the cheque.

Roger Federer dismissed French wildcard Adrian Mannarino 6-2 6-3, while Andy Murray defeated France’s Jeremy Chardy 6-2 6-4.