Sportspeak

"The GAA wishes to state emphatically that there is no truth in the assertion that Phase 2 of the redevelopment (of Croke Park) is running/going to run at £10 million over budget."

- The GAA grounding a story before it even took off.

"He went over the top and below the belt."

- Nick Faldo on Mark James as the game for gentlemen begins to show larger fractures by the week.

"The Sydney Olympics will be 100 per cent clean."

- IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch settling our troubled minds by declaring that the war on drugs has been won when the ground rules haven't even been established by his own legal committee.

"I'm very disappointed at the decision. I think Mark James was a fantastic captain at Brookline."

- Darren Clarke getting in on the action after James's resignation as assistant Ryder Cup captain.