Watkinson while acknowledging superb support reckons there is an element of the

Watkinson, while acknowledging “superb support”, reckons there is an element of the membership who won’t be content until the club have again won the famous pennant (they shared the title with Surrey in 1950). Their 34-year long allergy to the Championship irks many, not least those pushing the club’s future as a member of the high-profile “Big Five”. “Kent have some dangerous players, who can adapt to the rapidly changing situations of one-day cricket.”Doubts may linger in Lancashire minds. “I think it will be pretty even,” he said, back with his county after being left out by England for the Third Test. It promises much, not least a resurgent North versus a South clinging to past deeds; pitting sippers against suppers and Pimm’s against ale.
With three men (Atherton, Gallian and Martin) in the England side and three more (Watkinson, Crawley and Chapple) on the fringes, no side at present epitomises northern England’s cricketing renaissance as overtly as Lancashire, who must start the day as favourites However, their captain Mike Watkinson is more cautious. But though the winter game may have monopolised the dreams of the Mancunian masses, it is the summer’s cricket that may yet deliver the heady reality of grand slam glory to Old Trafford.

Half a mile from the mecca that is Manchester United, the other Old Trafford is on song; Lancashire County Cricket Club are on course for their best ever season. Handily placed in all four major competitions, they begin their quest for cricket’s “holy grail”, when they play Kent in Saturday’s Benson and Hedges Cup final at Lord’s. CLEAN sweeps in Manchester, despite the city’s sooty industrial past, have nearly always been associated with a certain big-spending football club. Women’s singles final

Holder: C Martinez (Sp)
S GRAF (Ger) bt A SANCHEZ VICARIO (Sp) 4-6 6-1 7-5Women’s doubles semi-finalsHolders: G Fernandez (US) and N Zvereva (Bela)G FERNANDEZ (US) and N ZVEREVA (Bela) v J NOVOTNA (Cz Rep) and A SANCHEZ VICARIO (Sp) 7-5 5-7 4-4 unfinishedMen’s doubles finalHolders: T Woodbridge and M Woodforde (Aus)T WOODBRIDGE (Aus) and M WOODFORDE bt R Leach and S Melville (US) 7-5 7-6 7-6.Mixed doubles semi-finalsC Suk (Cz Rep) and G Fernandez (US) bt G Connell (Can) and L Davenport (US) 7-6 6-2J STARK and M NAVRATILOVA (US) bt M WOODFORDE (Aus) and L NEILAND (Lat) 3-6 6-4 6-4Boys singles finalO Mutis (Fr) bt N Kiefer (Ger) 6-2 6-2Boys doubles semi-finalsM Lee and J Trotman (GB) bt J Gimelstob and R Wolters (US) 6-4 2-6 6- 3A Hernandez (Mex) and M Puerta (Arg) bt T Haas (Ger) and G Hill (US) 6-4 7-6Girls singles finalA Olsza (Pol) bt T Tanasugarn (Thai) 7-5 7-6Girls doubles finalT Musgrave and J Richardson (Aus) bt A Basica and S Reeves (US) 6-3 6- 0Women’s over 35 ladies doubles finalW M Turnbull (Aus) and V Wade (GB) bt B Nagelsen and J Russell (US) 6- 3 7-6Women’s playback finalR Casals (US) and R Cawley (Aus) bt O Morozova (Rus) and B Stove (Hol) 6-4 6-4Today’s order of play(2 pm start)CENTRE COURT: B BECKER (Ger) v P SAMPRAS (US); G FERNANDEZ (US) and N ZVEREVA (Bela) v J NOVOTNA (Cz Rep) and A SANCHEZ VICARIO (Sp) (to finish); J STARK (US) and M NAVRATILOVA (US) v C SUK (Cz Rep) and G FERNANDEZ (US).COURT ONE: M Lee and J M Trotman (GB) v A HERNANDEZ (Mex) and M PUERTA (Arg); C BLACK (Zim) and A OLSZA (Pol) v T MUSGRAVE and J RICHARDSON (Aus); P McNamara (Aus) and L Shiras (US) v M Bahrami (Iran) and J Higueras (Sp).Seeded players in capitals. It is the third year in succession that the “Woodies” have won the Wimbledon doubles title. The only other pair to have achieved this in the Open era are their fellow Australians, John Newcombe and Tony Roche, from 1968 to 1970.. Lee came under more pressure at 15-40, but his good serve and Trotman’s speed at the net, forced enough American mistakes to send the British players through to today’s final.Mark Woodforde and Todd Woodbridge, the Australian pair, won the men’s doubles title yesterday evening, beating the unseeded American team, Rick Leach and Scott Melville, 7-5 7-6 7-6.

With Wolters and then Gimelstob broken, victory seemed a formality, but the English boys wobbled in sight of the winning post, allowing the Americans back to 5-3. The tension even got to the coaches and relatives in the stands, producing a petty spat. They looked to have the winning momentum in the final set, with Lee tottering at 0-40 on his own serve, but the British boys dug in, saved the game and then took a 4-0 lead.Their tennis now was just about as convincing as it could get at this level, with Trotman finding all kinds of angles with his volleys, and Lee punching his strong ground-strokes down the American flanks. Indeed Lee was among the first intake in 1990, and yesterday’s result will have done a great deal for the morale of the school.Lee, from Worthing, had already reached the quarter- finals of the junior singles here and, the slight but aggressive Trotman, who has just emerged from five months off with glandular fever, actually proved the more reliable server, and his movement around the court and his fierce double-fisted backhand was a constant threat.The English took the first set 6-4, but the Americans broke back immediately in the first game of the second set which they took 6-2.

They are both products of the Lawn Tennis Association/Rover Junior Tennis Initiative which coaches promising boys and girls in residence at Bisham Abbey. SOME pretty good names have cropped up in the finals of the junior boys’ doubles championships at Wimbledon since they were initiated in 1982 – Pat Cash, Petr Korda, Wayne Ferreira and even that good old Canadian – sorry Brit – Greg Rusedski in 1991. So it was a conspiciously good omen for British tennis yesterday when the English pairing of James Trotman, aged 16, and Martin Lee, aged 17, won through to the finals – the first Britons ever to do so – by beating an older, much more fancied American duo, Justin Gimelstob and Ryan Wolters, 6-4 2-6 6-3.
The physical advantages enjoyed by the 18-year-old Americans went for nothing as the two rather ungainly but utterly spirited Brits played with great skill and strategic awareness. The West Indies will be hard- pressed to stop now, whatever Ray Illingworth orders the groundsmen to concoct.. They came to Edgbaston after an especially rough week, beaten by England at Lord’s, crushed by Sussex, a middle-of-the-table county side, and beset by internal difficulties that had led to the expulsion of one of their recalcitrant senior players.Captain Richardson and the managers Wes Hall and Andy Roberts have worked wonders to lift morale within a few days. His dispatch of Darren Gough was classic fast bowling, a throttling bouncer one ball that was fended into gully’s lap only to be cancelled out by a no-ball call followed by a fuller delivery that a very tentative bat guided to the same fielder.Even given that things suited them literally down to the ground, this was a stirring recovery by the West Indies.