Sports Digest/Darts: Andy Jenkins overcame a slow start to book his place in the second round of the World Grand Prix in Saggart, Co Dublin. The Portsmouth thrower squandered two match-winning opportunities against veteran Bob Anderson in the second set but held his nerve to clinch a 2-1 success.
The former world champion Anderson made a great start, racing into a two-leg lead courtesy of double 16 and a bull finish. But Jenkins is one of the most consistent performers on the Professional Darts Corporation circuit and reeled off the next three legs to snatch it.
Kevin Painter, meanwhile, dropped just one leg as he clinched an emphatic 2-0 win over Terry Jenkins. He started with a 13-darter and never really looked back, nailing double two to progress.
Painter will next face Mark Dudbridge, who clinched a 2-0 win over Dave Askew. A whitewash looked on the cards when World Championship runner-up Dudbridge clinched the first three legs.
However, Askew stopped the rot with double six and followed up with a brilliant 170 checkout.
Dudbridge - a former World Masters champion - responded with double top and took out the same outshot to secure victory.
RUGBY: Lawrence Dallaglio yesterday attacked the blame culture that has surfaced following this summer's dismal Lions tour of New Zealand.
Fall-out from the three-Test trip is continuing, with both Gavin Henson and Matt Dawson making critical comments about Lions head coach Clive Woodward. Wales star Henson blasted Woodward and tour media consultant Alastair Campbell in a newly-published book, while England scrum-half Dawson has claimed Woodward was wrong to select Jonny Wilkinson for the first Test defeat in Christchurch. But Dawson's fellow World Cup winner Dallaglio, whose tour ended less than 20 minutes into the first game because of injury, believes it is time to stop carping. "As a group of people, we all have to accept criticism for what happened," said Dallaglio. "When you pull that jersey on it's up to you to perform. It is wrong to be playing the blame game. "Clearly, we were outplayed, out-thought and ultimately beaten 3-0, and that says it all. The sensible ones are the ones who are working on their games and keeping their mouths quiet."
MOTOR SPORT: German driver Heinz-Harald Frentzen remains in hospital as he recovers from a bad crash in Hockenheim. The former Formula One driver suffered concussion and bruising after crashing his Opel into a tyre barrier during the German Touring Car series race on Sunday but now says he is on the mend.
"The headache is getting better," he said from hospital yesterday. "If all goes well I think I can leave in the next few days". The German raced in Formula One for 10 years before moving to the DTM series in 2004.
