Monday 20 May 2013
Shaun Murphy staged one of the great fightbacks to stun Ali Carter and book a place in tomorrow's UK Championship final.
It looked to be Carter's match when he led 8-4 in the best-of-17 contest, but Murphy was transformed after the mid-session interval, with breaks of 76, 49, 105 and 78 forcing a decider.
And Murphy held his nerve in a tense final frame as breaks of 39 and 29 carried him through to a clash with either Mark Selby or Mark Davis, who meet today.
RAFAEL NADAL continued his stunning run of form by crushing Roger Federer in little more than an hour to win the Internazionali d'Italia in Rome.
THEY come here this week to take on Ireland's cricketers in two internationals, but the benighted land of Pakistan has little to cheer about these days. The geo-political fall-out of the Afghan Wars has drawn it into the grim battle between the West and Islamist terrorism. And its 183 million people – it is the sixth most populous country in the world – haven't been able to forget their troubles through sport either.
Hurling needs to get priorities right
RAFAEL NADAL continued his stunning run of form by crushing Roger Federer in little more than an hour to win the Internazionali d'Italia in Rome.
THEY come here this week to take on Ireland's cricketers in two internationals, but the benighted land of Pakistan has little to cheer about these days. The geo-political fall-out of the Afghan Wars has drawn it into the grim battle between the West and Islamist terrorism. And its 183 million people – it is the sixth most populous country in the world – haven't been able to forget their troubles through sport either.
Hurling needs to get priorities right
Another day, another domination for Taylor Swift: She was the red hot winner at the Billboard Music Awards.
Actor and pop singer Justin Timberlake has revealed he had no problem changing his music style for his role in his new film.
Actor Edward Furlong has been arrested on suspicion of violating a restraining order filed by his ex-girlfriend.
The first rule of book club is you don't talk about book club. Actually, it isn't. The only rule in most book clubs is that, if you haven't read the ruddy thing, then you're better off keeping your mouth shut. If only Mick Wallace had heeded this wise advice.
It was a week of drama and prestige as the summer awards season kicked off; the stars of the most creative work ever committed to celluloid scrubbed up and assembled to be garlanded with praise.
President Obama apparently has his own Hollywood-inspired aspirations. According to a nugget buried in a New York Times story on Thursday, Obama has been telling aides that he is tempted to pull a "Bulworth" – that is to make like Warren Beatty's liberal senator character in the 1998 movie of the same name by going rogue and saying exactly what is on his mind regardless of the political fallout.
IT'S going to be the Irish wedding of the year. And it's in France.
It won't, sadly, be their own wedding but the nuptials of Kiera Dignam, (daughter of their VBF, Aslan singer Christy) to her beloved beau Darren.
BONO still hasn't found the entree he's looking for. Sorry I couldn't resist that one when I heard that U2's ubermeister, along with his beautiful wife Ali, were in the Unicorn restaurant last weekend for lunch.
DON O'Neill isn't just an ordinary designer, as fans such as Oprah Winfrey, Angelina Jolie and Taylor Swift, as well as the fashion editors of Vogue and The New York Times, will confirm. Nor is he an ordinary romantic, in any sense of the word.
Hi °C | Lo °C 
