WEEKEND SPORTS ROUNDUP: October 22/23

Football

Jose Mourinho endured a painful return to Stamford Bridge as Chelsea ran out 4-0 winners over Manchester United.

Chelsea are now just one point off the top of the Premier League. Manchester City remain top, but were held 1-1 at home to Southampton, and second placed Arsenal could also only draw 0-0 with Middlesbrough.

Liverpool moved level on points with the top two as they beat West Brom 2-1. Tottenham are fifth, but again only one point off the top, after drawing 0-0 at Bournemouth.

Leicester kept up their good home form with a 3-1 win over Crystal Palace.

West Ham and Stoke both made it back to back wins as they seek to move away from danger. West Ham beat Sunderland 2-1 and Stoke were 2-0 winners at Hull, plunging both Sunderland and Hull into greater trouble. Between Sunderland and Hull in the bottom three lie Swansea, who could only draw 0-0 at Watford.

Burnley’s home form has also been good this year, and they will be delighted with their 2-1 win over Everton.

Newcastle lead the Championship by three points, after beating Ipswich 3-0.

Celtic beat Rangers 1-0 in the semi-final of Scotland’s League Cup, while Aberdeen joined them in the final with a 2-0 win over Morton.

Cricket

England finally emerged victorious from a nerve-racking first Test against Bangladesh in Chittagong, with all-rounder Ben Stokes playing a key role. England made 293 batting first, with Moeen Ali making 68 and Jonny Bairstow 52, while 18-year-old spinner Mehedi Hasan took 6-80 on debut. Despite 78 from Tamim Iqbal, Bangladesh could only reply with 248 in their first innings, with four wickets for Stokes in a lower order collapse. In their second innings, England also recovered from a bad start to post 240 (Stokes 85, Shakib Al-Hasan 5-85). This left Bangladesh 286 to win, and the match went into the fifth day well and truly in the balance at 253-8. Stokes duly produced two wickets in three balls to give England victory by 22 runs, with Bangladesh’s Sabbir Rahman left stranded on 64 not out as he watched the final wickets fall from the non-striker’s end.

The second and final Test of the series starts in Dhaka on Friday. England will again be without James Anderson, the leader of their bowling attack, whose shoulder injury will keep him out of action until at least the second Test of the forthcoming series in India.

Motor Racing

Lewis Hamilton won his first Grand Prix since July, and the 50^th of his career, as he took the chequered flag in the US Grand Prix. However his Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg finished second, and Rosberg still has a commanding 26 point lead in the Drivers’ Championship with only three races to go.

Rugby Union

In their first match since the death of coach Anthony Foley, Munster secured a bonus point win in the European Cup by beating Glasgow 38-17. Also in Pool A, Leicester secured their first win in the competition this year bey beating French champions Racing 92 27-17.

In Pool B, Connacht made it two wins from two by beating Zebre 52-7, while Wasps are also well placed after coming away from a tricky trip to Toulouse with a 20-20 draw.

Saracens top Pool C after beating Scarlets 44-26. England’s Maro Itoje suffered a suspected broken hand in this match, adding to Eddie Jones’ injury problems ahead of the autumn internationals. Sale suffered a second defeat after going down 15-5 at home to Toulon.

After Castres beat Northampton 41-7 and Montpelier beat Leinster 22-16, there is all to play for in Group D, with all four sides having one win and one defeat.

Ulster edged out Exeter 19-18 in Pool E, and the West Country side cannot afford any more slip ups if they are to qualify for the last eight. French side Clermont-Auvergne lead this group.

Rugby League

England warmed up for their Four Nations campaign by beating France 40-6 in Avignon.

Tennis

Johanna Konta narrowly missed out on a place in the WTA end-of-season Finals.

Kyle Edmund will have to wait for his first appearance in an ATP Tour Final after losing to Richard Gasquet in the semi-final of the European Open.

Cycling

British Olympic champion Katie Archibald won gold in both the omnium and the individual pursuit at the European Track Championships. Emily Kay and Emily Nelson won silver in the madison, as did Elinor Barker in the scratch race. Another silver came as Jack Carlin, Ryan Owens and Joseph Truman finished second in the team sprint. There were also several bronzes for Britain, including the men’s and women’s team pursuit events.

Golf

Ireland’s Padraig Harrington won his first European Tour title for eight years in the Portugal Masters, finishing one shot ahead of the 2015 winner, Andy Sullivan of Britain.


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