England’s cricketers closed in on a series win in the second test against the West Indies at Trent Bridge. James Anderson and Tim Bresnan combined to leave the visitors 61/6 in the second innings, just three runs ahead of England.
Anderson took care of openers Kieran Powell and Adrian Barath within his first three overs and, after Stuart Broad dismissed dangerman Shivnarine Chanderpaul for 11, Tim Bresman took the wickets of Darren Bravo, Denesh Ramdin and Kirk Edwards all lbw.
Andrew Strauss’s score of 141 and Kevin Pietersen’s 80 gave England a healthy score of 428 before the bowlers took centre stage.
Mark Webber won the weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix, maintaining the race lead throughout to convert his pole position into a first win of the season.
Less than 1.4 seconds separated Webber from Vettel in fourth place. Nico Rosberg and Fernando Alonso finished between the Red Bull teammates.
The victory sees him join his defending champion Vettel in second place in the drivers’ standings three points behind Lewis Hamilton who finished fifth.
England’s footballers registered a win in their first match under new manager Roy Hodgson against Norway in Olso. Ashley Young scored the game’s only goal in the ninth minute after embarrassing Norwegian centre-back Brede Hangeland before finishing past Rune Jarstein in the opposition net.
It was an encouraging but unspectacular performance ahead of the side’s final warm-up match against Belgium at Wembley on Saturday before they jet off to Poland.
The two other home nations playing this weekend both lost against North American opponents.
Scotland and Wales went down to the USA and Mexico respectively: Landon Donovan scored a hat-trick as Scotland shipped five against their opponents in Jacksonville while Wales lost 2-0 against Mexico in New York.
Huddersfield won promotion to the Championship, overcoming Sheffield United on penalties in the League One playoff final after the sides had drawn a blank after extra time. Huddersfield eventually won the shootout 8-7 after the eleventh round of spot-kick, meaning the decisive kicks were taken by the sides’ goalkeepers.
Crewe replace Huddersfield in League One after a with a 2-0 win over Cheltenham in the League Two playoff. Nick Powell scored what would prove to be the winner with a sensational volley and Byron Moore settled things with eight minutes left on the clock.
In rugby union, Harlequins and Ospreys wrapped up their respective league titles over the weekend.
Quins won an exciting Aviva Premiership final 30-23. They held a lead of just one point at half-time thanks to a try from Tom Williams and the kicking of Nick Evans while Leicester scored through Steve Mafi and George Ford.
Three more Evans penalties and a Chris Robshaw try stretched Quins lead to 17 points and late points from Anthony Allen and the boot of George Ford weren’t enough to close the gap as Harlequins held on for their first ever league title.
Ospreys won the RaboDirect Pro12 title from under the noses of Leinster with a 31-30 win as legendary Welsh winger Shane Williams retired from rugby in spectacular style.
Williams signed off with two tries, including a late winner, to snatch the title from their opponents.
Wigan remain top of the Super League after winning 42-16 at St Helens. Warrington, who are now second, had replaced them with a 68-4 win over bottom side Widnes on Saturday.
Catalan Dragons are two points behind Wigan in third with a game in hand having beaten London Broncos 42-18. Huddersfield and Hull lost ground on the top three, losing to Salford and Hull KR respectively.
In the opening day of the French Open, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga recovered from losing the first set against Andrey Kuznetsov, winning out 1-6 6-3 6-2 6-4. Juan Artin del Potro beat Albert Montanes 6-2 6-7 (5-7) 6-2 6-1. Andy Roddick lost out to Nicolas Mahut 6-3 6-3 4-6 6-2
Luke Donald successfully defended his PGA Championship title at Wentworth, finishing 15 under, four shots ahead of Justin Rose and Paul Lawrie. Donald only needed a top-eight finish to replace Rory McIlroy and return to the top of the world rankings.
