MEN’S CRICKET: Defending champions Surrey still top the County Championship Division One after beating Worcester by 281 but their lead is down to 18 points as Somerset moved second with a crushing eight wicket win over Kent. Essex beat Warwick by four wickets, Ben Stokes took seven wickets but failed with the bat as Durham lost to bottom of the table Lancashire by 60 runs and Hampshire won by five wickets in Nottingham.
ICE HOCKEY: Britain suffered their sixth successive defeat in Group A at the World Championships in Czechia, going down 5-2 to Norway, and have been relegated from the world’s elite league one year after promotion. Defending champions Canada, who beat Britain 4-2 in their opening game, lead Group A with one game to go while Sweden top Group B with the only 100 per cent record at the tournament.
SPEEDWAY: Ben Cook top scored with 12+1 points as Belle Vue beat bottom club King’s Lynn 48-42 to gain the aggregate bonus point, preserve their unbeaten home record and move top of the Premiership, one point ahead of Ipswich who have a game in hand. King’s Lynn raced without their injured number one Tobias Musielak and Ben Basso, who was competing in a World Cup qualifier in Hungary.
MEN’S FOOTBALL: Atalanta meet Bayer Leverkusen in tomorrow night’s Europa League final at Landsdowne Road in Dublin. Bundesliga champions Leverkusen are unbeaten in 51 games this season whereas Atalanta needed a superb late run of form to finish fifth in Italy’s Serie A. Atalanta are ranked as Europe’s 19th best team, six places below Leverkusen. Neither team has won the Europa League before but the Germans did pick up the Uefa Cup in 1988.
