SPEEDWAY: Richard Lawson top-scored with a perfect 15 points from his five rides as defending champions Poole Pirates came from behind to beat Redcar 48-42 at home in the first leg of their Championship play-off semi-final.

The second leg is scheduled for Saturday. Edinburgh hold a 52-38 lead over Glasgow Tigers, who finished second behind Poole in the regular season, in the other last four fixture.

WOMEN’S FOOTBALL: Manchester United are 1-0 down when they face Norway’s Brann in tonight’s second leg of their Champions League third qualifying-round tie at the Leigh Sports Village.

Tomorrow evening’s other matches include 2003’s runners-up Fortuna Hjorring looking to recover from a 3-1 loss at St Polten, Real Madrid defending a 2-1 lead over four-time winners Eintracht Frankfurt and Katowice needing to overturn a 4-0 deficit at Twente Enschede.

MEN’S CRICKET: Afghanistan are up against the unbeaten Sri Lankans in the Twenty20 Asia Cup at Abu Dhabi tomorrow afternoon needing a win to make it through to the semi-finals.

Sri Lanka could still qualify with a loss due to their better run rate than Bangladesh, who saw off the Afghanis by five wickets on Tuesday. Sri Lanka are rated as the world’s 7th-best short-format team, three places above Afghanistan.

MEN’S RUGBY LEAGUE: Seven clubs from the Championship have applied to join the Super League next year when it expands to a 14-team competition.

Regular season champions York are joined by Bradford, Toulouse, Oldham, London, Doncaster and Widnes in a race that will be determined by an independent grading process that values stadiums, community involvement, finances and attendance figures alongside league positions.