SPEEDWAY: Dan Bewley scored a perfect 15 points from five rides as Belle Vue built up a huge 54-36 advantage over Leicester in the Premiership Grand Final’s first leg on a wet Monday night in Manchester. Leicester had to wait until heat nine to gain their sole win of the evening when Ryan Douglas held off Jaimon Lidsey and Niels Kristen Iversen. The second leg is at Leicester’s Beaumont Park track tomorrow night.

NETBALL: England face world champions Australia in Bendigo this morning for the deciding rubber of their three match test series. The Australians had cruised to a 70-57 victory in the first game before Liv Tchine scored 32 goals as England hit back with a 61-59 win in Sydney on Sunday. London Pulse Goal Defence Funmi Fadoju was named player of the match after making eight gains and two intercepts.

WOMEN’S FOOTBALL: The Champions League returns tonight with the first batch of second round second leg fixtures. Two-time winners Wolfsburg are virtually through to the Group stages as they lead Fiorentina 7-0 but Slavia Prague and Galatasaray are all square at 2-2, Valerenga have a narrow 2-1 advantage over Anderlecht and Hammarby trail Benfica by the same margin. Arsenal host Hacken, who won their first leg 1-0, at Meadow Park tomorrow evening.

MEN’S RUGBY UNION: Ireland returned to the top of the world rugby rankings without playing a game thanks to South Africa’s narrow 29-28 defeat in Argentina on Saturday, a result that also helped Los Pumas climb above Scotland into sixth place. Fiji’s five try 41-17 victory over Japan in last weekend’s Pacific Nations Cup final has lifted them above Australia into ninth place in the rankings while Wales remain eleventh.