SPEEDWAY: Charles Wright scored 11 points as Premiership new-boys Oxford maintained their perfect start to the season with a 47-43 win over defending champions Sheffield on Thursday night.

Leicester saw off King’s Lynn 47-42 while Emil Sayfutdinov claimed 11+1 points, and Danny King weighed in with another 11, as last year’s Grand Final runners-up Ipswich crushed Belle Vue 51-39.

WOMEN’S CRICKET: Captain Heather Knight hit an unbeaten 56 as England recovered from 77-6 to edge out New Zealand by 15 runs and win the second leg of their five-match Twenty20 series at the Saxton Oval in Nelson.

Chasing 150 the Kiwis started well but lost five wickets for eight runs in the closing stages of their innings to finish on 134-8. England take a 2-0 lead into Sunday’s match at the same venue.

MEN’S FOOTBALL: Oday Dabbagh bagged a hat-trick as Palestine thumped Bangladesh 5-0 in their World Cup qualifier in front of a crowd of more than 37,000 at the Jaber al Ahmad stadium in Kuwait City.

Palestine are now second in Group I behind Australia, who maintained their 100 per cent record with a 2-0 win over Lebanon thanks to goals from St Mirren midfield man Keanu Baccus and Hearts defender Kye Rowles.

DARTS: World champion Luke Humphries won a third consecutive Premier League of darts tournament after beating Michael Smith 6-2 in Thursday night’s final in Dublin.

Humphries is now seven points clear in the table from Michael van Gerwen who lost to Gerwyn Price in the quarter-finals.

Luke Littler also went down at the first hurdle losing 6-4 to Michael Smith. Round nine of the 17-week tournament takes place in Belfast next week.