If I do really well at the game, the first thing I would do is buy them a new car.” This would replace the Vauxhall outside their Addlestone home (a G registration, by coincidence).. China won the women’s team title for the 11th time at the World Championships in Manchester yesterday, whitewashing North Korea 3-0 in their 14th consecutive final. With three players ranked among the top five in the world, the Chinese proved impregnable, emerging undefeated from their eight matches.
Deng Yaping, the 24-year-old world champion and Atlanta Olympic gold medallist, maintained her 100 percent record by beating the 17-year-old Kim Hyon Hui 21-15 21-14. The world No 1, sensing the nervousness of her young opponent, did not hit with her usual power and even let up in the second game when she led 11-3.Yang Ying, the world No 4, had given the champions a winning start against Wi Bok Sun. But the 20-year-old was made to work for her victory in the opening set when she failed to read her opponent’s heavy spin serves and was taken to deuce after leading 20-17.

However, the North Korean could not maintain the tempo and Yang cruised to a 22-20 21-16 victory.By the time Deng had made her entrance and then exited triumphantly, any challenge to the Chinese had disappeared as the world No 5, Li Ju, faced Tu Jong Sil, ranked 63 places below her. It proved too much for the Korean as Li swept through 21-8 21-14 to keep the Chinese on track to repeat their 1995 clean sweep of all seven titles with the men defending their crown in today’s final.”I am delighted to win this title again with these young players. It feels different, with fewer older players and more new young players,” Deng saidIt was the fourth time North Korea had lost the women’s team final against China following defeat in 1979, 1985 and 1993. The North and South fielded a united women’s team in 1991 and took the title away from China.. The folk at United Racecourses continue to profess this week that they were unaware that Entrepreneur, the dual Classic favourite, was one of the horses that Michael Stoute wanted to work at Sandown when he asked for grass time on Saturday morning.

Their shrewdness is such that if Col Tom Parker told them he could contribute to the Derby entertainment with a musical act who had not been around for a while they would probably fail to check identity then either. It transpires that Entrepreneur’s was not the only persuasive piece of work on Saturday morning from a colt who will be making his seasonal debut in the 2,000 Guineas. In addition, Paul Cole’s Putra has much the better juvenile form.
The trial grounds at Whatcombe have reverberated to the sound of some fast-moving hooves down the years. The slopes of Woolley Down and Summerdown at the Wantage yard have been the sites of wondrous work from the likes of “Flying Mumty”, Mumtaz Mahal, the brilliant but fragile Blandford (who is interred on the premises) and the Derby-winning trio of Blakeney, Morston and Generous.Now it is hoped their company may be joined by a chestnut colt with the physique of a high-jumper. Putra is 12-1 for the first Classic, odds which may prove to be laughably generous (an adjective they like at Whatcombe). “He’s come along very well indeed and he worked well enough on Saturday to show us he is a serious contender for the Guineas,” Cole said yesterday.If Putra finds horses in front of him at the end of the Rowley Mile it will be a unique experience.