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The alleged rape took place at the Great John Street Hotel

Police are investigating the alleged rape of a 26-year-old woman at a hotel where Manchester United players and other guests were attending a party.

The alleged attack took place at the Great John Street Hotel in Manchester in the early hours of Tuesday.

Hotel managers confirmed the venue was fully booked out for a private party.

Police are refusing to confirm or deny the involvement of any players in the incident at the city centre hotel but are continuing inquiries.

The hotel is a boutique “town house” hotel converted from a Victorian schoolhouse, situated in the trendy Castlefield area of Manchester.

‘Inquiries continuing’

A hotel spokesman said: “We’re helping the police with an investigation.”

A Greater Manchester Police spokesman said: “Police are currently investigating a report of rape at a hotel in Manchester city centre.

“[Officers] were called to the hotel on Great John Street to a report that a 26-year-old woman had been raped.

“Inquiries are continuing.”

A Manchester United spokeswoman declined to comment.

Police were called to the hotel shortly after 0400 GMT.

Source: Rape inquiry at Man U party hotel

Freshman Austin Daye scored 18 points and Micah Downs added 17 as No. 18 Gonzaga beat Northern Colorado 77-57 on Monday night.

Downs hit a career-high five 3-pointers in 10 attempts as the Bulldogs (9-2) overcame a slow start to coast to an easy win. Steven Gray, playing for the first time this season, added 12 points and Jeremy Pargo had 10 points and eight assists for the Zags.

Filed under Gonzaga

Source: Gonzaga wins easy after slow start

Marta Vieira da Silva quietly won the women’s player of the year award while all the networks hailed Kaka, her countryman’s achievements.

In all the hoopla about beating Cristiano Ronaldo and Leo Messi, we forget that this diminutive woman has made Brazil into a force to reckon with in women’s international soccer, eclipsing traditional powerhouses like the USA and Norway.

She scored seven goals in Brazil’s march to the World Cup finals and is the top scorer for the Swedish club, Umea IK as they win the 2007Damallsvenskan title on the strength of her 20+ goals. In October there were rumours that she would join the LA Galaxy becoming the first woman to play professionally in a men’s league.

So Marta, we salute ye!

Source: Marta, the other Brazilian wins the FIFA best player

The Western League Division One side picked up their FA prize for a scintillating 3-0 performance at Willend Rovers in Round Two and last weekend saw Sherborne’s Steve Paradise and Colin Goodland receive the award from The Football Association’s John Ward.

However, Lymington Town proved too much for the award winners in Round Three with the Wessex Premier Division club picking up a 3-1 victory at Sherborne’s Terrace Playing Field ground on Saturday.

Formed in 1894, the club won the Dorset Premier League in 1982 and the Senior Cup in 2004 and Sherborne spokesperson, Colin Goodland, commented: “The Vase is a fantastic competition and we are honoured to receive national recognition from the FA.”

Colin admits that, for clubs like Sherborne, it’s tough to make an impression in such a big competition: “We’re just like every other side who enter the FA Vase because we all dream of playing at Wembley but we’re realistic enough to know it’s just a dream!

“The award for Team of the Round is the next best thing though as it gives the club a trophy that the fans can remember forever.”

Source: Borne again

Fernando Alonso

Fernando Alonso says every team, except Ferrari, made a pitch for his services once he left McLaren.

The two time world champion had been linked to a move to Ferrari even though the Maranello team already had both Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa under contract for next season. He elected to re-sign with Renault, the team he left last season in order to join McLaren, but admits it wasn’t an easy decision.

"There was a possibility to continue at McLaren," he tells Spanish radio station Cadena Ser, adding that his grandmother was among the most vocal for him to leave the Woking-based team.

"When I left McLaren all teams approached me, but not Ferrari (and) I never visited a team’s factory."

"We opted for Renault as an optimistic decision."

Alonso added that his time at McLaren wasn’t as bad as the press reports portrayed it to be.

"I suffered only a tenth of everything that had been written," he says. "In the end, 20 laps from the end of the season, I had a realistic chance of winning the title for the third consecutive time. I left with a good taste in my mouth."

As for next season, the Spaniard says its crazy to think he will win the championship with Renault.

"We need to take an enormous step forward to be able to fight for the world championship next year," he says, adding that he’s not afraid of new teammate Nelson Piquet Jr.

"I’m not afraid that Piquet is going to be a new Hamilton," he said. "In the end it’s up to me, I must be quicker than my teammate. I have total confidence in Renault and Flavio and I know that he will manage the team well."

Source: Alonso admits no Ferrari contact

The best fishing holiday I ever had cost $450. Could have been a lot less. Trouble was, I couldn’t really believe that I had collared a luxury 10-berth boat to cruise through the Maldives for two weeks so cheaply. Everyone said: “There’s got to be something wrong at that price.”

So I thought: “Who will laugh if it all goes pear-shaped aftertravelling halfway across the world?” I could only think of my sister and her husband, a wonderfully phlegmatic couple. But it proved genuine. Even better, we had a chef who cooked exotic meals every day while we fished, or swam, or watched turtles, manta rays and whales.

It’s therefore with some trepidation that I steer people towards the website where I snaffled this extraordinary bargain. There could be another Maldives-like trip that I may miss out on because a reader has outbid me.

Every year, the International Game Fish Association hold an annual banquet and online auction to raise funds for their conservation work. Many of their members are rich beyond dreams of avarice. Don Tyson, an Igfa trustee, is the boss of Tyson Foods, the world’s largest meat producer and one of the 100 largest companies in the US.

One of the lots is five days at his home in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, with five days’ fishing on his 48ft big-game boat, and other wonderful trips all over the world are on offer, from Costa Rica to the Bahamas, from mahseer fishing in the Himalayas to trying for marlin off Ascension Island.

Personally, I’d love to go back to the Great Barrier Reef – and there’s the chance to do so. You spend eight days on a luxury 62ft catamaran, fishing all day along the Great Barrier Reefand eating gourmet food at night. I got invited on a similar trip some years ago. My great memory from it: feeding sharks with bread.

Or how about staying on an 85ft, three-storey “floating hotel” in the heart of the Brazilian rainforest and catching one of the loveliest of fish, the peacock bass? You even get a daily laundry service thrown in.

For serious fishers, the place to go is Tropic Star Lodge in Panama. The Pinas Bar area is renowned for marlin, sailfish and tuna, and you can spend seven nights there with a friend, fishing every day. More than 200 world records have been recorded by anglers staying at the lodge.

There’s even a week for four at Angler’s Paradise in Devon, though I’d advise anyone winning this lot to avoid the conducted tour round the owner’s “wine cellar”. Zyg Gregorek, a charming man, claims to have over 2,000 gallons for sampling; however, the stuff he offered me was creative but largely undrinkable, with oddities such as celery and blackcurrant.

I went to the Igfa banquet one year and was mystified why nobody seemed interested in such wonderful holidays, jewellery, pictures and fishing tackle. But after a while, I realised that the people there owned the companies. Why buy your own stuff? On my table, I was the only person who didn’t have a boat (and we’re not talking dinghies here, either).

So take a look at igfa.org. But leave that Great Barrier Reeftrip for me.

Interesting? Click here to explore further

Source: Fishing Lines: I think I’ll make another bid for paradise ? hope the price is right

Hackers everywhere will be encouraged to hear that Tiger Woods has spent a little time on the edge of their territory recently. He was explaining last week what it was like picking up a club again after a two-month break.

“It is always the same,” he said. “The first time I hit it like God. Then I become a five-handicapper, then someone who plays off 18. Now I’m trying to get back to looking like someone who plays off zero.”

I’m surprised he knows what it’s like to play off 18, but the moral of this tale is that even the greatest get rusty when they take a lay-off.

Which brings me to a type of golfer for whom I always feel sympathy. A player of my meagre accomplishments has a cheek to feel sorry for anyone, but it’s always sad to see a once-good golfer who hasn’t played for ages seeking to recapture the skills of old.

Being a late starter and a hacker who is in a permanent state of arrested development, I have no old skills to recall, which poses the question: is it better to have golfed well and lost it than never to have golfed well at all?

On a recent trip to Tenerife I played with Mark and Gerard, who confessed to not having played much, if at all, in recent years but whose swings were silky enough to suggest a stronger command of the game in younger days.

The golf swing is invariably a giveaway when judging a player’s golfing pedigree. Mine was once described by the great golf writer Peter Dobereiner as like a policeman breaking down a door.

My two companions, in contrast, swished their clubs smoothly around the Las Americas course. The ball did not always respond correctly but they both swallowed their disappointments manfully.

We were part of a group of 12 who came from various occupations and backgrounds and were having a whale of a weekend, and golf wasn’t being taken too seriously.

Mark Hix was a schoolboy golfer and played off six at the age of 16, but was then waylaid by the demands of a career that now sees him as head chef at four London restaurants: Le Caprice, Sheekey, the Ivy and Scott’s.

He did so well on the back nine, it was obvious that if he played regularly he would be very good again. But how to fitit into a busy life? Besides, he likes fishing, too.

As a hospital consultant in the centre of London, Gerard is in the same situation. It wouldn’t take long for him to regain a lower handicap but, with a young family, his time is committed. He, also, is keen on another sport. He plays polo whenever he can. It’s a bit like golf on horseback, he said.

It’s one of the ironies of life that I, who struggle to put together a half-decent game, can play whenever I like but they, who can play so well, won’t see a course until the next trip, which is planned for next spring.

Between now and then I will beat my brains out trying to improve and avoid the booby prize I picked up on this trip.

They, on the other hand, will just saunter out and pick up where they left off. Why the hell do I feel sorry for them?

Interesting? Click here to explore further

Source: The Hacker: Why do they find it so easy to get into the swing of things?

DEPARTING Australia fullback Chris Latham said a “pretty disappointing” Australian Rugby Union offer led to the agonising decision to head for Europe next year.

But the Queensland Reds match-winner said he was “not bitter” after confirming he would cut ties with Australian rugby and take up a three-year deal with English club Worcester in 2008.

Despite his age of 32, Latham believes his best years are ahead of him. But the ARU offered Latham a two-year contract extension loaded with incentives that would only kick in with each Test played.

After two months of soul searching, the 2006 John Eales Medalist made the painful decision to leave Australia next year. It ensures the 2008 Super 14 season - his 11th with the Reds - will be his last.

And Latham is set to make his Wallabies swansong in the Tri-Nations finale in September, fittingly in his home city of Brisbane.

“No, I’m not bitter. No, I’m not angry. No, I’m not disappointed,” Latham said.

“It now gives me an opportunity and I am excited about it. To be honest, I just want to move on and get on with it.”

But the Wallabies’ most-capped fullback clearly had a difference of opinion with the ARU.

“Had I been offered the same amount of money that I was on this year for the next few years (by the ARU), I would have definitely stayed,” said Latham, a veteran of 78 Tests.

“So it has been pretty disappointing in that instance that I couldn’t come to that agreement here.

“The (ARU) offer was incentive-based and I really didn’t think given my position that I needed incentives to play rugby - I never have.”

He may be at an age when many professional rugby players start slowing down but Latham said he was hardly past his prime.

“They (ARU) obviously thought that I wouldn’t be able to carry through for too many more years, and that’s the line that they’ve taken,” he said.

“I firmly believe that I am yet to play my best, most consistent rugby yet. It’s quite easy to label people at 32 and say they are getting old but I think in rugby years I am very young.”

He passionately denied that the UK move was about money.

“That’s not the reason why I am quitting here. It’s just a fact of life that it is time to move on, time to refocus, get some new fresh goals,” he said.

“I am happy with the decision. It is the right time now given the circumstances - it gives me more time to spend with my young family.”

Latham said he was focused on a fitting farewell with the Reds.

“I’ll be making sure I have achieved pretty much everything I’ve ever wanted to achieve in rugby - one of those major goals is win a Super 14,” he said.

Easier said than done. Queensland collected their first wooden spoon in 2007 after Latham missed the Super 14 season due to a knee injury.

“I’ve said for a long time I want to leave Queensland in the same state as it was when I first came in (in 1998),” Latham said.

“It’s no secret we are not as good as we once were but we have made exceptional advancements in the appointments that have been made - I’ve no doubt we can give it a shake.”

Latham also vowed to make the most of his time under newly-appointed Wallabies coach Robbie Deans.

“The timing of it (Deans’ appointment) all makes you think it would be nice to have a few years under him, but I get the opportunity of one more season and I will make the most of it,” he said.

An emotional Latham told his Reds teammates in Brisbane but was clearly relieved that his future had been decided.

“I haven’t mentally been there (since returning from the World Cup),” he laughed.

“I’m glad I didn’t do it through the season because I wouldn’t have got through it - I’m now going to have a good Christmas.”

ARU high performance manager Pat Howard - who pitched the two year deal to Latham - said the Australian Rugby Union was disappointed but understood his decision.

Howard said Latham’s distinguished Wallabies service had earned him an early release from his ARU contract, allowing him to miss an end of season European tour and link with Worcester after the Tri-Nations.

“We hoped the offer we put to Chris would keep him in the game here for at least another two seasons but he will leave with our best wishes for the future,” he said.

“Chris has been an outstanding contributor to the game in this country for a long time. It is for that reason the ARU has agreed to an early release.

“We’re looking forward to seeing another vintage season from Chris in what we hope will be a fitting finale to his career in Australia.”

Meanwhile, Queensland coach Phil Mooney urged Reds players and fans ensured Latham had a final Super 14 season to remember.

“We’re also very disappointed to see him leave. However, we have appreciated his honesty and integrity over the past couple of months whilst making his decision,” he said.

“One thing we are committed to is ensuring everyone knows that Chris still has a Super 14 series to play with the Reds in 2008.

“The appropriate send-offs during the season will be granted to one of Queensland’s great players.”

AAP

Source: Latham ‘not bitter’ despite ARU offer

Once considered a front-runner for several coaching vacancies, Cincinnati head coach Brian Kelly has signed a new contract with the Bearcats.

The new deal voids the remaining four years on Kelly’s current contract. He’ll receive a guaranteed salary between $1.2 million and $1.35 million over the next five years as well as performance-based incentives, the school said Monday.

The contract is pending approval by the university’s board of trustees.

The timing of this new contract is interesting, I don’t think a deal like this can be negotiated in the span of just a few days (although I wouldn’t swear to it), so I don’t believe it is a reaction to the new vacancy at conference heavyweight West Virginia.

Rather, I suspect this was Cincy’s plan all along - as a way of rewarding Kelly for his success at UC. I have to believe this has been in the works for several weeks - prior to the WVU opening, at least.

It will be interesting to see what the exact terms are within the buyout clause and if WVU tries to make a move on Kelly.

Source: Kelly gets new deal at Cincy

Champs Sports Bowl Profiles, History, Best Bowl Moments & More

Source: 2007 Champs Sports Bowl History & More