Rugby Union: Former British and Irish Lions scrum-half and England captain Dickie Jeeps has died at the age of 84. Jeeps, whose international career spanned from 1955 to 1962, won 13 caps for the Lions – a record at the time – and 24 for England, captaining his country on 13 occasions. Unusually he played for the Lions before England, representing the former in August and September 1955 and forming a formidable partnership with Wales fly-half Cliff Morgan. RFU president Peter Baines said: “Dickie was a true rugby legend. He was the finest scrum-half of his day, led his country, and went on to become both RFU president and Sports Council chairman.”
Snooker: World number one Reanne Evans claimed the UK Ladies Championship for a record eighth time, defeating Latvia’s Tatjana Vasiljeva 5-1 in the final. The pair met for the second time in 2016 at the Northern Snooker Centre, following their World Championship semi-final at the venue back in April. Evans had already had to come through against Hong Kong’s Ng On Yee 4-3 in a hard-fought semi-final, while Vasiljeva was appearing in the final of a singles competition for the first time at a World Ladies Billiards and Snooker (WLBS) event.
Greyhound racing: The Australian state of New South Wales has reversed a ban on greyhound racing that was due to come into force on July 1 next year. The sport will now be allowed to continue but with fewer tracks, a cap on the number of dogs bred for racing and much tougher measures to ensure the welfare of the animals. An inquiry last year found evidence of systemic animal cruelty, including live baiting, and that up to 68,000 greyhounds bred in the last 12 years had been destroyed because they were considered uncompetitive.
Tennis: Maria Sharapova returned to the tennis court for two exhibition matches on Monday, her first appearance since testing positive for the banned substance meldonium in January. The Russian former world number one played at the World Team Tennis “Smash Hits” event in Las Vegas, which raises money for the Elton John Aids Foundation. Sharapova, who has slipped to 93rd in the world rankings, partnered American Taylor Johnson and lost her first match to Martina Navratilova and Liezel Huber. Sharapova, whose ban was cut from two years to 15 months by the Court of Arbitration last week, can return to competition in April, one month before the French Open.