Rugby League: Sierra Leone has defied the Ebola crisis to spread rugby league in the country and gain official recognition from the Rugby League European Federation. The West African nation has followed in the footsteps of Ghana and Nigeria in being granted observer status of the RLEF. Charbel Raad, who is president of the Sierra Leone Rugby League Federation, has put together a dedicated team in Freetown which has been supported by Wales Rugby League through a development partnership with the Welsh Assembly.
Snooker: World Snooker chairman Barry Hearn is to be awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of East London. Hearn, 66, is being honoured in recognition of his services to sport over the last four decades. He was nominated for the degree by UEL’s School of Health, Sport and Bioscience. He has been behind some of the most iconic moments in British sporting history, promoting events in sports including snooker, darts, boxing and pool. He has been head of World Snooker since 2009.
Formula One: The Caterham Formula One team will race in next week’s Abu Dhabi season-ender despite still falling short of a targeted 2.35 million pounds to get them there, an administrator said. A tally on crowd-funding website www.crowdcube.com showed the team, who have missed the last two races, had raised 1.87 million, or 79 per cent of the target sum, with nine hours remaining. Administrator Finbarr O’Connell said the team would be going anyway. “We now head to Abu Dhabi ready to show what a hard-working and positive group of people this is and to hopefully secure a future for the team,” he said. The team’s cars were being packed into transport containers yesterday, with the freight due to be flown to the Yas Marina circuit at the weekend.
Basket, NBA: Down 15 points at the start of the fourth quarter, Memphis Grizzlies rallied for a most im-probable 111-110 victory over Sacramento Kings on an almost impossible shot Thursday night at FedExForum. Still two points behind with 0.2 of a second showing on the clock, Grizzlies guard Vince Carter threw an overhead inbounds pass from the side of the court to under the hoop, where Courtney Lee appeared to catch it before throwing it in for the winning basket. The officials spent several minutes reviewing the play. The Kings’ bench believed that Sacramento centre Ryan Hollins, who was guarding Carter, tipped the pass. However, the play stood and Memphis improved their record to 8-1 and won an 18th straight regular-season home game.
Cricket: Australia fast bowler Mitchell Johnson has matched compatriot Ricky Ponting’s feat of winning the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Cricketer of the Year award twice, the governing body said yesterday. The 33-year-old Johnson won the Sir Garfield Sobers trophy for the second time after winning the award in 2009 and was also named the ICC test cricketer of the year. Former Australia captain Ponting won the title in 2006 and 2007. Left-arm paceman Johnson fired Australia to a 5-0 Ashes sweep of England and a 2-1 series win in South Africa between August 2013 and September 2014, taking 59 test wickets at an average of 15.23.