Newcastle boss Eddie Howe has admitted he cannot just “slap money on the table” as he attempts to find the last piece of his jigsaw for the new season.
The Magpies, backed by their majority owners, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, have invested a net £95milion in Sandro Tonali, Harvey Barnes and Tino Livramento at the expense of the departed Allan Saint-Maximin this summer but Howe is keen to add one more player to his resources, with central defence a remaining focus.
However, the 45-year-old knows the club may have to be “creative” to get another deal over the line in an attempt to plot a path through Financial Fair Play regulations, with loans and staggered payments among the options.
Asked what that meant on the eve of the new Premier League season’s opener against Aston Villa, Howe said: “It means we can’t just go out and slap money on the table and buy a player. We don’t have the resources to do that at the moment with FFP restrictions.
“It’s about trying to find a different way rather than paying money in the here and now.”
Newcastle have strengthened their squad significantly after last season’s top-four finish, which secured a return to Champions League football, but Howe is hopeful there is another deal to be done.
He said: “I’d love one more player, that’s what I’d love personally, and I think then we’d have the ideal depth at this moment with the injuries that we currently have.”
The Magpies’ surge back into the upper reaches of the league table came less than two years into the new ownership’s reign and took many by surprise, despite the £250million spending spree which helped to fuel it.
They were able to take advantage of below-par showings from the likes of Liverpool, Tottenham and Chelsea, and are likely to face a tougher challenge this time around with TV pundits Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher predicting they will not even make the top six this season.
Asked if that provided added motivation, Howe brushed that aside and said: “Ultimately people will always write us off, and I urge us all to come together and to fight tooth and nail to prove people wrong – and in my job you have to prove people wrong every single day.
“I have said my ultimate emotion that I use is fear of failure. Some people might see that as negative, but it’s fuelled me all my career and to work as hard as I can to make sure we don’t suffer that experience.”
Howe could hand Tonali, Barnes and Livramento competitive debuts against Villa, while defender Fabian Schar is back in contention after a thigh injury.
However, midfielder Joe Willock is likely to be missing until the middle of next month with the hamstring problem he suffered last season.
Howe said: “I think we’ll probably miss him for the first group of games before the first international break.”
Liverpool have agreed a British record transfer fee in the region of £110million for Moises Caicedo as Jurgen Klopp attempts to reinforce his midfield on the eve of the new Premier League season. The PA news agency understands Liverpool have swooped in and had a substantial offer accepted for the 21-year-old Ecuador international, who was attracting significant interest from Chelsea this summer.
Brighton held firm on their valuation of a player who joined them for just £4m from Ecuadorian side Independiente del Valle in 2021, and it remains to be seen whether Chelsea will match Liverpool’s bid. The fee is upwards of the previous British record of £107m that Chelsea paid for Enzo Fernandez in January and dwarfs Liverpool’s own highest transfer payment of £75m for Virgil van Dijk in 2018.
Klopp has seen Jordan Henderson, Fabinho, Naby Keita and James Milner depart the club this summer but Liverpool have signed Caicedo’s former Brighton team-mate Alexis Mac Allister for £35m in June.
The Reds have also brought in Dominik Szoboszlai from RB Leipzig but, after missing out on Jude Bellingham – who joined Real Madrid in June in a deal that could rise to £115m with add-ons – Klopp is keen to get the Caicedo transfer over the line.
Ahead of Sunday’s trip to Chelsea for both sides’ Premier League opener, Klopp said: “I can confirm the deal with (Brighton) is agreed, whatever that means because we want the player and not any kind of agreement, we will see.
“We are club that doesn’t have endless resources, we didn’t expect a couple of things happening in the summer, like Henderson and Fabinho (leaving), stuff like this.
“We didn’t think about that before the summer, to be honest, and then it happened. We gave (attempting to sign Bellingham) a go and the club was really stretched. We will see (what happens with Caicedo).”
As for whether Caicedo will undergo a medical in Merseyside on Friday or if signing the youngster would be Liverpool’s final business of the summer window, Klopp was tight-lipped.
“I’ve said what I know,” he added. “Let’s do it step by step, let’s see what happens in the next hours or days.”
England and Wales meet at Twickenham on Saturday in their second World Cup warm-up Test.
Wales won the opening encounter, scoring 14 unanswered second-half points as tries from Gareth Davies and George North saw them home 20-9.
Here, the PA news agency looks at the key points heading into their latest clash.
England summon the cavalry
England have assembled their big guns as they enter must-win territory just two games into their World Cup warm-up campaign. Owen Farrell, Elliot Daly, Maro Itoje, Billy Vunipola and Jamie George are among the front-line stars in action at Twickenham, and potentially only Ellis Genge and Tom Curry are missing from the strongest XV. With the pivotal opener against Argentina on September 9 fast approaching, England need a reassuring performance and to avoid a fourth successive defeat that would continue a worrying downward spiral.
Momentum key for Wales
Wales have not won back-to-back Test matches since November 2021 when they beat Fiji and Australia, so there is a need to build on last weekend’s impressive 20-9 warm-up victory over England. Head coach Warren Gatland has made 15 changes as the clock continues ticking towards his World Cup squad announcement, and Saturday’s encounter will be the final opportunity for many players to impress. Wales have lost on their last six visits to Twickenham since the 2015 World Cup, which underlines the size of challenge ahead, but there were hints of a feelgood factor returning as a 65,000 crowd roared them home in Cardiff.
Dewi Lake in the spotlight
Flanker Jac Morgan led Wales with distinction at the Principality Stadium last Saturday, putting himself in pole position to skipper his country at the World Cup. Gatland, though, has said he will use the August schedule to assess captaincy candidates, and 24-year-old Ospreys hooker Lake now steps forward on his international return after shoulder and knee injuries meant he did not play Test rugby last season. Lake is a proven performer at the highest level, and he is likely to soak up the extra responsibility that awaits him.
Vunipola and Earl take centre-stage
If given the chance, Daly and Henry Arundell will provide thrills on the wing, but it is in the back-row where England’s most interesting picks reside. Vunipola makes his first Test appearance since the autumn – and because of a knee injury his maiden outing of any description since April. As the squad’s only specialist number eight and most destructive carrier in the forwards, he needs to hit the ground running. Earl, meanwhile, is rewarded for his perseverance with a full debut after winning all 15 previous caps as a replacement. Dynamic in attack, the Saracens openside can help ignite England.
Warren Gatland’s stamp is all over Wales
Last season’s Six Nations campaign – which marked Gatland returning for a second stint as Wales head coach – was one to forget, with a fifth-placed finish being accompanied by major off-field issues that almost led to a players’ strike. Fast-forward five months, though, and Wales appear to be a different beast. Demanding training camps in Switzerland and Turkey were followed by victory over England – “too fit for them” were Gatland’s words as he left the Principality Stadium last weekend – and it has been the New Zealander in his element, relishing a fourth World Cup campaign and loving nothing more than a chance to prove the doubters wrong.
Finland’s Robert Helenius should be on holiday with his family in Lapland but instead this Saturday will attempt to stun Anthony Joshua and ensure he gets another shot at Deontay Wilder.
Helenius had just claimed the 32nd victory of his professional career when he was posed the question of whether he would accept Matchroom’s SOS call to step in as an 11th-hour replacement at London’s O2 Arena for Dillian Whyte, who failed a drugs test with the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association.
With wraps still on his hands and sweat from a third-round victory over Mika Mielonen inside a 15th-century castle in Finland, Helenius decided to roll the dice and sent Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn a video on Saturday night to confirm he was in.
A day later and Helenius’ manager Markus Sundman sealed the deal over the phone while at a zoo with his family, which meant his 39-year-old boxer was set to be thrust back into the limelight.
Last October, Helenius suffered a vicious first-round knock-out loss to former world heavyweight champion Wilder in New York and, while many have viewed this fight for Joshua as merely a stepping stone to a bout with the ex-WBC belt holder, his last-minute opponent has other ideas.
“Yeah, I have to get a rematch. I have to redeem myself,” Helenius said of Wilder, who is being lined up to face Joshua in December or the start of 2024.
“I had just finished the last fight on Saturday and my manager came to me and said I have something to ask you.
“He said it was the Joshua fight and I was like, ‘oh man. Let me think’. And 10 minutes I thought about it and after that I was like, ‘yeah, let’s do this,’ This is what we do.
“I would probably be in Lapland in the forest. Tenting, fishing, hunting, relaxing.
“I haven’t had a lot of time but I have been hunting now and then. That was the plan.”
It is no longer the plan for Helenius, or his wife and three children, with his mind now cast back to 2017, when he sparred with Joshua ahead of the British heavyweight fighting Wladimir Klitschko.
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Victory over Klitschko at a sold-out Wembley helped take the Finchley boxer to the pinnacle of the sport, but recent years have been leaner with back-to-back defeats to Oleksandr Usyk followed by a laboured display against Jermaine Franklin in April.
It was in a shock loss to Andy Ruiz Jr at Madison Square Garden in 2019 that Joshua’s previously untouchable crown slipped for the first time and there is much debate about whether he has been the same since, but the 29th opponent of his career knows a thing or two about mental scars from boxing.
Helenius insisted: “I can’t compare him to Wilder. I have also been sparring before with David Haye, I have been sparring the Klitschkos, both of them, I have been sparring Tyson Fury, Wilder.
“I have even been sparring Joshua when he was going against Klitschko so I have been a long time in this game.
“He is a tough guy. I think we went eight-round sessions. It was pretty closer. Hard-hitter, good technicals, a little bit robotic but his last fight, he made a good fight against Jermaine.
“I have seen that (change) but I think with his last fights, because he didn’t get knocked out against Usyk and his last fight he didn’t get knocked out, he did a pretty good fight and showed he has still got it.
“Of course you have to come over the gun-shyness after you get knocked out. I have been knocked out three times in my life and the first was the really bad one. I was probably depressed for two or three months after that.”
Johann Duhaupas inflicted that painful maiden loss of Helenius’ career in 2016, eight years after his debut, and perhaps unsurprisingly for a 36-fight veteran, the ‘Nordic Nightmare’ is reflective about his past experiences in the ring.
An aggressive style was adopted against Wilder for a reason but he was caught by a punch the American had been fine-tuning for Fury for years.
Helenius will bring a different style into Saturday’s fight and admitted victory against the odds would propel him into Finnish folklore akin to the notorious exploits of world-record javelin holder Seppo Raty.
“I think I would probably be elected for president,” he joked.
“I haven’t been in the ring for a while with him but now is the best time to win.
“Nobody will remember a coward.”
Adley Rutschman and Ryan Mountcastle homered and All-Star closer Felix Bautista escaped trouble as the Baltimore Orioles held on for a 5-4 win over the Houston Astros to avoid a series sweep on Thursday.
Bautista was called on to protect a 5-3 lead in the ninth inning for Baltimore but again struggled, giving up a run and loading the bases before getting Jon Singleton to pop up for the final out.
Bautista, who gave up a ninth-inning grand slam to Kyle Tucker on Tuesday, has allowed five earned runs in his last two appearances after giving up just five in his first 48 games this season. His season ERA went from 0.85 to 1.66 in this series.
Dean Kremer limited Houston to two runs and six hits in seven innings to join teammate Kyle Gibson as Baltimore’s 11-game winners.
Rutschman led off the bottom of the first against Hunter Brown with his 16th home run and Mountcastle’s two-run shot in the seventh extended the lead to 5-2.
The AL-best Orioles have gone 76 consecutive series of at least two decisions without being swept for the fifth-longest streak in major league history.
With Tampa Bay’s loss to St. Louis on Thursday, Baltimore owns a three-game lead in the East.
Jose Altuve went 4 for 5 with a home run for Houston, which dropped 2 ½ games behind AL West-leading Texas.
Phillies star Harper injured in win
Trea Turner, Nick Castellanos and J.T. Realmuto hit two-run homers and the Philadelphia Phillies overcame Bryce Harper’s injury in a 6-2 win over the Washington Nationals.
Harper left in the top of the fifth inning with what the team called mid-back spasms. He was undergoing evaluation and manager Rob Thomson said he’s day to day.
Philadelphia improved to a season-best 12 games over .500 and moved 1 ½ games ahead of idle San Francisco for the top spot in the NL wild-card race.
Turner’s 12th home run in the sixth inning gave the Phillies a 2-1 lead and Castellanos and Realmuto both went deep in the seventh off reliever Joe La Sorsa to make it 6-1.
Kershaw sharp in return as Dodgers stay hot
Clayton Kerhaw worked five effective innings in his first appearance in six weeks and the Los Angeles Dodgers edged the Colorado Rockies 2-1 for their ninth win in 10 games.
Kershaw allowed his only run on Elehuris Montero’s fifth-inning home run and two other hits with no walks and four strikeouts. The left-hander had been sidelined since June 27 with left shoulder soreness.
Ryan Yarbrough fanned four in three scoreless innings before Brusdar Graterol pitched a perfect ninth for his fifth save.
Max Muncy drove in both runs for the Dodgers, hitting his 28th home run in the seventh inning and drawing a bases-loaded walk in the eighth.
Rebecca Adlington won the Olympic 400 metres freestyle on this day in 2008 to become Britain’s first female swimming gold medallist for 48 years.
The 19-year-old from Mansfield became the first woman to top the podium since Anita Lonsbrough in 1960 with her exquisite performance in the pool.
Adlington snatched gold ahead of American Katie Hoff in a thrilling finger-tip finish in Beijing, winning by 0.07 seconds in a time of four minutes 3.22secs.
Team-mate Joanne Jackson took bronze, with the pair becoming the first British women to win an Olympic medal since Sarah Hardcastle in Los Angeles in 1984.
“We are both so happy to have two British girls on the podium,” Adlington said after the pair’s heroics. “I don’t think either of us expected it and especially a gold and a bronze, it’s absolutely amazing.
“I can’t actually believe it. It hasn’t sunk in yet. I’m just over the moon. I have just watched it back on TV and I said ‘I didn’t win that.’ Then they showed the underwater shot and my hand just got there.
“I can’t believe that I have won an Olympic medal and to have Jo there as well was absolutely fantastic. I was just so happy to be on the podium with my best friend, I love Jo to bits.
“She’s so close to me it was so great to be up there with her and to have all the team looking down on you, hearing them singing the national anthem, and not in tune at all!”
Adlington would end up leaving China with another gold medal, smashing the oldest world record in swimming in the process.
The teenager completed the distance double in Beijing’s Water Cube with an inspired swim in the 800m freestyle to leave the opposition trailing behind her by more than six seconds.
Adlington claimed the gold by breaking Janet Evans’ long-standing world record for the event – a mark of eight minutes 16.22 seconds set at the Pan Pacific Championships in Tokyo in 1989 and widely regarded as among the greatest records ever set in swimming.
Adlington, though, demolished it, touching in 8:14.10, 2.12 seconds faster than Evans’ time and well clear of second-placed Alessia Filippa of Italy and Denmark’s bronze medallist Lotte Friss.
Andy Murray has withdrawn from his match with Italy’s Jannik Sinner in Toronto due to an abdominal strain.
The pair were set to play in the round of 16 at the National Bank Open on Thursday but Murray decided not to risk any further injury.
In a statement, Murray said: “I had a very similar issue last year in the tournament in Stuttgart before Wimbledon which forced me to miss the Queen’s Club tournament and I was able to play Wimbledon.
“It took me about 10 to 12 days before I was feeling good again.
“This is not as bad as that but obviously the danger if you compete and play on it is you make it worse.
“So, I’ll need to see how it develops over the coming days and hopefully feel better in a few days. I’m really sorry. Thank you.”
Jannik Sinner will now play France’s Gael Monfils in the quarter-finals after he overcame Australian Aleksander Vukic.
Jordan Spieth topped the leaderboard after round one of the FedEx St Jude Championship, where he scored seven under par with a score of 63.
He goes into round two in Memphis leading Tom Kim by one shot and admitted he has been working on his putting.
“Quite a bit of putting. I played really well at the British. Tee to green, I played well enough to win,” he said afterwards.
“I didn’t feel like I missed many of my lines. I just couldn’t quite get the matching of the line and speed on the greens.
“Now we come to slopey Bermuda and very fast slopey Bermuda where I feel a little more comfortable picking lines and kind of feeding the ball in using gravity.
“I think that helped, along with quite a bit of work as best I could in Texas right now, which is really from the hours of 7:00 a.m to noon before it’s almost unbearable.
“Just tightened some things up. I tried to play a lot just to shoot scores. I had kind of taken off playing a bunch, and I think that that helped a bit in the last couple weeks.”
England’s Tommy Fleetwood and Aaron Rai are the best of the British contingent, closing out Thursday on four under par.
Rory McIlroy sits a shot back on three under, after the Northern Irishman split three bogeys with four birdies and an eagle.
Los Angeles Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw will make his first start since June 27 on Thursday after the team activated the veteran pitcher from the injured list prior to their game against the Colorado Rockies.
Kershaw missed the past six weeks with a sore left shoulder that prevented the three-time National League Cy Young Award winner from appearing in last month's MLB All-Star Game.
The 35-year-old prepared for Thursday's assignment by throwing a pair of simulated games, including a four-inning outing last week.
Kershaw was in the midst of another excellent season prior to being sidelined. In 16 starts in 2023, the left-hander has compiled a 10-4 record and a 2.55 earned run average that would lead the majors if he had enough innings to qualify.
The 10-time All-Star is 4-0 with a sensational 1.09 ERA over his past five starts and did not allow a run in three of those appearances. In his most recent start on June 27, Kershaw held the Rockies to one hit over six scoreless frames in a 5-0 Dodgers' victory at Coors Field.
Kershaw's return should help stabilise a Los Angeles rotation that has largely struggled in his absence. Dodgers starters recorded a combined 6.18 ERA in July, the second highest in the majors for the month.
“For the team, I know that we all get excited when he takes the baseball,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told reporters Tuesday. “You just feel more comfortable and confident when Kersh is active.
Despite their starting pitching issues, the Dodgers have opened up a six-game lead on the second-place San Francisco Giants in the NL West and have won eight of nine games to begin August.
Harry Kane has been given permission to travel to Germany to complete a medical with Bayern Munich, according to reports.
It comes following the news earlier on Thursday that Bayern had reportedly reached an agreement with Tottenham over a £95million deal to sign the England striker.
The clubs are reported to have settled in principle on terms for the England captain to move to Bayern after a series of bids earlier in the summer were rejected, according to reports citing sources in Germany.
Tottenham are not commenting on the latest reports emerging from Germany.
Kane is about to enter the final year of his Tottenham contract, meaning he would be free to leave for nothing in 12 months’ time.
Chairman Daniel Levy is believed to value the striker closer to £120m, but the risk of the club’s star asset departing for free in under a year has underscored negotiations with Bayern.
Kane had reportedly been keen to stay in England in order to pursue Alan Shearer’s all-time Premier League scoring record of 260.
He has netted 213 times in the top flight since making his Spurs debut in 2012.
He was the subject of interest from Manchester United earlier in the summer, but the club opted instead to target less costly alternatives in a bid to stay within their transfer budget.
Spurs supporters sang “we want you to stay” during Sunday’s 5-1 friendly victory over Shakhtar Donetsk, new manager Ange Postecoglou’s first home game in charge.
The team begin their Premier League campaign away to Brentford on Sunday, with Kane reportedly keen for his future to have been decided by then.
Cyriel Dessers believes Rangers’ early performance in the 2-1 Champions League qualifying win over Servette is “only the beginning” for Michael Beale’s new-look side.
The Light Blues boss and his team were widely criticised following the 1-0 defeat at Kilmarnock in the cinch Premiership opener at Rugby Park on Saturday.
There was a marked improvement in the first half of the third qualifying round first leg against the Swiss side at Ibrox on Wednesday night, with skipper James Tavernier scoring a penalty in the sixth minute.
Dessers tapped in a second eight minutes later for his first Gers goal since signing from Cremonese to experience an “amazing feeling”, although a handball by the Rangers new boy just before the break allowed Servette attacker Chris Bedia to pull a goal back from the spot.
The Light Blues were less effective after the break despite the visitors being reduced to 10 men in the 59th minute after David Douline picked up a second yellow card.
Speaking about the importance of the quick start and the demands of the Gers supporters, Dessers, 28, said: “That’s what we wanted. Of course after the loss on Saturday we were not a s*** team or anything like that.
“We knew we had to come out strong and show the fans what we can give them and what we can do as a team and especially the first half hour I think we showed that.
“That’s only the beginning. We are going to grow in fitness and relationships and as a team and it looks very promising.
“At Feyenoord, a similar club, the fans can react very emotional. But that’s what you want, you don’t want to be at a club where everybody just shrugs it off after a loss.
“You want an intense club and you get it in a positive way like Wednesday when you play good. That’s what you need after a tough loss and you get a reaction and at a big club like Rangers, that is normal.”
On his own performance, the Nigeria international said: “Of course I came to Rangers later so I still need some time.
“This was the first time I played more than 60 minutes. Overall, I had some really good moments, sometimes sloppy but that is all part of it.
“I am happy with this performance.”
Dessers acknowledged how difficult the return game in Switzerland next Tuesday night will be against a side who knocked Genk out in the previous round but remains confident of progressing through to the play-off where Rangers would face either PSV Eindhoven or Sturm Graz.
He said: “Overall it was a good night for us. Servette is a good team, a tricky team. I saw them over two nights against Genk and Genk are a really good team and they knocked them out.
“We dominated, we could have scored more maybe but this will keep us on your toes for next week.
“Of course if you can choose you want to go with a bigger lead but like I said, this will keep us on our toes.
“You cannot take anything for granted in Europe and we will need to go there strong and need a good performance to hopefully knock out Servette.”
Pep Guardiola claims it is inevitable standards will drop at Manchester City following last season’s treble success.
The City boss accepts it is unlikely his team will be able to match the intensity that saw them pick up the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League trophies last term as a new campaign begins.
The Spaniard wants to make sure City pace their challenge for further silverware and is not even thinking about an end goal yet.
“We are going to drop that’s for sure,” said Guardiola, whose side begin their quest for a sixth domestic title in seven years at Burnley on Friday.
“It’s inevitable a little bit. We’ll try to avoid it as much as possible. Now it’s (about) not dropping too much – staying there, staying there, (being) close to our rivals.
“Then try to, in the last four, five, or six months, try to do what we have done every season. I don’t want to do it now. That is my feeling.
“Now, (it would be a) big mistake thinking about trophies and titles – big mistake.”
Guardiola also does not want to set any targets for Erling Haaland in his second season at the club.
The prolific Norwegian enjoyed an outstanding first year, firing 52 goals in just 53 appearances.
Guardiola said: “I will advise him, don’t put much pressure on the goals. I said to Erling, come back at your best, physically and mentally. If you score, fine. If you don’t score, fine.
“Try to improve in your details, in your quality and skills, and the team will help you as much as possible to score goals. I don’t want (to ask of) Erling to score 50 or 60.
“Try to be happy like he was last season and relax. Afterwards, the goals will come naturally, don’t force it.”
Concerns have been expressed this week about the potential impact on players of the edict for referees to be stricter when adding on added time.
Guardiola himself felt the amount added in the Community Shield against Arsenal last weekend was excessive.
He said: “Why eight minutes, not 12 or four? I don’t know exactly what happened. There was one goal and four or five substitutions but no injuries.
“If you want to control it, do it like basketball – stop the clock.
“If they are going to play the 10 minutes (extra) we are going to do it but, at the end we are going to play 41 games not 38 this season.”
The continuing expansion of the football calendar, along with pre-season tours, is also further limiting players’ breaks.
Guardiola said: “Many players asked me, ‘Give me more days off Pep’. I said I can’t.
“It’s a problem. It’s getting worse – more games, more games and more than that. Players need to go to the theatre, cinema, park, the gardens, to do other things that aren’t to do with football.”
Guardiola insists, however, that when it comes to his side’s additional showpiece fixtures this season – next week’s European Super Cup and the Club World Cup in December – he is honoured to be involved.
“I love it,” he said. “I love to play the Super Cup. This club never won the Super Cup and of course to play the Club World Cup you have to win the Champions League. This opportunity is a pleasure.”
Wales & The West and Saffie Osborne lead the way in the William Hill Racing League, after a dramatic evening that saw fire engines called to Chepstow on night two of the competition.
London & The South took maximum points in the first race as Eve Johnson Houghton’s Cabinet Of Clowns (15-2) was steered by Charlie Bishop to a half-length success.
But the action then came to an abrupt halt when an electrical fault caused a fire in a kitchen at the track, with some water also coming through the ceiling in the weighing-room area resulting in the complex having to be evacuated.
A number of fire engines arrived at the scene and the track was eventually deemed safe, creating a near 40-minute delay to the contest scheduled for 6.00pm.
“There’s been an electrical fault upstairs in the weighing-room complex and it’s turned off all the power in the weighing room,” clerk of the course Libby O’Flaherty told Sky Sports Racing during the delay.
“We’re waiting for the fire engine to get here so we can deem it safe to carry on.
“It’s (the water) just by the door when you go in (to the weighing room), the water came through and that’s all been cleaned up.
“We’re just waiting for the fire brigade to tell us everything is fine.”
The delayed race was won by Rod Millman’s Chinese Knot, the 7-4 favourite being steered to victory by last year’s leading rider as Osborne bagged the first leg of a double.
The same jockey then crossed line first in the next, with Executive Decision (5-2 favourite) prevailing after a photo finish to get even more points on the board for the Wales & The West outfit.
Scotland were triumphant in the fourth contest on the card when Totnes (4-1) struck for Paul Mulrennan and Andrew Balding, with Ireland enjoying their first success of the series when Star Harbour (12-1) was a winner for Adrian McGuinness and Dylan Browne McMonagle.
In both of those races Wales & The West had placed runners and when Tim Easterby’s Manila Scouse took the penultimate race as the 8-11 favourite for David Allan and Yorkshire, the third- and fourth-placed horses gained even more points for the leaders.
The final event went the way of the North, with the 9-2 favourite Ramazan winning for Richard Fahey and Oisin Orr in a race worth £100,000.
The evening left Wales & The West with a significant advantage in front on 319 points, whereas Ireland sit in second with 242 and London & The South third on 231.
Osborne is the leading riding so far as she sits at the top of the jockey leader board on 161 points.
Jamie Osborne, trainer of Executive Decision and father of Saffie, said: “We’ve got a good spread of horses, we don’t have the biggest trainers in the world but I think in a way that’s a help.
“Some of the bigger trainers have other fish to fry, this kind of prize-money is very important to our owners.
“We’re well positioned, but we’re not yet a third of the way through the competition so we’re not home and hosed yet. But I’d say it will take a good one to beat Saff!”
Tom Pidcock took cross-country short track bronze on his mountain bike at the UCI Cycling World Championships but then had to defend himself against accusations of bad sportsmanship from German rival Luca Schwarzbauer after a final corner collision.
The reigning Olympic mountain bike champion made a late lunge for the inside line on the sharp final bend of the Glentress Forest course and surprised Schwarzbauer as the pair touched, sending the German to the ground and putting him out of the medals as New Zealand’s Sam Gaze beat Victor Koretzky to gold.
Schwarzbauer then made his feelings clear, claiming the move was deliberate on Pidcock’s part.
“Tom crashed me out, he completely rode into me in that corner,” he said. “I’m super disappointed for sure because a bronze medal would have been pretty safe. He’s Tom Pidcock, but that doesn’t give him the right to do something like that.
“I said a few words to him and said it was a very bad move in my eyes. At first he said, ‘It’s part of the racing,’ but then he realised I had crashed.
“But I think he knew already. When he rides like this I’m going to crash because he was straight into me and he used me as a barrier. Already before the corner actually – he ran full gas into it and I think no mountain biker would do this at all, like a pure mountain biker, the community of us.
“I know he’s Tom Pidcock and he’s a superstar, but this doesn’t give him the right to do that…He’s so aggressive, you can really see he’s the most aggressive rider, no one else rides like this. You can do this but in my eyes it’s not really sportsman (like).”
Pidcock played down the incident immediately after the race but, told of Schwarzbauer’s comments, he told the PA news agency: “What’s that famous saying? If you no longer go for a gap then you’re no longer a racing driver. Of course I did not mean to cause him to crash and I’m sorry for that.”
That incident aside, Pidcock was happy with his performance in a race where he came from well down the pack to put himself in contention, at one point making up nine places in a single lap as he rose from 18th to third.
Although he could not respond when Gaze made a big move on the final lap, Pidcock will take confidence going into Saturday’s cross-country Olympic race, his big target at these worlds.
“I’m pretty happy,” he said. “I only did this to prepare for Saturday but this morning I was pretty up for it and it’s nice to have a medal.
“This is not really my sort of race so it’s good for Saturday I think. My legs were not super but come the weekend I think it will be OK.”
Evie Richards then delivered a second bronze for Great Britain in the women’s race as France’s Pauline Ferrand-Prevot – Pidcock’s Ineos Grenadiers team-mate – successfully defended her title ahead of Puck Pieterse.
Richards, the 2021 cross-country Olympic world champion, admitted the excitement of racing at home played a part as she put herself on the front in the early laps before dropping back, and she was then unable to respond to Ferrand-Prevot’s winning attack on the final lap.
“I think it’s always a bit stupid when you go off the front but I always do it, don’t I?” she said. “I tried to calm down, it’s very easy to get carried away when everyone is cheering your name…
“It’s been a real hard few years since winning the world championships so to be back here is really amazing, and to win a medal is even better.”
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