The Guardian from London, Greater London, England • 26

26 Tuesday May 27 1997 Hern hands over the reins, page 23 Saints rudderless says Soilness, page 24 in shines on Devon, page 25 Fists fly in Lions camp, page 25 SportsGuardian Woosnam in easy Ryder driving seat Crystal Palace 1 Sheffield United 0 Palace back among elite bounds gardens that ensnare the really badly hooked shot. It stopped short of that, but was so far back that reaching the green was out of the question and he had to settle for the safe par. "It was not one of my more spectacular rounds." he said, "but I've had a couple of seconds this season and I really wanted to beat such a strong field as this one." Clarke, who partnered Woosnam and needed an eagle three at the same hole to have a chance of winning, took a three-wood off the tee and saw the ball run into a fairway bunker; from there he did well to make his par. Faldo's challenge faded at the 17th where he drove into the trees, and Els found thick rough off the tee at the same hole and failed to get a crucial birdie. It might be thought that a man would be satisfied with a 64 around the West Course, given that it is only a shot short of the record held by Wayne Riley and that it vaulted this perpetrator from 18th position into the big prize-money.

But Montgomerie did not see it that way at all. "All my golfing life," the Scot said. "I've made my money by being consistent, and consecutive rounds of 76 and 64 is not consistent. "There is something not quite right, and on Sunday I lost it. I had a chat with myself on Sunday night because this year has not got off the ground for me." And what had talking to himself achieved? "The way 1 play my best golf," he said, "is by not thinking about things.

I've been getting a little bit bogged down by technique. "Possibly I don't need a coach. Some people don't; Laura Davies does well without one. I'll have to become a do-it-yourself golfer. Yesterday he had eight birdies and no bogeys, and he said: "A 64 was the most it could have been.

I missed three eagle putts of under 20ft and three birdie putts of under 10ft." mm-' mm the second half, when United made a point of cutting his passing options and narrowing his avenues of approach. For a time Nigel Spaceman's experience promised to bring United the advantages won earlier by Roberts but" Howard Kendall's team failed to employ their full-backs as consistently well in attack as Palace, for whom Kevin Muscat and Dean Gordon frequently provided width and penetration. United's best period came in the 20 minutes after half-time when Jan Fjortoft, with better service, was able to hold the ball up and bring people into play. But their problem all along lay in their reluctance to get enough men forward to put serious pressure on Andy Linighan and the other Palace defenders. Midway through the first half Kendall replaced his Belarus striker Peter Katchouro with the more direct Gareth Taylor.

But losing Don Hutchison on the stroke of half-time with a dislcoated shoulder, the result of falling heavily in a challenge with Linighan, did not enhance United's ability to break down Palace's resolve. Steve Coppell, now in his second spell as Palace's manager, will be taking up a team shrewdly coached and organised by Ray Lewington with youth, pace and thoughtful passing patterns. If Palace can hold on to Hopkin, to be capped by Scotland against Malta next weekend, their chances of survival will be better. He will soon be discussing a new contract with the club. after his last-minute winner David DavtM at Wamtworth IAN WOOSNAM faltered too little and too late for the rest of the field to catch him, and the Welshman won his second Volvo PGA Championship yesterday.

Coming nine years after his first, it won him 183.340, it took him to the top of the Volvo rankings and it ensured a place in the Ryder Cup team for the match against the Americans in September. It was his first win of the season, but at the age of 39 he has now won five times in 16 months, a strike rate that compares favourably with any stage of his career. Aito gether he has won 32 tournaments in Europe, three in the United States and six in the rest of the world. His total of 275, 13 under par, beat a distinguished trio into second place; Nick Faldo, Ernie Els and Darren Clarke were all on 277. and Colin Montgomerie, after a 64, was fifth on 10 under.

Woosnam came to the last hole with a two-stroke cushion and knew that a safe par five would be sufficient to win one of the biggest titles of his career. But a "discussion" with his caddie Phil Morbey over the merits of a three-wood or a one-iron off the tee ended in disagreement. The problem lay in Woos-nam's mind, for this year he had lost the Dubai Desert Classic on the final hole, hitting a wedge into the lake in front of the green. He wanted no part of such an ignominious display this time, and afterwards he said: "I didn't want to do a Dubai. I didn't want to just hit a one-iron followed by another one-iron either; I wanted to win it right.

I got myself all confused and didn't commit myself to any kind of shot." He decided to try to cut a driver shot to follow the contours of the fairway, but instead dragged the ball sharply left and for a moment was worried about the out-of- 23,28 Film a junction before we get back (9, 7) 26 Fresh weld in a battery? (3-4) 27 Columbus was negative among birds (7) 28 London ends: Surrey's turn to make room for (7) Down 1 Desire for acknowledgement of old weapon (7) 2 It sounds like private spite (7) 3 Weapons for horses (5) 4 Amplifier almost having the value of a herb (9) 8 Doctor gets one in the 28 to perform operations (3,2) 6 Accommodation at German city acquired by flukes (9) 7 A table I used for such as mint (7) 8 Showing no grief, changed colour when drinking whiskey (3-4) 14 Syrian mother put on a bit of an act (9) 16 Sequel to obiet, silver, Granny gave to gunners' friend (1 '8) 17 Swine holding up metal thread for hairpiece (7) 18 Singer ceremoniously attired? (7) 20 Gas seems to have surprised Macbeth (7) With less than a minute remaining, a shot from Gordon was deflected for a corner on the right. Simon Rodger took it short, Roberts slipped the ball back to him, and Carl Tiler headed out the ensuing centre. The ball fell to Hopkin, lurking to the left of the penalty arc, and with his right foot he produced a shot which curled round David Holdsworth before swinging into the far top David Lacoy at Wombiey GOLDEN shot, golden Eagles. Seldom has this stadium witnessed a better finish to an indifferent game of football than the inspired goal by David Hopkin which yesterday restored Crystal Palace to the Premiership. The Scottish midfielder struck in the 90th minute to deny Sheffield United the chance of extra-time and guarantee Palace a windfall of anything up to 8 million when they return to the top division they last saw in 1995.

From the Palace standpoint there was a degree of justice, both in the result and the way it came about, since in the First Division play-off final a year ago a mishit shot by Steve Claridge, in the last minute of extra-time, had taken Leicester City up and left Palace to brood on the fine line between success and failure. At least Hopkin 's intervention spared United another half-hour of frustration, and exhaustion. Sunny May days make for a marvellous Wem bley setting but yesterday's match, with its accompanying tension, was an unremitting slog for the players, and for the most part it was also hard work for the 64,383 spectators because too few players composed themselves before passing or shooting. In Hopkin and Andy Roberts, Palace possessed two who did not lose their normal decent footballing habits. Roberts ran the midfield until Richard Williams Venus rises to take her place among the stars SHE'Sjustakid.

A 5ft 111b kid. She likes basketball and water parks. She braids her hair with coloured beads. She's taking guitar lessons. And yesterday in Paris, when somebody mentioned a visit to the Louvre, she wanted to know if it featured any instruments of torture.

That may or may not have something to do with the fact that she was raised in Comp-ton, the Los Angeles neighbourhood famous for riots and rappers Anyway, just three weeks short of her 17th birthday, Venus Williams turned up at the Stade Roland Garros and, by beating Naoko Sawa- Guardian Crossword No 20,97 N3 red headed Hopkin is engulfed Bruce Dyer's speed was always a worry to United, and eight minutes into the second half he ought to have given Palace the lead. From Hop-kin's pass, Muscat produced a cross which cleared the last defender; Dyer chested the ball down but mishit his shot straight at Simon Tracey. Such moments usually portend extra-time but Hopkin was to prove otherwise. But this was no war of attrition. Both women attacked constantly, refusing to be discouraged by errors.

The rare examples of safety play were usually punished and over the entire match you could have counted the number of looping top-spin shots, the staple diet of clay-court tennis, on the fingers of both hands. Williams fought back, serving for the match at 5-4. Then, momentarily, she wobbled. Two double faults and a rash of weak second serves left her vulnerable but, although Sawamatsu took advantage, the effort seemed to drain her. Williams broke back on a series of errors from the other side of the net before steadying her own service sufficiently to take the victory.

Half an hour later she was facing a press conference, talking about her education, her first trip to Paris and her parents. Her mother was with her, her father had stayed at home in Florida. "He said he wasn't going to start a second career as a parent in the stands, his head going this way and that way, watching the ball." Do you, someone asked, have any relationship with the goddess Venus? "How did you guess?" she replied, with a sassy toss of the white beads. For Wimbledon, she announced, they will be purple and green. Look out.

14 Palace coup de grace the Having survived an early fright, when Carlo Nash's anticipation in coming off his line denied Katchouro the fruits of Fjortoft's quick through-pass. Palace dominated extensive phases of the game up to half-time. Neil Shipperley should have put them ahead after 24 minutes when, having timed his run and leap well in meeting Roberts's corner, he headed over. She flies about the court in a swirl of dynamism, crouching as she winds up her drives, long limbs shooting out at all angles as she follows through. She is almost impossible to lob, and smashes with ferocious relish.

Every now and then she hits a low, raking shot with an extra dose of venom, and the crowd buzzes. She also has deficiencies, notably on yesterday's form the inconsistency of her service, which almost handed Sawamatsu the match in the final set. AFTER a slightly desultory start, with Williams taking the first set in 37 minutes, the setting for an epic struggle was created when Sawamatsu jumped into a 3-0 lead in the second. Dark patches began to appear on Williams's pewter-coloured outfit; Sawamatsu had suddenly found her touch and range. "She started getting all the balls back and making a lot less errors," Williams said later.

The 24-year-old Japanese woman, whose mother and aunt had lost a Wimbledon doubles quarter-final to Billie Jean King and Rosie Casals in 1970, is no stranger to marathons. This year she yielded a Fed Cup match to Nathalie Tauziat in a final set that ended 17-15 Now, as she won the second set in a brusque tie-break and sped to a 3-1 lead in the third, it looked as though her persistence would prevail. PHOTOGRAPH TOM JENKINS corner of the net, with Tracey looking as though he had expected the ball to go wide. Given the quality of the finishing earlier it was a fair, if fate ful, assumption. (J-5-2) Nash.

Edworthy. Tuttle. Ltmghan. Muscat. Roberts Hopkin.

Rodger, Gordon, Oyer. Shipperley helftalal Unite, (3 5 2i Tracey Holdsworlh Tiler. Nilsen White. Spackman (Walker, 90mini Hutchison (Sandlord. 44).

Ward. Whitehouse. Fiorlolt. Katchouro (Taylor 25) Barry (Scunthorpe) 12 See 13 13,12 Outlawed amid anxiety, like Portia's little body (5-5) IB Fiddler on the fiddle: we go DacK a long way (3,6) 1 7 Boy eating a sheep is the limit (9) 12 Southern prophet on Greek island (5) 22 Sweeteners without black currant (5) Set by Araucari liUIulHltliSaelcluli IHtI lOlDlaSHSsaflPlTlAlRlMi I lelAlMls! iQjlllOlWlAlWlCfBaaaaalOlWlMlSB AS I WlWl AtCliai SB lOlC III I CWOWOWD SOLUTION M.673 21 Tinker about to fix an old copper with long thin legs (7) 23 Producer of the 1 0 of the 25 1 3 to celebrate with an audience (5) 24 Where hides the axeman? (5) Solution tomorrow Stuck? Then call our solutions line on OM1 HI IM Calls cost 50p per minute at all times Service supplied by ATS MCYCUNO flacvelad nanar mada ia4l 2Hofthar matanal for UK nawa-papart tra first six monttttof 1996 3) matsu in the first round of the French Open, put down a marker of greatness. There is nothing quite as exhilarating as the arrival of a talent destined to dominate a sport and this year we have had two of them, both well advertised in advance.

Barely a month ago Tiger Woods went to Atlanta and won his first major tournament as a professional golfer. Now along comes Venus Williams to win the first match of her first Grand Slam competition. And what a match. Williams and Sawamatsu were out at 1 lam yesterday, opening the iuui aanient on Court One before a sparse crowd under a perfect blue sky and in tern peratures climbing towards the mid-70s. Two hours and 37 minutes later, shaking hands with the applause of packed grandstands in their ears, they had produced something worthy of a final.

Williams won by 6-2, 6-7 (2-7). 1-5 but there were times in the third set when it looked as though she might make an early exit. Her willingness to stay and fight were as impressive as everything else about her. A tennis player since the age of four, groomed by her father, Richard, who promises that she will be the world No. 1 before her 18th birthday (and that a younger sister Serena will be even better), she has clear physical advantages: power, reach, leverage.

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