The Guardian from London, Greater London, England • 24

24 Tuesday May 26 1998 Michelle Smith faces life ban, page 23 Monty mops up at Wentworth, page 22 Hoddle hints at place for Wright, page 22 Bonus for Persian Punch, page 2 1 SportsGuardian Better to leave the babes in the woodwork Path to the Premiership jIHB Clive Mendonca 4 in for Charlton (23) Niall Quinn for 4 4 Kevin Phillips for Mendonca 5 Quinn for (73) Richard Rufus Nicky Summerbee 3 9 Mendonca A A for Charlton (103) Penalty shoot-out Mendonca for Charlton Summerbee "f4 for Sunderland Steve Brown for Charlton Allan Johnston for ty Sunderland Keith Jones for a Chariton Kevin Ball for 3 Sunderland Mark Kinsella for Charlton Chris Makln for yj Sunderland Mark Bowen for Charlton Alex Rea for Sunderland John Robinson for Charlton Quinn for rf Shaun Newton for Charlton Michael Gray missed for Sunderland tend to merge into one and found myself in the company of a woman who had taken part in a Fantasy Football League competition. Her team called something like "Sex Bombs XI" had had a certain degree of success. And so its manageress regaled us with the details of her strategy, of how she had been clever enough to sell Solskjaerand buy Petit, of how she had bought Michael Owen before anyone else had heard of him (including Roy Evans, presumably). The men were clearly bored and embarrassed but they maintained expressions of tolerance because they knew they had to. Women's game now, isn't it? But no man would ever have talked about football like that.

All right, men can be bloody boring about sport. But what was so awful about this woman was her defensiveness learned, no doubt, from Martin Keown: go on, she seemed to be saying to the men, have a go. Challenge me, tell me I don't know what I'm talking about. You certainly didn't feel that she actually liked football. You felt that she was defending her right to like it.

AND so it goes on: this unnatural, unrelaxed relationship that women are encouraged to have with sport. A seemingly unstoppable stream of newspaper articles tells us how Dani BehrPatsy KensitZoe Ball love nothing better than an afternoon in the Directors' Box cheering on the boys. You keep thinking that it, or they, will dry up. But none of it ever does. Nor does the birth of the new female stereotype The Babe Who Understands The Offside Rule mean the death of the old female stereotype.

The Bird Who Wants To Go To Homebase On A Saturday Afternoon. In fact the creation of the first seems to have put new life into the second. She, of course, is making herself particularly felt at the moment, telling the world how she is going to "survive" the World Cup; by watching Anna Neagle films, perhaps, or absconding to Harvey Nichols with her husband's credit card. It is patronising rubbish, all of it, and almost wholly removed from my own impressions, which are that most women are more interested in sport than they would have been a few years ago but to nothing like the extent that much of the media would have it. Rather a dull conclusion? Let us just say that I may, last week, have lost my last chance to broadcast to the nation.

goalkeeper Sasa Ilic dives to stop Michael Gray's fateful penalty and foil Sunderland at the last photograph: tom jenkins First Division play-off final: Charlton Athletic 4, Sunderland 4 (after extra-time, 3-3 at 90 minutes; Charlton win 7-6 on penalties) Charlton scoop the jackpot but Perez came a long way for a corner he could never reach and Richard Rufus headed in. It was a timely moment for the defender to register his first goal for the club. In extra-time Nicky Summerbee finished off a move begun by Gray and helped on by Quinn but at the back Peter Reid's team were still vulnerable to the Mendonca menace, and from Steve Jones's cross he needed only the slightest room to become the first player to score a hat-trick in a play-off final. Charlton Athlotlo (4-4-2) Ilic; Mills (Robinson. 77mln).

Rulus, Youds, Bowen, Newton. Jones. Kinsella. Heanoy (S Jones. 65).

Mendonca, Bright (Brown, 94) Sunderland! (4-4-2) Poroz. Holloway (Makin, 46), Craddock, Williams. Gray. Summerbee, Ball, Clark (Rae. 100).

Johnston, Phillips (Dichio. 74), Quinn Refereei Wolstenholmo (Blackburn) When a corner was needlessly given away, Niall Quinn ducked low to direct his header in at the near post. He then blazed over before Kevin Phillips, collecting Kevin Ball's firm forward header, found room to glance the ball home. It was his 35th goal of the season and saw him overtake Brian Clough's long-standing club record. Quinn's second, an unerring volley dispatched at the far post, came with 17 minutes remaining and was an instant response to the pick of Mendonca's three.

Flanked by two defenders he brought the ball down before splendidly easing it beyond Lionel Perez. Leading 3-2 with only five minutes remaining, Sunderland thought they were home walk along Wembley Way as Newcastle and Middlesbrough in recent weeks. Sunderland held the lead twice in the second half and again put their noses in front at the start of extra-time. But, with Mendonca's right foot serving him and his team so well, a one-goal advantage was never going to be enough. Mendonca's first goal midway through the first half, after a sharp turn to outwit Jody Craddock, gave no hint of the thrilling events about to unfold.

Sunderland had looked unlikely to penetrate a defence which had stood firm for 14 hours. But three times they unravelled that record-breaking rearguard before the clock signalled 90 minutes. Trevor Haylett A PRIZE worth 10 million and rising came down to a penalty shoot-out yesterday. It was a desperately perverse way to send a team to the Premiership but for Charlton, a club who refused to die and who declined every invitation to surrender on the day, this was a triumph to remember for a long, long time. One could not make it up.

Even a hat-trick from Clive Mendonca, the Charlton striker who produced a masterful exhibition of the scoring art at the expense of the team he supported as a boy, was not sufficient to carry off the spoils. These brave, un Laura Thompson LAST week I was asked to take part in a radio talk show, an invitation I find shamingly hard to resist. Even when I was told that the theme of the programme was "Women and Sport" I was unable to say no. And what, demanded the researcher, were my thoughts on the subject? Well, I replied, my thoughts on the subject were that there was no subject upon which to have thoughts. If women were interested in sport, that was fine; if they were not, that was also fine.

Wow, said the researcher, how wonderful, how refreshing. The next day, she left a message on my answering machine saying that I was no longer required. I was unsurprised, of course; relieved, too, but also annoyed because a part of me had been looking forward to going on the programme and trampling its dreaded theme. I have been writing about sport, on and off, for about eight years and during that time I have been invited to take part in this kind of radio show on this kind of topic more times than I care to remember. At the start there was a little something to say on the subject.

It had a certain novelty: a frisson could be created merely by the juxtaposition of those towering twin concepts, "women" and But now? Surely those clays are over? Surely, towards the end of a decade which has seen sport fall over itself in its willingness to take its hands out of its pockets and open its doors to all the lovely ladies waiting outside, no one can make an issue out of this? But they do, God, how they do. It is the most extraordinary and tedious paradox that, while sport is supposed now to welcome women with the same ease as it has always welcomed men, it still carries on as if havinga female presence at, say, a football match, were cause for congratulation and debate. And plenty of women go along with this. They, too, carry on as if the fact that they now like sport were a phenomenon to fascinate the world. Not too long ago, for example, I was in a drinking club the kind where separate tables 27 Patient finding evidence in grass (8) Down 1 Oil pollution left leaking from the French cutter (6) 2 Incentive, I have, to support raising of cat (6) 3 Hudson's wild dogs (6) 4 Film about crank in a fight (4,6) 6 Powerful person with a right to be in time (8) 7 Fire survivor is resting, having gone crazy (8) 8 Skiing technique, 'e allowed to be raised on the spot (8) 1 3 Footwear for English banker wearing suit (10) 1 5 Satire, about knight, top journalist spoilt (5-3) 1 6 Arson etc affected one further up the line (8) Saving grace Charlton's flagging teams remained all square after 120 dramatic minutes and then matched each other stroke for stroke as they put away their five regulation penalties.

So it came down to sudden death. These athletes are handsomely paid but surely should not have to endure such a climax to a 49-game league season. After three more successful attempts the role of tragic fall-guy fell to Michael Gray, who rolled an under-hit shot at Sasa Ilic, the 6ft 4in barrier filling the Charlton goal. Feelings from neutrals last night lay with the young Sunderland defender. One simple mistake and 10 months of endeavour is turned to waste.

For Charlton, splendidly treatment during his match for a minor twinge, so within the space of four hours came the sight of our two leading players lying prone on the court, their faces pressed in the dirt. It was a potent image of Britain's continuing lack of success on clay. Rusedski had begun the day ranked No. 4 in the world, after climbing above Australia's Pat Rafter without having to do anything (such are the byzantine vagaries of the system), but his No. 5 seeding here was not about to fool anybody, least of all Van Herck, who by dint of this win may now have become the 11th most famous Belgian ever.

"The main idea was to push Greg to the back of the court and keep him there," said Van Herck, a tall, blond, big-boned All over by tea for Rusedski Guardian CrosswordNo Set by Chifonie managed by Alan Curbishley, this heart-stopping victory marks the peak of a decade spent Fighting for their lives and their Valley ground. It will concern them little that the bookmakers have installed them at 150-1 for the Premiership title. "How do we recover after that?" Curbishley said. "I felt it was an important time when we got it back to 2-2 and the defences were all over the place. "And then we got to the penalties and we hadn't practised penalties except for a bit of fun at the end of training and four out of the five who took those penalties didn't even take them today." Defeat left the Wearsiders to make the same head-down player of the type that sometimes appears to have been cloned by the ATP Tour.

He is 24 years old, ranked 96 and has never won a senior tournament but he grew up on clay and knew exactly how to handle Rusedski who, since beginning his clay-court season in Monte Carlo last month, has managed one win in six matches. Henman's problems began on Sunday when he was practising with Russia's Yevgeny Kafelnikov, the champion here two years ago. "I made a sudden movement to my left to hit a backhand and immediately had pain in my back." After treatment that night Henman, who has never suffered from back problems before, practised for half an hour before his and Henman in France Stephen Bierley sees British faces rubbed in the red clay of Paris i I 2 I 3 1 1 Hp I I 8 ZiZlZiZtMpZiZiZ ziziznjpziziz HjBtBBtff( TrTyw -y 22- 24- hP Rusedski, who lost 6-4, 6-4, 6-4, will now take a wild card for Nottingham, where he won the title last year. In his new shorter shorts, and shorter haircut, he had begun confidently against Van Herck, engineering an immediate break-point, which he missed, before claiming a second, in the sixth game for a 4-2 lead. But Van Herck countered instantly and thereafter Rusedski's serve was never secure, the Belgian passing him on both sides, with Rusedski frequently resembling a passenger arriving at the station the exact moment the train pulls out.

Thomas Muster displayed some of his old clay-court flair in his 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 defeat of the No. 7 seed Jonas Bjorkman. There were straightforward wins for the two No. 1 seeds. Pete Sampras defeated his fellow American Todd Martin G-4, 6-3, 6-3 and Switzerland's Martina Hingis beat Spain's Maria Sanchez Lorenzo 6-2, 6-1.

Nothing was straightforward for the Britons, unless one counts the direct route home. FEW had expected Greg Rusedski or Tim Hen-man to make much of an impact at the French Open but the opening day at Roland Garros proved nothing short of disastrous for the British pair. By mid-afternoon their challenge was over. Le Lundi noir. Rusedski was first to go, losing in straight sets to the one-dimensional Belgian Johan Van Herck, who cruelly exposed the British No.

l's long-standing inability to get to grips with red clay. This placed the onus on Henman but, after receiving lengthy treatment for a recurring back spasm when trailing 5-2 in the opening set against Sargis Sargsian of Armenia, the British No. 2 was forced to retire one point later. Rusedski also received Rusedski wiped out match against Sargsian, but it quickly began to stiffen up. For the knock-up it was fine but when he came to the net and had to move suddenly during the first set the searing pain in the middle of his back returned.

"It's almost like it knocks the breath out of you." Bill Norris, the ATP Tour physio, attempted to ease the problem by manipulation but Henman, after one serve which he won, was forced to concede with a grimace: "I feel pretty sick about it." MpBUIHlTTHSjl CROSSWORD SOLUTION 21,283 17 Incline to support beginner from somewhere in the Alps (8) 19 Exotic fruit struck Greek character (6) 20 Get wrecked in boat (6) 2 1 Left is thrilled having Conservatives ousted (6) Solution tomorrow 75 Stuck? Then call our solutions line on 0881 338 238. Calls cost 50p per minute at all times. Service supplied byATS NEWSPAPERS SUPPORT RICYCUNO. Recycled paper mads up4V4o1theraw material for UK newspaper! In the first halt of1M7 ABPPRST Across 1 Flower that is current in the county (8) Give a member skill (6) 9 Old slag can quote novel (8) 1 0 Alliance of states has coin that is imaginary (6) 1 1 Eventually have oneself forgiven for shocking drink (4,4) 12 Frenchmen, capturing a wild beast, showing bottle (6) 14 Hack skin off and wait (3-7) 18 Mint a couple of coins (10) 22 Old British native protects duck from cat (6) 23 Intellectual is supporter in fight (8) 24 More qualified workman (6) 25 Sorcery leads to shortage in pub by Tuesday (5,3) 26 These days returning to the circus shows bottle (6) "Fall in control" I thought, but the skis had taken over. The tails clipped and I catapulted, head over heels down the slope.

I got up slowly and another skier brought me my skis. As I bent down I felt a click in my neck. Slowly I mounted the skis, then gently traversed some soft snow to the bottom. Every move could have been fatal. Health, G2 page 16.