Darren ‘eats up’ Sandwich as Pedrosa and Japan win in Germany…

GOLF – The 140^th Open Championship at Royal St George’s was won in terrific style by an ‘ordinary bloke’, Ireland’s cool, competent Darren Clarke, 42, who finished five under par with rounds of 68, 68, 69 and 70 to become the oldest winner since 1967 while clinching his first-ever Major title.

Americans Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson were joint second ahead of Thomas Bjorn, Chad Campbell, Anthony Kim and ‘star of the future’ Rickie Fowler.

England’s Tom Lewis (20), joint leader after day one, won the silver medal as the best-placed amateur (30th) and despite some horrible weather, 150,000 spectators attended the four-day event at Sandwich, a brilliant turnout.

Next year’s venue is Royal Lytham St Anne’s.

 MOTOR SPORT –Spain’s Dani Pedrosa won Germany’s MotoGP at Sachsenring; fellow countryman Jorge Lorenzo was second and Aussie Casey Stoner third on Sunday. This weekend the cars, drivers and crews will battle for F1 points at the Nürburgring where championship leader by a mile (or three) Sebastian Vettel, aims to thrill his own supporters again!

FOOTBALL – Japan defeated USA 3-1 on penalties (after a 2-2 draw) to win the Women’s World Cup in Germany, and after watching Sweden beat France for third place, Arsenal’s Cesz Fabregas said: “I can’t see any difference between men and women. Some are better than us!”

Upsets in Copa America saw Paraguay beat Brazil, Uruguay k’o Argentina and Venezuela oust Chile while Peru beat Colombia. The final is in Buenos Aries on Sunday.

The Faroe Islands have overtaken the Wales in the FIFA World Rankings.

Scotland kicks off the 2011-12 season this weekend followed by the English Premiership on 13 August with champions Manchester United visiting West Brom 24 hours later.

Next week I’ll furnish you with all the major transfers that have taken place since 1 June.

EXPENSIVE BOOK! – A week ago, at Sotheby’s, London, the earliest rules of the game of football appertaining to Sheffield FC – the world’s oldest club – was sold for £881,250 (about million euros)

This extraordinary and unique piece of sporting history, which represents a crucial step towards the evolution of the modern game of association football, was bought by an anonymous telephone bidder. The archive includes the earliest set of rules ever likely to come to the market – both the original handwritten draft rules (1858) and the only known surviving copy of the printed Rules, Regulations, & Laws of Sheffield FC (1859). 

BOXING – Kevin Mitchell (Dagenham) defeated previously unbeaten John Murray (Manchester) to become inter-continental lightweight champion… Scot Ricky Burns retained his WBO super-featherweight crown with a first round win over Nicky Cook from Essex… and at welterweight Birmingham’s Frankie Gavin gained a split-decision victory over Yorkshire’s ex-footballer Curtis Woodhouse. 

SPORTS EXTRA – The first England-India Test starts today at Lords… After the 19^th stage win of his career Mark Cavendish can claim a prize in the Tour de France which ends in Paris on Sunday… Blue Bunting (Frankie Dettori) won the Irish Oaks… GB’s Davis Cup-tie with Hungary in September will be in Glasgow’s Braehead Arena… And

Peter Waterfield and Tom Daley came 6^th in the World synchro-diving championships. 

DID YOU KNOW?

Ex-snooker champion Ray Reardon was once a policeman (no 184) in Stoke-on-Trent and in 1953 American jockey Willie Shoemacker won 485 of his 1,683 races.

Information: 950 069 220 or tony_matthews@live.co.uk