"It's ova, it's ova, it's ova"

There are 15 players already in the women's first round draw whose surnames end in ova, while a further nine won their first round qualifying matches at Roehampton.

There is an M Casanova from Switzerland, otherwise they all hail from Russia, Slovakia and particularly the Czech Republic. But pin-up girl Anna Kournikova is not among them because of a back injury.

So we males will have to turn our Casanova instincts instead towards Maria Sharapova, a 16-year-old Russian who reached the semi-finals of the DFS Classic in Birmingham at the weekend.

She was spotted by a certain Navratilova a decade ago and sent to a training school in Florida, from which she has emerged with a loud grunt to add to her more appealing attractions.

Having accepted her wild card entry, she can expect the lenses to reach paparazzi proportions at the All England Club, but shrugs it off by saying: "I don't care what other people are doing with their little machines. I just concentrate on what I do on the court."

Good for her, and hopefully it won't be all ova in the first round.

FROM ovas to overs, and my impression of cricket's new Twenty20 Cup is that it is bound to catch on. But is 20 the right number of overs per side?

The current limited format, with teams playing five matches in regional groups, means most counties can save on hotel costs by travelling during the morning for the 5.30 start.

But as the Twenty20 grows in popularity it may well do so at the expense of the 45-over National League, which is a compromise rarely living up to the original concept of all-action Sunday afternoon entertainment.

In the opening Twenty20 match at Riverside, Durham and Nottinghamshire totalled 317 runs. Two days later in a National League game at Trent Bridge they added 42 runs to that total in an extra 50 overs.

Much, of course, depends on the pitches, which need to encourage strokeplay. But the clamour will inevitably grow for a shortened version of the National League and I suspect we'll end up with 30 overs a side, some of it played under midweek floodlights and the rest on Sunday afternoons with a 2.30 start.

It would scarcely be worth Scotland travelling to Somerset for anything less than 30 overs, which is probably also the maximum for which players could sustain the urgency of the Twenty20.

IT would be remiss of me not to mention El Becks, especially as I told you he would be going to Real Madrid after the club denied on April 29 that they were interested in him.

We seasoned hacks have grown accustomed to such deception and can see through it. The only thing that isn't clear is whether he's been signed solely to generate millions of yen from sales of replica shirts to swooning Japanese girls. He might end up starring in a long-running production of The Mikado rather than the Champions League final.

I'm not convinced he will enhance the team, although if he can float his 50-yard passes on to Ronaldo's bootlaces it could be quite exciting. We are told he can only improve from playing in a technically superior league, and it will be interesting to see if this benefits the England team. On the evidence supplied by Steve Macmanaman we shouldn't take anything for granted.

SCANDAL of the week has to be the clearing of All Black lock Ali Williams after he was cited for stamping on England full back Josh Lewsey's head.

England left Bath lock Danny Grewcock at home for throwing a few fairly harmless punches at Lawrence Dallaglio in a club match, yet Williams has gone unpunished for a wound behind the ear which needed several stitches, as well as leaving lengthy studmarks across Lewsey's cheek.

The television evidence is fairly damning and after the disgraceful tactics of the South Africans last Novemeber, England are right to protest about this sort of nonsense. Otherwise the southern hemisphere countries will continue to try to derail our World Cup ambitions through foul means.

IT WAS surprising to see a national newspaper mention golf's Teesside and District Inter Club Team Championship this week, and even more surprising to see the error which escaped the sub-editor. It was reported that Cleveland's Simon Dean led the way with an opening 68, then added: "The afternoon rounds - Dean again doping best with a 69 - saw them tie with hosts Saltburn but Cleveland took the trophy."

Doping is not known to be widespread in golf, but heaven help us if it has infiltrated the Teesside and District Championship.

Published: ??/??/2003