Barrie Lester came to the Hong Kong International Bowls Classic with no expectations but walked away with the weekend's biggest prize by grabbing the men's singles crown in an all-Australian final at Kowloon Bowling Green Club yesterday. The 30-year-old from Melbourne played one of the games of his life to win the title at his first attempt, defeating pairs partner Matthew Baus, who celebrated his 25th birthday yesterday, 9-6, 8-9, 3-1. "We came here not knowing what the greens would be like and having no expectations, but we played our best. You couldn't have scripted it any better," said Lester, who works in community development for Bowls Australia. The women's title went to England's Sandy Hazell, who beat Hong Kong's Camilla Leung 8-7, 11-5. Unus Alladin
Queens Park Rangers and Reading wereboth left still looking for their first Premier League wins of the season after playing out a 1-1 draw at Loftus Road last night. Former QPR defender Kaspars Gorkss put Reading ahead after 16 minutes before Djibril Cisse equalised with a well-taken goal, controlling and firing home from close range after 66 minutes. The result left both teams in the relegation zone, with Reading 18th with five points from nine games and QPR 19th with four from 10. Reuters