Group B: Bangladesh United Arab Emirates Malaysia Denmark West Africa Argentina

Group B: Bangladesh, United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, Denmark, West Africa, Argentina. Group C: Netherlands, Canada, Namibia, Fiji, East and Central Africa. Group D: Bermuda, Scotland, Hong Kong, Papua New Guinea, Italy.. Nottingham Panthers will meet Cardiff Devils in the Superleague championship final on Saturday, but the Panthers only got there after hours of toil against Ayr Scottish Eagles. With 80 seconds left, Ayr led 5-2 and their management were, presumably, confirming the hotel booking for next weekend.

Then two goals from Mike Bishop and one from Neil Morgan tied the score 5-5 and sudden-death overtime beckoned. In the past, if no goal was scored in 10 minutes of overtime the match was decided on penalties. But under the new play-off format an infinite number of 10-minute periods of overtime had to be played to decide the match.Including breaks for resurfacing the ice, a game that started at 6.40pm and should have been over by about 9.45pm kept going And going... Finally, with the game clock showing 1hr 15min 49sec and the spectators' watches reading 11.15pm, Jeff Hoad scored a short handed goal in the sixth period of overtime to win the longest ever ice hockey game played in Britain.If he could have waited another 82 seconds he would have broken the National Hockey League record set in 1936, when Mud Bruneteau's only goal of the game saw Detroit Red Wings beat Montreal Maroons.The earlier semi-final was settled more hastily. Sheffield Steelers' 5-2 win over Cardiff Devils was settled in the second period, when the first of Ken Priestlay's two goals gave Sheffield a 3-1 advantage.. Britain's Carl Fogarty rode his Ducati to second and fourth places in the opening two World Superbike Championship races of the season in Australia to lie in second place overall, a point behind John Kocinski, writes Andrew Martin.

Kocinski dominated a rain-affected first race at Phillip Island, Victoria. The American's Castrol Honda team-mate, Aaron Slight, then claimed a narrow victory in the second outing. Kocinski made light of the difficult conditions in the opening race to head home Fogarty by 15 seconds as Slight failed to finish after becoming one of several riders who fell victim to oil on the circuit. "They are the worst conditions I've ever raced in," Fogarty said. Kocinski agreed: "I can't think of any worse with oil and water on the track.". Lord MacLaurin's declaration that he wanted English Test cricket to be populated by people willing to lay down their lives for their country may have appeared a lofty appeal to anyone who saw our boys in Zimbabwe this winter.

The body language - which did at least improve along with the team's fortunes during the subsequent tour of New Zealand - suggested the nation's standard-bearers were dying for nothing more glorious than a pee. However, the aspirations of the good Lord, the chairman of the new England and Wales Cricket Board, have been realised in the composition of the Test selectors' panel. In terms of stocky patriotic symbols, the sport's answer to Winston Churchill remains Mike Gatting (though he would rather a frankfurter was positioned where the Havana should be). The man born, appropriately enough, on D-day's anniversary in 1957, now joins the Chairman, David Graveney, and Graham Gooch on a panel whose first, behemoth, challenge will be to pick troops to repel the Australians. It is a post Gatting has been given without the sort of campaigning that will be witnessed elsewhere in the country over the next five weeks or so. "It wasn't something I was chasing after as I'm still captain of Middlesex, but I've been asked to do it and my attitude has always been that, if I can help England, I will," he said.As a playing selector, Gatting's options are limited, though he believes his continued activity will give him the opportunity to judge people in pressure situations while he is carrying an implement.