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Four Somerset batsmen hit half-centuries to secure a valuable first inningslead in the top three First Division clash at Old Trafford.Mike Burns and Peter Bowler provided a solid pre-lunch platform, then IanBlackwell and Rob Turner led a determined recovery from 199 for five to 385for nine in reply to Lancashire’s 324.Turner top-scored with 72 and although his innings was the slowest, taking238 minutes and 202 balls, it was also the most valuable as he linked upfirst with Keith Dutch then Blackwell to add 138 for the sixth and seventhwickets.Following an unbeaten century in the last game against Essex, it continuedthe wicket-keeper’s return to form after a lean season, and left Somerset ina good position – especially with Lancashire’s captain John Crawley unlikelyto take any further part in the match following a family bereavement.Somerset’s captain Jamie Cox was also missing at the start yesterday forfamily reasons, so Bowler joined Burns to resume their innings on 77 forone.Burns quickly reached an 84-ball 50 with 10 fours and a six, but he was thefirst man to go in the 18th over of the day, a victim of a sharp returncatch by Gary Keedy.Keedy was the pick of the Lancashire bowlers, as he also took three morewickets – all caught by Chris Schofield in the gully – to end the day withfour for 73 from 34 overs.Mark Lathwell was the first and then, after Cox had been bowled bySchofield for 46, Keedy had Bowler snapped up, but only after the veteranhad made a typically patient 65.With the pitch offering plenty of turn, Lancashire would have beenconfident of a first innings lead, but Somerset, and especially Turner, hadother ideas.Dutch hit all but ten in a sixth-wicket stand of 41, then Blackwelldominated the seventh-wicket partnership, with the former Derbyshire spinnerreaching his 50 from 60 balls and going on to 64 with 12 boundaries.He was finally bowled by John Wood with the second new ball but Turnerground on to 72 until he, too, fell to the Keedy-Schofield combination.

Celtic are now reportedly in pole position to sign a key attacking addition for Wilfried Nancy, having already made their first approach.

Nancy wants Celtic to sign "personality" in January

There would have been no one more relieved than Nancy when Celtic picked up the first victory of his tenure against Aberdeen last time out. The Frenchman eased the pressure and now has the task of picking up back-to-back wins when his side travel to face Livingston on Saturday.

With the January transfer window just around the corner, the Livingston game may be the last chance that certain players have to impress Nancy before he marks his own stamp on the side.

Related Kenny should never start again if Celtic sign £34m striker target

Johnny Kenny may never start again for Celtic if the club lands this striker in the January window.

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Speaking to reporters about January additions, the manager said: “We have a lot of ability in terms of the way we play. It is important that when you sign players, they need to have personality. This is a big club. To play here is not always easy. It is so, so important to have players who can play here at a club like this.”

He then continued, saying: “When I talk about personalities, it’s not only to be vocal, it’s to have the right attitude when it is difficult.

“This means when we attack, can we keep showing ourselves for each other, can we still press, or can we defend like crazy in the moment? It’s more about the attitude for me. This is what I am looking for.”

Whether a much-needed attacking addition ticks that box is the question that Celtic fans will be asking. The Bhoys desperately need a consistent goalscorer and have been linked with the likes of Evan Ferguson as a result. But if it’s not the Brighton man, on loan at AS Roma, then it could be Ibrahim Diabate.

Celtic launch approach to sign Ibrahim Diabate

As relayed by the Scottish Sun, Celtic have now launched an approach to sign Diabate from Swedish side GAIS and are in pole position to secure a deal. The forward finished joint-top of the Allsvenskan’s scoring charts this season, with 18 goals to his name, and could now get the chance to enjoy similar success in Scotland.

Valued at £3m in Sweden, Celtic won’t need to break the bank to welcome the forward next month and it’s no doubt a move that Nancy needs.

Dubbed “powerful” by football consultant Kai Watson, the Hoops aren’t the only side interested in Diabate, but he has played down rumours that he could join Egyptian side Al-Ahly, saying: “These are just rumours. Nothing is clear about any transfer and there have been no discussions. Very little of what has been said about me signing for Al-Ahly is true.”

Subscribe for Deeper Celtic Transfer Coverage Subscribing to the newsletter gives deeper context on Celtic transfer stories: player profiles, market valuations and analysis of how targets fit Nancy’s squad – concise, expert coverage focused on transfer implications for the club. Subscribe Subscribe for Deeper Celtic Transfer Coverage Subscribing to the newsletter gives deeper context on Celtic transfer stories: player profiles, market valuations and analysis of how targets fit Nancy’s squad – concise, expert coverage focused on transfer implications for the club.

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Celtic will be hoping to have more luck when it comes to luring the forward away from Sweden next month, but club chiefs will have to back Nancy if they are to turn what has been a dire campaign around.

ScorecardRikki Clarke’s unbeaten half-century helped Birmingham overcome a poor start to their chase•Getty Images

NatWest T20 Blast champions Birmingham Bears are guaranteed a quarter-final place in this year’s competition after beating closest rivals Worcestershire Rapids by five wickets in front of a sell-out crowd at New Road.The North Group leaders opened up a four-point gap when old hand Rikki Clarke kept cool in making an unbeaten 52 from 43 balls as the Bears made it five wins in a row.Tom Kohler-Cadmore and Brett D’Oliveira made half-centuries in taking the Rapids to 160 for 5 and the Bears overcome a chaotic start to complete a successful run chase with three balls to spare after a quick-fire 22 not out by Ateeq Javid.It was an earlier partnership of 68 in nine overs by Clarke and Laurie Evans which restored order before the latter was caught at long-on off Saeed Ajmal.In the closing stages wicketkeeper Ben Cox intermittently employed the tactic of discarding his gloves and taking up a sort of long stop position, but it made no odds as the Rapids suffered a blow in their bid for a quarter-final spot.

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Birmingham are the first county to qualify for the quarter-finals this season and within this victory there was evidence to why they are deservedly so. With 30 balls remaining in their run-chase they were still 57 short of the target – a less successful team may have panicked, but there was no sense of that as four consecutive double-digit overs saw Birmingham to victory with three balls remaining.

Their innings had been a tale of two exciting academy-developed prospects and two contrasting phases.Kohler-Cadmore registered his third half-century in the competition and D’Olviera, from the third generation of a famous cricketing family, reached an explosive 50 from 29 balls, his highest score in all formats for the first-team.Yet for all this enterprise, the Rapids were tied down for more than half of the innings as Warwickshire’s three spinners conceded only 71 runs – and three boundaries, all by Kohler-Cadmore – in the space of 11 overs.On a sluggish surface, which was used for two previous T20 games, Worcestershire were only able to break out of the shackles when D’Oliveira hit four sixes as pace bowlers Oliver Hannon-Dalby and Recordo Gordon were carted for 56 off the last four overs.When D’Oliveira hoisted the last ball of the inning over long off, the 23-year-old allrounder was undefeated with 56 from 30 deliveries, having more than doubled his previous best in the competition.Worcestershire made a poor start when captain Daryl Mitchell came down from a mid-week double century in the County Championship to a first-ball duck when he steered rather than smashed a short ball from Rikki Clarke to backward point.Richard Oliver was bowled for 10, aiming to slog wrist spinner Josh Poysden’s opening delivery, and Colin Munro was smartly stumped by Tim Ambrose off Jeetan Patel.Kohler-Cadmore managed to shut out problems at the opposite end by taking five boundaries in the power play and the former Malvern College batsman was up to 66 from 51 balls when he holed out to deep midwicket off Poysden.In contrast Warwickshire’s top order lurched into trouble. Brendon McCullum hit two sixes but the New Zealand captain’s dismissal, bowled by Joe Leach for 15, sparked off a slump to 48 for 4, one of the wickets falling to D’Oliveira.

John Bracewell will remain in charge at New Zealand © Getty Images

John Bracewell has held on to his job as New Zealand’s coach for two more seasons. New Zealand Cricket (NZC) has also announced that John Wright will be given a high-performance role, although the exact nature of his position is still unclear.Bracewell’s contract was due to expire this month and his future had been uncertain following New Zealand’s departure from the World Cup at the semi-final stage after consecutive heavy losses to Australia and Sri Lanka. Justin Vaughan, NZC’s new CEO, formed a subcommittee in June to decide on Bracewell’s fate.”We believe that John made good progress with the Black Caps [New Zealand] and we are delighted to retain him as the team’s coach,” Vaughan said. Bracewell will have a greater network of specialist coaches to help him, including Wright, who refused the role as head coach at Australia’s Centre of Excellence to stay in New Zealand.”There are many areas in our high-performance programme in which we can utilise John’s expertise and we are working through these with him to determine his exact role,” Vaughan said. “John will be part of our drive to build player depth and to enhance the skills of our elite players.”Mark O’Neill, the former New South Wales and Western Australia batsman, has been named the heading batting coach, while Dayle Hadlee is in charge of the bowling department. O’Neill retired from playing in 1990-91 after 76 first-class matches and has worked with both his former states as a batting coach.The make-up of New Zealand’s selection panel remains unclear with the current selectors – Richard Hadlee, Dion Nash, Glenn Turner, as well as Bracewell – coming off contract this month. “We have decided to change the philosophy under which the selection panel makes decisions,” Vaughan said.”This change in philosophy will see the panel move to consensus decisions.” Bracewell’s right as head coach to veto the choices made by the selection panel has therefore been revoked.That is unlikely to concern Bracewell, who took over as New Zealand’s coach in 2003. He has guided the side to nine wins and 12 losses from his 27 Tests in charge, as well as 48 victories from 91 one-day internationals. In the past nine months he helped the team reach semi-finals at the Champions Trophy and the World Cup.But questions over New Zealand’s preparation for their big games in the Caribbean brought a push for change in the team management. Stephen Fleming resigned as the one-day captain after the World Cup and Martin Crowe led the calls for Bracewell to go.His two-year contract extension will take him through to April 2009, a period that will include Test tours of South Africa, England and Australia, as well as the Champions Trophy in Pakistan next September. Bracewell’s immediate challenge will be to prepare New Zealand for September’s Twenty20 World Championship in South Africa.

David Graveney refuses to be downbeat about Andrew Flintoff’s chances of playing in this winter’s Ashes © Getty Images

David Graveney, the England chairman of selectors, has insisted that the treatment of Andrew Flintoff’s ankle injury has been unjustifiably criticised. It was confirmed yesterday that Flintoff will require further surgery on his ankle and will miss the entire summer. The news also put a cloud over his participation in the Ashes series later this year, the first Test of which gets underway at Brisbane on November 23.”He was seen by two consultants who are the best in the field and they went down the route of [initially] deciding against an operation,” Graveney told . “Virtually every hurdle had been crossed and it was only when he played at Kent he began to feel the symptoms.”Assuming Flintoff’s operation and subsequent rehabilitation goes to plan, he should be able to resume training in early October. However, he has already been ruled out of participating in the Champions Trophy and, consequently, faces the possibility of flying to Australia as England captain having not played any serious cricket for the best part of eight or nine months.Graveney refused to be downbeat, however. “As far as the time line is concerned, we still believe Freddie will be on that plane with the rest of the team,” he said. “Once he has the operation we can make our plan from there. If the symptoms they think are causing the problem are correct the 12-week span is probably accurate.”

Chris Gayle and Ramnaresh Sarwan have issued a statement giving their position about not touring with the West Indies during the 2005 tour of Sri Lanka.The release issued yesterday by Attorney at Law Sanjeev J. Datadin states:”Christopher Henry Gayle and Ramnaresh Sarwan wish it to be known that despite not participating in the current West Indies Cricket Team Tour to Sri Lanka 2005 they are firmly committed to West Indies Cricket and the loyal West Indian cricket fans. They wish it be known that regrettably they found themselves in a painful and difficult situation regarding their participation in the current West Indies Tour of Sri Lanka.”Their absence was a consequence of circumstances which were unresolved despite the apparent resolution of the major stumbling block in the dispute after intervention on their behalf. They were faced with two difficult options; firstly to refuse to play for the West Indies and appear to be selfishly abandoning West Indies Cricket and the many loyal fans who have supported them faithfully over the years, and to whom they owe a debt of gratitude for their loyalty; and secondly, one in which if they choose to participate in the tour they would appear to be abandoning their team mates and colleagues who have sought their support with whom they have fought many a battle and achieved success for the West Indies on the field of play.”They wish to record their disappointment in the way the dispute was handled and the enormous pressure placed upon them by both sides of the dispute.They chose not to tour and to stand in solidarity with their colleagues. In no way was their decision an endorsement of the position of either side of the dispute.” The statement further adds that the decision not to tour was a difficult one and that if offered the opportunity again to play for the West Indies they are likely to consider their position independently.The duo is said to be looking forward to representing the West Indies team and being full contributors to West Indies cricket in the future by doing their part in restoring West Indies cricket to its former glory.”Both players wish to express their disappointment with the handling of the entire matter and encourage the stakeholders of the dispute to embark upon a process of resolution in utmost good faith and a spirit of compromise. They fear that the current approach to the resolution of the dispute is only likely to deepen the divide between the stakeholders and is unlikely to bring resolution to a dispute which is so painful to them and to every West Indian.Further, they wish it to be known that they accept and recognise the right of each individual cricketer to determine for himself whether to tour or not and wish the current representatives of the West Indies cricket team well on the remainder of their tour of Sri Lanka and wish to in no way be associated with any criticism of those players whether public or in private.”

Cricket Australia has denied that the Australian government has put pressure on it to cancel Australia’s forthcoming tour to Zimbabwe. In a media release, James Sutherland, CA’s chief executive, emphasised that the decision of whether or not to tour Zimbabwe will not depend on what the government feels on the matter.”We welcome the government’s consistent position that the decision is ours to make,” said Sutherland. “Our long-standing position is that we are cricketers, and our visits have no other symbolism than that.” CA and the Australian Cricketers’ Association are due to visit Zimbabwe to assess the levels of security there, and Sutherland insisted that a decision to tour would be taken solely on the basis of that.”We are aware of the difficult situation in Zimbabwe, just as we are aware that there are diverse political, social and economic issues in other countries we visit,” he said.Earlier in the day, Alexander Downer, Australia’s foreign minister, had said in an interview to 3AW, a commercial radio station in Melbourne, that going ahead with the tour would “send the wrong message” to Zimbabwe.”We’d rather it didn’t go ahead, obviously the Zimbabwe government would be pleased if it did,” he said. “It would send the wrong message to Zimbabwe and to southern Africa, that oh well, we are not too happy with President Mugabe but it’s not that bad and, you know, the games can go on. I think frankly that’s a bit of a pity.”

The Australian Sports Drug Agency has dismissed a newspaper report todaythat Shane Warne’s positive drug test indicated he had taken more thanone banned diuretic tablet.ASDA chief executive John Mendoza says the drug test carried out onWarne would not have been able to determine if multiple tablets werepresent in the player’s system.ASDA today completed its part in the Warne saga.It has handed over results of the leg-spinner’s B sample to theAustralian Cricket Board after his lawyers ruled out challenging thevalidity of the testing procedure.The ACB says Warne’s hearing is likely to be held by the end of theweek, with an announcement on the date to be made later today.

England captain Nasser Hussain has said that any more hand injuries could mean the end of his career.Hussain will miss the Second Test at Lord’s starting on Thursday after taking a blow on his left hand from fast bowler Jason Gillespie in the First Test. The impact fractured his finger, meaning a three-week lay-off.The injury came only weeks after he had suffered a broken thumb while facing Pakistan paceman Shoaib Akhtar in the First Test against Pakistan in May.Hussain said: “Much more of this and I will be up there in the commentary box full-time.”I have to accept that if these breaks keep occurring there is going to be aproblem.”He told the Mail On Sunday: “I saw a specialist last week to undergo tests tosee if there is any brittleness in the bones.”One way or another, it is a worry.”In 1999, Hussain broke the middle finger on his right hand at Lord’s against New Zealand, and last season he missed the Second Test against the West Indies after breaking his left thumb playing for Essex.Michael Atherton has been named as replacement captain for Hussain for the Lord’s Test.

Sunderland had to rely on a last-gasp winner from Everton loanee Nathan Broadhead in order to win 1-0 and take all three points against Gillingham.

It was a game that Alex Neil’s team completely dominated at the Stadium of Light, recording 80% possession and 25 shots on goal, but they were pretty wasteful at times going forward, and The Transfer Tavern have used statistical experts SofaScore to analyse who their three worst performers (to have played at least 45 minutes) were on the day.

Could these men be looking over their shoulders regarding their place in the XI?

Corry Evans

Admittedly joint with Anthony Patterson in terms of overall rating (6.9), Evans ranks in third here given the goalkeeper’s clean sheet.

The captain lost out on five of his duels in total, and also failed to record a single shot on target, dribble, clearance, interception or key pass, while he was guilty of giving the ball away on six separate occasions.

Luke O’Nien

With a 6.7 rating, O’Nien was the Wearside club’s second-worst performer.

The central midfield player was subbed off for Elliot Embleton in the 68th minute, after making little impact going forward.

He was guilty of missing a big chance, and was off target with both of his efforts on goal, while he also made no dribbles or key passes, and lost possession a total of 17 times.

Ross Stewart

It certainly was not Stewart’s best game for the Black Cats, as he recorded just a 6.0 rating.

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The striker was perhaps starved of quality service at times, but he did miss one big chance, and was off target with both of his shots.

He also made no successful dribbles or key passes, and lost the ball six times in total, as Broadhead came on to save the day.

In other news, find out what big SAFC injury blow has now emerged here!