Sports Digest

NFL players locked out

The NFL yesterday officially announced a "lockout" of players by team owners following the move by the players' union to dissolve itself and pursue action against the league in the courts, where it has filed an anti-trust lawsuit.

On Friday the union announced they had "decertified" and were no longer taking part in collective bargaining over a new deal between the league and players, with neither side prepared to budge.

SHINTY

Champions off the hook

Champions Newtonmore may have been spared by the wintry weather yesterday as unfancied Lovat were holding them at 3-3 prior to abandonment.

The match went ahead despite a strip of white on the park and both sides found it tough going in the snow.

Lovat adjusted better, though, and it took a third goal from Newtonmore's Danny MacRae to level things at 3-3 before the game was abandoned at half-time.

FORMULA 1

Hispania's testing time

The struggling Hispania team will go into the new season having not tested their new car after they were forced to call off a planned run yesterday.

The team were unable to test after launching their new car on Friday because parts were held up in customs.

Yesterday, the final pre-season testing day at Barecolna's Circuit de Catalunya, was to have been the only day's running of the car before the first race of the season in Australia on 27 March.

SKIING

Kostelic clinches title

Ivica Kostelic became the first Croatian to win the men's overall World Cup after taking an unassailable lead in the standings with five races to go.

A 20th place in yesterday's downhill at Kvitfjell was enough to put the 31-year-old 518 points clear of Switzerland's Didier Cuche, who finished seventh.

Kostelic, whose sister Janica won the overall women's World Cup three times, won seven races this season, all in a stunning run in January.

HOCKEY

Whiteout headache

The entire Subway national league programme was the victim of a whiteout yesterday, providing a real headache for Brent Deans, Scottish Hockey's chief executive, with the fixture list already log-jammed to the end of the season.

The combination of catch-up fixtures due to the Commonwealth Games and the lost weekend in November, again the result of snow, means that there is little room for manoeuvre until after the cup finals on 9 April.