Sports briefs for January 10, 2005

Monday, Jan. 10, 2005 | 11 a.m.

20,000-1 underdog comes close in FA Cup

Yeading, a team of part-timers including painters, decorators and a computer analyst, held Newcastle of the English Premier League scoreless for a half Sunday before losing 2-0 in the first round of the FA Cup.

Listed as a 20,000-1 long shot to win the FA Cup, which is open to all English soccer clubs, Yeading was ranked 123 places and six leagues below Newcastle and had to switch its home match to a larger statium for this first-round matchup.

It took goals by Lee Bowyer and Shola Ameobi to give Newcastle the victory.

"A lot of those lads have had disappointments earlier in their career, but I knew they had chargacter," Yeading manager Johnson Hippolyte said of his squad. "They showed it today. Not being full-time was always going to be an issue, but the boys did ever so well."

Clark schools regroup

Rain and snow in Las Vegas prompted the Clark County School District to postpone all the weekend's high school athletics. "Because of the conditions of the roads in the outlying areas of town, the higher elevations were pretty bad at the time and expected to get worse, so we just felt like it was a safety issue," said Bill Garis, the school district's director of athletics. League games that were postponed were rescheduled for tonight. Non-league competitions were cancelled, but some coaches said they were looking to reschedule the games. Some of those games will be played on next Monday's holiday.

Today's schedule, page 12D.

Senior Bowl gets QBs

The quarterbacks were selected forr the Senior Bowl: Auburn's Jason Campbell, Georgia's David Greene and Arizona State's Andrew Waller for the South, Akron's Charlie Frye, Purdue's Kyloe Orton and Connecticut's Dan Orlovsky for the North.

Moya wins again

Carlos Moya successfully defending his Chennai Open title with a 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (5) victory against Paradom Srichaphan in the final at Madras, India.

Battista to Japan

Third baseman Tony Battista, who hit 32 home runs for the Montreal Expos in 2004, signed a $15 million deal to play two seasons in the Japanese league for the Fukuoka Hawks.

Radcliffe returning

Paula Radcliffe said today she will compete April 17 in the London Marathon, the event in which she ran a world-best time two years ago.

Dakar racer dies

Spanish motorcyclist Jose Manuel Perez, 40, injured in a crash Thursday in the Dakar Rally, died today at a hospital in Alicante, Spain.

Koivuniemi triumphs

Mika Koivuniemi of Hartland, Mich., won the PBA Geico Open and won $40,000 at Mesa, Ariz. Parker Bohn III of Jackson, N.J., was second.

Coach has cancer

North Carolina State women's coach Kay Yow will miss two games because of a recurrence of breast cancer. Yow was first diagnosed with the disease in 1987.