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Adrian Vowles, who parted company with Wakefield last week as per the club’s wishes, has rejoined Castleford to help their final push for a place in the play-offs.
The Australian veteran has signed on for the rest of the season and will make his debut at Hull tomorrow, in a match Cas must win if they are to sustain their hopes of a top-six finish.”Adrian’s leadership qualities will add to those we already have and will give us a big lift,” the Tigers coach, Graham Steadman, said. “The car ended up in a ditch and, as it slid backwards, I couldn’t get out. The championship is gone now.”Loeb, driving for Citroen, inherited the lead from Gronholm and ended the first full day of competition just 3.9 seconds ahead of Subaru’s Petter Solberg.Burns is comfortable in third spot, over 20 seconds clear of Subaru’s Tommi Makinen while Carlos Sainz – who is second in the championship, five points down on Burns, is sixth for Citroen.”The car is going very well and I have a good feeling,” said Loeb. “We have a big fight with Petter now, so we will try to push as much as possible and to stay on the road.”I think I am able to win the rally, but it will be difficult. There are still two long days and Petter is pushing hard.”The rally ends Sunday.. Reigning world rally champion Marcus Gronholm all but wrote off his chances of claiming his third crown after crashing out of Rally Australia on Friday.

Those three birdies in a row were nice,” said Immelman.South African Richard Sterne, who had two eagles in his round of 64, England’s Paul Eales and Patrik Sjoland of Sweden are tied for sixth.American Nathan Fritz, who played his college golf at the University of Texas at El Paso, was tied for ninth after a 66.Spain’s Seve Ballesteros withdrew before the second round with a recurring back injury.The European Masters is the first event of yearlong European qualifying for places on next year’s Ryder Cup team.. I like my position for the weekend.”Els had a “scrappy day,” making only one birdie from the four par-fives.”I played the front nine pretty scrappy and kind of did the same on the back nine,” he said.Immelman, 23, had three straight birdies on the second nine to move up.”I played about the same as (Thursday), but I got some momentum going on the greens. “I am hitting the ball solidly and have a lot of confidence in what I’m doing. Immelman shot a 66, and Irish Open champion Campbell had a second straight 67.Spain’s Sergio Garcia, who shot 70 on Friday, is five shots back.Not even a double-bogey five at the short third – where he pulled his tee shot far left and had no second shot – could halt Karlsson’s momentum.”I just said, ‘Okay,’ because you know you are going to get birdie chances, so just be patient and play,” said Karlsson, who carded five birdies after another bogey at the fifth hole.Romero, who won in 2000, was confident following the second round.”I played fantastic (Friday), better than (Thursday),” he said. I just seem to get into a pretty good flow on this course, and that seems to make it easier.”South African Ernie Els, tied with Karlsson for the first-round lead, slipped to a tie for third with countryman Trevor Immelman and New Zealand’s Michael Campbell.Els, the world’s second-ranked golfer, had a 69 on Friday. Romero also shot a 67 Friday.Karlsson was on 10-under-par through two rounds.”It’s great,” said the Swede “I have just gone out and played and enjoyed the course. Defending champion Robert Karlsson continued to play well at the European Masters, shooting a four-under-par 67 Friday to take the second-round lead.

They play in the top foursome this morning against Wolstenholme and Skelton, a match that alone ensures there will be a competitive element before the Kings Division Normandy Military Band strike up again tomorrow evening.Order of playToday’s drawFoursomes (GB and Irl first)0800 G Wolstenholme and M Skelton v B Haas and T Kuehne0815 S Wilson and D Inglis v L Williams and G Zahringer0830 N Edwards and S Manley v C Nallen and R Moore0845 N Fox and C Moriarty v A Rubinson and C WittenbergSingles1250 Wolstenholme v Haas1300 Oliver Wilson v Kuehne1310 Inglis v Brock Mackenzie1320 S Wilson v Matt Hendrix1335 Edwards v Zahringer1345 Moriarty v Nallen1355 Fox v Rubinson1405 Graham Gordon v Wittenberg. The Americans include Bill Haas, the son of Jay Hass, and Trip Kuehne, the brother of professionals Hank and Kelli. The fact that it would be three in a row is only the icing on the cake.” McGimpsey, who played in the first winning team on US soil in 1989, has Peter McEvoy, the inspirational captain of the last two matches, by his side.”Peter loves to be involved and if his influence scares the Americans I don’t mind,” McGimpsey said. “The course will change if the wind gets up and that helps us because we’ve played in those conditions in our squad sessions,” said Ulsterman and captain Garth McGimpsey.”We are only trying to win one Walker Cup,” McGimpsey added “This is now.

For those who have time to listen Wolstenholme is never happier than talking about his win over Tiger Woods in the 1985 match or about his “look them in the eye” attitude to matchplay. This apparently has rattled the American team.So might the weather, which after a week of calm conditions is likely to get rougher on the fast-running heathland course with links-like qualities. He won the Amateur Championship at the age of 43 this summer after winning it for the first time at Ganton 12 years ago. While they have moved on, Gary Wolstenholme remains the rock on which the home team is built.Wolstenholme is the only player for Britain and Ireland to have appeared on three winning teams. It was also their third win in four matches and neither side’s teenager, Michael Skelton for the home team and America’s Casey Wittenberg, would remember when transatlantic cups, Walker or Ryder, were more about turning up than competing.Bob Lewis, the American captain, has been showing his team of youngsters, plus the 50-year-old debutant George Zahringer, a video to give them “more of an appreciation of what the Walker Cup is all about”.If both sides have contained a number of players in an unseemly rush to turn professional in recent years at least the likes of Luke Donald, Paul Casey, Nick Dougherty and Graeme McDowell delivered two stunning victories at Nairn in 1999 and Sea Island. Yet times change and should Great Britain and Ireland achieve a third successive victory at the Ganton Club this weekend, the old “Walkover Cup” tag will be appropriate again for a different reason.
It was an historic moment when Britain and Ireland defended the Cup successfully for the first time at Sea Island, Georgia two years ago.