Orr kicked that and was booed again, although mainly by St Helens fans.That lead lasted only until Saints began to exert some sustained pressure, with Sean Long skipping away from the defence and Mick Higham scoring from his inside pass. It was Orr who restored Castleford's advantage, taking Ryan Hudson's pass on the last tackle of a set before plunging over for a try, which he also converted.Again Saints came back quickly, Darren Britt's short pass to Darren Smith opening up the Castleford defence for Paul Wellens to score, with Long adding his second goal.Up popped Orr again, after Hudson had charged down a kick from Paul Sculthorpe, racing through from just on side for an opportunist try.The same pattern was repeated, however, as Saints hit back immediately, more weak tackling allowing Sculthorpe to set up Wellens. This time, Saints consolidated their advantage, Britt again getting the crucial ball away and Martin Gleeson charging in.Castleford badly needed the first score of the second-half, but it went to Saints when Michael Eagar knocked on, Higham raced away with the loose ball and Darren Albert supported to score. Sculthorpe and Albert then combined to give Gleeson his second.Mitch Healey's pass to Tom Saxton produced a retort from the Tigers, before another brilliant piece of play from Orr sent Michael Smith in to cut a margin back to 10 points.Healey and Hudson both went close to the try that would have put Castleford right back in it, but Keiron Cunningham's first - and overhead - pass to Higham ended that possibility before Long intercepted from Healey for a try to go with his seven goals.Just after Orr was made Castleford's man of the match, he exchanged passes with Eagar for his hat-trick. He had shown his commitment; the same cannot be said of some of his team-mates' battlings.Castleford: Saxton; Rogers, Mellor, Maloney, Pryce; Orr, Healey; Sykes, Hepworth, M Smith, Johnson, Fritz, Hudson. Substitutes used: Eagar, Thackray, Harland, Godwin.St Helens: Wellens; Albert, Gleeson, Hooper, Stewart; Long, Higham; Britt, Cunningham, Mason, Bennett, D Smith, Sculthorpe. Substitutes used: Kirkpatrick, Edmondson, Joynt, Jonkers.Referee: R Silverwood, Mirfield..
Munster's Frankie Sheahan was tonightanded a two-year ban after being found guilty of a doping offence. Roger Federer was handed a free passage into the semi-finals of the Swiss Open yesterday his after quarter-final opponent, David Sanchez, pulled out of the tournament with a knee injury. In the semi-finals Stepanek will meet his compatriot Jiri Novak, who finally got the best of Juan Ignacio Chela on clay, winning their quarter-final 6-3, 6-3.In Bastad, Sweden, the Ecuadorian sixth seed, Nicolas Lapentti, saved five match points before defeating the Spanish teenager Rafael Nadal 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 to reach the Swedish Open semi-finals.In a match lasting almost three hours, Lapentti needed to play his best tennis to beat the young Mallorcan, who had dominated the opening set. Lapentti mixed his serve and volley game with some clever drop shots to make his recovery, taking the final-set tie-break, 8-6.. People often say to me: "Restaurant critic, that must be a cushy little number. But it isn't really proper work, is it?" Well, no, it isn't, and that's why I try to make time in my week for some sheer bloody hard graft Like playing records on the radio, for example.
Like playing records on the radio, for example. As both of you who own a digital radio will know, BBC6 Music is a rocking little station, to which I make a modest weekly contribution. But bestriding the network like a goateed colossus is the comedian Phill Jupitus, who presents the breakfast show. Something about the man told me he might just have an interest in fine-dining, so I invited him for lunch (he gets up at 5am to travel into London from Southend, and by supper-time he's a spent husk.)The Real Greek Souvlaki and Bar, in London's Clerkenwell, was the venue, and not just because it's vaguely on Phill's route home to Southend. An offshoot of the esteemed Real Greek restaurant in Hoxton, which has done so much to overturn stereotypes of Greek cooking, it specialises in street food, and particularly souvlaki - skewers of meat cooked over charcoal. Just in case Phill thought I was pigeonholing him as some kind of kebab-eating Essex man, it also offers a full supporting cast of mezedes and grills, and an interesting all-Greek wine list.An apt environment for Greek street food, the Souvlaki and Bar affords all the comfort you might expect to find in a Greek street In downtown Sparta. The woody charm of the parent restaurant has been traded for an industrial, boiler-room look, featuring massive exposed flues and ducts (purely decorative judging by the smokey stuffiness of the room), and walls treated with a paint effect to make them look like bare concrete.
