A converted Victorian terrace guarded by a large loud and lethal-looking Alsatian was pleasant enough but

A converted Victorian terrace guarded by a large, loud and lethal-looking Alsatian was pleasant enough but no one would put it on a par with The Crucible. Come to think about it, the practice area in Sheffield is bigger never mind the arena. The crowd, if you could call it that, told a similar tale. Forty souls had wandered in off Liverpool's busy Derby Lane to watch Chris Shutt beat Rex Williams 1319-210 in the semi-finals whereas 20 times as many at least would have been attracted if the Strachan British Open swapped the name billiards for snooker. However, he did not do enough work to make up for his poor showing in the opening leg and stands 77th overall, trailing the leader by eight minutes.Results, Digest, page 31. The top-ranked Michele Bartoli was 14th and the Italian remained second to Vainsteins, five seconds behind.Strazzer completed the mostly flat 178km stage that ran north from Sorrento, near Naples, to Santa Maria Capua Vetere in 4hr 43min 15sec. Now we have the best chances of winning," Boogerd said.Massimo Strazzer, of Italy, beat the pack in a sprint finish yesterday to win the second stage of the Tirreno-Adriatico race, a prelude to the Milan to San Remo classic on 20 March that opens the World Cup circuit.The Latvian rider Romans Vainsteins, a second-year professional, was third and held on to his overall lead.

"I was dead," he said.Boogerd is 16 seconds ahead of the Belgian veteran Andrei Tchmil, the leader after the first stage and second since then. Wauters is third, a further eight seconds behind."The team decided to go for the lead today rather than wait until Saturday at Valberg When Botero broke away I felt it was a good escape I know him and he's anything but a lazy guy. The Australian said the course had been tiring and he could not keep up. MICHAEL BOOGERD took the lead in the Paris to Nice race from Australia's Stuart O'Grady in the fourth stage yesterday. The Dutch champion, who rides for the Rabobank team, was second in the stage, just losing the final sprint to the Colombian Santiago Botero, but that was good enough to give him the leader's jersey. Boogerd, fifth in last year's Tour de France, and Botero broke away on a climb some 15km (9 miles) from the finish of the 187.9-km stage from Cusset to Firminy.Botero, of the Spanish Kelme team, and Boogerd finished almost half a minute ahead of the next group of riders, which included the Dutchman's Rabobank team-mates Marc Wauters of Belgium and his compatriot Maarten den Bakker.O'Grady lost ground in the last few kilometres and finished several minutes behind the leaders, dropping out of the top 10 overall. "Its significance is that it's the game that gets us into the semi-final But I suppose I will be trying for that little bit extra.". With his long, loping stride, he is considerably faster than he looks, both going for the line and chasing in defence, and there are few players who have profited more from the lofted kick to the wing that has become a part of many clubs' attacking armouries over the past few seasons.Indeed, there is such a difference in height between him and his likely opponent tomorrow afternoon, Salford's newly-recruited Joey Hayes, that it would be surprising if the Cas stand-off, Danny Orr, did not launch a few kicks towards his flank during the course of the match.Rogers, a try-scorer in that ill-fated semi-final last year, could well mark his rite of passage back over the Pennines by plucking one out of their air at Wheldon Road.

That is so often the way these things work.His links with both clubs have made him - unusually for a generally self- effacing player - the centre of attention this week."But I'm treating it as just another game," he says. The attacking part of the role was okay, but I never really felt at home with the defensive side of the job and I regard myself as a winger now."He brings a couple of major assets to that position. "The supporters at Salford were great, but it's been a long time since they had any real success."The fans at Castleford expect more, because it's not long ago that this club was always known as `Classy Cas'," he says.After a season of steady improvement last year, those supporters will be looking for a breakthrough this time - and the often underrated skills of Rogers on the wing can make a major contribution.He is an unlikely looking rugby league player, gangling and lean - although not as lean as he once was - in his studious glasses, but Rogers' Salford years saw him mature into a potential match-winner."I had a bit of a sticky period there playing full-back. I'd reached the stage where I wanted to be closer to my family and friends."There were a few clubs interested in talking to me, but when I spoke to the Castleford coach, Stuart Raper, I liked everything he had to say - especially about the players he was going to bring in and what he was trying to build here."There are only a handful of teams outside the big four who can make a serious bid for a top-five spot in Super League and Castleford are one of them."Already, he has noticed the difference at Wheldon Road. At 24, he felt the time was right to make a move, but returning to his native Yorkshire - he comes originally from Wakefield - was a major factor in determining his destination."I'd been living in Salford in a flat and it was a bit of a case of everybody going off in their separate directions after training - the Pie-eaters off to Wigan and so on.

I'm still in touch with lads like Steve Blakeley and Gary Broadbent."In fact, I hope they only lose three games all season - all to us and starting with the cup-tie."Rogers spent four seasons at The Willows after signing from his first professional club, Dewsbury. Our season never quite recovered," he says.The lanky winger now wants to inflict more misery on his previous team, but not because of any personal rancour."I didn't leave Salford on bad terms. We had a hard run in Super League after that and although we played quite well, we couldn't get a win. It happens tomorrow to Darren Rogers, albeit rather more rapidly than is usual At the end of last season, Rogers was a Salford player. This weekend, he faces his old team-mates as a member of a Castleford team trying to knock them out of the Silk Cut Challenge Cup. Rogers was part of the Salford side narrowly and controversially beaten by Sheffield Eagles in last season's semi-final."We were so close to the final that just losing that match knocked the stuffing out of us. If you look at boxing, you'll see that all the greats built themselves on the foundation of the older fighters. I looked at Ali, I looked at Joe Frazier, I looked at the Brown Bomber, I looked at all those guys They are the foundation.