Lancashire Lightning moved top of the T20 Blast North Group with a second victory in 24 hours as they comfortably beat bottom club Derbyshire Falcons at Emirates Old Trafford.
After the hosts posted a solid 178-6, Red Rose bowler Luke Wood took two wickets in the first two balls of a Derbyshire reply that never got out of second gear.
Victory by 42 runs moved Lancashire four points clear of second-placed Durham with five games to go before the quarter-finalists are locked in.
Doomed Derbyshire, meanwhile, already face a scenario where even winning all of their five remaining games might not be enough to progress to the last eight.
In contrast, Lancashire are on a roll having won their past four Blast fixtures and will go into their final five games with a spring in their step aside from Liam Livingstone, who batted with a runner, adding 35 in 22 balls after pulling his hamstring.
The leg spinner did not appear for the second half of the game.
It did not much matter after Wood’s pacey in-swingers delivered the two-wicket burst in the first two deliveries of Derbyshire’s innings, having Caleb Jewell caught at slip and bowling Martin Andersson with a perfect off-stump yorker.
Wayne Madsen briefly threatened to make the match interesting with 53 from 40 balls but when he became the second victim of Chris Green’s second over, the Derbyshire reply rather fizzled out.
Billy Dodds was part of the Rangers legends dream team chosen to revitalise the Ibrox side after Philippe Clement was sacked in January with his side 13 points behind Celtic in the Scottish Premiership.
With Barry Ferguson as head coach, and Dodds and Neil McCann as assistants, Rangers still finished 17 points adrift in second place.
They nevertheless impressed in Europe, reaching the Europa League quarter-finals, but that was not enough for Ferguson and his team to be given the job permanently by the incoming US-based consortium.
‘Big tanker was slowly turning under Ferguson’
Dodds believes Ferguson’s staff “would have had to nail every result” to be given the job permanently.
He revealed that “right up to the last moment”, when they drew 2-2 away to Hibernian, they were unclear about their futures.
“Barry had the interview during the week and on the Sunday or Monday morning Barry phoned to give us the news that he wasn’t getting the job,” Dodds revealed.
“It was disappointing, because I think we certainly brought something to Rangers on the training ground – the big tanker was slowly turning,” he said.
“We went in and it was really flat, but when we left, they were thriving. “
Dodds did not wish to speculate on what had caused the atmosphere to be low when they arrived.
However, he recalled that chief executive Patrick Stewart and chairman Fraser Thornton said they had “invigorated” the training ground within a couple of days.
“I was like ‘what’? We’ve given two of the most basic training sessions, but people were speaking again,” he added.
‘Too many players lacked mental strength’
Despite the improved atmosphere, Dodds believes the “mentality” of some Rangers players meant they were “so vulnerable” and unable to handle adversity.
“Right away, I thought there were a few weak ones,” he revealed. “Good boys, good players, but some of them lacked the mindset.
“When you go to a club, you tend to find that 30% of signings are not right and 70% are, and that 70% pulls the 30 along. But at Rangers it was probably the opposite.
“Too many players you could see going into their shell. You could see there was no response either in their eyes or in their brain – they couldn’t handle going behind.
“Some who were tidy players who were probably not quite the level of Rangers and never had the right mental strength to win games that were ugly.
‘I wouldn’t pay £15m for Igamane’
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Striker Hamza Igamane has beenj linked with a £15m summer move to Lille.
Dodds, who admits the Moroccan’s lack of English made coaching him difficult, thinks that “is good money” for a 22-year-old who arrived from AS FAR in his homeland in July 2024.
“He’s got so much talent, but he’s got to do more for the team. He has a bit to learn,” he said.
‘Sponge’ Dessers wants to learn
Cyriel Dessers is another striker who has been tipped for a summer sale.
As a pundit, Dodds had been one of those who thought the striker needed to be more clinical and, as his coach, encouraged the Nigeria international to take fewer touches before striking for goal.
“The big man is brilliant, a gentleman,” he said. “He is a sponge and wants to learn.
“If you look at his physique, you would think he would like holding the ball up. He hated it. He wanted to run in behind all the time.
Midfield trio impress and progress
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Dodds also had praise for central midfielders Nico Raskin, Mohamed Diomande and Connor Barron.
He revealed that he, McCann and Ferguson had to work hard to turn Belgian international Raskin into a highly effective box-to-box midfielder as “he wanted to sit as a six”.
Dodds also did not realise how good Diomande was until he started to work with the 23-year-old.
“An absolute dog of war,” he said. “Technically quite good – not brilliant, but decent – and just an all-round good player. “
‘Versatile’ Tavernier facing ‘fierce’ competition
Dodds thinks the competition for a place in Rangers’ defence “is going to be fierce” for captain James Tavernier, especially with the arrival of fellow right-back Max Aarons on loan from Bournemouth.
However, he was “amazed” at how Tavernier “was willing to learn” at the age of 33 and was surprised when the Englishman said nobody had previously sat him down and told him he had to improve defensively.
Butland has ‘powers of recovery’
Ferguson dropped Jack Butland after the England-capped goalkeeper suffered a loss of form and Dodds said that, while the 32-year-old was hurt, he understood.
“He has the powers of recovery – he is a top goallie,” he said. “We put him back in for the last couple of games of the season and he was excellent. “
‘What a place to be’ if Martin gets it right
What now for Rangers and Martin?
Dodds says the arrival of a couple of centre-backs, and the possibility of another, was an indication of where Rangers were weak last season.
Meanwhile, the addition of midfielders suggests there could be some players leaving Ibrox, while at least one striker and a pacey wide player are the priorities.
Dodds pointed out that, when opponents sat deep, “maybe there wasn’t enough creativity, especially in domestic games”, so he could understand why Rangers hae signed the Joe Rothwell from Bournemouth.
He thought it was the kind of “resilience and mental strength” from British or Scottish players that he, Ferguson and McCann would have liked to introduce themselves this summer.
Dodds thinks there have been “too many changes at Rangers”, from new chairmen, directors, chief executives and team managers in recent years.
“I just hope they get a bit of stability now,” he said. “If they get all that, they would not be too far away.
Jasper Philipsen will wear the Tour de France’s yellow jersey for the first time in his career after winning stage one of the 2025 edition.
A sprint finish was expected after a flat stage beginning and ending in Lille, and Alpecin-Deceuninck’s lead-out train delivered the 27-year-old in the perfect position to claim the stage win.
The Belgian beat Biniam Girmay by a comfortable margin to claim his 10th stage win on the Tour, with Soren Waerenskjold third.
The peloton split about 17km from the end of a chaotic opening day, with general classification contenders Remco Evenepoel and Primoz Roglic caught in the second bunch.
Reigning champion Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard, who is expected to be his main rival, were in the lead group along with most of Philipsen’s team-mates.
“It’s really amazing,” said Philipsen. “My 10th victory is something I will never forget.
“It was a perfect team performance. I think we were there all day in a really nervous stage but we knew it could be our day and we had to be at the front when the split happened.
Philipsen claimed four stage wins in 2023 and finished that edition of the Tour with the green jersey as the points classification leader.
He said he had “dreamt” about wearing yellow.
Already I had the green jersey from two years ago but to have the yellow jersey hanging somewhere in my house is amazing,” he said.
A five-man breakaway was caught with more than 100km to go on the 184. 9km loop route, which was affected by crosswinds and featured multiple crashes.
Ineos Grenadiers rider Filippo Ganna was forced to abandon after going down with British debutant Sean Flynn, and he was soon followed by fellow time-trial specialist Stefan Bissegger.
Benjamin Thomas will wear the polka-dot jersey as mountain leader after winning two of the day’s three climbs, wiping out Matteo Vercher as he lunged for the line to claim his second mountain point.
Then came the split, which resulted in Roglic and Evenepoel crossing 39 seconds after Pogacar and Vingegaard, and the latter’s British team-mate Simon Yates struggled.
The Giro d’Italia champion got a puncture and tried to recover but ended up coming in more than six minutes after the lead group.
Jasper Philipsen will wear the Tour de France’s yellow jersey for the first time in his career after winning stage one of the 2025 edition.
A sprint finish was expected after a flat stage beginning and ending in Lille, and Alpecin-Deceuninck’s lead-out train delivered the 27-year-old in the perfect position to claim the stage win.
The Belgian beat Biniam Girmay by a comfortable margin to claim his 10th stage win on the Tour, with Soren Waerenskjold third.
The peloton split about 17km from the end of a chaotic opening day, with general classification contenders Remco Evenepoel and Primoz Roglic caught in the second bunch.
Reigning champion Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard, who is expected to be his main rival, were in the lead group along with most of Philipsen’s team-mates.
“It’s really amazing,” said Philipsen. “My 10th victory is something I will never forget.
“It was a perfect team performance. I think we were there all day in a really nervous stage but we knew it could be our day and we had to be at the front when the split happened.
Philipsen claimed four stage wins in 2023 and finished that edition of the Tour with the green jersey as the points classification leader.
He said he had “dreamt” about wearing yellow.
Already I had the green jersey from two years ago but to have the yellow jersey hanging somewhere in my house is amazing,” he said.
A five-man breakaway was caught with more than 100km to go on the 184. 9km loop route, which was affected by crosswinds and featured multiple crashes.
Ineos Grenadiers rider Filippo Ganna was forced to abandon after going down with British debutant Sean Flynn, and he was soon followed by fellow time-trial specialist Stefan Bissegger.
Benjamin Thomas will wear the polka-dot jersey as mountain leader after winning two of the day’s three climbs, wiping out Matteo Vercher as he lunged for the line to claim his second mountain point.
Then came the split, which resulted in Roglic and Evenepoel crossing 39 seconds after Pogacar and Vingegaard, and the latter’s British team-mate Simon Yates struggled.
The Giro d’Italia champion got a puncture and tried to recover but ended up coming in more than six minutes after the lead group.
Tries: Kriel, Van den Berg (2), Arendse, Koch, Van Staden Cons: Pollard (6)
Italy (3) 24
World champions South Africa began their Test season with an entertaining 42-24 victory over a youthful Italy at Loftus Versfeld Stadium in Pretoria.
Stand-in captain Jesse Kriel gave the Springboks the perfect start in the 11th minute before scrum-half Morne van den Berg, playing only his third international, scored twice.
In a blistering first-half performance, rapid wing Kurt-Lee Arendse also picked up a try to establish a 28-3 lead.
After the break though, Italy slowed the green tidal wave, benefiting from debutant Vincent Tshituka’s try being ruled out for obstruction, and reducing the arrears with a score from hooker Manuel Zuliani.
Replacement Vincent Koch bundled in for South Africa, but the visitors stormed back and were only denied a try by a brilliant saving tackle from Arendse on Simone Gesi.
The Azzurri were not finished, however, as Pablo Dimcheff scored with 15 minutes to go and captain Niccolo Cannone forced his way through to set up a dramatic conclusion.
A try from flanker Marco van Staden with eight minutes left finally halted the revival, as the Springboks closed out the win.
Line-ups
South Africa: Willemse; Kolbe, Kriel (c), De Allende, Arendse, Pollard, Van den Berg; Nche, Marx, Louw, Etzebeth, De Jager, Van Staden, Tshituka, Wiese.
Replacements: Mbonambi, Wessels, Koch, Snyman, Mostert, Smith, De Klerk, Le Roux.
Italy: Trulla; Lynagh, Menoncello, Zanon, Gesi, Da Re, Fusco; Fischetti, Di Bartolomeo, Ferrari, N Cannone, Zambonin, Izekor, Zuliani, L Cannone.
Rescuers in the US state of Texas are scrambling to locate more than two dozen children still missing from a Christian summer camp after a powerful storm caused flash floods that authorities say have killed at least 27 people.
Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha told reporters on Saturday that the death toll included nine children.
Leitha said around 800 people had been evacuated from the region, about 137km (85 miles) northwest of San Antonio, as flood waters receded on Saturday morning.
Torrential downpour on Friday caused the fast-flowing Guadalupe River to rise nearly nine metres (29 feet) near the Camp Mystic summer camp, where around 750 children were staying.
Twenty-seven attendees were still unaccounted for, according to Dalton Rice, city manager of the nearby town of Kerrville in Kerr County.
The Heart O’ The Hills summer camp, located about 1. 6km (1 mile) from Camp Mystic, confirmed on Saturday that its director, Jane Ragsdale, was among the dead.
While the National Weather Service (NWS) said the flash-flood emergency had largely ended for Kerr County – the epicentre of the flooding – it warned of more heavy rain to come, maintaining its flood watch until 7pm local time (00:00 GMT on Sunday).
Rice said that more than 1,000 rescuers were on the ground to help with search-and-rescue efforts. Helicopters and drones were being used, with some people being plucked from trees. US Coast Guard helicopters had flown in to assist.
“They are looking in every possible location,” said Rice, adding that search crews were facing harsh conditions while scouring waterlogged rivers, culverts and rocks.
People are reunited at a reunification centre in the town of Ingram after flash flooding hit Texas, on July 4, 2025 [Eric Gay/AP Photo]
Reporting from Washington, DC, Al Jazeera’s Heidi Zhou-Castro said that rescue workers had promised to “not give up until the very last person is found – either alive or their body is recovered”.
“That might be a tall order given just how catastrophic these floods were. We’re talking about a region that is dotted with hills and with canyons,” she said.
She added that children in the camps had been particularly vulnerable to the floodwaters, “which rose by eight metres [26 feet] in less than an hour, overnight as they slept”.
Authorities under scutiny
The flooding in the middle of the night on the Fourth of July holiday weekend caught many residents, campers and officials by surprise.
Authorities have come under increasing scrutiny over whether they issued proper warnings and whether enough preparations were made.
State emergency management officials had warned as late as Thursday that west and central Texas faced heavy rains and flash flood threats “over the next couple days”, citing NWS forecasts ahead of the holiday weekend.
The weather forecasts, however, “did not predict the amount of rain that we saw”, W Nim Kidd, director of the Texas Division of Emergency Management, said during a news conference on Friday night.
“A lot of questions are being asked about why there weren’t earlier evacuations,” said Al Jazeera’s Zhou-Castro. “They knew there might be rain, they just didn’t know where it would hit, and when it did, it indeed was catastrophic. ”
On Saturday morning, US President Donald Trump said the federal government was working with state and local officials to respond to the flooding.
“Our Brave First Responders are on site doing what they do best,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, adding that Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem would soon be on the ground.
The weekend disaster echoes a catastrophic flood almost 40 years ago along the Guadalupe River, where a bus and a van leaving a church camp encountered floodwaters and 10 teenagers drowned trying to escape, according to a NWS summary of the 1987 storm.
A drone view shows flooded houses following torrential rains that unleashed flash floods along the Guadalupe River in San Angelo, Texas, June 4, 2025 [Patrick Keely via Reuters]
