The Dons fully deserved the Cup replay they earned on Saturday but remain 33-1 chances for the Premiership despite having sufficient games in hand to overtake Liverpool (11-4) at the top.Another draw would probably be ideal for Arsenal (9-2), who visit West Ham, softened up by Wrexham on Saturday, the same evening, while Newcastle will expect to advance from their current 6-1 following the visit of Everton.FA CARLING PREMIERSHIP: Best odds: 5-4 Manchester Utd (T), 11-4 Liverpool (H, L), 9-2 Arsenal (H, L), 6-1 Newcastle (H ,T), 14-1 Chelsea (H, L, T), 22-1 Aston Villa (L, T), 33-1 Wimbledon (H, T), 25-1 bar.H Hills, L Ladbrokes, T Tote.FA CUP: Ladbrokes odds: 4-1 Manchester United, 5-1 Arsenal, Chelsea, 7-1 Sheffield Wednesday, 10-1 Blackburn, 12-1 Middlesbrough, Wimbledon, 14-1 Leicester, 16-1 Derby, Leeds, Nottingham Forest, 20-1 Bolton, 40-1 Birmingham, Coventry, 50-1 bar.. Billy Singleton scored 19 points and grabbed 18 rebounds for Chester Jets as they beat Manchester Giants 76-68 last night to stay two points clear of the Budweiser League ahead of Sheffield Sharks, who had a double- win weekend. Chester took control after a 13-0 run gave them a 45-40 lead in the third quarter at home to Giants and sealed victory with a 6-2 spurt which put them 75-63 ahead with 25 seconds to play.
The Sharks were on a roll at the start of last night’s game with Thames Valley Tigers, going 14-0 ahead to win 95-71. On Saturday they made another quick start to lead 20-2 at Derby Storm on their way to an 89-76 victory.The Leopards, who beat Sheffield in last week’s National Cup final, suffered a double hangover. They lost 101-87 at Worthing Bears in the League on Saturday night, less than a week after winning their first trophy in the National Cup Final.

They felt the force of Worthing’s Anthony Thomas, who scored 30 points before being carried from the court in the last minute with damaged ligaments. Last night they were beaten 92-90 at London Towers in the second leg of the 7-UP League Trophy quarter-final.The Towers led by 32 points from last week’s first leg and join Sheffield, Chester and Leicester City Riders in the last four. Newcastle had their first win in six games last night with a 93-87 win over the Bears, after losing 91-89 at Leicester on Saturday.. Do not believe everything you read in the record books. There is a dubious tennis entry proclaiming Charlotte “Lottie” Dod to be the youngest Grand Slam singles champion in history on the strength of a victory at Wimbledon in 1887 at the age of 15 years and 285 days. While our Lottie was indubitably the sporting prodigy of the Victorian era, when fashion and decorum decreed bustles and no hustle, what she achieved cannot compare with the 16-year-old Martina Hingis’s triumph at the Australian Open.
To put things in perspective, it could even be argued that Hingis’s feat in winning the Wimbledon junior singles championship at the age of 13 in 1994 eclipsed Lottie Dod’s performance, never mind the Swiss player’s startling entrance, aged 12, clasping the French Open junior title.There was no international competition in 1887, when lawn tennis was in its infancy. It was not until 1900 that the first woman from overseas competed at Wimbledon, the American Marion Jones losing in the second round.

The first overseas champion, in 1905, was May Sutton, an American born in Plymouth, the daughter of a captain in the Royal Navy.The term “Grand Slam” was first applied to tennis in 1938 by an American journalist, Allison Danzig, in describing Donald Budge’s accomplishment in winning the four major singles championships of France, Wimbledon, the United States and Australia in a calendar year.In Lottie Dod’s time even the domestic competition was sparse. She was required to play only three matches in 1887, including her victory in the Challenge Round against the title holder, Blanche Bingley. By 1893, Lottie had won the title five times, winning nine matches, losing none and only once dropping a set.Taking stock of the general standard, Lottie was not impressed by the level of fitness. “Ladies should learn to run, and run their hardest, too, not merely stride. They would find (if they tried) that many a ball, seemingly out of reach, could be returned with ease; but, instead of running hard, they go a few steps and exclaim, `Oh, I can’t!’ and stop.”The restrictive clothing did not help. Lottie’s one advantage in 1887 was that being a schoolgirl she was allowed to play in a calf-length dress.

Later on she wore a loose, long-sleeved blouse and a dark blue skirt, and in 1905 she appealed for “a suitable attire for women’s tennis which does not impede breathing.”By then, this daughter of a wealthy Cheshire cotton broker had long abandoned Dod’s little acre at Wimbledon for fresh sporting fields. Lottie became a champion golfer, a hockey international, an Olympic silver medalist at archery, a rower, a rider, a mountaineer, a skater and a tobogganist on the Cresta Run. She also sang contralto, played the piano, and was reputed to play a good hand of bridge.Although many of the older tennis enthusiasts in the 1930s still contended that Lottie was the greatest, whatever claims to the contrary made on behalf of Suzanne Lenglen and Helen Wills Moody, the game had moved on.Lenglen, the balletic French sensation of the 1920s, was only 15 when she won the World Hard Court Championship at St Cloud in 1914, but, with war looming, her father would not risk bringing her to Wimbledon that year.In 1919 Lenglen won the first of her six Wimbledon singles titles, and her popularity was one of the reasons why the Wimbledon championships outgrew Worple Road and were moved to new grounds at Church Road.Helen Wills, 17 when winning the first of seven United States singles titles in 1923, was Wimbledon’s most prolific singles champion with eight titles until surpassed by Martina Navratilova.Maureen Connolly’s career in the 1950s was brief but brilliant. Nicknamed “Little Mo” (an allusion to “Big Mo”, the US battleship Missouri), she was the youngest winner of the United States championships, 16 years and 11 months, until Tracy Austin succeeded her by two months in 1979.In 1953 “Little Mo” became the first woman to accomplish the Grand Slam, losing only one set in the process. She was 20 when her career was ended by an accident while horse riding.