Before he left Australia to come up to Cambridge where he is reading management studies, he had been a professional actor.Interestingly, his selection brings him up against a former adversary from the boxing ring, the Oxford blindside flanker Myles Orsler. The pair met in a heavyweight bout when earning their respective Boxing Blues – Orsler won on points after the three two-minute rounds – and the two of them have kept in touch ever since.But their rematch, for the Bowring Bowl, looks like going Cambridge’s way. “I was pretty disappointed to miss out in the first two years,” he admitted, “but when you look at the players who got in it’s perfectly understandable; the first year it was Steve Surridge, the All Black No 8, and last year it was Russell Earnshaw. He is already a boxing Blue, a rugby league half Blue and is also looking to add a basketball Blue to his collection.But incredibly the engaging Cocks, the fourth generation of male members of his family to have gone up to Cambridge and the second Rugby Blue after grandfather Frank (1935) will be winning his first Rugby Blue despite having played for the university on 50 occasions in his three years there. But I’ve finally got in the side.” Dilettante Cocks does not confine his interests solely to sport. “This is a sports event, so we must take the opinion of sports experts into account,” Makoto Kobayashi, secretary- general of the organising committee said yesterday..

He may have played 50 times for Cambridge University but next week Jonnie Cocks wins his rugby Blue in the Varsity Match. David Llewellyn reports on the English born, Australia educated player who holds a remarkable CV. The inclusion of Jonnie Cocks at No 8 will add more colour to next week’s 116th Varsity match when the Light Blues of Cambridge University go for for a fourth successive victory over Oxford University’s Dark Blues.
Apart from his superior handling skills and ability at the line-out Cocks brings a remarkable CV to Twickenham. The 26-year-old Epping born Cocks, who was educated in Australia, is a hell of a sporting all-rounder.

The skiing federation also pointed out that hundreds of thousands of recreational skiers use the same area each winter.As mudslinging on both sides intensified, organisers decided last month they had no choice but to give in. Organizers had originally set the start at an altitude of 1,680m. That would have made for the shortest downhill in Olympic history, a prospect that did not sit well with the skiing authorities, who wanted the start at 1,800m.Nagano organisers, however, said they could not change the course because they did not want to infringe on land protected under national park zoning laws.That position won some support from local environmental groups, but the organising committee’s refusal to consider several compromise proposals offered by the skiing federation did not go down well with the general public. Under a new plan announced after a meeting of the Games’ top executives, the starting point of the downhill course on Mount Karamatsu, a rugged peak in the central Japan Alps, will be raised to an altitude of 1,765m (5,791 feet).
“I think we have not just a good course, but a very good course,” Yoshiaki Tsutsumi, a member of the organising committee’s executive panel said.Getting up the hill was not easy, however. It may well have been the hardest fought 85 metres in the history of the Olympics.

After a five-year battle over where to start the men’s downhill, organisers of the Nagano Winter Olympics, which start on 7 February next year, announced yesterday that they are finally ready to back down. Courtney Walsh brought the long-awaited breakthrough shortly after tea, when Aamir was spectacularly caught by a substitute, Phil Simmons, running back from gully position and holding a two-handed diving catch.Aamir, dropped on 38 by Brian Lara, reached the three-figure mark when he lifted Carl Hooper over mid-off for his 14th boundary just before lunch for his third Test hundred.Inzamam, who until yesterday had not scored a century at home despite achieving the three-figure mark five times abroad, finally got his fully deserved century when he steered Ian Bishop for a single to third man.Third day; Pakistan won tossWEST INDIES – First Innings 303 (SChanderpaul 95, S L Campbell 78; Azhar Mahmood 4-53).PAKISTAN – First Innings(Overnight: 122 for 2)Aamir Sohail c sub b Walsh 160Inzamam-ul-Haq not out 169Mohammad Wasim not out 3Extras (b8 lb7 nb24 w6) 45Total (for 3) 403Fall (cont): 3-387.To bat: Moin Khan, *Wasim Akram, Azhar Mahmood, Waqar Younis, Mushtaq Ahmed, Shoaib Ahktar.Bowling (to date): Walsh 28-6-105-1 (nb11); Ambrose 19-2-63-1 (nb12); Bishop 19-1-74-0 (w6); Rose 22.2-2-75-1 (nb1); Hooper 17-1-71-0.Umpires: D Shepherd (Eng) and Javed Akhtar (Pak).. It gives Pakistan a useful lead of 100 runs over the West Indies’ first innings score of 303.Inzamam was undefeated with a marvelous 169 off 299 balls, hitting 19 fours and a six each off Courtney Walsh and Franklyn Rose. Mohammed Wasim was unbeaten on three.Aamir and Inzamam’s enterprising stand of 323 off 372 minutes bettered the previous best of a 303-run third-wicket stand against West Indies, made by England’s Michael Atherton and Robin Smith.After a delayed start of 30 minutes because of an outfield damp with a heavy overnight dew, Aamir and Inzamam frustrated the West Indies four- man pace attack for more than two sessions. West Indies 303

Pakistan 403 for 3
Dazzling centuries by Aamir Sohail and Inzamam-ul-Haq gave Pakistan an edge against wayward West Indies on a record-breaking third day of the second Test at Rawalpindi yesterday.Resuming at the overnight total of 122 for 2, Aamir and Inzamam combined in a record 323-run third-wicket partnership against the West Indies as Pakistan finished the day at 403 for 3, losing only one wicket.Stumps were drawn 12.3 overs early because of fading light. Second test in Perth: Australia won by an innings and 70 runs. (Australia won the series 2-0).AUSTRALIA ONE-DAY SQUAD (for Tri Series v South Africa and New Zealand): *S Waugh, S Warne, M Bevan, A Bichel, G Blewett, A Dale, M Di Venuto, A Gilchrist, I Harvey, G McGrath, R Ponting, P Reiffel, M Waugh..

TV umpire: Steve Randell.Match referee: Cammie Smith (West Indies).First test in Brisbane: Australia won by 186 runs. There’s going to be two different teams from now on’.” Taylor said. “This year is going to be a real test year as to how well it’s going to go. It’s a case of suck it and see,” he said.The selectors had signalled the change in strategy earlier this year after a series of poor one-day performances at home and abroad, despite Australia’s status as unofficial world Test champions.Healy, a veteran of 168 one-day matches and 97 Tests, said he was disappointed and remained available for his country as both a one-day and Test player.He was replaced by Western Australian wicket-keeper Adam Gilchrist, who made an accomplished debut in South Africa earlier this year.With 235 dismissals in one-day internationals, including 194 catches and 39 stumpings, Healy is widely regarded as the best current Test wicketkeeper.New Zealand tail-end batsmen Simon Doull and Shayne O’Connor defied all that Australian maestro Shane Warne could hurl at them to ensure a draw in the third Test yesterday in Hobart.The two fast bowlers endured the longest 38 minutes of their cricketing lives as they put together an unbroken stand of 38 minutes for the last wicket, surviving 10.4 overs of Warne’s vicious leg-spinners and increasingly hostile bowling from Paul Reiffel.New Zealand were 223 for 9 at close on the fifth day as they denied what had seemed certain to be a third Australian victory in the series.Australian captain Mark Taylor had earlier declared at 138 for 2 to set New Zealand the target of 288 runs from a minimum 60 overs for an unlikely victory.(Final day; Australian won toss)AUSTRALIA – First Innings 400 (M T Elliott 114, G S Blewett 99, M E Waugh 81)NEW ZEALAND – First Innings 251 for 6 dec (M J Horne 133).AUSTRALIA – Second Innings(Overnight: 14 for 0)*M Taylor not out 66M Waugh lbw b O’Connor 9G Blewett b Vettori 56S Waugh not out 2Extras (b4, lb1) 5Total (for 2 dec) 138Fall of wickets: 1-14, 2-106.Bowling: Simon Doull 8-1-28-0, Shayne O’Connor 9-1-32-1, Daniel Vettori 14-1-48-1, Nathan Astle 7-0-25-0.NEW ZEALAND – Second InningsM Horne lbw b Reiffel 31N Astle c Ponting b Reiffel 40C Cairns st Healy b Warne 18*S Fleming st Healy b Warne 0C McMillan c Taylor b Warne 41B Young c Ponting b Warne 10A Parore c Elliott b Warne 41R Twose run out 29D Vettori c Healy b S Waugh 3S Doull not out 1S O’Connor not out 0Extras (b2, lb7) 9Total (for 9) 223Fall of wickets: 1-72, 2-93, 3-93, 4-95, 5-137, 6-152, 7-218, 8-221, 9-222.Bowling: Kasprowicz 3-0-33-0; Reiffel 14-2-47-2; Warne 28-6-88-5; M Waugh 6-1-19-0; Cook 4-0-17-0; S Waugh 6-4-10-1.Man-of-the-match: Greg Blewett (Australia)Umpires: Steve Davis (Australia) and Russell Tiffin (Zimbabwe). There’s a promising career over, thinks Stuart, until he turns the other way and finds, to his enormous relief, his coach.If ever a night deserved a book of its own, that must be it..