Shield final must stay, says Maher

ONE of the most respected figures in Australian domestic cricket, former Queensland captain Jimmy Maher, has warned administrators they will have "blood on their hands" if they scrap the Sheffield Shield final to make room for more Twenty20 games.

Sluggish market trims Brambles' pallet profits

BRAMBLES said it was yet to see a sustained recovery in its key European and US markets, after it posted a 3 per cent decline in first-half profits.

Q and A

Q Every time I plug my iPhone into my Macbook, it opens iPhoto as well as iTunes. I don't mind iTunes opening but how do I stop iPhoto? I cannot find anything in the preferences relating to this. I hardly ever use the camera button, so it would be a great help if you could tell me how to fix this.

Ponting quits short game to stay in the big games

RICKY Ponting's commitment and desire to avenge Australia's recent Ashes defeat, and lead his team to victory in England in 2013, was behind his decision to be selective with what form of the game he will play in coming years.

Twenty20 vision not for Ponting

RICKY PONTING's commitment to avenging Australia's recent Ashes defeat in England in 2013 is behind his decision to retire from international Twenty20 cricket.

Hewitt Defends Schedule

LLEYTON HEWITT believes the Australian Open's late January calendar slot is the ideal one, but it is also true that the Australian who first visited Melbourne Park as a tennis-mad Adelaide schoolboy on his summer holidays has never known anything else.

Open Not Just For Players, Says Former Fan

LLEYTON Hewitt believes the Australian Open's current late-January calendar slot is ideal, but it is also true that the Australian, who first visited Melbourne Park as a tennis-mad Adelaide schoolboy on his summer holidays, has never known anything else.

Cutting Edge

NEW SEASONING Get ready for pre-fall, the latest season introduced to an already crammed fashion calendar. As the designers want you to keep buying new stuff, they're now making a big thing of the stop-gap summer collections once shown to buyers who needed fresh stuff in the stores between the spring drop and the introduction of the winter woolies. In New York and Paris, at least 23 pre-fall collections were launched last week, from Oscar de la Renta (above) to Chanel, and they'll appear in ...

Grand Slam Still On, Says Federer

THREE times, only the Paris clay has prevented Roger Federer from achieving tennis' holy grail, and he believes the prospect of a player winning the calendar grand slam is greater than ever.

Iron Ladies Club Together For Charity

TUNCURRY'S Sarah Kemp has stolen the front cover but Newcastle's Kristie Newton is still one of the glamour girls of golf in a sexy new calendar being unveiled by Golf Australia in Perth today.

Reflect On Region's Beauty

KIRK Gilmour's shot of the stunning view from Stanwell Tops is just one of 12 Illawarra images in the 2009 Mercury calendar - about to hit the stands.

Special 150th Survival Guide

WHAT'S ON - MELBOURNE FC 150th EVENTS CALENDAR

Les Darcy Day Now More Than A Hat In The Ring

PLANS to commemorate Maitland boxing legend Les Darcy with a day on the calendar are moving ahead.

Daughters Dawned On Land Of Rising Sun Years Ago

A clear calendar allows the women to emulate their Japanese counterparts, Peter Thomson writes.