Voice of Jewish Sport: Fehler puts his stamp on four-game epic

THERE MAY not have been 12 goals, may not have been 120 minutes to saviour, and no dramatic penalty shoot-out, but Sunday’s fourth and final clash of the season between Redbridge and Hendon still had enough going for it. Redbridge were definitely blunted by the missing Ben Sollosi, but they found themselves up against a resilient and focussed Hendon, who had Dovi Fehler in prolific form up front. His hat-trick – and trademark somersault celebration – were a fitting finale to four epic clashes.

RELIGIOUSLY OBSERVANT footballers in Israel will no longer have to play on Shabbat. The playing of matches on the holy day came under threat in September following a court ruling on a petition put forward by the aforementioned players against playing during Shabbat. That led to a labour court ruling that football on Shabbat would be illegal without a special waiver, which would allow companies to employ workers on Shabbat – which was the premise to a draft being set up. The result of that was summed up by Miri Regev, Israel’s Minister of Culture and Sport, who said: “As I promised, a player that doesn’t want to desecrate Shabbat won’t need to. For the first time we have reached an agreement with teams, owners, players and attorneys to sign an arrangement that is accepted by everyone.” A Shabbat Shalom for (hopefully) everyone.

ANYONE LOOKING to put a flutter on their top Jewish jockey at next month’s Grand National will have to gamble their money on someone else. Sam Waley-Cohen is set to miss the race at Aintree if a seven-day riding ban is upheld, according to the British Horseracing Authority. His misdemeanour was to allegedly prematurely stopriding Long Run in the hunter chase at Carlisle last Sunday, with stewards ruling he could have finished the race third, rather than fifth. The 33-year-old, whose best National finish was as runner-up in 2011, when he rode Oscar Time, says he will appeal.