The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

Wednesday, August 2, 2000 THE OAKVILLE BEAVER C7 Winning weekend for the C m The Oakville Crusaders first-XV are in first place in the province's top senior men's `A' division, with a 6-0 record, after defeating Barrie 48-5 on Saturday. Barrie applied the pressure early, in fact, there was a 16-minute span when Barrie did everything but score. But the Crusaders defence held and as confidence increased, the Crusaders started running the ball with both wings straining their oppo site numbers. The Cru look forward to hosting a battle with second place Yeoman next Saturday (Aug. 12). SECOND XV The Crusaders second-XV romped to a 58-5 win over Barrie. This team continues to improve with many play ers capable of playing for the senior team. THIRD XV The Crusader `thirds' defeated Barrie 34-5. WOMEN CRU The Crusader women were suc cessful with their road game, defeat ing Ottawa Banshees 17-10. Moved to the top `A' division this season, the Oakville team continues to improve as a team and, with time, will be a force to be reckoned with. Countdown to Sydney Olympics Donovan Bailey has a couple of meets on the go. The defending Olympic 100m champ was expected to compete in Stockholm yesterday (Aug. 1) and in London this Saturday (Aug. 5). VOLLEYBALL Two Oakville residents saw their Olympic dreams end last week with the Canadian national volleyball team coming up short in last week's last chance qualifying in France. Two Oakville residents -- David Kantor and Dan Lewis -- are members of the team. Ranked 11th in the world, Canada was in a four-team, last chance qualifier along with 1996 defending Olympic champion Netherlands, 14th ranked France and 34th ranked Taiwan. Canada opened up with a heartbreaking 3-2 loss to France (22-25, 25-23, 21-25, 25-21, 15-9). At one point Canada led 2-1 in sets with leads of 4-1 and 7-3 in the fourth set. Canada was officially eliminated with a 3-0 loss to the Netherlands (25-21, 25-18, 25-18). In the battle of also-rans, Canada kept Taiwan winless with a 3-0 win (25-19, 25-18 and 25-14). The Netherlands won the 12th and final Olympic berth with a 3-1 victory over France (25-20, 19-25, 25-23, 2521). Photo by Barrie Erskine . . . this unidenti fied member of the Oakville Blast U-12 boys rep team (red/blue jer sey) contests the ball as an Ontario Cup preliminary round robin tour nament picked up again at Shell Park on Sunday after being post poned from June, due to bad weather. Oakville defeated London White Eagles 3-2 to complete their round robin with a stellar record of three wins and a tie. They had to swallow a bitter pill, however, as Burlington, won their game 7-0 over Scarborough Raiders to also finish with three wins and a tie. Since the teams tied in head to head play (3-3), it boiled down to goal differential which went in favour of Burlington who move on in the Ontario Cup playdowns. TOP PHOTO BOTTOM PHOTO . . . this tantalizing pass actually slipped through the hands of Sault Ste. Marie receiver Kirk Downs in Northern Football Conference (NFC) action on Saturday. Perhaps he heard the footsteps of the `Horns Gifford Rose, seen here. The chance to derail the `Horns near-decade long hold on first place also slipped through the hands of the upstart Sault team as they lost this battle for first place, 36-25. Speaking of slipping, the Horns are apparently slipping out of Oakville. For the second year in a row, they have played all their games out of Burlington, and their game programs refer to them as the Burlington Longhorns. Longtime owner Steve Harrington, a Burlington resident who has an Oakville law firm, could not be reached for comment prior to our Wednesday deadline. Anyway, the `Horns finished the season at 7-1 (their lone loss to the Sault) while the Sault easily grabbed second place with a 5-3 record. The `Horns host an NFC semifinal game this Saturday, 5 p.m., at M.M. Robinson against North Bay. Photo by Barrie Erskine · M O RE SPORTS, C4 A ll Vehicles, N e w & Used Priced to M o ve O p tim u m USED VEHICLES U t u K ERR C A D IL L A C P O N T IA C B U IC K Ltd CADILLAC PONTIAC BUICK INC on selected m odels --HAM. Q.E.W. TOR. - WYECROFT RD. 410 SOUTH SERVICE RD. W. (JUST W EST OF DORVAL)