Names In The News

Premier League referee MARK CLATTENBURG has been named "the best in the world" during '16 at the Globe Soccer Awards in Dubai. It "caps an exceptional year" for the 41-year-old who took charge of the finals of the FA Cup, Champions League and Euro 2016. Clattenburg became a FIFA referee at the age of 30 and is "routinely named the best official" in the U.K. (London TELEGRAPH, 12/28). ... Irish handball player CONALL MCCAVITT is "fighting for his life in a Northern Ireland hospital following a hit-and-run." McCavitt was "struck by a car on Cardinal O'Fiaich Square" shortly before 6:20am (IRISH INDEPENDENT, 12/28). ... Nine Network cricket anchor MARK NICHOLAS has been carried out of the Melbourne Cricket Ground commentary box "for the second time in three days." The "mystery ailment" that hospitalized Nicholas on Boxing day "struck him down again" on Wednesday. Conscious but in "great pain, he was attended to in the commentary box by Australian team doctor PETER BRUKNER" (THE AUSTRALIAN, 12/29).