British sport pays respects to Prince Philip

LONDON: British sport stopped to pay tribute to Prince Philip ahead of his funeral on Saturday with two minutes' silence held before Newcastle's Premier League match against West Ham and several Championship fixtures on Saturday (Apr 17).

The Duke of Edinburgh died aged 99 on Apr 9 and English football showed its respect for the royal ahead of the funeral.

Several sporting events were moved to avoid a clash with the 2pm funeral, but Newcastle's meeting with West Ham kicked off at its scheduled 11.30am time, with both teams lining up around the centre-circle for the period of silence before kick-off at sombre St James' Park.

An image of Prince Philip was shown on the stadium scoreboard.

It was scene repeated before the seven Championship matches played at 11.30am.

Wolves' Premier League meeting with Sheffield United had been due to kick off at Molineux at 2pm, but was moved to a 7.15pm start on Saturday.

The FA Cup semi-final between Chelsea and Manchester City at Wembley, which stayed at its 4.30pm kick-off time, will also feature the two minutes' silence before the game at Wembley.

In Scotland, the six Scottish Cup fourth-round matches scheduled around the time of the funeral, including the Old Firm derby between Rangers and holders Celtic, were all moved.

Scottish champions Rangers will host their Glasgow rivals at 2pm on Sunday instead of the original 3pm Saturday date.

All four Premiership Rugby matches scheduled for Saturday were moved, with two kicking off at 11.30am and two at 4pm.

There were two minutes' silence periods before Exeter's game against Wasps and Sale's clash with Gloucester.

The England and Wales Cricket Board said all nine County Championship matches on Saturday will pause for an hour and 20 minutes during the funeral.

The Scottish Grand National at Ayr and the Spring Trials meeting at Newbury are being held on Sunday instead of Saturday.