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In recent years, the nice, clean, almost spotless image of sport has been tarnished - to the extent that many of those who spread the gospel of sport, many of those who believed that sport was the only thing on God's earth which was fair had started to lose faith.

Unlike the good old days when sport was good, clean rivalry between individuals and teams testing their skills against each other, the days when winning was second to the joy of participation and the days when champions were accepted as the best, the past 10 years or so have seen accusations upon accusations of bribery, match-fixing and all sorts of under-hand dealings.

The accusations, for example, have been rife in Italian soccer, they have surfaced in cricket, they have left boxing in a turmoil following the Evander Holyfield/Lennox Lewis world heavyweight title fight and they have touched even the International Olympic Committee.

All, however, is not lost. There are still individuals who believe in fairplay and who will fight to the end and teams which, with their pride at stake, will never surrender regardless of the odds against them.

In less than a week, between last weekend and Wednesday, two teams, one in cricket and one in football, one at the local level and one in England, one a set of amateurs and one a set of professionals, played sport as it should be played and those who believe in the greatness of sport and what sport is all about should salute them.

Last weekend, in the Surrey Senior Cup, defending champions Melbourne were four points behind leaders Lucas, with time running out on them they needed all the points they could get against Kensington and with Kensington, beaten by an innings by Lucas the previous weekend, two places from the bottom of the standings, Melbourne went to Kensington Park favoured to get first innings points and hoping to win the match.

In a wonderful performance, however, Kensington, once the kingpins in the competition and arch rivals of Melbourne, braced themselves, rose to the occasion and not only denied Melbourne of victory, but also snatched first innings points in an exciting match.

On Wednesday, in the English Premier League, Manchester United, finalists in the FA Cup and the European Club Championships and hunting the triple, needed a victory against Liverpool to stay in the lead, they went to Anfield bubbling with confidence, and were two-nil up with 21 minutes to go.

In a glorious performance, however, Liverpool, once the best in England and arch rivals of United, hit back to tie the game, and left the fans dancing in the streets.

But for their pride, Kensington had nothing to gain by leading Melbourne, and neither did Liverpool by drawing with United. Just as neither Melbourne nor Manchester expected any favours, however, Kensington and Liverpool were not in the mood to give any, and because of that, the fans at Kensington Park were treated to some lovely cricket and those at Anfield to some great football as two teams, miles apart and in different settings, polished the image of sport.