Hammond

When Octorara's Dooie Hammond took control of the ball in the final seconds of Tuesday's game against Kennett, there was little doubt in his mind what he would do. With eight seconds remaining, Hammond dribbled, then fired and hit an 18- foot jump shot just inside the three-point line with three defenders on him. The result was a game-winning shot that lifted the Braves to a 60-58 victory over the Blue Demons in a Southern Chester County League...

When Jack Hammond took over as La Salle's quarterback for its Catholic League battle with Bishop McDevitt on Sunday, it wasn't as if he had been rotting away deep on the Explorers' bench all season. Hammond has been the Explorers' starting tight end for two seasons, and when some of the 18 consecutive victories in that span have been tucked away, he has taken a few snaps in mop-up duty behind Brett Gordon. But his starting quarterback assignment against McDevitt was a first.

With Laura Ann Hammond not competing because of graduate school, the 102d annual Philadelphia Women's Match Play Championship begins tomorrow at Aronimink Golf Club with two of the other four champions of the 1990s in the field. Trying to succeed Hammond, of Whitford Country Club, who won a record-tying fourth consecutive title last year, will be former champions Elizabeth Haines of Merion and Ann Laughlin of Riverton. Haines was the last woman not named Hammond to win the match play, in 1994.

The library at Rowen Elementary School is musty and outdated - a locked room used for storage and occasional meetings, a repository of yellowing, untouched books. But Callie Hammond has big dreams for the room, whose leather-bound encyclopedias were printed in 1986, the year she was born. Hammond sees the West Oak Lane public school as a launching pad for Library Build, a nonprofit group she recently started to renovate and staff school libraries with fellows in the Teach for America model.

The thrill of victory was in the collective heart of the Abington football team after a pulsating 17-16 victory over host William Tennent on Sept. 19. The Ghosts' Zamani Hammond had just played the game of his scholastic career in the win, with 118 rushing yards and a touchdown in the second half alone. He also made a game-saving defensive play with Tennent poised to win with a 2-point conversion after its final score in the closing minutes. And now the senior college prospect doesn't know when he will put on the pads and play his next high school game.

When Coatesville's Johndah Hammond got to the gym Saturday night, her primary concern was just getting into the game against visiting Wilson West Lawn. The sophomore has been shuttling between varsity and junior-varsity games this season, and even when she has suited up for varsity games, her playing time has been limited. "I didn't even think I would get in," she said after the game. Hammond did more than get in. Although she scored only 2 points, she turned in a stellar defensive performance on Wilson's top player to lead the Red Raiders to a 61-46 victory over the stubborn Bulldogs.

Kyle Williams soared high above the rim and threw down a perfect lob pass. Dan Miller swished a long three-pointer and let the crowd hear about it as he jogged to the other end of the floor. Last night's basketball showdown between Burlington City and Rancocas Valley didn't lack showmanship, and at times it seemed as if Williams and Miller, two of South Jersey's brightest stars, engaged in a "Can you top this?" affair. In the end, Williams' supporting cast outperformed Miller's.

The kid found dead in the river was white, otherwise the town might not have cared. But care it did, and so Jinx Fairchild and Iris Courtney are bound in secrecy. He did it. She watched him. Jinx is black and Iris is white, a divisive difference in the small upstate New York town of Hammond in the late '50s. "Because It Is Bitter, and Because It Is My Heart," by Joyce Carol Oates (E.P. Dutton), is the story of these two teen-agers serving what is tantamount to a life sentence - a childhood spent in a system closed by poverty and prejudice.

They're an unlikely cast for a new theater production. David "Daud" Chavis, a former drug dealer, watched a friend fatally shoot a competitor in Camden in 1993 and is serving time - as an accomplice - for aggravated manslaughter. Luis Alejandro Torres, a drug dealer from age 16, was arrested on a Camden street corner in 2003 and is finishing a sentence for cocaine possession. And George Hammond is being held for an armed robbery a decade ago in Camden and is awaiting release, possibly this summer.

The Sterling girls' basketball team played in the Pennsville Tournament in December 1998 and won its two games by a total of 131 points. So this season, coach Bill Ulrich looked for increased holiday competition. He found it, and Sterling, ranked No. 1 in South Jersey by The Inquirer, still gave him a title. The Silver Knights defeated Lansdale Catholic, 60-52, to win the Boardwalk Cup Classic in Wildwood on Dec. 29. Lansdale entered the game 8-1. In the first round, Sterling beat Philadelphia's Franklin Learning Center, 75-62.

The library at Rowen Elementary School is musty and outdated - a locked room used for storage and occasional meetings, a repository of yellowing, untouched books. But Callie Hammond has big dreams for the room, whose leather-bound encyclopedias were printed in 1986, the year she was born. Hammond sees the West Oak Lane public school as a launching pad for Library Build, a nonprofit group she recently started to renovate and staff school libraries with fellows in the Teach for America model.

Major injuries have a way of haunting football players well after they have healed. But that hasn't been the case for C.J. Hammond. "Actually, I think I got a little bit faster," said the Temple wideout, who missed last season with an anterior cruciate ligament tear in his left knee. "I can see it on the field," he added. "I'm getting open a lot. My stride is a lot better. My balance is better. My flexibility is better. "And it's all to do with my rehab. " It was a grueling and repetitive eight-month rehabilitation.

For the last two years and most of this season, Ali Hammond was a starter for the Methacton girls' basketball team. That changed in the middle of last week, when coach Craig Kaminski decided to bring the senior captain off the bench. "Not that it's an easy thing to accept, but she has done it," he said. "I'm really proud of her for the way she's handled it. " Yesterday afternoon, in her second game as a reserve, Hammond came off the pine and provided a much-needed boost in the late going.

Joey Hammond and Michael Spidale had RBI singles in the top of the fifth inning to lift the Reading Phillies to a slim 2-1 win over the Trenton Thunder last night in the Eastern League. Reading 000020000 -272 Trenton000010000 -140 WP: Andrew Carpenter (6-8, 5.67). LP: Jeffrey Marquez (0-1, 3.60). Save: Justin Pope (8). HR: None. A: 5,680. Lakewood 021010010 -5120 Lake County000002013 -6121 WP: Jonathan Holt (4-6, 3.17). LP: Jared Simon (6-3, 3.59). HR: LW- Michael Durant (17)

Perhaps the meanest thing you could say about Yours to Keep, the solo debut by Strokes guitarist Albert Hammond Jr., is that it's all craft and no personality. This is often the case when a background member of a popular band steps into the foreground with a solo project, armed with long-dormant songs but minus the compelling narrative that a band like the Strokes has worked so hard and long to establish. And because we know so much - too much, really - about Strokes front man Julian Casablancas and so little about Albert Hammond Jr., the songs on Yours to Keep seem to be in search of an identity and a context beyond the sum and essence of Hammond's eminently tasteful record collection.

As the son of singer-songwriter Albert Hammond (of "It Never Rains in California" fame) and as the rhythm guitarist for the Strokes, Albert Hammond Jr. must step out of several shadows. With Yours to Keep, his debut solo album, he succeeds. Over a year ago, during his downtime from the Strokes, Hammond recorded a few songs of his own. Pleased with the results, he wrote and recorded an album's worth, drafting a few friends, including Sean Lennon and Ben Kweller, to help out. Hammond cops to two of his musical influences with the bonus tracks: a rave-up cover of Guided by Voices' "Postal Blowfish" and a sprightly acoustic one of Buddy Holly's "Well . . . All Right.

Joey Hammond's two-run single in the fifth inning proved the difference as the Reading Phillies beat the New Britain Rock Cats, 4-3, last night in the Eastern League. Hammond's second-inning triple led to the Phillies' first run. The victory was Reading's 16th in its last 18 games at home. The Phillies are 32-11 since July 1. Lefthander Allen Davis went seven innings for the win. He allowed seven hits and three walks and struck out three. Joe Bisenius pitched a scoreless eighth, then watched pinch-hitter Doug Deeds cut the lead to a run with a leadoff home run to right.

AKRON, Ohio - Joey Hammond had three hits including a home run last night to lead the Reading Phillies to a 9-4 Eastern League victory over the Akron Aeros. Scott Mathieson picked up the pitching win, improving his record to 7-2. Reading's Peter Bergeron was 2 for 4, including an inside-the-park homer in the fourth inning. Bergeron hit a fly ball high off the center-field fence. The ball caromed toward left-center, and Bergeron scored without a play at the plate. It was Reading's first inside-the-park homer since Kurt Keene hit one at New Britain on May 1, 2004.

Eleanor Jones Hammonds, 90, of Bryn Mawr, a former tennis tournament organizer and official and ham radio operator, died of heart failure Saturday at home. For more than 25 years, Mrs. Hammonds was a referee for lawn tennis tournaments in Pennsylvania. She chaired the Middle States Tennis Association Women's Intercollegiate Championships for many years and served several terms as chairwoman of the Women's Interclub Tennis Association of Philadelphia. The Eleanor Hammonds Trophy is awarded annually to the winner of the association's tournament at the Merion Cricket Club.