it really has been a thoroughly miserable day, and although storm ciara asserted to leave the shores, it looks like will remain very windy indeed with a frequent rush of showers and some of them turning to snow because it is turning colder. we can see the first signs of the over the next few hours in scotland was of snow showers and it's a link close to freezing, icy stretches first thing in the morning. if you are showers for the south and will be of rain but nevertheless they windy start for all of us because as ciara eases the way we have isobars on the chart driving in a frequent rush of showers and the wind direction coming all the way up from the north, so colder airfloods right across the country. so we could have blizzard conditions for a time across scotland and northern ireland, and the hills of northern england as well. further south some of those shoppers to be heavy and its quality. top temperatures

disappointing, three to 8 degrees. hello, this is bbc news. the headlines... storm ciara hits the uk with winds of more than 90 miles an hour — causing severe travel disruption across the country. there is widespread flooding. and one severe warning, meaning a danger to life, remains in place in north wales. a fourth person in the uk has testested positive for coronavirus and is being treated at the e royal free hospital in london. counting is underway in the irish general election — early indications are that sinn fein

is set for major gains. now on bbc news, it's time for sportsday. hello and welcome to sportsday. england's cricketers beat south africa by two wickets to level the series 1—1 in johannesburg. sheffield united's remarkable season continues — they beat bournemouth 2—1 and are nowjust two points off the premier league's top four. france turn on the style against italy to make it two wins from two in the six nations. also coming up in the programme... an olympic place is now out of reach for great britain's

we tried, some people look adult i think we should be here, but we are here and we made a statement, regardless of if we got a ticket or not, iam regardless of if we got a ticket or not, i am very proud of my team. hello and welcome along to sportsday. we'll start with the cricket, as england have drawn the one—day series against south africa, after winning the final odi by two wickets in johannesburg. england should have wrapped it more comfortably, with captain eoin morgan admitting that it was disappointing to just limp over the line. with all the details, here's adam wild. in south africa, today is pink day, raising money for charity and having a party. even the players got to dress up. this was south african captain quinton de kock getting proceedings under way.

few parties pass without someone falling out. here it began with van der dussen getting out. lbw, said the umpire. van der dussen was given another chance, video replays hadn't been working properly. south africa, a reprieve, moeen ali moments later had the last word. a final flourish took south africa to 256, despite the celebrations it didn't look enough. especially once jonny bairstow got started. brilliant, at times brutal. once others started chipping in, the chase should have been straightforward. but as late wickets fell, england were getting just a little nervous. victory more tense than it should have been, a special day in johannesburg but ultimately england's day. england's women are out of the t20 tri—series in australia, after losing by 16 runs to the home side. england bowled pretty well, restricting australia to 132 for 7 off their 20 overs.

victory or a narrow defeat would have seen england reach wednesday's final, but 116—7 wasn't good enough and it's india who will now face australia. england have three warm—up matches coming up before the t20 world cup starts later this month, that's also in australia. sheffield united impressed once again after coming from behind to beat bournemouth 2—1 at bramall lane. it was the only premier league game of the day, after manchester city and west ham was postponed due to the bad weather. united are back to fifth in the table and two points off the champions league places, as michael redford reports. it will take more than storm ciara to keep home fans away from bramall lane. sheffield united are having a campaign to remember with their sights set on qualifying for european football. bournemouth have had a different season, relegation battle looming.

back—to—back wins have given them hope that is only increased when callum wilson gave the away side an early lead. it was an advantage that was almost immediately wiped out by billy sharp, inches away from equalising. sharp would have to wait until first half stoppage time for his next chance, no mistake this time. his first goal since the opening day of the season. back to september for the last time ryan fraser scored, a superb save from dean henderson meant his drought would continue. a third goal came for the home side, led from snatching victory with five minutes to go. we have just rolled on to the next game, we go again, a bit of a break now, go again and it has to be that way. we want to achieve something this season. we don't want to just take the foot off the gas, i won't allow that and the players understand that. defeat leaves bournemouth in trouble, but sheffield united are two points off the top four, warmer conditions might be calling,

european storm is definitely brewing. while bournemouth are struggling in the premier league, west brom are looking good for a return to the top flight. they're now four points clear at the top of the championship after a 2—0 win at millwall. in what was really tough conditions, they took the lead through a great finish from filip krovinovich. west brom sealed victory late on — dara o'shay with his first goal of the season. west brom are five points off the play off places. the defeat leaves millwall in 10th. in the two scottish cup matches today, holders celtic and hibernian both eased through to the quarterfinals against lower league opposition. lydia campbell was watching for us. the last time celtic travelled to clyde they were dumped out of the scottish cup in 2006. they would have to avoid another shock if they were to win the competition for the fourth time in a row. 0livier‘s birthday today, celebrating with the opening goal to make thoughts of a shock disappear.

ryan christie came close to doubling the lead with this long—range effort, but they didn't have long to wait for number two. captain scott brown with a close range finish. celtic huffed and puffed in the second half but it took until the 90th minute before they got their third and final goal. top of the premiership and now a cup quarterfinal to look forward to, it is still a good time to be celtic. the last winner of the cup outside of celtic was hibs back in 2016. mark mcnulty made sure they got off to a flyer against bse glasgow. he then added his second before the half—time mark but then another fine finish. but the hosts were up for a fight in the cup

and ross smith herded them back into the tie before half—time. and they could have had the equaliser, but thomas collins dragged the shot wide. and then the sucker punch. mcnulty through for his hat—trick. before turning into a goal—scorer himself to put the game to bed. and sent hibs safely through. the draw for the quarterfinals has been made, with holders celtic drawn away at st johnstone. rangers are away at hearts, who beat steven gerrard's side in their most recent meeting at tynecastle last month. meanwhile, championship side, inverness will play hibernian. plenty to be decided in the other tie, with the winner of the replay between st mirren and motherwell taking on either aberdeen or kilmarnock. let's take a look at some of the other stories grabbing the headlines. there was more success for both of great britain's hockey teams in the pro league. the women beat new zealand in auckland in a dramatic shootout, 5—4.

the men clinched their first win of the campaign after they beat the kiwis 3—0. neil robertson leads graeme dott 5—3 after the opening session of the world grand prix final in cheltenham. he now leads 5—4, the target for victory. and aged just 16 years old, naseem shah has become the youngest bowler to take a hat—trick in test cricket. the pakistan pace bowler achieved the feat against bangladesh in rawalpindi. france made it two wins from two so far in the six nations with a 35—22 bonus—point win over italy today in paris. three first—half tries for the home side, including this from gregory alldritt, helped them to a 13—point lead at half—time. france further extended that lead in the second half with two more tries. baptiste seran with a fantastic individual effort. italy did score three tries of the own, but not enough to stop a 24th consecutive

six nations defeat. the women's six nations match between scotland and england was postponed because of storm ciara, but keira griffin led ireland to victory in their game against wales in dublin. they won by 31 points to 12 with some pretty blustery conditions. ireland with four different try scorers and a penlty try, as they battled though the worst of the weather in the second half. that now moves ireland to the top of the table with two wins out of two and smiles all around. disappointing news for great britain's women's basketballers, as they will not be at the tokyo 0lympic games this summer following their 79—69 defeat to spain today. a win against the european champions in serbia would have seen them qualify outright for an 0lympics for the first time. 0ur 0lympics sports reporter, nick hope is out in belgrade for us. britain have only had one 0lympic basketball team in 2012 when they were gifted the place as the host nation.

the following eight years have been incredibly tough, without any support or financial investment. a proving of that success in serbia would help transform their fortunes. but it wasn't to be. despite defeat to china and south korea early in the week, the british women went into the final qualifying fixture knowing that victory by any margin would give them a place in tokyo. great performers against spain, however britain ultimately has no answer to the spanish accuracy or the intensity and it was the european champions who took the win at olympic place, 79—69. a missed opportunity, super disappointed, frustrated. ifeel like i literally gave everything i had, i am exhausted. spain are champions, one of the top teams in the world, but i am very proud of my team, we came out and we fought until the end, we didn't get a ticket, i am sorry. but i am proud we fought every game. given the lack of support and investment, it was impressive the

british women got to this stage of 0lympic qualification but they know that a victory would have been enough to potentially boost the sport that little bit further forward. they do have important qualifiers later in the year for the euro basket but they may have to take those on with out some of the best senior players, some considering their future in the sport. that's all from sportsday. just before we go, a reminder of our top story as england beat south africa by two wickets to level up their one day series. the t20 series is next. next up on the bbc news channel, it's click.

la, la, la, la land. it is oscars weekend, time for hollywood to give itself a pat on the back, and time for the rest of us to be reminded there is a reason why the movie industry chose southern california to live and film in. and with all of glamorous la to choose from, they put me in a box. in a warehouse. although it is the coolest box i have been in for a while because, spoiler alert, i am not really in the box! i am out here. and that's virtual me and it is called portl. the box itself is real, of course and the lights inside provide the illumination for the modified human—sized 4k lcd

screen on the front. this can show pre—recorded video or live images of some loon messing about in front of a camera. what am i doing over there though? what's he doing? the same? oh, yeah, of course. i must say, iam impressed. ifigured out all these reasons why somebody might not want to do a hologram, and i eliminated those reasons. that is why we developed this. first things first, these are not holograms. you know what i think about the term hologram. but these are the most realistic not—holograms i think i have ever seen. the key is that this part of the screen is transparent, so if the camera moves left and right you can see the background move behind the character and that really gives you a feeling that they are there and that this is a 3d image. a small piece of reflective floor and the shadow of the actor are also captured and sent to the booth, something that really