21.  Shell is a minor player in this industry, unable to compete long-term with the giants.

22.  Spain and Portugal are minor players in the European currency game, but Italy, Sweden and Britain are not.

23.  Texas Republicans who had been poised to play kingmaker are now cast as minor players in the political coronation of the Senate majority leader.

24.  The irony is that Enron was a fairly minor player in the California market.

25.  The Larroquette series tends to get reduced to a minor player.

26.  The minor players are bundles of irritating tics masquerading as characters.

27.  The research shows that individual airline Web sites, most of which were only minor players in online travel until fairly recently, are surging forward.

28.  This year, Weld has been a minor player in the fight brewing over an abortion plank in San Diego in August.

29.  Though the deal would create a national health insurance juggernaut, the combined company would remain a relatively minor player in New England.

30.  Yet, by and large, rice has been a minor player on the culinary scene.