Is it wrong...

that I find this really funny?

From Up Next in Sports

Such fun

A video of the covers playing in the wind yesterday at the cricket...

Cool Styris gets New Zealand home

Cool Styris gets New Zealand home

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What about that cricket?!?!?

Apols to my facebook friends, who had to put up with me during the game!

In case you have no idea what I'm talking about - here's an article to read and struggle through.

Ah... memories

Friday favs...

It's cricket season... which brings to mind one of the best ever sessions of cricket I can remember.

I remember the contest. And the doggedness of the player. The determination to do his part for team. I remember watching every ball. Watching him NOT get out. Watching him batting for time - to save the innings and the test. I remember my mum, dad & I cheering each and every dot ball. I remember my uncle saying it was boring. But it wasn't. It was real cricket.

What I couldn't remember was the player... but a friendly workmate did remember.

So, today - a link to an article about Geoff Allott's [then - possibly still] world-record for longest innings without scoring a run.

It's moments like those which makes me sit and watch cricket for days on end. Or keep an eye on cricinfo... like today.

3 sports headlines you wouldn't expect to hear...

and all in the same bulletin... [yes, I know, I'm days late - but, trust me, they've been action-packed days!]
Saturday morning, on my way to work, heard the sports headlines and these three stood out as weird...

• Tiger Woods misses the cut at the British Open
• Australia struggling to make the follow-on at the Ashes
• NZ cyclist shot during the Tour

See, weird!

Learn to bat

In light of our fabulous cricket performance this season...

Words mean nothing...

The (very) little pleasure I got watching cricket last night was so horribly overshadowed...
Arohanui...

A story to touch your heart

Sports is often used as a metaphor to life. You know, you can't go too wrong if you keep your head still, and centred over your body... but, sometimes, it teaches you about life. Fair play. Team-mateship. Sharing. Goal setting... I could go on.
But this story transcends all the pat analogies you can make. Playing fair with fouls - read it. Watch it.

Test cricket dead? and pretty in pink

After watching the South Africa vs Australia test series, as much as possible - you'd have to say test cricket - good test cricket - was alive and well.

It had (almost) everything you'd want - drama, courage, ups, downs - the pendulum swung so much it almost became detached. Graeme Smith's gutsy return to the crease with broken arm. I thought only old-school All Blacks did that sort of thing. Photo stolen from PA images, via Cricinfo.

After 15 days of cricket, in total, it all came down to 5 minutes. Come on, how much closer do you need to get?

On that - look at the photo. Notice the colour of the wickets? And, if you look really closely, the colour of the 3 on the Aussie fielder's uniform? Why? It comes from Cricket Australia's support of the McGrath Foundation - set up by former cricketer Glenn McGrath & his wife Jane, to fund specialist breast care nurses in areas currently without them.

If you happened to watch any of the recent Rugby League World Cup, you might have noticed the lovely pink jersey's the refs were wearing. That's because the World Cup supported breast cancer charities.

And, what do we do in New Zealand? It seems that everything we do for Breast Cancer research & funding & support is focussed on women. Understandable, of course, but by being out there - and pink - these Aussie sportsmen (leaguies in particular!) are showing they're not afraid to wear pink for a good cause.

My organisation? Well, we're lucky to get 10 people on the Dove Pink Star Walk a year.

Adding to the coolest medal list

Yes, seanfish - you're right! Anything NZ wins is a good thing! Go Valerie!

To add to the list... after due consideration...
8. Rowing 8s [well, we used to win it...]
9. Equestrian 3-day eventing [seanfish's contribution]
10. still up for debate

What are the coolest Olympic medals?

The other day the flatmate asked me what would be the top 10 coolest Olympic medals you could win for your country. We agreed on the top two without a problem, then discussed the rest... Oddly enough, most of them are men's medals - you know, the men's 100m is way cooler than the women's (sexual equality or not)

1. Marathon
2. Men's 100m
3. Heavy weight boxing
4. Individual overall gymnastics
5. Weightlifting - but we couldn't decide on the coolest weight division
6. 1500m [but this could be a result of being Kiwi kids & raised on Lovelock, Snell & Walker!]
7. Swimming individual 200m medley

Then we got a bit stuck... any thoughts welcome

Test time

Very cool...

Sporting eh what?

Seanfish wanted to add this video to my comments... Olga Korbut on the uneven bars...
Thanks matey! Spot the gender difference in our preferred videos!
I loved the commentary! 'Has that been done before, by a girl?' 'Never! Not by any human that I know of'... classic!



And, yep Fiona - Radio Sport rocks! Unfortunately I'm sure I'll get in trouble listening to the streaming from the site... I have to sneak a peak at cricinfo every once in a while instead. As I discovered yesterday... AM does not get picked up in our building...

Just to confirm my fogey-ness - the radios in my house have Newstalkzb on FM and Radiosport on AM...
At this precise moment (lunch of the NZ v Bangladesh test) I have the Australia v India test on TV in the lounge (down the hall) and - thanks to Fiona - am listening to the commentary, via live streaming, of the Auckland v Otago in the State Shield. Ready at any moment to leap up and watch replays of action with the test (I can just hear the TV commentary from up the hall)...
Years and years ago my then flatmate (a girl) was confused about why I watched cricket (especially test match) so I introduced her to the joys of cricket watching... You're really tired and don't want to do much over the weekend so, if you're invited somewhere, you say 'sorry, I was going to watch the cricket - big fan, you know'. Then you turn on the TV just before it starts... staying in your pyjamas optional... and sit there with a good book, junk food, and chill out - and watch the replays of big scoring shots and wickets, as necessary. She was convinced (although she didn't watch too many replays)...

Call me old fashioned...

but the reason it took me so long to bother opening my new mp3 player is... I like listening to my radio... AND I really like my little radio because... it gets AM as well as FM (and it's not one of those horrible FM scanning things!)... and I like AM because that means... RadioSport... and it's summer... and that means cricket! And, sometimes (but not lately while NZ's playing), a good match to listen to.
And, sometimes, I even make sure that the station is just slightly off so that you get that static/weird effect - just like listening to the cricket tests from the other side of the world at night (when you should be asleep)...
Ah, the days before 24 hour & pay TV!
In the old days... I used to have a little 'portable' black & white TV I was allowed to have in my room to watch the gymnastics at the 1988 Olympics... for some strange reason, that Olympics it was mainly the men's events I followed... the rings especially... and this guy in particular...

In 1984 my cousin and I argued over who was better - she liked MaryLou Retton - I liked Ecaterina Szabo

What's the national anthem of Malawi?

I think I'll change allegiance...
After being so grateful last night that the Silver Ferns weren't chokers like the All Blacks...
If you haven't caught up with the fact, we lost to Australia in the final (at least the Ferns did get into the final...)
The standings at the end of the tournament were:

1. Australia (42 in final)
2. New Zealand (38 in final)
3. Jamaica (53 in play off for 3/4 place)
4. England (52 in 3/4 playoff)
5. Malawi - The Queens (52 in 5/6 play off)
6. South Africa (49 in 5/6 play off)
7. Cook Islands (56 in 7/8 play off)
8. Samoa (55 in 7/8 play off)
9. Fiji (65 in 9/10 play off)
10. Botswana (20 in 9/10 play off)
11. Trinidad & Tobaga (48 in 11/12 play off)
12. Wales (45 in 11/12 play off)
13. Barbados (51 in 13/14 play off)
14. Scotland (45 in 13/14 play off)
15. Singapore (59 in 15/16 play off)
16. Malaysia (44 in 15/16 play off)

Malawi has to the be the most fun team, & contains the favourite player of the tournament. Check out this Herald article.

They have Mary Waya. She's 38 (in a country where the average life expectancy is 40), and mother of 2. She missed the 1999 World Champs because she was pregnant. She's 1.62cm tall, and weights 89kg (that's 5ft 4inches and 14 stone in real measurements - at least, I think it is...). She looks like the Venus of Willendorf... See photos below for comparison...

This shows only one example of her committment - she also had trick and flukey passes all over the place!

There's just something about Mary...
Photos from NZ Herald, Arizona State University, & the World Netball Champs site

Netball!

And the reason I'm on annual leave this week is revealed... so I can watch as much of the Netball World Champs as possible!
So far the best game I've watched has been the Cook Islands versus Singapore yesterday. The Cooks won 45-43, but it was tight. They then went on and beat Fiji today, the upset of the tournament.So far the big four are doing what's expected: New Zealand, Australia, England and Jamaica are all trouncing their minnow opponents.

Home again...

The ABs v Scotland match was so boring, I went to sleep... We lost in the cricket - go India!

A busy couple of days up north. I did get out of hammering palings for the new fence, but managed to show my incompetence with such tools when my sister and I had to put the new cross up on Dad's grave. Personally, I blame the very thick matting of violets! There would be a photo, but I'm at home and my very old PC doesn't recognise the driver of my camera... It is so very hard to believe it's been five years since Dad died. I don't know about this whole time makes things easier - I'm finding it a lot harder to get through now!

Lots of weeding and shifting plants around in preparation for the renovations - can't have loved plants right where the footings are going for the extensions! There's an old rose that orginally came from my nana's - was planted at the family home over 15 years ago, and then moved north about 10 years ago. Rhubarb that came up from Auckland...

So a busy and emotional weekend - another reason to be on leave this week!

Well, well, well...

What a start to the day... South Africa trouncing England in the World Cup 36-0!!

The only thing better than that was Zimbabwe beating Australia in the Twenty20 World Cup a couple of days ago!