The Weekender 08/03/2009

Welcome to another March week as we head towards winter. The evenings are getting darker and the rain more frequent!

Sport

The great head to head in rowing was on at Lake Karapiro again this week. Rowing NZ were trying to figure out who should be rowing for NZ in the men's single sculls so again Mahe Drysdale and Rob Waddell were on the water. I'm not sure I would have picked it (as much as I like Mahe) but Mahe won the first race and the selectors gave him the nod.

Greg Henderson has been doing well in cycling in Spain, winning his first race in the pro cycling season in Europe.

In the first of the one-dayers against India this week, NZ's bowling was a little too erratic and India won by 53 runs. The second ODI saw India get off to a great start before the entire match was rained out. The third is on now and Tendulker retired hurt - after getting 163 and helping India to 392. NZ isn't likely to win even though Ryder got 105 along with McCullum who got 71. Unfortunately no one else has got any runs!
In other cricket the NZ women have upset Australia with a 13 run win thanks to Duckworth & Lewis, for the first game of the women's World Cup.

The Rugby Seven's world cup was on this weekend, and NZ made it safely through to the quarter finals with a 24-7 win over Tonga and a 41-5 win over the Arabian Gulf. However along with all of the major competitors their run ended at the quarters with a 14-15 loss to Wales. Kenya bt Fiji 26-7, and Argentina bt South Africa 14-12. Wales ended up winning the world cup 19-12 over Argentina.

The Chiefs finally did it with a good 31-13 win over the Western Force in Hamilton. The Hurricanes also had a good win, beating the Cheetahs 29-12 in New Plymouth. The title says "Sharks devour error prone Blues" and goes on to talk up the Sharks, but the final score was 35-31. In the upset for the weekend (unless the Crusaders truly are useless without Robbie) the Highlanders beat them 6-0 at Carisbrook. In other games Waratahs 15-11 Reds, Bulls 14-10 Stormers.
So after four rounds the table is Bulls/Waratahs 18; Sharks 17, Hurricanes 14, Blues 11, Force 10, Brumbies 9, Chiefs/Crusaders 8, Reds/Stormers/Highlanders 7, Lions 6, Cheetahs 2

The Taupo ironman was on this weekend and Cameron Brown continued his remarkable run winning his eighth title and in record time. Jo Lawn was looking for another win after a six-year reign but Gina Ferguson from Christchurch upstaged her for the women's title.

Paige Hareb had a dream run in her world tour opener on the Gold Coast in Australia this week. She was finally beaten in the first semi-final by the defending world champ.

NZ News

National has appointed former Labour cabinet minister Paul Swain as the Crown's lead negotiator to settle historical grievances with Ngati Porou.
The government has been finding more & more places that they need to spend money on Labour's big purchase of KiwiRail. KiwiRail announced that they were buying new locomotives (the first in 20yrs) from China for $75m. Obviously there was a big uproar about how it would have created jobs if they bought NZ made, but it turned out when the reporters (who couldn't initially be bothered to research their stories) talked to those in the industry, they said they were too busy to get the work done! Apparently after the purchase the previous government had made commitments which added up to $3b but had only allocated $120m.
The ministerial inquiry found that the previous government had hidden the fact that there was a $1.5b four-year shortfall in ACC's accounts.

A 17 year old Korean student stabbed his teacher in the back this week, the student was quickly arrested by the police and the teacher was treated in hospital for his injuries.

For the third weekend in a row, terrible weather was forecast for the weekend! While the strong winds didn't eventuate, there was lots of rain over Tauranga & the Coromandels, leaving 74,000 people without power in the Bay of Plenty.

The Numbers Game

53: % of people in an ASB survey think that now is the time to buy a house
194: whales and dolphins were beached in Tasmania, Australia

Finance NZ Dollar

GBP 0.3566 (+0.0072)
EUR 0.3981 (+0.0033)
USD 0.5032 (+0.0028)
AUD 0.7857 (+0.0029)

The Weekender NZer of the week

Harold Williams
VOICE OF THE WORLD
Harold Williams is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the world's greatest linguist, said to have spoken over 58 languages fluently.  He was foreign editor of The Times,  "the most brilliant foreign correspondent" his generation had known. Friend of statesmen and companion of writers HG Wells and Hugh Walpole.
http://www.nzedge.co.nz/heroes/williams.html

Joke of the Weekender

Delivery Suspicion
There was an unexpected knock on my door, and like I always do I first opened the peephole and asked, "Who's there?"
"Parcel post, ma'am. I have a package that needs a signature."
"Where's the package?" I asked suspiciously. The deliveryman held it up.
"Could I see some ID?" I said, still not convinced.
"Lady," he replied wearily, "if I wanted to break into your house, I'd probably just use these." And he pulled out the keys I had left in the door.

Weekender Photos

This afternoon, the family gathered at Mum & Dad's for the Dunlop Targa Rally going past their house. It was a great afternoon & here are the photos.
Check out my photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/dunwich42/TargaRally#

Darren Harrison: darren@harrison.gen.nz
The Weekender: mailed weekly (Sunday nightish)
Website: www.dunwich.co.nz/weekender/
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