The Weeknder 25/10/2009
Submitted by weekender on Tue, 27/10/2009 - 10:38
Welcome to a long weekend. Today is Labour Day so we have a long weekend and the Weekender is late getting out! Sorry!
Sport
Rugby's Air NZ cup has found the four semi finalists, but first the week's games. Manawatu sent a message with a 42-16 win over North Harbour. In possibly their last top level game, Tasman played a gusty game but lost out to Wellington 22-14, Taranaki beat Bay of Plenty 30-24 in an exciting but pointless mid table clash. Manawatu beat North Harbour 42-16 and Auckland ruined Waikato's chances of making the semis beating us 26-18 - Waikato needed a bonus point win. Hawkes Bay beat Northland 32-13 to secure themselves a semi spot (after Waikato lost) and Wellington got a home semi with a 22-14 win over Tasman. But the game of the weekend was the Ranfurly Shield match where Southland beat Canterbury 9-3 to win the shield and with that being the final regular season game - they also get to keep it for the summer, well done Southland! They haven't had the shield for 50 years.
Final regular season table: Canterbury 47, Wellington 43, Southland/Hawke's Bay 41, Auckland 40, Waikato 36, Bay of Plenty 32, Taranaki/Tasman 28, Otago 27, Manawatu 24, North Harbour 20, Northland 16, Counties Manukau 12.
New Zealand cricket was thrown into turmoil this week when it was suggested the players were unhappy with coach Andy Moles. The typical happened with the NZ Cricket bosses stating they had full confidence in Andy, and then yesterday he stepped down, just less than a year on. The Black Caps are leaving for a tour of Pakistan any day so captain Daniel Vettori will be player/coach! Another change is that Brendon McCullum is no longer the vice-captain with no replacement appointed. They are wanting all of the senior players to step up.
Daniel Vettori has won the NZ cricket's Player of the Year award (he had to really!) along with the Winsor Cup for bowling and the JR Reid Best All-Rounder Trophy. And finally NZ Cricket has reported a operating surplus of $6.84m.
The Wellington Phoenix broke a run of six draws with a 6-0 win over Gold Coast United last night. The win equalled the biggest goal difference in the competition so far.
England kicked off the Four Nations rugby league tournament with a win over France. New Zealand had a great game but Australia clawed their way back for a 20-20 draw.
The Silver Ferns came home via Jamaica and after the Jamaicans beat Australia the Ferns were taking no chances. They won the first game 61-56 but lost the second 53-50 meaning next year's Commonwealth games could be interesting.
Supermaxi Alfa Romeo beat a 13 year old yachting record when it won the Coastal Classic race from Auckland to the Bay of Islands on Friday. It averaged 17.9 knots to set a new record of 6 hrs 43 mins & 32 seconds.
The NZ Breakers continued their unbeaten home game record with a 92-82 win over the Townsville Crocodiles.
The Black Sticks are back into the elite Champions Trophy after they beat South Africa 2-1 in the final of the qualifier series in Cape Town this week.
Tennis player Sacha Jones has won her third Australian tournament in a row beating a former world-ranked Aussie in the final of the $33,000 tournament at Port Pirie.
NZ News
A senior Labour MP has been caught instructing volunteers to lie when running a poll. They were told to say they were working for a company that no longer exists to hide the fact that it was a Labour party poll.
There have been quite a few deaths from boats recently. Three didn't return from fishing down south, one body & the submerged boat was found. A diver's body was found off the West Coast after he went missing on Saturday. The body of a fisherman was found today after his boat was found empty & circling in a Bay of Plenty lake.
An NZ short film called "The Six Dollar Fifty Man" has won a top prize at the Middle East International Film Festival.
2: nd in the world Monopoly competition for Kiwi Geoff "the Nimble Thimble" Christopher
6: dead so far on our roads for Labour Weekend
72: % confidence in police after a recent survey - up from 69% in 2008
84: % of NZ homes use energy efficient light bulbs which use 80% less electricity
200: m plunge off Rimutaka Hill north of Wellington, was survived by the driver of a rental car
275: redundancies from the Bridgestone factory in Christchurch means the end of NZ made tyres - the land is being gifted to the city council
1,000: hectares of DOC scrubland has been burned near Tiwai Point near Bluff
1,056: taps per minute is the new world record for the fastest tap dancer, set by a Wellington stockbroker
5,000: $ finding for a man whose car was written off when he sued the farmer who allowed a calf to wander onto a road
1m: $ for Health monitoring of superbugs, four years after it was cut back to save money
1.2m: people have joined up to the KiwiSaver retirement savings scheme
Finance NZ Dollar
GBP 0.4632 (+0.0097)
EUR 0.5032 (+0.0056)
USD 0.7549 (+0.0134)
AUD 0.8191 (+0.0101)
The Weekender NZer of the week
Godfrey Bowen
FASTEST SHEARER IN THE WORLD
With a history steeped in agriculture it is natural that New Zealand's shearers are known throughout the world for their skill and toughness. Only one has been invited to Buckingham Palace, appeared on late night American television and been honoured by the leader of the Soviet Union. Godfrey Bowen.
http://www.nzedge.co.nz/heroes/bowen.html
Slow Train
A passenger train is creeping along, slowly. Finally it creaks to a halt. A passenger sees a conductor walking by outside.
"What's going on?" she yells out the window.
"Cow on the track!" replies the conductor.
Ten minutes later, the train resumes its slow pace.
Within five minutes, however, it stops again.
The woman sees the same conductor walk again.
She leans out the window and yells, "What happened? Did we catch up with the cow again?"
This weekend I have some photos from our climb of Mt Karioi near Raglan on Saturday, next week I'll have some more from this weekend.
Check out my photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/dunwich42/Karioi
Darren Harrison: darren@harrison.gen.nz
The Weekender: mailed weekly (Sunday nightish)
Website: www.dunwich.co.nz/weekender/
{If these just fill up your junk mail, then send me an email & I'll take you off the list | The Weekender is not a verified news source, sometimes it's even just an opinion}
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