The Weekender 07/03/2010
Submitted by darrenh on Sun, 07/03/2010 - 20:58
Welcome back, things are still hot around this place despite a predicted early winter! I just hope it will be nice weather on Sunday 21st!
Sport
Well football has been the sport of the week (and maybe cricket and rugby). The All Whites had a big game when they took on Mexico in a World Cup warm up match. The game was in L.A. (so essentially a home game for the Mexicans) and Mexico is ranked much much higher than NZ, so holding them to 2-0 loss was a fantastic result for NZ.
Then some of the key players were back on a plane & straight into training for today's A-League semi-final against the Newcastle Jets. The Phoenix won the game 3-1 in extra time in front of 33,000 ever vocal fans at Westpac Stadium - Wellington is becoming a football town! The Phoenix are one game away from a place in the final.
In trans-tasman cricket, NZ had the momentum from the Twenty20 for the first One Dayer and they used it! With Dan Vettori withdrawing due to a neck strain, the formerly overlooked Scott Styris was in the game and there at the end as NZ chased down 276 to win - in fact Styris won by hitting a six with four balls to go (and two wickets).
During the game Aussie Mitchell Johnson felt the need to have a face-off with Scott Styris & even went so far as to gently head-butt him (isn't it rather dumb to head-butt someone who has a helmet on?). The funny part is that there were two follow up stories on it, the first with the headline "Game better off without fiery spats, says Hussey" (so then maybe Australia should pull out of cricket?), and the second saying "Ponting - We need to be ruthless or pay price". Talk about mixed messages.
The second ODI was just as close, Australia again chose to bat first and again were restricted to a score that wasn't quite good enough, but this time we lost too many wickets along the way. We were still in with a chance but with Dan Vettori batting near the end, he needed 12 off 11 when he got out - it was doable but another close game. 1-1 in the best of five.
In national cricket, Northern Districts beat Wellington by nine wickets and surged into the lead with three rounds remaining for the Plunket Shield.
In the Super 14 there were a couple of upsets to the detriment of NZ teams this week. The Cheetahs had a surprise 28-12 win over the Hurricanes, and the Chiefs had a surprise loss to the Reds 18-23.
In other games the Waratahs required an extra two men to beat the Sharks 25-21 after the ref handed out plenty of yellow cards, the Highlanders were thrashed 33-0 by the Stormers, the Crusaders beat the Blues 33-20 in a close game, the Brumbies beat the Lions 24-13
Chiefs player Sione Lauaki was in the news this week after a complaint was made to the police, but it sounds like it might have been someone looking for trouble after the bar staff said it all happened within about five seconds and the staff would have noticed a punch and when approached both parties said everything was ok.
The New Zealand Ironman was on again this weekend and Jo Lawn won the womans title for the seventh time, and Cameron Brown fought back from being nearly eight minutes behind to win his ninth Ironman New Zealand title.
On Friday Dean Barker was in danger of dropping out of the Auckland match-racing regatta but on Saturday he picked the right winds and beat young Kiwi Adam Minoprio (who has been doing very well) and Britain Ben Ainslie in the final.
New Zealand beat Korea 2-0 in the Hockey World Cup after earlier losing 3-1 to the Netherlands.
NZ News
New Zealand news seems to be getting less & less thorough in their investigations. This week a leading news story was about a sighting of missing British girl Madeleine McCann. The sighting was last August with a lady 80% confident that they saw her, and upset that police had ignored her report - so I guess she took it to the media. A lengthy in-depth story followed, but later in the news there was a brief update (without any sort of apology for errors) saying that the family of the Madeleine lookalike have requested privacy. The police had positively identified as not Madeleine.
The court case behind the murder of a liquor store owner finished up this week with the gunman found guilty and the other five men found not guilty of murder or manslaughter but guilty of aggravated robbery. The widow is still angry with police because they followed protocol despite being assured the robbers had fled, which resulted in a 26 minute delay getting the man medical attention.
A kiwi was jailed in Brisbane after asking for help from a policeman & then after getting none he called them "useless". He said "In New Zealand we are taught to trust and respect police and seek them out for help when we are in trouble".
The government is looking make some changes drivers with the minimum driving age being raised by one year to 16, and implementing a zero-alcohol policy for drivers younger than 20.
5: c/L rise in petrol this week
15: weeks in prison for a German resident of Uganda who tried to smuggle 16 protected geckos out of NZ
20: NZers still unaccounted for in Chile after the earthquake
147: tonnes of poison-laced cereal bait dropped on Rangitoto and Motutapu Islands have resulted in large numbers of native birds heading back to their new sanctuary
358: litres of paint & 500 pairs of hands have given decile 1 school Glenbrae Primary a makeover, thanks to the Life Centre Trust and sponsors & volunteers
2,500: $ fine for rubberneckers during the Jan Molenaar siege in Napier last year
500,000: $ in aid for Chile from the NZ government
1.2m: $ collected by the IRD from tax dodging online traders
3m: $ for the Rugby World Cup free-to-air broadcasting rights
10m: $ investment by TVNZ hasn't helped sell Tivo boxes with only an estimated 2000 units sold
Finance NZ Dollar
GBP 0.4608 (+0.0021)
EUR 0.5120 (-0.0008)
USD 0.6974 (-0.0012)
AUD 0.7687 (-0.0120)
The
Weekender NZer of the week
Ernest Godward
INVENTOR, OVER-ACHIEVER, INVERCARGILLITE
An innovator of many talents. During the 1930s he was the world's leading expert on the internal combustion engine. He built power tools, eggbeaters, burglar proof windows and hairpins. He was a champion sportsman, a fine musician, a talented painter, an expert on international weapons. In short Ernest Godward was a brilliant over-achiever.
http://www.nzedge.com/heroes/godward.html
Ladder Borrow
My next-door neighbor and I frequently borrow things from each other. Not long ago, when I requested his ladder, he told me he had lent it to his son.
Recalling a saying my grandmother used to repeat, I recited, "You should never lend anything to your kids, because you will never get it back."
With that, he responded, "Tell you the truth, it's not even my ladder. It's my dad's."
Check
out my photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/dunwich42
Darren Harrison:
darren@harrison.gen.nz
The
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