The Weekender 09/05/2010
Submitted by darrenh on Sun, 09/05/2010 - 18:21
How are you all going this fine week.
Sport
The Rally of New Zealand has been running this weekend and Finn Jari-Matti Latvala won the title after an interesting final day. Sebastien Loeb finished third and Mikko Hirvonen was fourth.
Both the men's & women's Twenty20 cricket world champs are running at the moment. The White Ferns beat Sri Lanka by 47 runs for their second win after beating India by 10 runs on Friday.
The Black Caps made it through to the Super Eights and then promptly lost to South Africa by 13 runs, but made a come back and beat Pakistan by one run with Ian Butler the pick of the bowlers taking three for 19 off his four overs. The need to beat England (who have been doing well) next to continue.
The Super14 has more bad news for most of the NZ teams. But first with bad news for a South African team, the Stormers semi hopes were dealt a blow when they were upset 20-14 by the Sharks. The Blues thrashed the Lions 56-14, the Waratahs thrashed the Chiefs 19-46 and the Chiefs end the season not having won a home game - ouch. The Hurricanes reignited their semi hopes with a 44-21 thrashing of the formerly hot Reds, and the Crusaders lost 40-35 to the Bulls, but not without a try to Bull Francois Hougaard after the final hooter after what seemed to be a forward pass. The Brumbies beat the Highlanders 31-3 and the Cheetahs beat the Force 29-14.
So there is still (some) hope that NZ teams will be in the semis, although it's not assured like in previous seasons. Both the Crusaders and Hurricanes are capable of making the semis - if they win next week, in the last round. The Crusaders have a possibility of a home semi if they win well and if other results go their way.
Table (all after 12 games): Bulls 47, Stormers 39, Waratahs 38, Brumbies 37, Hurricanes 37, Crusaders 36, Reds 34, Blues 32, Sharks 29, Chiefs 26, Cheetahs 21, Force 18, Highlanders 17, Lions 5
In other rugby news, Jock Hobbs has stood down as chairman of both the NZRU and Rugby New Zealand 2011 for health reasons.
Hamilton Boys High School have won the world secondary schools rugby tournament in Japan when they beat England's Truro College 40-8 in the final.
The ANZ Netball champs also continue and the Waikato/BOP Magic continue to do well beating Central Pulse 56-44, and beating the Northern Mystics 49-46 earlier in the week. They are second on the table.
Having a rugby league test match during the NRL is always going to make it difficult for the Kiwis to catch the Kangaroos off guard - which is what you need to do when your players combined worth is less than half that of your opposition. But the final score on this years ANZAC test match was a creditable 12-8, so the Kiwis will be looking forward to the Four Nations which start in October. And we can't forget that the Kiwis are reigning World Champions!
NZ News
Economists were stunned this week when the March quarter jobs data was released, showing the steepest quarterly drop in unemployment for the last 24 years. The number of unemployed dropped 25,000 to 140,000, and the unemployment rate dropped from 7.1% to 6%.
John Key has been travelling a bit this week. He coped some flak from one of his trade delegation members this week. After the air force crash on ANZAC day, John Key who was in Gallipoli (on his way to the Middle East for trade talks) changed his plans & headed back to NZ for the funeral of the three airmen - men that he personally knew after having flown with them a number of times. But Dr John Langley said that his decision to miss the delegation for the funerals was short-sighted and lost a critical chance to build links. Dr Langley's views were not those of the board he was representing - in fact not many people agreed with him, but it did get lots of news coverage. John Key then headed to Afghanistan to meet with the NZ troops that are over there.
4: degrees above average winter is expected for the North Island, and plenty of sunshine
5.1: richter scale earthquake in the central North Island
6: th best place to be a mother in the world is New Zealand
46: % of emergency calls (to 111) are not real emergencies (people bumping their phones, children playing or prank calls)
55: % of surveyees (in the "Better Banking survey) were happy with ASB, BNZ got 46%, National 43%, Westpac & ANZ 40%
111: Corrections Department staff were sacked or suspended in 2008 & 2009 for illegal or inappropriate behaviour -
134.3m: $ funding for families-based social services initiative Whanau Ora over the next four years - not including current contracts
Finance NZ Dollar
GBP 0.4834 (+0.0071)
EUR 0.5606 (+0.0131)
USD 0.7149 (-0.0125)
AUD 0.8056 (+0.0183)
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.com/heroes/williams.html
Cinderella Question
The tax accountant had just read the story of Cinderella to his four-year-old daughter for the first time. The little girl was fascinated by the story, especially the part where the pumpkin turns into a golden coach.
Suddenly she piped up, "Daddy, when the pumpkin turned into a golden coach, would that be classed as income or a long-term capital gain?"
Check
out my photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/dunwich42
Darren Harrison:
darren@harrison.gen.nz
The
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