The Weekender 16/05/2010
Submitted by darrenh on Sun, 16/05/2010 - 16:24
Welcome along for the ride, let's see what happened around the country this week.
Sport
Rugby's Super 14 regular season has finished and while the semi finals will both be in South Africa, the South African's also gave us the Lion's team who became the first team to lose every game in a season, after being thrashed 59-10 by the Cheetahs. The Blues finished their season with a win - and the Chiefs with a loss, after the Blues beat the Chiefs 30-20 in Auckland. The Highlanders had a close game against the Reds - well not to start with. They were down 24-3 at half time, had a stunning comeback to lead 36-31, before the Reds managed another try right at the end to give them a 38-36 win. The Stormers beat the Bulls 38-10 to secure a home semi (how convenient?). So it was simple for the Crusaders and the Hurricanes, to reach the semis they had to win. The Hurricanes continued their typical plan of doing well up to the end an rolling over, they lost 32-16 to the Waratahs, the Crusaders will be playing again after thrashing the Brumbies 40-22, it is the ninth straight year the Crusaders have been in the semi-finals.
So the final table for the season is: Bulls 47, Stormers 44, Waratahs 43, Crusaders 41, Brumbies/Hurricanes 37, Blues 36, Reds 34, Sharks 33, Chiefs 26, Cheetahs 21, Force 19, Highlanders 17, Lions 4.
In other rugby news Justin Marshall has announced his retirement from all rugby. The most-capped All Black half-back is playing in the semi finals for Saracens in the English Premiership this weekend, and will return to NZ after his season ends. Troubled Chiefs player & former All Black Sione Lauaki has signed for French club Clermont Auvergne. Sione was in court twice this week for an assault charge and a driving charge.
In yachting, Team New Zealand are at it again in the MedCup in Portugal this time. They have extended their lead today winning the 60km coastal race. Dean Barker & his men dominated the race to give themselves a 14-point lead going into tomorrow's last two races.
The New Zealand Warriors beat North Queensland 24-12 to snap a 3 game losing streak. The game saw the return - and departure of Manu Vatuvei who returned after a month off with a hamstring injury. The key warrior limped off during the match. Brett Seymour was also back after injury.
In Netball the Waikato/BOP Magic continued their winning ways with a 72-52 win over the Canterbury Tactix.
In the women's Twenty20 cricket world champs, the White Ferns beat the West Indies by 56 runs to reach the final.
In the men's Twenty20 champs as expected it was always going to be difficult for the Black Caps against a red hot English team. NZ reached 149 for six but saying that England cruised to a three-wicket win was a little misleading. It got quite tight at the end and still could have gone either way but England did deserve their 5 ball victory.
Shane Bond announced he has retired from all forms cricket when he returned back to NZ this week.
In Tennis the NZ women's No 1 Sacha Jones was named Tennis Auckland player of the year, she reached a career high ranking of 157. Marina Erakovic was knocked out in the first round of the ITF tournament in Kurume, Japan.
NZ News
Police are investigating a case where a motorcyclist died after crashing in thick fog in the early hours of Thursday morning near Oamaru. The man was found half an hour later and a car was found burned out (with plates removed) 15km from the motorcyclist crash scene. The family of the dead man had buried his grandmother only hours before the accident.
A four year old boy from Whakatane was "roughed up" last week for wearing a red shirt - the colours of a local gang. This week the police have arrested a "wannabe" gang member for the assault. They thanked members of the public for tracking the man down.
Back in June 2008 a woman chased the man who snatched her handbag, but was then run over and killed as he made his escape. This week the jury decided they didn't believe his story that he hadn't seen her and he was found guilty of murder. Five others who were also in the stolen vehicle were found guilty of being accessories to murder and helping the 'snatcher' avoid arrest.
South Africa's sport & recreation minister, the South African Rugby Union, and the NZRU this week publicly apologised to former Maori All Blacks who were excluded from All Black teams in the 40's & 60's due to apartheid.
Police have spent the week searching for Marice McGregor of Wanganui. They have found a body down a ravine in dense bush but haven't yet confirmed the identity.
John Key has had an interesting week. He announced early this week that Urewera National Park was not going to be signed over the Tuhoe as part of a Treaty of Waitangi settlement. Apparently Tuhoe have always documented that they want Te Urewera and after 18 months of negotiations they believed they had the support to get private ownership of the New Zealand National Park. So he has been hassled a lot about that. Then a few days later he made a joke about enjoying a dinner at marae on the East Coast. He said "the good news is that I was having dinner with Ngati Porou as opposed to their neighbouring iwi which is Tuhoe, in which case I would have been dinner...". Now given that in context, I would have assumed he was meaning they would have "had a go" at him and hassled him some more. But some how the reporters managed to run it with the headline "PM slammed for cannibalism comment", which then was soundly condemned around the country & even picked up in various newspapers around the world.
Sir Edmund Hillary's house was this week moved to the South Auckland school Sir Edmund Hillary Collegiate. The valuable Remuera property it was on, was bought by Auckland businessman Terry Jarvis who donated the house to the school.
The Ngati Kahungunu Iwi have banned tobacco for all events that they control. The third-most-populous iwi stretches from Wairoa to Wairarapa and their CEO Ngawhiwi Tomoana said "It's the greatest contribution we can make, greater than any Treaty claim".
2: nd lowest tax burden for NZers in the OECD when superannuation and other compulsory taxes are counted
48.4: % support for Manukau Mayor Len Brown in a poll for the Auckland Super City mayoral race, Auckland City mayor John Banks is on 37%
104,000: $ awarded to Sir Robert Jones in a defamation case
4.36m: is the current population of NZ after the highest population growth since March 2004
30m: $ more for tourism announced in the budget
225m: $ boost to funding for science (pre)announced for this week's budget
Finance NZ Dollar
GBP 0.4870 (+0.0036)
EUR 0.5728 (+0.0122)
USD 0.7076 (-0.0073)
AUD 0.7992 (-0.0064)
The
Weekender NZer of the week
Robert Burchfield
DICTIONARY DON
Hailed by the Chicago Tribune as "the greatest living lexicographer", Dr Robert Burchfield is regarded as the pre-eminent lexicographer and linguistic scholar of our age. As editor of the Oxford English Dictionary and responsible for its revision, Burchfield has played a crucial role in the study of the sources and development of the English language.
http://www.nzedge.com/heroes/burchfield.html
Van Problem
The fist knocking on the door belonged to a cop. Bracing for the worst, the yard foreman opened the door. "Is that yours?" asked the officer, pointing to a company van that was jutting out into the narrow street.
"Uhh, yes it is," said the foreman. "That is, it's our company's."
"Would you mind moving it?" asked the officer. "We've set up a speed trap, and the van's causing everyone to slow down."
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Darren Harrison:
darren@harrison.gen.nz
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