The Weekender 11/07/2010
Welcome to the week that was!
Sport
In probably the best sporting news for years, Vevuzelas have been banned at Eden Park and in Christchurch!
Julian Dean will be back on the bike for the third stage of the Tour de France. He was among three of his teams riders to be taken to hospital after crashes. He is well off the pace but can hopefully get some time back.
Update: The team has since got a fourth the next day, followed by a fifth and second - Julian got onto the podium with a second!
Mahe Drysdale retained his single sculls title & Eric Murray and Hamish Bond won the doubles by 15 seconds, at the Henley rowing regatta in London.
The NZ Warriors put in a huge defensive effort to beat the Penrith Panthers 12-6. Table: Dragons/Panthers 26, Wests Tigers 24, Roosters/Titans/Warriors 22, Rabbitohs/Sea Eagles 20, Broncos/Knights 18, Bulldogs/Eels*/Raiders 16, Sharks 14, Cowboys* 12, Storm 0 (* 15 games vs 16)
In Origin football, Queensland won 23-18 for the first 3-0 whitewash for their first time in their five-straight series wins.
The Waikato/BOP Magic couldn't quite make the final step and were well beaten by the Adelaide Thunderbirds in the ANZ trans-tasman champs tonight. The Thunderbirds kept ahead almost the entire match to win 52-42.
Well the Springboks were supposed to be the form team this year. After the Super14 they were supposed to have all the options. But it didn't look like it on the scoreline at the end of the first Tri-nations match. The All Blacks won 32-12 getting a bonus point win, and the Springboks couldn't even get a try. I'd like to mention all the players who had great games, but that would be most of the team, a really outstanding complete performance! Bakkies Botha has got himself a 9 week ban for head butting due to his history of offending.
In other rugby, Southland retained the Ranfurly Shield with a 48-3 win over North Otago last night.
Shane Smeltz is the first All White to move on after the Football World Cup. The A-League's best scorer will be moving to a Chinese club in the Chinese Super league.
NZ News
I don't know what to say - nothing really stood out for national news this week. There are a few below in the numbers game, and it was a rather cold weekend. My wife & I went caravanning for a few days and woke to frozen everything while staying at Tongariro National park on Saturday morning. It was a beautiful clear day but everyone everywhere had frosts like they hadn't seen in a long time.
2: year jail term for a Kerikeri man on his 20th drink-driving conviction (& 35th for driving while disqualified)
3: c/L drop in petrol from Shell & BP
30: boy racers arrested in Christchurch
53: % support for National in the latest Roy Morgan poll, up 2.5%, Labour is down four to 29%
1.5m: $ donated for the Westpac Rescue Helicopter Appeal
Finance NZ Dollar
GBP 0.4723 (+0.0186)
EUR 0.5630 (+0.0145)
USD 0.7113 (+0.0223)
AUD 0.8110 (-0.0078)
The
Weekender NZer of the week
Tex Morton
BOUNDARY RIDER
Tex Morton lived a life of breath-taking achievement, attaining mastery, fortune and international fame as a recording star, stage artist, circus entrepreneur, Hollywood screen actor and world authority in hypnotherapy. He was a first original antipodean voice. Tex is a legend from the edge.
http://www.nzedge.com/heroes/morton.html
Leaky Pipe
A lady answered her front door to find a plumber standing there. "I'm here to fix the leaky pipe," he announced.
"I didn't call a plumber," said the lady.
"What?" huffed the plumber. "Aren't you Mrs. Frobisher?"
The Frobishers moved out of this house over a year ago," explained the lady.
"How do you like that," grunted the plumber. "They call you up and tell you it's an emergency and then they move away!"
Check
out my photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/dunwich42
Darren Harrison:
darren@harrison.gen.nz
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