Welcome to February - the birthday month! (Craig's yesterday, mine
tomorrow...)
------------------------------
*Sport*
Wow. What a game. Surely you've heard about it. Cricket World Cup. The
Black Caps vs England. Our first big test. Supposedly. England won the toss
and chose to bat. NZ started ok, talking a couple of wickets as England got
through to 3-103, but then Tim Southee stepped up. Well that's a bit of an
understatement. Everyone stepped up. The Black Caps were just another level
in the field, everyone starting with the Captain (B.Mac is his 'street'
name) throwing themselves around, and the start of the collapse was fast
bowler Adam Milne with a diving outfield catch. The last seven wickets were
gone for 19 runs leaving England all out at 123. They didn't even play like
they wanted to be there, with Root not "protecting" his wicket and the
others just throwing theirs away. Tim Southee was the destroyer with a NZ
record of 7-33. So then surely NZ can make quick work of 123, especially
since they seem very keen on getting 100 runs in the first 10 overs of
their World Cup games. Captain Brendon McCullum wasn't playing pretty, he
was bashing things. He ran down the wicket more to smack the ball than he
did to get a run. He quickly got the World Cup's fastest 50 (17 balls) and
when he got out at 77, had bashed 7 sixes and 8 fours for a strike rate of
308!! Guptill also had a great start and his 22 was run a ball, but he was
comparatively pedestrian. When B.Mac left after 7.1 overs (NZ only needed 7
overs to get to 105!), we only needed another 18 runs to win - with 43
overs to do it in. The final result was an 8 wicket win in 12 overs - 226
balls remaining.
What a game. There are only a couple more things to say. The first is
English bowler Steven Finn probably couldn't have done anything
differently, but he was bashed for 49 off two overs - 24.5 per over! and
the entire game was less than 46 overs.
So staying with cricket, earlier in the week NZ had a win over Scotland.
Scotland were bowled out for 142, and while NZ eventually reach 146/7. It's
true they lost lots of wickets but the aim was to increase their runs per
over rate to potentially help them later on in the tournament if teams are
on equal points. And since they only took 24.5 overs to finish the game,
they succeeded with that aim. Ireland upset the West Indies by 4 wickets.
In other news Trent Boult was picked up for the IPL for $800,000, being the
fourth highest-priced player to be purchased.
Last weekend in Super Rugby the Waratahs stumbled in their first game being
beaten 13-25 by the Western Force. This weekend the Chiefs beat the
Brumbies 19-17, the Hurricanes did well to beat the Bulls at home 13-17,
and the Blues lost a man for punching and then lost the game against the
Stormers 27-16. The Crusaders bounced back to beat the Highlanders 20-26,
the Sharks beat the Lions 29-12, and the Waratahs beat the Rebels 28-38.
In other rugby, the All Black Sevens team closed in on competition leaders
South Africa, but were beaten by Fiji in the Las Vegas final.
Lisa Carrington won her seventh straight K1 200m title at the Canoe Racing
NZ national champs at Lake Karapiro last weekend - and the win was recorded
by software that I wrote!
In Basketball the NZ Breakers beat the Perth Wildcats 87-89 with a miracle
ball from Cedric Jackson with 0:00 seconds on the clock. His throw from
over halfway in double overtime was great to watch!
Hayden Paddon has got a career best fifth place in Rally Sweden, driving
for the Hyundai Shell World Rally Team.
The news from Team New Zealand this week has been messy and confusing, but
it looks like Dean Barker will be dropped as skipper with the brilliant
young Peter Burling to take over. Apparently Dean only heard about it
through social media but surely he'd done enough to be told in person.
Anyway, they still want him around (although they may have messed that
chance up).
Our cyclists have been doing well with the men's team sprint trio looking
to have had a dominant victory, but after committing a technical
infringement they were dropped to silver. Then the young pursuiters got the
first gold and Matthew Archibold followed that up with a bronze in the kilo
time trial.
------------------------------
*NZ News*
Up in Auckland's North Shore, a provider of community housing has said to
the Government that they won't buy state houses unless they are free. Well
duh. I'd "buy" them if they were free.
A kiwi fugitive who has been wanted & occasionally seen around NZ, appeared
in Australia this week after stealing a yacht in NZ. A sharp eyed kiwi on
holiday over the ditch, spotted the yacht while it was heading into port
and tracked it while phoning the authorities.
It has been a rough few weeks on our roads with road deaths spiking to 25%
above last year. A number have been foreigners including three people who
weren't wearing seat-belts and spun out of control into the path of a
logging truck. In quite a number of cases, trucks have been involved but in
these (and most!) cases, not at fault.
Lucy Knight has recovered enough to receive a bravery medal, at the
shopping centre that almost claimed her life back in September. She was the
good samaritan who tried to help an elderly Chinese woman from having her
bag snatched, and was then left with a fractured skull after being punched.
------------------------------
*The Numbers Game*
1.52: % population growth for NZ, faster than Australia, China & the US
1.80: $/loaf for the average loaf of white bread - the same today as five
years ago
3: dangerous Queensland fruit flies found in Auckland - a large biosecurity
threat but they have been found & eradicated before
60: whales refloated near Nelson from a pod of almost 200 to have beached
------------------------------
*Finance NZ Dollar*
GBP 0.4879 (0.0047)
EUR 0.6605 (0.0085)
USD 0.7518 (0.0079)
AUD 0.9583 (-0.0007)
------------------------------
*The Weekender NZer of the week*
Colin Murdoch
design of pain relief
http://www.nzedge.com/colin-murdoch/
------------------------------
*Joke of the Weekender*
When I was a kid my favorite relative was Uncle Caveman. After school we'd
all go play in his cave, and every once in a while he would eat one of us.
It wasn't until later that I found out that Uncle Caveman was a bear.
------------------------------
*Weekender Photos*
Have a look at photos https://picasaweb.google.com/dunwich42
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}