It’s been ten years — no, that’s not a typo, ten — since we celebrated our national day by getting an Aussie bloke into the quarter finals of the Australian Open. Last night, with Nick Kyrgios one point away from defeat against Andreas Seppi, it looked like we’d chalk up another year of disappointment. Nick…
Category: Sports
What’s the hurry, sport?
OK, I’ll admit I’m a late adopter. If there’s a new gadget on the market, I’ll get it about three years after everyone else. I’ll embrace a fashion trend just as the hipsters are sending it to the charity bins. And it’s taken this sports devotee twelve years to appreciate the merits of T20 cricket….
The year in sport… in song
Who better than Miley Cyrus and the cast of Deliverance, among others, to recap some of the highlights — and lowlights — of the year in sport? Budget schmudget Vladimir Putin spent $US51 billion staging the Sochi Olympics, more than every other Winter Games combined. It wasn’t enough to adequately furnish the facilities, light up…
The Christmas Truce of 1914
You’re as close to hell on earth as you can get, stuck in a frozen muddy trench a few hundred metres across from a bunch of blokes trying to kill you. It’s five months into a conflict so devastating they’ll call it the Great War and — at least for the next twenty years —…
Catch a falling star…
It was a classic own goal. Having successfully offloaded serial biter Luis Suarez in July after he took a chunk out of Italy’s Giorgio Cheillini during the World Cup, the powers that be at Liverpool Football Club could look forward to some relative peace and quiet. All they had to do was hire a less…
The legacy of No. 408
I didn’t know Phil Hughes but I reckon he’d be gobsmacked by the global outpouring following his death. There have been condolences from the Queen, a mid-concert song dedication by Elton John, a Vatican Mass in his honour. Flags have flown at half-mast at cricket grounds from Sydney to London. Parliament was silent for one…
Is Roger saving something special for the weekend?
I’m calling it: there’s not a more accomplished blubmeister in sport than Roger Federer. Yes, there are other athletes that have been handy with the waterworks. English international footballer Paul Gascoigne and former Aussie cricket captain Kim Hughes spring to mind. And we must never forget the particular talents of Jana Pittman, most amply demonstrated…
Could Bernie Ecclestone be a closet greenie?
It’s possible I’ve underestimated Bernie Ecclestone. When Formula One’s governing body announced plans to make the sport more environmentally friendly, we all rolled around the floor in hysterics. Except Bernie. He was spewing. Cut the noise to a mere orchestra of vuvuzelas? Limit each vehicle to ‘just’ 100 kilograms of fuel per race? “A total…
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