You’re biking up a really steep hill after only cycling for about 2km’s, you’re in the lowest gear, you’re moving about 2kmph, you’re huffing like a bull, your legs are burning, sweat is pouring down every part of your body… and some 10 year old kid cruises by, biking with one hand and holding an ice cream cone with the other, licking away while he checks you out casually with no need to even look where he’s going as he overtakes you at at least 4 times your speed and smirks at you… little bastard. Might be time to make this exercise thing a habit I think?
What a wonderful spectacle it was on Feb 28th when NZ stuck it to the Aussies and became the first team to beat them in a cricket match this summer. However, the 2nd T20 International cricket match ended with much controversy.
Thanks to an outstanding bowling display from Tim Southee in the 48th and 50th overs, NZ kept the Australians out but could only salvage a draw as the Australians scampered for 3 runs on the last ball and Michael Clarke was run out by Nathan McCullum by a brilliant piece of fielding after only 2 runs, effectively tying the match.
As is the custom in T20 Internationals, a Super Over was scheduled 5 minutes later to decide the winner of the match. This has only occurred twice in the short history of T20 Internationals and this was the first time the result was to be accepted as official. The first occasion also involved NZ, when they played the West Indies on Boxing Day, 26 December 2008. The West Indies won the match and the experiment was widely considered a success and the ICC announced that this would officially be how a tie was to be decided in a T20 International from then on.
NZ won the Super Over and ultimately the match in spectacular fashion and claimed the victory. The following day there was a lot of stirring in Australia with disgruntled Aussies claiming that the match was tied and that the Super Over did not count and therefore Australia still remained unbeaten for their season and had won the T20 series against us!
That didn’t seem right to me at all, nor did it seem right that cricinfo.com, arguably the best Cricket resource in the world for match coverage and statistics, also has the game down as a ‘tie’ in their record books.
Should this not be recognised as a Win to New Zealand?
I wrote a curt email to Cricinfo asking them why they’d recorded the result as a tie and begged the question, what the point in the Super Over was if the result was not official? Why do we bother with it at all if it does not count? I have still had no response.
I did some further digging today and found that the ICC, the governing body for International cricket, who set all the rules and regulations for the International game, has actually published a detailed rule book for T20 Internationals. I found the following details interesting.
So officially, the result of the Super Over determines the winner according to the ICC
The way to decide the winner of the match should the Super Over still result in a tie and an equal number of batsmen dismissed begins to border on the ridiculous. See below:
The fine print of how to determine the winner of a match that has resulted in a tie, and the Super Over has also resulted in a tie, a bit convoluted and unnecessary perhaps but we cannot fault them for their meticulousness
Alright guys, I see what you're doing here and I appreciate it but if a match result EVER has to be determined this way, GOD help Cricket!
When you consider that in the albeit short lifetime of T20 International cricket, this has only occurred twice, and the probability of these other tie breaking scenarios occurring are well beyond the most remote you could imagine, it’s good to know the ICC has got this contentious area of the game well documented and surely there is no refuting that based on this, NZ won the game fair and square?
According to British Scientists the most repelling sound to the human ear is the sound of someone vomiting. This is closely followed by the sound of a baby crying, a dentists drill and radio feedback. I for one am extremely surprised that the sound of fingernails scratching a blackboard is not the most repelling sound, it’s not even in the Top 5!
For me it’s hard to strike a good balance of challenge and responsibility. Inevitably there will be times during the year when you really want to do something meaty and complicated, other times you’ll want to just keep it simple and work on things you’re familiar with and maybe good at.
Sometimes I feel I find work is not challenging enough so I ask for more responsibility. Unfortunately this just ends up making you more accountable for more of the work you were doing before. It’s not really more challenging, you just end up having more work to do! Sometimes I’ll get to work on something I’ve never worked on before or work in an area I’ve never worked in before and it’s fresh and exciting but at the same time I’m always asking questions and learning and it can get exhausting and I can begin to long for doing the less challenging easy stuff again!
Round and round in circles it goes, back and forth, up and down. I always come back to the same conclusion. Life was so much easier when I was making pizzas for a living. Lost in my little world of swirling sauce and dropping toppings and slicing and boxing my creations for my customers. If only I could earn the same amount of money I am now I would be doing that right now no question.
Was it easy or challenging? It was both every day, I guess that’s why I loved it. The mornings were easy and the challenge ramped up as the day went on and we got busier and busier until it reached the evening and it was all complete choas just trying to cope with the madness.
But at the end of the day, nothing that happened mattered. Any decision you made, good or bad, ended once you turned the lights off and locked up the store.
In the real world, my decisions have lasting ramifications and tasks span days, weeks and months and often if you make mistakes you are dealing with the fall out for a long time.
At the end of the day you don’t want your job to rule you or define you. It should just be the means that achieve the things you need in your life when you’re not there. If it means more to you than that I think you’ve got a serious problem. When people ask, ‘What do you do?’ you shouldn’t be telling them your position in the organisation you work for, you should be telling them you do puzzles and water colour paintings! (or whatever it is you actually do!)
Does anyone know of any pizza making jobs that pay about $30 an hour?
Robert T. Natoli - Guiness Record Holder - Most Chin Ups in a minute
xyf recently engineered a chin up bar for us out of some firewood and simply slotting my bench bar into it, suspended from the loft in the garage ceiling, quite brilliant, gonna have backs made out of lead in no time. Robert T. Natoli is the Guinness World Record holder for most Chin Ups in a minute, an astonishing, 53!!
Welcome to Day 2 of the 8 ball Wellington Rugby Sevens live blog!
Great Sevens Live Blog coverage from Baron and meanphil, keep it up lads. I imagine some tired sore heads won’t be emerging until 2pm, it’s a muggy disgusting day in the Tron, hopefully the sun burns through soon. It’s finals day so should be some wicked Rugby Sevens match ups coming up! Let Day 2 of the 8 ball Wellington Rugby Sevens Live Blog begin!
14.19 – A – monopoly pre feed and drinks are all go at Swains!
14.58 – Nez – We are playing Willie Losie Drinking Games. If Willie says any of either, ’strong, fast, long, hard, young x year old, cut out ball, big, athletic, ball in hand’ then EVERYONE must drink! Bit of cloud in the tr0n, burn thru!
15.20 – A – team coming together… slowly…
16:08 – Nez – Gamblord has not smiled on me lately, not making any cash today but the sun has finally burnt thru! Go the tr0n!
16:36 – Nez – This is NOT the 7s!
16:56 – J – Hi!
18:34 – Nez – Go New Zealand!! It was Ken Laban not Willie Losie, but many drinks were had from him hitting the right words while he commentated Come on Wellington what you got?!
19.59 – Nez – Poor NZ. Food is cheaper here though!
Day 1 of the 8 ball Wellington Rugby Sevens Live Blog begins today!
Live Blog from “The Couch” courtesy of Sku, Nez and Jay and from the ACTUAL Rugby Sevens event courtesy of Baron and meanphil. Stay tuned all day long foolz!
1150 – J – first (free) beers of the day. Thanks Tui. Roll on the Rugby Sevens!
12.37pm – A – First beverage with a Greek goddess, two first aiders, Billy T, two Hulk Hogans, three Power Rangers at a bar in Upper Hutt.
12:42pm – meanphil – on the train in with a witch, a prisoner, scooby doo ( and the rest in f**** short skirts) and some Grid girls
13.41 – Nez – Dip is in the fridge, chicken nibbles have been marinated, Juginator filled, ready to watch some Rugby Sevens!
14:06 – J – Come on Cake tin time to pack it out and get your booze on
14:57 – Nez – It was hot, it was hot as balls…. so we took the Rugby Sevens action outside and set ourselves up for the afternoon.
15:52 – J – Ol south Africa… Getting your ‘ream the worst team’ in the Rugby Sevens on, nice _b
16.13 – A – so so hot… shade bound… new awesome holding device for my beers… thanks Alvin outfit!
16.41: – Nez – The sun is quickly disappearing, busted out the cam timer, Sku, Jay and Nez, booya!
17:32 – J – So far I am still looking for a killer dress up, power rangers or perhaps the girls in short skirts with a small — re tiny — country flag logo are the go.
17:35 – J – And there is a lot of lovely looking females there!
18:18 – J – Looks like da kiwis have it in the bag… One more tonight and it’s all go for tomorrows finals ya’l
18.25 – A – Its packing out, I’m wasted… the kiwis won… streaker yeah!
Bonkers going OFF!!!
19.37 – A – Go USA!
11:47pm – meanhpil – had no 3g at the tincup thingy so here’s a photo essay
10.00 – A – Rise and shine for day two, found some photos on the phone:
Richie McCaw has been nominated for NZ’s most pretigious sporting award, the Halberg. He won’t be attending the ceremony as he helps his Crusaders prepare for a pre-season match. McCaw is taking a break for the first 4 rounds of the tournament. You’d think this would enable him to attend an awards ceremony where it’s likely he’ll receive an award, nothing worse than someone being given an award and not turning up to receive it in my opinion. Committed to his team, award snubbed or just not interested in accumulating accolades?
Afridi skips breakfast and decides the ball looks mighty tasty.
When the chips are down, often sportsmen do stupid things. Shahid Afridi wanted to win the 5th ODI against Australia badly, so badly that he figured he’d take a big bite out of the ball to help his bowlers. Or was he really hungry? Afridi has been banned for 2 T20 matches, a very soft penalty for a pretty serious crime. I think they went soft on him because he so honestly admitted it in and they probably felt a wee bit sorry for him for being such a silly fool. He was hardly subtle, he did this while walking with the bowler to his run up while the cameras were clearly on him!!
Come on Wellington what you got?!
