The gravel in your sporting ice cream.
“He’s thirteen, well done” – I’m downgrading my opinion of Michael Owen from boring to utter twat
Vijay Singh makes the most incredible ‘I’m going to go ahead and skip this one across the lake’ hole in one EVER, then wanders off
Everyone loves playing Jenga at the beach, but these nerds have added some impressive firepower
Ace Hockey goal – never thought I’d write those words, team
John Updike died today. As well as being a literary athlete, he was a keen amateur golfer:
“Indeed, few sights are more odious on the golf course than a sauntering, beered-up foursome obviously having a good time. Some golfers, we are told, enjoy the landscape; but properly the landscape shrivels and compresses into the grim, surrealistically vivid patch of grass directly under the golfer’s eyes as he morosely walks toward where he thinks his ball might be.”
Sorry for the ‘review being quiet lately – it seems one of the pre-requisites of a sports blog is *blogging*. I know. Here’s what’s been happening while real life has got in the way:
When me and a mate were trying to name the 1987 WC winning XV, John Drake was the last name we came up with – I only knew him much better as a commentator and columnist. I rate him alongside Tony Johnson as NZ’s best. Almost everyone paying tribute said he ‘had interests outside Rugby’, which is a sign of sanity. We’ll miss his thoughtful, forthright style in our house when Stu Wilson starts levering foot into mouth again next season.
Iain O’Brien’s blogging on Cricinfo now, and while JRod bemoans him jumping ship, it seems that Cricinfo are re-blogging Iain’s blogspot site, not the other way around. As Emma Hart said on Hadyn Green’s PA discussion, ‘I was listening to O’Brien getting the hell bounced out of him that day and thinking, wow, can’t wait to read his blog about this’. Too right.
Cockfighting aside, there’s no crueler game than golf – it was excruciating to watch Hamilton’s David Smail mess up the Australian Open yesterday evening. Brother of sportreview has played with David, and even with a hugely successful career in Asia, he’d have wanted to nail the Australian Open to go with his NZ Open. Still, Smail handled himself with dignity throughout, in that situation I would have definitely vomited.
Ben from Mike on Cricket now has his own pad @ Crucket. Get in there.
Sorry I missed Links on Friday this week. If I’d got around to it, the Wunder Boner would have probably made the cut.
I’ve enjoyed the Ryder Cup golf the last two mornings. It’s real tense, with the kind of pressure that makes players want to vomit over two foot putts. Vomit REALLY messes up your line.
But if you want a laugh, watch the high fives. Normally the domain of Basketball players and West Indian fast bowlers, in the Ryder Cup every putt, drive, muesli bar, chip, or bunker shot gets a hand-slap more awkward than a Stephen Hawking breakdance. Try as they might, the Europeans are crap high fivers – at the end of the Poulter/McDowell match, there was a conspicuous miss. Ouch.
On the American team, Anthony Kim was swinging his arm like a Steffi Graf forehand at playing partner Phil Mickelson. Phil didn’t seem like he wanted to be high fived quite that hard, ta very much, but made up for his lack of hand slap commitment by making his eyes bulge wildly and whoopin’ instead.
It all finishes tomorrow – if you enjoy watching golfers making names for themselves, cracking under the pressure, or pulling out of high fives to save their valuable, valuable hands, take the day off. It’s going to be good.
Links
– Harry Pearson Ryder Cup preview
– Six great moments from The Guardian
– 14 1/2 great moments from The Times.
– Will Buckley on Europe captain Nick Faldo
The 17th at Sawgrass is the famous Island Green – given the chance, I’d make a complete hash of it I reckon – kind of like this guy.
After football on a Saturday, I’m often parked up in front of TV3’s three (three!) fishing shows waiting for the cramps to kick in – The ITM Fishing Show is definitely the best, new episodes are on now.
Some League guy kicks a goal. Is this news? He’s a prop, so yeah.
Bugger GTA IV – did you know it came out originally on the NES? I’m still stuck somewhere in between San Fierro and Las Venturas in GTA San Andreas.