Still plenty of sport going on, and here’s our weekly wrap, with the internet’s most extravagant multi tips for added value.
THE SUMMER OF CRICKET STARTS…SO DOES HATING SLATS
So Channel 9 have started their summer migration in the willow and leather with a triumvirate of T20 matches between Australia (wearing black with fluro yellow/green) and South Africa (wearing green and gold). The colours are upside down, but that’s what T20 is all about, being different from regular cricket, being the cricket’s rebel without a cause.
None of the matches were particularly exciting, and it seems the public knew in advance with poor crowds attending the three blast offs. Although Cricket Australia knew this as they claim the small figures exceeded budget.
The result was Australia winning 2-1, which will hopefully be a repeated result across all forms of the games this summer, including a return to the status of World Champions.
What wasn’t world champion-like, in fact, was the Channel Nine commentary team who gave a sneak preview into how painful the extended summer will be. When in doubt, yell to make it seem more interesting. Although nothing will save Ian Healy from being boring.
Healy remains as boring as Slater is hated, and the injection of some fresh blood in Meg Lanning was marginalised as she was left to answer the occasion question when the boys club had stopped patting themselves on the back.
With the sad news of Richie Benuad’s troubles during the week, it only serves as another dent in the good times this summer. One can only hope the ABC Grandstand coverage is almost in synch with Nine’s vision. Even without Kerry’s laugh it is still infinitely superior to Nine’s dross.
FOUR NATIONS GOOD – DAYLIGHT SAVINGS BAD
Whilst we’ve spent some time bitching about Channel 9’s summer issues, we reflect and have our last ear bashing on Nine’s winter game.
Shame that Channel Nine couldn’t bring themselves to show the Australia v Samoa game live on Sunday night. In what has been the most open and entertaining end of season showpiece for some time, the momentum was slowed by the news that the game was half over in Queensland before the coverage starts.
Is it Channel Nine’s fault? Yes. But also No. If Queensland had daylight savings this wouldn’t be an issue. Which is unlikely to change given all the arguments that moving the clock forward will cause Curtains and Lounges to fade because it is actually an extra hour. Don’t forget the cows who will have no idea what time it is when they look at their hoof swatches for milking duties. In fact it is the cows I blame the most for the delay of rugby league. One day when cows are no longer able to submit votes in Queensland referendums, we may get some more live rugby league.
Double shame is that Channel Nine, going against all recent trends, have listened to the fans and will play the Sunday afternoon game live next year. This increases the free to air live games to two a week next year. This is the exact same amount of free to air live games that SBS and the A League have concocted this year already showing they know what’s best for the fans of their game.
DOWN TO DOUBLE POINTS
At the user friendly time of 2am (cow time) the second last F1 race of the year started in Brazil. The result was always going to be a Mercedes, but this time it was ze German Nico Rosberg who got the victory. Championship leader Lewis Hamilton had an uncharacteristic spin which cost him the win and a chance to make the upcoming finale in Abu Dhabi more comfortable.
The reason we say more comfortable is that in a normal season Lewis could have sewn up the Championship. But this year there’s double points on offer in the last race as a combatant to Red Bull fuelled domination of the last few years.
We were against this at the start of the year, so don’t want to sound too hypocritical in applauding the double up. But it certainly does make it more interesting to have a finale go to the last race.
Can Rosberg and Hamilton confirm their Senna-Prost comparison by crashing into each other with a title on the line. The Gurgler says yes, and yes please.
JACK MILLER WINGS IT TO MOTOGP
Jack Miller has been a Gurgler favourite this year, with many wins, and almost a Moto3 championship, beaten only by Marc Marquez’s brother.
Good thing is that instead of playing around with the middle tier of bike racing, he’ll go straight through the MotoGP next year.
What could be risky, we believe will end in success. A Miller-Riccardo championship duo sounds good to us.
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GURGLER MEGA MULTI
$1 gets you $1,010
ODI – SOUTH AFRICA to beat Australia Game 1
V8’s – CRAIG LOWNDES – PODIUM @ Phillip Island
4 NATIONS – AUSTRALIA to beat NZ
RUGBY – FRANCE to beat Australia
RUGBY – IRELAND to cover 40.5 start v Georgia
RUGBY – SOUTH AFRICA to beat England
ALEAGUE – NEWCASTLE to beat Brisbane
ALEAGUE – MELBOURNE VICTORY to beat Sydney
ALEAGUE – PERTH to beat Western Sydney