The Silver Fern

Bowls reminds me of an awful joke... In rugby, they have referees. In cricket, they have umpires. What do they have in bowls?

Cereal...

Some good news:

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/cricket/126133257/chris-cairns-off-life-support-communicating-with-family-from-sydney-hospital

@Chris said in RWC: All Blacks v South Africa (Pool :

Shitty unconvincing win we need to be a lot better then that to win the WC

Against who? Who else is significantly better than South Africa?

Without Kane as a current comparison, we'd be lauding Ross as arguably the greatest international batsman NZ has ever produced, at least on the numbers. Obviously Crowe and Turner (to name 2) were legitimately world class in their eras, but Ross has NZ records for:

• most international runs
• most test and ODI runs
• most international centuries
• most ODI centuries
• most international 50s and 50+
• most ODI 50s and 50+
• most international catches other than by a keeper
• most international appearances
• only player (for any country) to play 100 internationals in tests, ODIs and T20s

Some of that is longevity, a lot of it is class.

We won! And Wayne Barnes called a penalty for us at the end of an All Black quarterfinal!

Bridge is too slow to be an international wing. Reece was fine, Beaunga isn't that bad. Cane should have started but we mostly lost that in the forwards, not the backs.

@booboo said in Cricket: NZ vs Aus:

So ... reckon we won the day today?

I'd say so. Apparently we need to find more wicketkeeping batsmen called Tom...

@No-Quarter said in Indian Cricket Tour of NZ 2020:

That's a pretty incredible win given we're missing all of our best players. We're a seriously good ODI side and deserve to be world champs right now.

Also, Ross is absolutely phenomenal in the longer formats. What a player.

Apart from Ross obviously. Solid argument for best ODI #4 ever - Batting stats for all #4s

I repeat my earlier comment - if stadiums made money, private developers would build and operate them, so basically all NZ cases for larger stadiums except maybe in Auckland are shams (according to Eden Park's accounts, they make an operating profit - their issue is depreciation i.e. they don't make enough money to also pay for the asset replacement costs). Councils/ratepayers fund them because locals want them - business cases are just fig leaves. It doesn't help in Christchurch's case that cricket has moved to Hagley Oval, as that would have provided a few extra events. The Council funding is primarily insurance, so had to be spent anyway, but no doubt we could have spent less of the government contribution if we wanted to.

Speaking for myself, I don't want to spend two days and $500 on a trip to Dunedin, or miss out because I didn't book the accommodation as soon as the concert was announced (not when the tickets go on sale - accommodation in Dunedin sold out within hours of Queen being announced). Selfishly, I want a concert venue in Christchurch that will reliably bring the big names if they are going somewhere besides Auckland, and while my costs for a Christchurch concert are much lower than travelling to another concert, I will still spend my money somewhere eventually, and that somewhere will most likely be in Christchurch - that's an implied part of a business case that isn't usually discussed heavily, that locals don't travel and spend elsewhere, so they can spend that money locally.

Practically, we probably only need 20,000 permanent seats for Super Rugby and maybe a few thousand temp seats for finals - anything bigger than that is for tests, which the ABs don't play that many in NZ, and we (Chch) will only ever get 1-2 per season. Realistically, AB tests are as spurious as concerts in the business cases - it just comes back to people wanting them.

From Cricinfo:

Kane Williamson is Man of the Series

Kyle Jamieson is Man of the Match for his 11 wickets in the match:

If stadiums made money, private investors would build them. The only stadium that makes money from operations is Eden Park, and even then, that's only before depreciation.

The economics of regional development don't really hold up either as usually they are just moving money around the country. Something like a Lions Tour or world cup is an exception to that as they bring in overseas visitors, but not on a scale that really justifies the expense. If a region doesn't have one, it will find it loses some spending to other regions that do, but again, not enough to justify the expense.

All that said, I don't personally have a problem with councils building stadiums, even big ones - it's an amenity that adds to the vibe of a city. I just wish everyone would stop pretending there's an economic argument in New Zealand and admit that they are being built because we want the ability to watch live shows and sport at big stadiums.

I'm in, can't leave this place entirely to right-wingers!

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/119944757/crown-approves-christchurch-stadium-funding

About time, now things can get moving.

@mariner4life said in NZ v SA Test Series:

Little graphic on the cricinfo page showing NZs best 2nd wicket stands v South Africa, and they are pretty shit. Unsurprising when you see Matt Horne is involved in two of them, and so is some guy called Darrin Murray who you don't even remember.

Some us remember him... Right up there with Blair Hartland as one of our greatest ever punts...

Neil Wagner with 2 from 46...

@canefan said in NRL 2018:

@no-quarter said in NRL 2018:

5 on the trott, fucking outrageous. This is a very different Warriors side this year, they were still pumping in the final 10 there - a NQ comeback was never really on the cards. Good shit.

We never looked in danger, but old habits die hard so I was waiting for a warriors surrender that never came. In person our wingers are massive and run the ball up like forwards.

Don't know who remembers 2007, but that was one of our best ever years, and was heavily built on Manu Vatuvei and Wade McKinnon running huge metres both on kick returns and generally to really take the heat off the forwards.

I really liked Darcy. For good or ill, I found this website thanks to him.

@aucklandwarlord said in NRL 2020:

Does anyone know what the story with Jack Hetherington is? I realise he's on loan for another few weeks but it'd be great if the Warriors could entice him permanently. Hard as nail, reliable and doesn't give away stupid penalties.

I'm sure if the Warriors hire him permanently, they'll drum that out of him...

Southee's last 18 tests have stats as good or better than Shane Bond's career of 18 tests.

@Nepia said in Aussie Rugby:

@NTA said in Aussie Rugby:

@NTA said in Aussie Rugby:

Shame about Ransome but again: this isn't a dealbreaker. She's still covering other sports for Fox I assume.

I'm told Ransome is freelancing but mostly working with the ABC over here.

No Ransome 😡

Of course not, we don't negotiate with terrorists...