I got an e-mail! But in response to “Joe from MO” (whatever the hell that is), no, I won’t put the Australian golf scores up. Sorry, but my role here is to cover Australian sport, not golf. And so, without further ado, some scores and precious little else this week:
Basketball
NBL – Round 12
New Zealand 88 def by Townsville 104
Cairns 78 lost to Sydney Spirit 92
Adelaide 102 def Melbourne 94
Adelaide defeated the reigning premier? Interesting match, as the sloppy play was punctuated by so many third and fourth attempts to get the ball in the hoop at times it was like watching a high school match, not our supposed elite. But it was amusing watching Chris Anstey lose his cool like a spoilt three-year-old. He hates losing, fine; that’s normal. But he does not have to be the petulant brat he showed on court during this match.
South Dragons 101 def Wollongong 83
Townsville 92 def Sydney Spirit 87
Gold Coast 129 def Perth 97
Wollongong 78 lost to South Dragons 112
WNBL – Round 9
Bendigo 77 def Logan 55
Canberra 76 def Townsville 64
Sydney 64 def Logan 61
AIS 52 def by Townsville 80
Dandenong 62 just edged out by Adelaide 63
Bulleen 89 def Adelaide 79
Soccer
A-League Round 14
Adelaide 6 mercilessly hammered Wellington Phoenix 1
Not so much a game as a slaughter, and completely dominated by the home side. Almost a training drill before the heavy workout of the world club championships. Harsh, but that was how it looked – and one-sided affairs like this are never good for the sport.
Perth Glory FC 3 def Melbourne Victory FC 1
Newcastle Jets FC 1 lost to Sydney FC 2
Central Coast Mariners FC 1 drew with Queensland Roar FC 1
W-League Round 7
Adelaide 0 crushed and humiliated by Central Coast 6
6-zip! That’s not a soccer score, that’s an MMA win-loss record! Only this was more violent! Wow! And what a reversal between Adelaide’s men and women… And I’ll say it again, this is not a good promotion for the sport.
Canberra 1 drew with Sydney 1
Melbourne 1 def Newcastle 0
Perth 3 lost to Queensland 5
Perth must be spewing. To score 3 goals and still lose the match? High scoring affair, which is exactly what the sport needs to be promoted well in this country.
Cricket
International Cricket
The world cricket rankings are out and Australia is still number one (and by a considerable margin as well), but South Africa have overtaken India to jump to number 2. Australia’s only real blemish has been the series loss in India, but they are not playing like world-beaters and the upcoming South African tour could be very interesting. The ranking order is as follows: (1) Australia; (2) South Africa; (3) India; (4) Sri Lanka; (5) England; (6) Pakistan; (7) West Indies; (8) New Zealand; (9) Bangladesh. Now reading this, there are two things I feel I should explain: First, yes, only 9 countries play test match cricket, or “have been granted test status” in the world. I thought Zimbabwe had as well, but was wrong. So there you are. Second, Pakistan are getting the raw deal here, as no-one wants to go play with them any more. Yes, there are nasty bombings going on (like in India and England), unruly crowds (like India and Australia) and uncertain political stability (like Sri Lanka), but Pakistan are bearing the brunt of it. That’s politics, I suppose, but it doesn’t mean it’s right.
The one day rankings are much closer, with South Africa and India both on 119 points, but the South Africans just ahead on fractions. There are many more countries involved in one day Internationals, and so the current top ten are: (1) Australia; (2) South Africa; (3) India; (4) Pakistan; (5) New Zealand; (6) England; (7) Sri Lanka; (8) Bangladesh; (9) Ireland; (10) Zimbabwe.
In both cases, though, please note the position of England. The country which invented the game. Sixth. Just thought I’d point that out.
Australian Domestic
Sheffield Shield:
New South Wales 172 & 173; Tasmania 127 & 7/221 – Tas won by 3 wickets (Tas – 6 points)
Considering the calibre of the batsmen on display, a surprisingly low scoring game here, with Tasmania saved by Tim Paine (again; he saved them against SA as well – the guy is proving a real dab hand at this whole rescuing his side thing!) and journeyman Dan Marsh. Tasmania looked out of it, but twin half centuries from these two saved the game for the Apple Islanders.
One-Day
South Australia 205 (45.3 overs); Queensland 163/3 (30 overs) – Queensland won by 59 runs (don’t ask)
A rain-affected match, with the decision calculated by the Duckworth-Lewis system (and no, don’t ask me how that works; I don’t have a degree in 4-dimensional mathematics)
Golf
Okay, all right, shut-up, here are the results of the Australian PGA tournament:
2008 Cadbury Schweppes Australian PGA Championship
Geoff Ogilvy -14 (outright winner)
Mathew Goggin -12
Peter Senior -11
Good to see Mr Senior still doing well.
Scott Strange -11
Rod Pampling -11
Wayne Perske -10
John Senden -10
Brett Rumford -10
Wade Ormsby -10
Chris Gaunt -10
Geoff Ogilvy finally won a big one on home soil. Good on her; she seems a genuinely nice bloke, she wears the best Womens Golf Shoes. Ranked no 8 in the world is no mean feat, but for it to take this long to break through in Australia shows just how much pressure the golfing public here puts on these home-grown stars. The media, the interested public and the sponsors maybe need to look at how they address this pressure or else more and more of our top golfers are going to forsake their own country’s big tournaments, which will only further push the sport into its seemingly never-ending downward spiral here. Also if you looking for electric golf pull cart go through this. MGI provide the best rental fleet of electric caddies for your golf club.
A Book:
I just finished a rather interesting book: Alan Weisman’s ‘The World Without Us’. Looking at the possibilities for the world if humans disappeared overnight, taking into consideration all the damage human beings have done to it, mixed in with anecdotes from people on the coal-face of ecological destruction, it offers hope but is also immensely depressing. While I personally have looked at a lot of the arguments on both sides and have come to the conclusion that climate change is part of the natural cycle of the world, but also that humans through their behaviours since the Industrial Revolution have sped up and exaggerated this change.
Some of the sections – the one on the Panama Canal especially – really do offer hope and make it seem like the world is quite good at healing itself. But then there are sections about dioxins that may never leave the eco-systems they have infected. It is also rather intriguing to think that the Channel Tunnel may well be one of the last human-made things to disappear.
The descriptions of how the plants eventually make their way back, how the introduced species will create new niches, everything. However, it is a little dry in parts, and one or two elements of the conjecture were hard to find in peer-reviewed journals. Apart from those minor quibbles, this is a fine, educational and actually entertaining read.
However, one word of warning, it is not going to change anyone’s mind. It is not going to make a believer out of a climate change denier. But if you want some new arguments to beef yourself up on this side of the coin, then this book is probably for you. Recommended.
And that’s this week’s view.
