Blessed summer / cursed summer

Sport Review #184

Feb 03, 2022

Welcome to Sport Review 2022. Think of this week’s edition as a half tracker loosener, while we warm up for the real stuff. I hope you and the family had a great break and are enjoying a fantastic summer.

Blessed summer

Test cricket - I only got to the Bay Oval for a couple of sessions (mainly for catch ups), but it was fantastic. Unfortunately for me, Bangladesh were tremendous in the Mount, but we were better in Christchurch. Tom Latham casually struck a double ton and led us to victory, while the great man Ross Taylor signed off with a wicket to end it.
Its tough to design the perfect cap to a career like that, and while the wicket was a great moment, it’s the towering stats, unrelenting cuts and slog sweeps and the crucial innings (like the WTC final) that will stick in the memory
Super Smash - it just gets better and better. The production and cricket were fantastic
Australian Open - What a tournament. Being able to tune in to top class tennis at decent hours for a couple of weeks is a real treat, even if I went to bed halfway through the final thinking my boy Medvedev had it in the bag. Massive fail from supposed sport newsletter guy
Garage Project Victory Air Drop - it is delicious, get amongst
Playing tennis - I recommend it highly

Cursed summer

Novak. I admire his game and determination. Unfortunately that’s badly let down by his unpleasant demeanour, bug eyes and looney anti science nut job aspects, and when he made a casserole of getting COVID and also his visa application (abetted by Australian officials refusing to make a decision) it turned into a circus as unnecessary as, well, virtually any circus. Now it seems he’s considering getting vaccinated anyway. If all it takes to end this pandemic is the carrot of attaining your personal goal of breaking the all-time Grand Slam championships record, there may yet be hope for us all
DJ Downtrou or whatever his name almost bringing Omicron in like only two days after Christmas completely wrecked my buzz - I simply wasn’t ready. We all needed a break and at least we got one for a little while
Indulging - it is great at the time, but you also have to pay later on
The Golden Sir @screaminbutcalm
Me sowing: Haha fuck yeah!!! Yes!! Me reaping: Well this fucking sucks. What the fuck.
9:14 PM ∙ Mar 12, 2019
130,832Likes38,065Retweets
Losing Meatloaf - the GOAT

Thanks for reading - Richard

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This week's best NZ sport content

Ross Taylor went out with a win and a wicket - there were plenty of tributes, but I recommend this video (get the hankies!), these highlights, this retrospective and this statistical rundown [Spark Sport, Sportsfreak, The Bounce, Wickets Substack]

The pods with Marina Erakovic and Scott Styris were fantastic for filling in back story on both these household names you didn’t know as well as you thought you did [Between Two Beers]

I ran into Hamish Bond coming out of a Cambridge cafe one time (salad for him, probably) and thought he was the fittest-looking human I’d ever seen. Michael Burgess on his retirement [NZ Herald]

I’m on the fence about the Black Clash, but Calum Henderson’s list of players that should be involved is much spot on [The Spinoff]

Euan McCabe’s run down of NZ Test great escapes is fantastic - get into Wellington 1984, Wellington 1987, and Mark Greatbach’s Perth 1989 - it’s his fault Steve Waugh was the way he was apparently [Sportsfreak]