Category Archives: Beer

Big Bash Final Review

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First off, hats off to the Mighty NSW Blues – what a bunch of deadset champions.
winkenoath
I’ve been to sydney olympic stadium a heap of times for rugby games, and there’s never any atmosphere. Usually the excuse is like, “well, there were only 35000 people and it’s such a big ground, it seems empty”.

Bullshit. Tonight 17000 champions rocked that ground. Sure, there were some gaps, there are like 90000 seats, but bugger me if there wasn’t atmosphere on tap. Did I mention full strength beer, and even a variety of choices. The staple was Toohey’s New, $6 in a plastic cup, but they also had Becks, Heineken and Squires for $7.50. Funny thing, didnt’ see a single person too pissed, no fight, and no-one ejected that I saw for drunkeness.

Another great thing was the police/securaty presence. About 1/100th of what they have at the SCG for an ODI/Test, and shock horror, everybody lived. Thing only went for 3 hours so no real time for venomous beer snakes, they could have your eye out you know. They didn’t even try to ban the wave, crowd got bored with that pretty quick thouhg, there was quality cricket to be seen.

Quiney played his arse off for hte Vics and set us one hell of a target, I would have loved to see him bring up his century, he sure as hell deserved one for that knock. Funny times at the end when Tubby completely farked up, saying words something like “well done to Quiney who we’d like to give man o fthe match to…. ” Quiney walks up … “but we instead are giving it to Rorher.”. Top effort Tubs. DIckhad.,

Brett Rohrer got man of hte match, I probably would make him share it with a Bird. Came in at the same time as Thornley and were both 0(0). At the time we eneeded 72 off about 30 somethign, and were deep up sh1t creek with no paddle in sight.

There was speculation that McDonald bowling to Thornley would see the Ranga-on-ranga effect, kind of like putting the north poles of two magnets together. Didn’t eventuate, but who said Twenty 20 cricket obesy the laws of physics?

Top knock by Brett Rohrer, champion effort. Kudos to Thornley as well, his pivotal role gave us the wickets in hand at hte end, and his 4 made it so. Bit of ablemish getting out 3rd last ball though, but I’ll rmeember his cheeky 4′s off Dirty Dirk – funny as.

The tension at the end of the game was the most I’ve experienced at a limited overs match. Last over and we needed 9 with Harwood bowling. Two off the first then a wide that was 15mm shy of leg stump, and we’re needing 6(4). Dominic Thornley chips one off his legs fine for 4 and it’s 2(3). The Harwood clean bowls him, Fark Me! 2(2) and Daniel Smith, the keeper we kept with McCullum in the side is to face. Straight to mid-on, misfield, quick single. One to go. Rohrer on strike for the last ball of the match. Scores Level. Missed it, to the keeper. They run, keeper misses, bowles relays on to the stumps. Did he have his bat down? Blues think they’ve won it. Ground Announcer thinks they’ve won. 3rd umpire takes an eternity while the ground announcer is waxing lyrical about our win. He’s safe! GO NUTS! FARK YEAH GO THE BLUES!!!! NEW SOUTH WALES, NEW SOUTH WALES!!!

Blues win by 5 wickets. And McCullum did fark all so the Vics have less excuse. Did I mention we got fulls trength beer?

I honestly can’t see myself pumped to watch another ODI live, and I’m saying this in the middle of an intriguing series between us and the saffas.

Beer Blogs

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beer-tapper Since it’s gone pretty quite in the cricket and rugby blogosphere’s recently, I figured it was time to broaden the horizons and talk Beer.

We received a homebrew kit as a wedding present back in April (thanks Clive!), and since then I’ve been really getting into making my own beers. So far I’ve produced 20 litres of

  • Morgans Lager ; included with the kit
  • 3 x Aussie Pale Ale (ND Brewing live wort)
  • Black Rock Apple cider (for the missus)
  • 3 x European Premium Lager (with varying Hops and Yeast)
  • Black Rock Pilsener Blonde

After the first batch I realised that washing the bottles would be the quickest killer of any motivation, so I built myself a Kegorator. More on that in another blog post. The beer is tasting fantastic and I’m loving the challenge of brewing the perfect beer.

A quick google search for “Aussie Beer Blog” was all it took, and there’s a wealth of content out there on Aussie Beer, Homebrewing and Events. Too much to digest all in one sitting it would seem, so I’ve added a new category to the blogroll, and will be looking forward to updates from

  • Beer Blokes is a blog worth bottling. These guys even went to the MCG recently, Beer and Cricket, I’m sold.
  • Hoppsy is all about the beer.
  • RealBeerAU has Australian Beer and Brewing News.
  • the Local Tap House is a blog for a beer cafe in St Kilda/Darlinghurst with 40 beers on tap and a real passion for the fermented beverage
  • Beer Matt, is the editor for Beer and Brewer Magazine, has a regular radio slot for a beer show on Brisbane Radio and looking at his magazine’s recent cover, the title is “Beer and Sport”. His latest blog is on how to better appreciate beer. What’s not to like!

Beer and Sport Legends

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By now you’ve no doubt seen the shít-hot banner that adorns the header of Beer and Sport. No-one got onto this banner by accident, nor is their pose chosen at random.

My mission that I’ve chosen to accept when there’s no cricket or rugby on is to blog on each member of the BnS Legends banner and explain my personal connection with each legend.

Most of them are obviously from New South Wales, since we’re the only state breeding the big names. Many others have some sort of tenuous connection to the premier state, such that I’ve claimed them for the good ship NSW.

There is one and only one exception per state or territory, ever. I’m currently seeking applications from SA, the NT and the ACT.

I’ll be building an image-map on the banner, so you can click any of the heads and go straight to the blog post on that legend. Could take a while.

Mohali Massacre – Day 4

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I continue the pain of reviewing the Mohali Massacre as it unfolds.

First the positives

  • Michael Clarke didn’t get out in the last over of the day. For this we can thank Brad Haddin who farmed the strike for the last 12 balls, denying Clarke the opportunity to embarrass himself again.
  • Beer Bullet Points. I made a small pint act as the bullet point marker on BeerandSport.net. This is the only other positive thing to come out of day 4. Isn’t it grand..

And a few negatives

  • Ponting’s public spat with Lee. Rick(y) wanted to make a very public point that he’d lost faith in his strike bowler. Surely these conversations can take place behind closed doors? Where’s the seige mentality? It’s us vs them, once we display for all to see that our unity is threatened, there’s not much left in the tank.
  • Ponting bowling Hussey for 8 overs. It was clear that we were waiting for an Indian declaration. The Indians had wisely maintained a Left/Right batting partnership to ensure the Aussie fielders had to move after each ball, and were going out of their way to fatigue us. So what the bloody hell possessed Rick to bowl Hussey for 8 full overs? Here’s a fúcking brainwave Einstein, lets fatigue the worlds number 1 ranked batsman by having him bowl 50 odd balls under the hot Indian sun. Sure he’s the bloke we’re expecting to farm a lions share of the responsibility for saving the match, surely he’d be better placed to do that with stiffness in his back and shoulders. What did you gain from bowling Hussey? Sure he was kind of tidy, though the Indians kept up the 4.75 rpo so really, on the balance, sweet fúck all. Maybe it was a futile attempt to restore some sense to the over rates.. though if you’re serious about those then don’t change the damn field after ever ball.
  • Troy Cooley. Specialist Bowling Coach. Uh Huh. Seems Troy is a specialist with the Duke and not too bad with the Kookaburra, but when it comes to the SG Ball he’s as clueless as Greg Chappell. The Indians appear to deliver the new SG with a crossed seam, but then only scuff up one side. Are they landing it on the same side each time, or are they doing a damn fine job of polishing the shiny side? Or do they have special mints? Sounds like a job for a bowling coach.
  • Aussie batting collapse. To lose one wicket in a short period is unlucky. Two is foolish. 3 is grossly negligent. 4 either side of a tea break, fúcking atrocious. And to let top knot make the breakthroughs, the pain of it all.
  • Matthew Hayden getting out I can understand, he was entertaining the idea of getting the runs and for a second there even I believed it was possible. So did the Indians, as they moved their field back, released pressure and scrambled to contain the onslaught. Still, if you look at the practice matches and two tests this is a run drought of note for the strong tall left handed fisherman cook from Queensland who occasionally plays a bit of cricket. Time to send an SOS to the Son Of Swampy.
  • Simon Fúcking Katich. His role in this batting line up is the immovable object. 22 off 187 balls, that’s the sort of mettle I wanna see from the Krab, not some completely and utterly shíthouse shot on the stroke of Lunch. What’s this? A ball passing gently by outside my off stump, perhaps I’ll spoon it to point, that’ll show em. Katich gets a two handed HULK SMASH for that písspoor match losing effort.
  • Ricky Ponting
    I had held out hope for hope for match saving Ricky of Manchester 2005, instead we got Ishant’s bítch Rick of Perth 2007. Well he scored some runs in the first test so he’s still in the clear.. but talking of EPIC FAILS:

  • Michael Hussey To be fair I’d stopped watching or caring at this point. I’ll give the Huss some benefit though cause some moron had him bowl 8 overs in the sun which would have done wonders for his legendary concentration.
  • Shane Watson did a pretty decent job and together with Michael Clarke stopped the rot. Shane’s proving to be a pretty useful batsman and has done more than enough to retain his place in the squad.
  • Brad Haddin has also done well, though I wouldn’t stick the house on our holding out past tea. Had we been 2 down at stumps then as Balls of Gold suggested, a sizeable wager on the draw could have been a good bet.

To be dominated so completely with both the bat and ball, I’m starting to understand how it must feel to be English, bad personal hygiene and dentistry aside. Repeat this feeling for 17 years and the open top bus celebrations start to have some context… though I still reckon they overdid it.