Beer and Sport » victorian bushrangers

Big Bash Final Review

Moses — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 14:33:31 +0000

First off, hats off to the Mighty NSW Blues – what a bunch of deadset champions.

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.

Victoria – cry me a river

Moses — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 03:53:34 +0000

Man Cry

There’s much talk about poor Victoria who will be forced to field an under strength team in tomorrow’s Twenty20 final. They’ve even tried to recruit Adam Gilchrist, which would have been awesome for the spectacle, but they obviously didn’t front up with enough cash.

Here’s who they’ll be missing tomorrow night

Brad Hodge – avg 42, sr 136. Top Twenty20 run-scorer in Australia. Top Twenty20 run-scorer in the world. Injured in Elimination Final.
David Hussey – avg 32, sr 140. Second top Twenty20 run scorer in Australia. Restrictive bowler. Playing for Oz.
Cameron White – avg 35, sr 154. Destructive batsman and part time bowler.

Boo fúcking hoo. I realise it’s a new experience for Victoria to lose players to the national setup, but this is something that happens to us all the time. Here’s the first choice players on our books that we’ll be missing tomorrow night:

Nathan Bracken – avg 19, eco 7. Worlds top ranked ODI and T20 bowler. Man-hair model. Playing for Australia

David Warner – avg 29.5, sr 150. Destructive opening batsman, playing for Oz.

Michael Clarke – avg 23, sr 130. Quality middle order batsman, economical bowler. Injured playing for Australia

Brad Haddin – avg 20, sr 110. Quality keeper and agressive batsman in superb form.

Stuart Clark – avg 18, eco 6.6. Econimical and threatining bowler. Injured playing for Oz

Nathan Hauritz – avg 15, eco 6.3. Restrictive bowler. Playing for Oz.

I can’t work out why these articles only mention the absent Victorians. On the balance I’d say NSW are in fact more weakened through injury/abscence than Victoria, but obviously both teams are missing a lot of quality. Regardless, it’s hard to agree with the sob story coming from south of the border.

Harwood to Hartley

Moses — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 21:45:36 +0000

Here’s one for AB DeVilliers, just to let him know we show our own batsmen the same compassion that he received after what JC describes as

[Tait's] third ball thwacked into AB de Villier’s midriff. Doubled over in pain, de Villiers’ bat crashed into the stumps. As he crumpled to the ground in agony, the Australians clustered next to his quivering body, high fiving and celebrating. I think I may have seen Cameron White kick de Villiers in the ribs a few times while noone was looking. It was a moment that would’ve brought a tear to Jeff Thomson’s eye.

For me the highlight was the Victorian keeper Adam Croswaithe running up to the stumps for the sole purpose of clapping the bowler right in front of the batsmen. The bowler returns to his runup without so much as checking the fallen batsmen for a pulse. Actually, the slo-mo Chewbacca sounds are pretty cool too.

At least Hartley had the forethought to keel over away from his stumps. Good boy.

Stars denied leave as Big Bash heats up

Moses — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 02:57:02 +0000

Man Cry

This evening will see Victoria and Queensland fight it out at the Gabba in a high stakes elimination final T20 match. The winner will not only gain entry to the lucrative world club championship, but also the privilege of a Twenty20 lesson from the top dog in Australian domestic Twenty20 cricket at the SCG on Sunday.

The Victorians are píssed off, as having their top players unavailable due to national service is a new problem for them. Now they’ll have to go without the services of Cameron White and David Hussey, who have a ODI on Friday and need their beauty sleep. There is no factual basis to reports that Cameron White Cried, again, at hearing the news, though it does sound likely.

Ryan Harris has been dropped from the national squad so will be available for Queensland, however they’ve replaced him with Mitchell Johnson so that’s probably worse for the New Texas Bulls, who’ll also be missing James Hopes.

CA have also denied requests for the players to be available of for the final, so NSW will be missing David Warner, Michael Clarke, Nathan Bracken, Brad Haddin and Nathan Hauritz.

This could well end up a good experience, as Michael Hussey is keen to explain IPL loyalties come before the state that bought you up, so depending on which IPL teams make the club championship any Australian side could be without their stars when the big bucks are on offer.

Victoria squad: Brad Hodge (capt), Aiden Blizzard, Rob Quiney, Aaron Finch, Andrew McDonald, Matthew Wade, Adam Crosthwaite (wk), Damien Wright, Shane Harwood, Jon Holland, Bryce McGain, Dirk Nannes.

Queensland squad: Chris Simpson (capt), Wade Townsend, Ryan Broad, Lee Carseldine, Nathan Reardon, Glen Batticciotto, Craig Philipson, Chris Hartley (wk), Ryan Harris, Nathan Rimmington, Ben Cutting, Alister McDermott, Ben Laughlin.

Victorian sues CA for sore shoulder

Moses — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 10:49:00 +0000

Jamie Siddons is suing Cricket Australia because his shoulder hurts.

What’s next? Boony suing VB for sclerosis? Warney suing Nokia for RSI? Bryce McGain suing Cricket with Balls for distorting his Google results?

Perhaps Jamie should take up an American coaching gig when his Bangladesh role expires.

NSW vs VIC….. vs TAS vs WA

Moses — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 10:09:00 +0000

As the Sheffield Shield race for a home final intensifies, VIC have drawn first blood in the battle of the founding teams.

The Tap of Massies are off to a flyer at 0/150 with DiVenuto leading the way with 96(118) in his second last match in Australia. Tragically Ballbag Bollinger is unavailable due to a foot injury and his penetration is being deerly missed. Curiously we choose to bowl on a flat track, sure Katto has a plan….

Meanwhile the Mexican’s with mobiles have struck early against the Westies with dangerman Langer falling lbw to Wise. Chris Rogers is off to a solid start however, and once he makes 20 he could be the very NSWelshman we need to stick around to hurt em.

Update: The stars are aligning – Rogers has come good and moved on to 44(69) taking the NSW rejects to 1/84. And Thornley’s taken a wicket so the Map of Tassies are 1/160 with DiVenuto on 102(131).

Day 2, Top of table clash

Moses — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 09:39:00 +0000

The mighty Bluetongues are in a decent position in their Shield clash against the mexicans.

The situation was looking dire the first session yesterday with the mexicans taking two quick wickets and having us at 2/2. Fortunately Kattich came to the rescue along with 43′s from Mail and Haddin.

With a few overs to go he declared at 9/253, a worringly low first innings total that immediately paid off with one wicket before stumps.

Today’s seen regular wickets with the mexican’s now at 3/118 after Hodge recently departed. Unfortunately Hussey mark 2 is still in so we’ll need to clean up his wicket before cracking out the Moet.

Festival of HATE part 1

Moses — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 06:44:00 +0000

The Sheffield Shield history between NSW and VIC dates back to the summer of 1892 when those bloody mexicans beat us in the three way competition including South Australia. I’ve never forgiven them. Sure we’ve won 44 Shields to their 25 since, but we’ll never win the first Sheffield Shield, and that bites.

Some comfort can be taken from the fact that due to internal squabbling between the respective boards of the Mighty New South Welsh Bluetongues forebears and the Mexicans (the more things change the more they stay the same), Lord Sheffield’s generous £150 donation was not actually spent for several years and the Victorians while in essence held the shield, they did not in actuallity hold the shield.

So with the History of hatred recounted I can move on 215 years to the 2007 installment of the festival of hate.

The bluetongues go into this battle with their test stars returning. The return of Phil Jaques, Michael Clarke, Brett Lee, Stuart Clark and Stuart Macgill would be a real boost for any state team, let alone one that is already topping the shield table.

Alas inuries have plagued the returning superstars with Clarke succumbing to hamstring issues, Phil Jaques going down with the mumps, Lee got a last minute callup to the local Indian karaokee restaurant and Macgilla otherwise engaged at the bottom of a wolfblass bottle.

New South Wales: Phil Hughes, Greg Mail, Peter Forrest, Simon Katich (c), Domenic Thornely, Brad Haddin (w/k), Beau Casson, Mark Nicholson, Nathan Bracken, Stuart Clark, Doug Bollinger, Grant Lambert (12th).

Vics won the toss and are bowling.. dammit two early wickets not looking good.

Over 1.2: Nannes to Hughes, OUT, what a start for the Bushrangers, cracking delivery that was short and angled into the body, Hughes could do nothing but fend it away to Hodge in the gully.

Carn Bluetongues, do it for all things pure and blue and make Lord Sheffield proud