A funny thing happened last night

No one likes a show-off, but please indulge me while I thank the academy

OK, so this happened…

… and I’m not really sure how I’m meant to react, so I’ll just say a few thanks.

Thanks to the Voyager Media Awards’ judges who got it 100 percent bang on, LOL.

Thanks to Substack for the fantastic platform and for making the transition into independent journalism so (relatively) stress free.

Thanks to Duncan Greive, Madeleine Chapman and Toby Morris at The Spinoff. All have played a huge part in boosting The Bounce. Here’s Duncan standing in for me at the awards ceremony, holding a big shiny plate.

Thanks to the New Zealand Herald for housing me in one role or another for 17 years, for trusting my instincts and giving me countless opportunities.

Thanks to a few of my biggest boosters, Scotty Stevenson, Patrick McKendry and Dana Johannsen, who provide wise counsel, wordsmithery and, most importantly, enduring mateship.

Thanks to Bernard Hickey, who is clocking Substack with The Kaka, for his encouragement and shout-outs.

Thanks to Michelle, Liam and Libby (who we christened Olivia, much to her horror), for… you know.

Thanks to Michael Lane, Joseph Durie, Paul S. Ford, Jason Hoyte, Adam Pomana and the team at The ACC. The BYC podcast is my weekly happy place where I get to chat nonsense about the great sport of cricket - what’s not to like.

Thanks, of course, to you, my subscribers. It’s coming up on a year of The Bounce and man I’ve learnt some stuff, a lot of which I intend to share with you on September 6, the anniversary. I truly appreciate the support, the intelligent feedback, the shares and the motivation to keep trying to unlock those moments of sporting insight.

Thanks to everyone I should have thanked, but didn’t.

I’m about to have a couple of beers with a challenging ABV profile now. If an email fails to drop tomorrow, my allergies are probably playing up.

Cheers!

P.S. If you want to dig into my winning portfolio, here’s:

“Carl Hayman doesn’t want to forget”;

“Silver Lake, the NZR stake & the media - a cautionary tale”;

and “The Fall Guy”.