A quick question that needs to be answered
PLUS: Exclusive tittle-tattle from Welly football and The Week That Was and the Weekend That Will Be
“Would sprint star Eddie Osei-Nketia have won a medal at Commonwealth Games?”, screamed the headline in Stuff.
Of course we’ll never know, but it would have been nice to have been given the chance to find out.
It’s a wasted opportunity. It’s the Commonwealth Games - there should have been a black singlet on the start line for every track event even if it’s purely for developmental purposes.
Don’t get me started on the High Performance Sport NZ funding criteria because I’ll never stop, but you compare the amount of money we pour into sports like rowing and sailing that with all the best intentions are truly available to only the tiniest percentage of our kids, yet we can’t get a good sprinter - which any kid from Oban to Te Hapua can aspire to be - at a highly visible event.
What do the Commonwealth Games exist for if it’s not to promote sports that struggle for moments in the sun? Nobody’s going to build statues of Commonwealth Games champions, so stop treating them like the Olympics in terms of standards.
They should be treated as a gateway drug to get kids hooked on sport.
Not getting the chance to vape Osei-Nketia this week was a shocking missed opportunity for Big Sport, so Gary Henley-Smith, his coach, is not the only one who should be seeking answers.
“What are the administrators doing? Are they going to review what has happened? There needs to be questions asked of the administrators of the sport - 10.08 last time was a silver medal and again if he had run 10.08, he would have got a silver medal so why is the standard 10.07? That’s a really interesting question that needs to be asked of Athletics New Zealand. I feel sorry for him because he chose to represent New Zealand but if he was in Australia he’d be running for Australia at all of these things.”
There is a bit of a stink brewing in Wellington football, according to a well-placed source.
Clubs in the capital were sent the following missive this week:
“Capital Football would like to provide a further update to those clubs participating in the Capital Football Men’s Capital Premier and Capital 1 competitions regarding the notification of a regulation breach in both competitions (sent Thursday 28 July).
“We can now confirm the club in question is Lower Hutt City AFC and is centred around player dispensations.
“Lower Hutt City AFC have appealed the Competitions Administrator's ruling. The [appeal] was sent to Capital Football on Wednesday 3 August. The Regional Association Disciplinary Committee will hear the appeal on Monday 8 August...
“Please be aware that should the appeal be unsuccessful and the original decision upheld, it will have a significant impact on both competition tables in Capital Premier and Capital 1.”
The teams in question are said to be the Wellington Phoenix academy teams who operate under the Lower Hutt AFC colours and use their Fraser Park training facilities.
What makes it thorny is that the Phoenix are said to have a deal in place to be in the competitions next year without being affiliated to a local club.
Effectively that could mean the Phoenix have buggered up Lower Hutt by fielding ineligible players all season, but remain good to go next year under their own name.
If this holds to be true, it might be one of the most egregious examples of pro sport crapping on community sport that we’ve ever seen.
THE WEEK THAT WAS
Thanks to all of you who wrote in to share their memories of Heath Davis, whether it was facing him in the nets at Hutt Valley High or playing him at indoor cricket. Some wrote to talk about W(h)anganui’s (no ‘h’ back then) Victoria Park, or just cricket in the 90s in general.
I would love to have personally replied to all of you but I was already tumbling down some deep age-group cricket rabbit holes and time got away from me.
Cricket is an amazing sport like that. If you’d asked me two weeks ago to describe more than a handful of games I played 30-40 years ago I would have struggled, but an old teammate or counterpart might trigger a memory about one tiny thing and a torrent of other memories come flooding back.
I was a terrible collector of team photos and memorabilia, which doesn’t help, but thankfully others out there, like former Wellington batsman Tim Boyer, were far more diligent. I mentioned the first time I encountered Heath was from the safety of 12th man as Western Districts met his Hutt Valley in the final winner-takes-all match at Vic Park. I recalled that Heath had previously laid waste to Auckland, reducing them to pants-wetters, and said there were two, maybe three future Black Caps in their ranks in Adam Parore, Blair Pocock and possibly Mark Richardson.
Unbelievably, Boyer has the programme from that tournament and I was so close to nailing it.
It was Matt Horne, not Rigor Richardson, who was the third Black Cap.
There were a couple of other FBCs lurking in the shadows. Te Puke’s prodigiously talented Matthew Hart was at least a year younger than anyone else at the tournament, though he was a pace-bowling allrounder back then. Northern Districts also had stylish batter Mark Bailey, who played for New Zealand when cricket was last at the Commonwealth Games and also added one official ODI against Bangladesh.
Good to see rugby represented too, with Simon Mannix, Gordon Falcon, Andre Bell and Jason Bowie all playing to NPC level at least.
The LIV Golf saga took another twist with 11 players suing the PGA tour for antitrust practices and restraint of trade.
This golf.com piece sums it up with excellent detail.
This comes a week after the LIV Tour debased itself at just its third event, effectively becoming a Trump rally.
THE WEEKEND THAT WILL BE
Sometimes it feels like I’ve turned this newsletter into a confessional, so here’s another one to add to the list: it’s been a while since I’ve watched a test in South Africa in real time. Late July, 2015, in fact, when I caught the second half in a pub in Portsmouth following a day’s racing in the America’s Cup World Series. The only things I remember are that the All Blacks won and Lima Sopoaga started at No10. That was a more innocent, carefree time for the All Blacks. This time they are battling to save their season, to save jobs, their credibility, perhaps even the planet - and I’m here for it live.
South Africa v NZ, Rugby Championship, Mbombela, Sunday 3.05am, Sky Sport 1
After a strong opening week, the Commonwealth Games look to be petering out for New Zealand, with lacklustre performances in the big team sports a particular worry. The White Ferns and Silver Ferns were humbled by England, while the Black Sticks men endured a miserable tournament, drawing with a weak Scotland side, being thrashed by Australia and beaten by South Africa. Strangely, they played very well in beating Pakistan but one swallow does not a summer maketh.
Jamaica v Silver Ferns, CG semifinal, tomorrow 8pm, Sky Pop-up 2
England v Black Sticks women, CG semifinal, tomorrow 5am, Sky Pop-up 4
Australia v White Ferns, CG semifinal, tomorrow 10pm, Sky Pop-up 2
The EPL is a better place with Craven Cottage in the mix. So I’ll toggle between this and the cricket (above).
Fulham v Liverpool, Craven Cottage, tomorrow 11.30pm, Sky Sport EPL
Can Lydia Ko turn consistency into tournament wins? She’s not out of it at even par and tied for 26th after one round of the Open Championship, but there are a number of very good players ahead of her.
Open Championship, Muirfield, rounds 3-4, Sun-Mon starts midnight, Sky Sport 1
There’s a bunch of other Comm Games stuff, particularly athletics. It’s all on Sky. The Warriors are in Sydney to face the Rabbitohs tomorrow afternoon, but I won’t be in front of the box then. The NPC starts, too, with the mighty amber-and-blacks of Taranaki v Northland on Sunday afternoon by far and away the most compelling clash. The Black Caps play again tomorrow night but as terrible as this sounds, I’m over this tour and just want to see some ‘proper’ cricket again.
I'm going back a long way but whenever I read about track and field athletes missing out on selection I think back to Peter Snell being a last minute selection for Rome 1960. He was well down the world ranking list but someone saw promise (!) in him. The rest is history. Not saying any of those who've missed out were going to match PGS's deeds but we'll never know will we how good they might have been. Roy Williams was one who was poorly treated back in the day - should have been picked for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. It's ancient history but shows it's not just a modern day problem.
Sheesh, this last couple of posts from the bounce been worth the price of admission alone thanks Dylan!! Tim Boyer! Tawa College - always a tough game whether it was cricket or rugby when he was playing - especially remember him as a very handy 1st 5/8 in the 2A grade. And Mr Baker (Geoff’s dad) managing that HV team - good man - spent a few summers listening to him coaching as he was watching his boys as I was playing with them at NNC. Both very handy