A Comm Games bid and other curly questions
Free-to-air coverage advertises merits of BBC system.
QUESTIONS from world of sport. How’s that wish for freeto-air televised sport going with the Commonwealth Games? Enjoying the ads in the middle of the events?
Would it be better if it was like the BBC, which covers the big events in Britain commercial free? Pretty good? Then how would you feel about paying the NZ$270 annual fee the British Government charges for a broadcasting licence to fund the BBC?
KIWI HOSPITALITY IZZY’S U-TURN
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If the Gold Coast Games don’t bankrupt the place, how keen would you be to see the Commonwealth Games come back to New Zealand?
If we do decide to chase the Games, what would be the hardest task, getting the facilities ready in time, or getting things organised before the Commonwealth itself fades away?
Would Aucklanders drive to Cambridge to see the cycling if we had the Games in Auckland? (It’s 78km from the Gold Coast to go to the cycling, but 146km from Queen St to Cambridge).
Does it seems a dramatic change of attitude to you that in 2014 Israel Folau posed with Adam AshleyCooper for the cover of the Australian LGBTI (Lesbian, Gay, BiSexual, Transgender, Intersex) magazine, Star Observer (the headline said, ‘‘Big Boys And Their Balls’’), to promote the Bingham Cup, the world gay rugby tournament, but now says on social media that gays will go to hell unless they repent?
Do Folau’s Christian beliefs give him a free pass to breach his contract with Australian rugby, which basically forbids homophobia on and off the field.
Is it difficult to imagine how fraught a conversation in the Wallabies camp between Folau and David Pocock (who says that as a devout Christian he will not marry his fiance´ until their gay friends can marry too) would be?
What’s the most startling aspect of the Warriors’ season so far, the brilliant attacking against the Roosters, or the discipline to set up the Shaun Johnson dropped goals against the Raiders?
If you’ve suffered through years of watching every game the Warriors have played, did you, like me, have a slightly sickening feeling that in Canberra, as they methodically positioned themselves for the Johnson kicks, someone would try to win the game with a solo run, and screw the whole thing up?
Off the field, is the vagueness of the American consortium aiming to buy the Warriors just shrewd business practice, or a sign they’re not quite as far down the track as they say?
CHAPPELL’S GHOSTS
Has there been a sadder story in the wake of the Australian cricket team’s ball-tampering than Trevor Chappell, who didn’t actually break any laws when he bowled underarm in 1981, saying that the incident has haunted him all his life?
Is he right when he says, from what appears to be bitter personal experience (his marriage broke up, he never remarried, and never had children) that the tampering trio will struggle with what they did for as long as they live?
GENTLEMAN JOE
Is it a reflection of how weird boxing is that Joseph Parker’s promoters may struggle to get the big money events because Parker isn’t a crazy person, for whom prefight fireworks come naturally?
Does the fact Parker isn’t a kinghitter, and that Anthony Joshua, who is a king-hitter, couldn’t come close to putting him on the canvas, mean the section of blood-lusting boxing fans who like to see someone knocked out are unlikely to get excited over a Parker fight in the future?
SILLY BLUES
If success in team sport is getting dozens of minor details right, how big a worry is it that the Blues were penalised against the Chiefs for the schoolboy level mistake of not retreating when in front of the kicker? How much bigger a worry is it that four weeks later, against the Sharks, the same thing happened?
PIONEER PORTIA
How great a step forward for women’s rugby was the selection of Portia Woodman as one of the five players of the year in the 2018 New Zealand Rugby Almanack?
And could there have been a more heart-warming choice than Sophie Pascoe to lead the NZ Games team into Carrara Stadium? since a rare DNF in Adelaide.
He’s also won three of them, recovering lost points to rejoin the title race.
Lowndes will also rejoice first point-scoring podium since Sydney in 2016.
As it has been all weekend in Tasmania, race pace was ferocious.
Four drivers went below the previous race lap record, which is now held by Scott Pye after his 51.2622 seconds effort.
Pye started seventh on the grid but failed to cash in after stalling during his pit stop.
David Reynolds continued his early-season momentum with fourth place, while Fabian Coulthard was the biggest mover through the field, starting 11th but finishing fifth.
In another strong day for Commodores, 11 of the top 13 finishers wore the Holden lion badge. Chaz Mostert had the direst day, struggling in the new threestage qualifying format before seeing his Falcon catch fire in the pit lane, forcing a DNF.
1. Jamie Whincup (Holden)
2. Craig Lowndes (Holden)
3. James Courtney (Holden)
4. David Reynolds (Holden)
5. Fabian Coulthard (Ford) in his finish