Oh God - Darren ‘Rhino’ Gough is in the line-up for the UK version of Dancing With the Stars entitled Strictly Come Dancing. Everyone knows it’s way less cool second time around. Good quote though:
The pace bowling Yorkshireman is excited about swapping his cricket woolies for a sequined shirt, though admitted he hasn’t got much in the way of debonair dancefloor moves. He said: “I last danced when Freddie Flintoff and I did some rock ‘n’ roll moves after a win over Australia.”
Highbrow UK paper The Times reported that it might be the end of his World Cup dream as he had turned down the England team’s tour to Pakistan. Matthew Pryor wrote:
ONE show may be over, but another run is just beginning for the man they call Dazzler. Darren Gough, the fast bowler from Barnsley, could have sacrificed his part in the 2007 World Cup with England for a role on Strictly Come Dancing. England are unimpressed, if also a little amused at the prospect of seeing Gough, all diamond earrings, barrel body and dodgy right knee, huffing and puffing on the dance floor. Having told the England selectors he did not want to be considered for the one-day leg of the tour to Pakistan because he wanted to spend more time with his family, David Graveney, the chairman of selectors was a little surprised to be the last to know on Sunday that Gough will be dancing the waltz, the foxtrot and rumba instead.
Totally focused on the belligerent Pommy bats of Freddie Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen, Woodworm is a brand which is breaking away from the traditions of cricket bat manufacturing and marketing. Their website includes downloadable clips of the two tonkers punishing bowling attacks the world over, as well as a piece on the making of the bats themselves. It’s an innovative approach and great to see. Sure there is the odd lingering shot of a bat logo, and some of the taglines are cheesy (too hot to handle, etc) but the focus is on entertainment and turning these two cricketing psychos into heroes…
On the endorsement front, BB McCullum is a Puma man. Haven’t seen any marketing around that yet. Contrast that with the much bigger Aussie market where Puma is using Adam Gilchrist to front a campaign with the tagline, How Hard Can It Be?, and featuring fat and slightly more likely looking Aussie cricket kids of the future.
It’s always good to see the word horrendous being bandied about with reckless abandon. It popped up in the Sydney Morning Herald today:
Ponting is one of many stars returning to local clubs for Cricket Australia’s Long Live Club Cricket Day on Saturday. Shane Warne will be making a rare appearance for St Kilda against Essendon.
In Tasmania, Ponting is still the kid who racked up 600 runs in a week and changed under-13s cricket forever. Club chairman Juan Salter said a 12-year-old with a “horrendous-looking mullet” smashed four or five centuries in 1986 to raise 600.
The next year, the Northern Tasmanian Cricket Association introduced a one-hour or half-century batting limit so all players got a turn at the wicket.
There is another cracking pic of him at this weird Bollywood website. Google goes to some very strange places at times. He’ll be stoked to be up on there looking like that.
We duly registered with the really brilliant 431 Club on the Black Chaps website - not the “corporate” website but the real cool player-based one . Imagine our dismay when we realised that September 9 had come and gone and we hadn’t been contacted about our prize! We have demanded answers but the website nerds there just haven’t got back to us. Never say die - let us know if you know someone who won…or feel free to ask them yourselves by chipping away at editor@idsport.co.nz
Maybe they just forgot to ring us - our number is 027 294 9732 fellas.
431 - The Official Supporters Club Caribbean Capers Competition
By registering to become a member of 431 - The Official Supporters Club
of the BLACKCAPS, members will be entered in a draw for one of five
Caribbean Capers dream holidays to follow the BLACKCAPS in the 2007
World Cup quest in the West Indies.
Included in the prize are: Domestic and international travel to the West Indies. Airport transfers. Accommodation. Transport within the West Indies. Match tickets where applicable. Winners’ trips will be for a minimum of seven days. In order to qualify for the draw, members need to be at least 18 years of age, have a current passport, be able to travel unaccompanied, being able to take-up the prize upon confirmation of World Cup dates and travel by New Zealand Cricket. Successful entrants will have no criminal convictions which would preclude entry to the countries of the Caribbean. Entries must be received during the competition period from December 3, 2004 until September 1, 2005. The draw will be held on September 9, 2005.
UPDATE: 27 September
Obviously sheer coincidence but after we chip, chip, chipped away at NZC, lo and behold today they announce the winners ‘have been contacted’. You have to reply to the email they send you within a week to win - lowers the chances of having to give out all the prizes presumably. Only a fortnight late chaps!
This is Ricky Ponting looking appalling - there can be no other word for it. It almost looks like it is an imposter dressed up like Ricky Ponting but those squinty little eyes give it away.
Richard also sent through a link to Wired which explains that the universe is, in fact, a beige colour (as seen above). We always said it would take over the galaxy but this shows beige has got even bigger than that. The article seems slightly disappointed at the finding - almost willing that it be a crap colour like turquoise:
WASHINGTON — The color of the universe is not an intriguing pale turquoise, as astronomers recently announced. It’s actually beige and a rather ordinary beige at that. Two Johns Hopkins University astronomers said in January they had averaged all the colors from the light of 200,000 galaxies and concluded that if the human eye could see this combined hue, it would be a sprightly pale green. That, they said, was the color of the universe. But Karl Glazebrook and Ivan Baldry admitted Thursday that their conclusion was wrong… When the error was corrected and replaced with a standard white index, beige was the result, Glazebrook said. “It looks like beige,” he said. “I don’t know what else to call it. I would welcome suggestions.” On the website, the authors plead for a name, “as long as it is not ‘beige’!”
The nerds tried to deny it wasn’t beige and even held a comp to come up with a better description of the colour - the winner?
Cappucino cosmico. This is true.
http://www.pha.jhu.edu/~kgb/cosspec/
Cheers to Richard for this pic (his blog is here). Flem’s field on the atrocious Seddon Park deck in Hamilton. Jeffrey Wilson bowling in the FICA World XI match - 7 slips… where is the 11th man in black?
This would have to be right up there - following Astle’s punishing 115 not out last night Singapore’s Today Online comes up with this cosmically bad headline. There’s been a lot of talk, particularly from Gangulygulygotcha, about the Indian bowlers not doing their job and so on but the fact is all their flash Harry batsmen didn’t get enough runs - especially when we are batting with Cairns at 9, Vettori at 10 and Mills at 11.
Comment of the day comes from a chap in the Bay of Plenty who just grabbed a bit of kit out of the Beige Brigade Shop…
The missus bought me one of those wanky Wstar shirts for my birthday this year. She got the flick on Monday and so did the shirt!!
http://www.beigebrigade.co.nz/gallery/album32/Shurt_Burnin_montage
She’s all on in this tale of women’s cricket from the Hawke’s Bay Today newspaper, written by Hamish Bidwell. Thanks to Jeremy for drawing it to our attention - as Marcus Lush would say, brilliant!
`Hard to say I’m sorry’ saga puts pressure on HBCA
Almost seven months on, the fall-out from a women’s match between Napier Technical Old Boys and Napier Old Boys’ Marist continues to cause headaches for the Hawke’s Bay Cricket Association (HBCA).
A game between the two teams way back on February 19 degenerated into a petty and immature slanging match with ex-Tech players Lisa Hayes and Sonya Thompson labelled traitors by their former teammates along with allegations of bias being levelled at Tech umpire and team manager Bill Tunnicliffe.
Somewhere along the line Tunnicliffe is believed to have alleged Hayes a “brain-dead moron” and the fur has continued to fly since. Tunnicliffe has acknowledged that he made the comment, agreed that it was inappropriate, but has stopped short of actually apologising to Hayes.
As a result, the HBCA suspended him from any further involvement in the sport until such time as a written apology was forthcoming. However, Tunnicliffe has flatly refused and is still heavily involved in the women’s game, to the extent of attending recent HBCA women’s sub- committee meetings.
Now Hayes’ mother Avryll has waded into the fray, saying she is upset that the HBCA has failed to properly deal with Tunnicliffe’s behaviour. In a letter to the HBCA she said “she was disgusted that Bill Tunnicliffe has not had the decency to apologise” to her daughter and that the family will not let the matter rest until they are satisfied that Tunnicliffe is truly repentant.
On the flipside, Tunnicliffe indicated, via a letter from the Teach club, that he has no intention of apologising and hopes that this will statement will be the end of the matter. Tech spokesman Craig Findlay says the club has asked Tunnicliffe to apologise but believed he was sticking to his guns because of a brief physical confrontation that is alleged to have occurred between himself and Hayes’ father, Raymond.
Yes it is a shame that Simon Jones isn’t going to be fronting up for the Poms after his role in skittling the Aussies throughout the series, but we here at Beige HQ are even more bitter about the demise of Henry Blofeld as The Guardian reports:
There was, however, no good news in the plans for the veteran commentator Henry Blofeld, who will be missing from the Test Match Special team at the Oval. Financial cutbacks forced a reduction in commentators for the series, and Blofeld has been alternating with Christopher Martin-Jenkins since the first Test at Lord’s. The spokeswoman said: “It is a shame, but the rota has been there since the start of the season and we have to run an efficient ship.” BBC cricket correspondent Jonathan Agnew and the Australian commentator Jim Maxwell will complete the Test Match Special lineup.
Bad call BBC. Blowers is part of what listening to cricket is all about - especially in the dead of the night waking up and hearing him lamenting the dearth of pigeons and so on. Although its days are probably numbered, you can hear some of Henry’s most delicious quotes by heading to the BBC website’s Henry Blofeld Game. If only he could replace Gavin Larsen in our neck of the woods.
