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THE LOOP: A March Quickie

8 March 2008

We haven't been in touch for a while - but we haven't been sitting around knitting vests or fisting windows. We've been podcasting our moustachioed faces off, blogging from cow corner on Stuff and hatching plans for missions to see us collapse in the second innings against the Poms...

CLICK HERE TO READ THE AUGUST 2008 NEWSLETTER

Bracin' for the Basin: Next weekend we'll be getting together for a few pints before and after the cricket at The Cambridge Hotel in Wellington. If you are beiged up and floating around in the capital, and looking to dole out a bit of advice to Ryan 'Sexual Chocolate' Sidebottom and co, come and find us on the bank. All enquiries and logistical plans to us by emailing beigehq@beigebrigade.co.nz or phoning 0800-BRIGADE.

Guardian Quiz: Another dirty great big brown feather in the Beige Brigade beret came when Marcel spotted this outrageous quiz question in none other than The Guardian in the UK. Larry was reportedly over the small horse equivalent of the moon to get a mention! We think that chap Lawrence Booth who writes The Spin for The Guardian was resonsible. If you don't know what The Spin is - sign up for Lawrence's Pommy-centric weekly cricket ramblings here.

BYC: We have knuckled down at The BYC podcast and set our sights on making it to our century of episodes this year - currently we are unbeaten on 63 and looking as gritty and protective of our average as Shivnarine Chanderpaul. We are now the longest running - and possibly the only - podcast running in the Land of the Long White Librarian. Recent BYC highlights include song tributes to big old Jesse Ryder, the million dollar IPL recruits and the man called Donkey, Stephen Fleming.

The Kits: We are still doling out Beige Brigade clobber to the masses in The Shop. Had a big surge in lycra suit hireage lately - a clear indication that we are entering the 'Degrade the Man Getting Married' Season. Well done best men across the globe - your desire to lycrify your mate is a true demonstration of masculine cameraderie. Elsewhere, the top 5 items in order of being shown Kiwi love are:

01.	Shirt - "The Original"
02.	Stubbies - Brown
03.	Strides
04.	Jandals
05.	Classic Bucket

Too Cool for School: We offered our support to the L&P BYC competition which was brilliantly held during in Paeroa during the only weekend where international cricket was played within coo-ee of the Thames Valley's coolest town. Check out some excerpts from the advertising boffin who is babysitting the L&P brand and her explanation that L&P and the Beige Brigade are miles apart "creatively" and "strategically"...talk about million dollar legs, ten cent heads!

"We don't want to position ourselves as hi-tech, as a brand.  We're all about back in the day and would probably prefer to use the an 80s dial phone... It'd be great if you'd like to put a link on your site to ours, we would appreciate that...I guess creatively we do feel that our senses of humours are quite different.  We kinda see the Beige Brigade as high profile funny guys where as L&P is always the backseat funny guy, finding humour in little kiwi truths and not really making a fuss.  We...don't feel the fit is quite right for L&P, strategically."

Wake up to yourself L&P - don't let these people take over - they are putting the soft in drink...Take a look at the picture of this man with a fish - does he look hi-tech to you? Irish, yes - and wonderful - but not hi-tech. We loved the previous L&P campaign team's Stubbies ad and this one from 1990 was memorable too. Look forward to seeing some of the new, really strategic ones emanating from Rachel and her crew at the agency.

Sideline Slogger: The bearded element of the Beige Brigade has been unleashing madness and occasional insights on Stuff's Sideline Slogger blog. We have recently chipped away about the worst rules in cricket, why Matthew Hayden is a tosser, the underarm ball and SP Fleming pulling the pin. Feel free to vent your spleen  anonymously on there - there are plenty of pessimists and cricket cynics out there for you to help us wind up.

Old Blighty: We are having a bit of a 10th birthday bash in London town at the end of the month, and we have missions all over the show on the horizon including Gallipoli, Pamplona, Oktoberfest and La Tomatina - check out the details here at www.beigebrigade.com. We also have a bunch of tickets to the NZ v Poms cricket in the UK in May/June - not that we didn't make our feelings clear about the prices!

Reasons to Play Cricket: More than one good reason is pictured here. Not sure why Haley Bracken elected to marry an Australian woman cricketer but there you go, c'est la vie.

Rizzo: A Beige Brigade stalwart's inner cricketing thoughts are unleashed in The Press - and what about that photo!

The Beige Penguin: Thank you to the thousands of you who made donations to the Beige Penguin Isolation Fund. I f you were in a cave and missed our impassioned campaign, have a squizz here for the lowdown - here for the TV1 news item, and here for the campaign's theme song from the Woman Slayer. Emotional.

Declared: And that, as they say - is that. Do get in touch with your thoughts and comments - and send us stuff that the world needs to know and we will whack it up on the Sideline Slogger or if it is too weird for that, on our own less formal blog - The Rave.

Take care out there - and join us in hoping W-Star lose the contract to supply NZ Cricket's "dynamic sporting brands" (and the White Ferns) with their dreadful gear.

PAUL & MIKE (& LARRY)