Blackcaps vs. Bangladesh

Bangladesh are currently touring New Zealand, playing three ODIs and three T20 matches. One of the ODIs was played at Wellington’s Basin Reserve, so naturally I went along for a day’s cricketing action. Nicola, unfortunately, had to work, so I was on my tod.

It was another lovely sunny day for cricket, so I drove down and found a convenient parking space along Kent Terrace, five minutes’ walk from the ground. Where else in the world can you do that for a cricket international? I had a reserved seat high in the RA Vance Stand, but chose to sit instead in our usual seats below the stand, as this is more convenient for the side trips required for beer and food etc during the match. I was giving my cricket t-shirt its final outing for the year, which always elicits comments (front: I don’t like cricket; back: I ¤ it!).

The Blackcaps had decided to bat first; after making a good start, they stuttered somewhat, losing wickets while on 41 (Nicholls 18), 49 (Guptill 26), and 57(Taylor 7), before Devon Conway came in to steady the ship. He partnered Tom Latham for 63 runs, and then made a huge fifth wicket partnership with Daryl Mitchell – a record-setting 159 runs. Conway was out for 126 - his first century for New Zealand - but the work had been done, and the Blackcaps were looking comfortable at 279 with 16 balls to go. The only remaining question…could Daryl Mitchell, then on 76, make a ton? He certainly gave it a go, and walloped a six and three fours in the final overs. On 95 with four balls remaining, he ran a two, then a single, leaving Mitchell Santner facing the penultimate ball. All he needed to do was to run a single so that Mitchell (Daryl, not Santner) could face the final ball and make a century. He gave it a hard slog and it looked like it was heading for the boundary…but no, cut off by the fielders! They’d scampered two, and made a desperate lunge for a third. Fortunately assisted by a wayward throw from the boundary, they made it, and left Mitchell facing and needing two from the final ball. Again, some fast running saved the day and they made it back for two, Mitchell celebrating all the way with his first ODI century for New Zealand. All these shenanigans had pushed the score up to 318/6, setting a high target for the Bangladeshis...

Is that a cloud on the horizon? New Zealand at 75 for 3

...One that they were unable to conquer, unfortunately. They had a valiant effort, but they’re not in the same league as New Zealand. Despite some resistance from Mahmudullah in the middle order providing some entertainment with four sixes, the rest of the Bangladesh line-up weren’t up to the mark and only two others made double figures. Mahmudullah ran out of partners and ended unbeaten on 76; that well-known batsman, X Tras, was their fourth-highest scorer on 12, and they finally slumped to 154 all out after 42.4 overs. New Zealand won the series 3-0.

That run rate is getting away from Bangladesh

That’s it for international cricket this season in Wellington - the T20 matches are being played in Hamilton, Napier and Auckland over the next week. The White Ferns are playing Australia in April but no matches in Wellington – the weather’s a bit too iffy at this time of year, so all the matches are in north North Island. New Zealand then head to the UK for a test series against England before the inaugural Test World Final against India, to be played in England in June.

Slay The Dragon

There hasn’t been much on at Circa recently to tempt us, but something kept popping up in my FB feed because I follow A Slightly Isolated Dog. It’s called Slay The Dragon Or Save The Dragon Or Neither, and ASID are producers of the show. We’ve been to some of their shows before, notably Jekyll And Hyde, and enjoyed them, so we thought we’d give it a go.

Due to our busy schedules these days, we had to arrive at BATS Theatre independently, Nicola in her Driving Miss Daisy car. Could we find anywhere to park? Could we buggery! I don’t know what was going on in town, but it seemed that the normally empty spaces along Oriental Parade and Wakefield Street were all full. Eventually I found a space, and arrived in the nick of time.

The show is written by, and stars, two New Zealanders of Chinese ancestry, and revolves around them exploring their family trees and history, relating back to a trip to China, and covers such things as filial duty, grief, and ceremonies and rites around death. Sounds grim! Actually it was quite funny, told by two self-confessed “not an actor”s, using various different methods to convey the strangeness of China from a Chinese New Zealander’s perspective (she didn’t like “Chinese” Chinese food, but yearned for “New Zealand” Chinese food instead). It wasn’t a play or conventional type of show, more of a documentary with added storytelling. Some of it was quite tightly scripted, as its use of repetition needed to be spot on.

Afterwards we went round the corner to Capitol, where I was able to get the Bluff oysters I’d been so deprived of a week ago.

Crowded House

 After a hiatus of 10 years (with a brief reunion for some gigs in 2016), Crowded House are back…with a new line-up consisting of founder members Neil Finn and Nick Seymour, long-time producer Mitchell Froom promoted into the band, and two Finn sons (Elroy on drums, Liam on guitar). We’ve enjoyed seeing Neil Finn solo on a number of occasions, so this was a must-see.

Not what it says on the T shirt

But first, of course, dinner. They’re playing at the TSB Arena, so somewhere nearby seemed appropriate. Where else but Shed 5, Wellington’s premier seafood restaurant? Reservations were duly made. And a good job too, as the restaurant was full! On a Monday night! OK, they probably did know what hit them, and were well prepared for the influx. It would be fair to say that a lot of Crowded House fans are now “of a certain age”, and have accumulated the trappings of that age. Although I’m sure Rosie’s Red Hot Cantina and Bin 44 did a roaring trade as well.

Whilst they had Bluff oysters on the menu, the first thing our waiter told us was that they’d sold out. Bum. I had some salmon crudo to start, and Nicola had king prawn spaghetti, which was exactly as it sounds. We both had market fish (salmon and snapper) mine done with caprese salad, Nicola’s with an Asian-style accompaniment including puffed rice, green beans and pickled ginger. Then, decision time: do we want to see the support act, or pudding? Pudding won, and we’ll have to wait for another occasion to see Reb Fountain.

A short walk across Great Harbour Way, and we effected an ingress to the arena. First port of call was at the merch stand, to pick up a couple of T shirts. Due to the recent covid level changes, a number of the gigs have had to be hastily rearranged, so the dates on the back of the t shirt are, in fact, wrong. Will this make them collector’s items in the future? Probably not. No-one will remember.

The lights went down, and we were off – with crowd-pleaser Weather With You to open, followed by a number of classics, interspersed with new singles Whatever You Want and To The Island, and new material from their forthcoming album, Dreamers Are Waiting, which will be released on June 4^th. They finished up with a rousing finale of Don’t Dream It’s Over, Something So Strong and Distant Sun, before coming back on for an encore of Chocolate Cake, Heroes (David Bowie) and their classic show ender, Better Be Home Soon.

That set list in full:

Weather With You
Mean to Me
World Where You Live
In My Command
Whatever You Want
Fall at Your Feet
Whispers and Moans
Playing With Fire (with Reb Fountain)
Pineapple Head
When You Come
Private Universe
Four Seasons in One Day
Silent House
To the Island
Nails in My Feet
Locked Out
Don't Dream It's Over
Something So Strong
Distant Sun
 
Encore:
Chocolate Cake
"Heroes" (David Bowie cover)
Better Be Home Soon

 

En Route To Normal

Apparently, Bill Bailey came up with the name of this show before the covids hit. It’s the title of his latest show, and, as was the case with his last tour, he’s decided to kick it off in New Zealand – in stark contrast to most other comedians and performers, who usually play New Zealand about two years after the rest of the world (if at all), long after the DVD has been released.

And where better to kick it off than in Wellington? Two shows on consecutive nights at the Michael Fowler Centre, before taking it to 11 other cities on a 17-date tour of the country. The UK gets the tour in December 2021 and January 2022, on the assumption that you’re all cured of the covids.

But first, of course, the traditional pre-show dinner. We’d arranged to meet up with James and Rupert, but, due to the show being on  (and presumably being Saturday night as well), our first two choices (Cin Cin and Apaché) were booked out, so we ended up in old fave Field & Green. Nothing wrong with that, and we had a slap-up dinner rounded off with their signature ice cream selection…I had peanut butter and chocolate, while Nicola had marmalade.

A quick walk up the street to the MFC, and we took our seats with minutes to spare. On came Bill, and boy, was he pleased to see us! And yes, he did mention the covids, as well as musing on his time in MIQ with Big Terry the sparrow and his pigeon cleaners. He was fairly scathing about the UK’s response, and did some standard St Jacinda-worshipping. He introduced us to some of his instrumentation, including the theremin, which is usually played with the hands but can also be played with the head. As usual, there were musical interludes, and the revelation that Kraftwerk had expanded their repertoire from traditional ballads into children’s entertainment. He gave us anti-Nazi limericks, and tales of derring-do (actually, more derring-don’t) whilst filming documentaries about birds of paradise. In the second half, having established that there were more German speakers (or, at least, German understanders) in the audience than he was expecting, he started to repeat the show in German. Surprisingly, we were able to follow it more or less, possibly helped by the fact that we’d heard it before, and the accompanying gestures. Fortunately, he switched back to English, then entertained us with the Metal Lifestyle at home, and answering the door to Jehovah’s Witnesses in said style. As the end of the show neared, he expanded on his thesis that any song sounds better when played in the Metal style, and invited suggestions from the audience to demonstrate this. One punter almost floored him by requesting Ave Maria, whilst the other song to get the treatment was Lady In Red. My suggestion (Remember You’re A Womble) was sadly ignored – maybe he recognised my voice from last time?

That about rounded the show up, and we went off home satisfied with our comedy entertainment. If you can get to a show, do so!

Blackcaps vs. Australia

The Blackcaps have been playing a five-match T20 series against Australia over the last two weeks. After winning the first two matches in Christchurch and Dunedin – the first by a convincing 53 runs, the second by 4 runs, the action moved to Wellington.

And then the covid dickheads struck, and the country was moved into Level 2 and Auckland Level 3. The upshot of this was that the Wellington match, which we had wanted to see, was played behind closed doors. But the following match was due to be played in Auckland, and the final in Tauranga. The decision was taken to play these all in Wellington, but also without crowds. Boo!

The first two matches played, and the Blackcaps lost both. Clearly, they can only win if they have supporters. But wait…what’s this? On Friday afternoon, with no new community transmission cases for five days, St. Jacinda announced that we would be moving to Level 1 with effect from 6:00am on Sunday morning – the day of the final match! The decider could be played in front of a crowd.

Ticketek swung into action, and tickets were available immediately. Unfortunately, I’d already signed up to a tour at Zealandia for Sunday morning, so I made my way down to the stadium as quickly as possible afterwards, but missed the first nine overs of Australia’s innings, joining when they were at 77/3. Australia were scoring slowly at this point, and never really picked up the pace or managed to get a partnership going. Helped along by Sodhi’s double in the 18^th and Southee’s two in the final over, they set an eminently gettable target of 143.

Guptill and Conway opened for New Zealand, and, unlike on previous occasions, utterly dominated the Australian bowling line-up. They reached 106 before Conway was out for 36. Time for Captain Kane to step up to the crease…and immediately step down again. Out for a golden duck. Poo. Despite that, and the loss of Guptill three overs later for 71, the work had been done (Guptill putting one six on the roof of the stadium), and the total was reached in the 15^th over. Another convincing win for New Zealand, and a series win over Australia, which is always a good thing.

After a short break, the second part of the day’s entertainment was the White Ferns against England. This was the third of a three-match series, and was already a dead rubber, with England 2-0 up in the series. Never mind, could the Ferns salvage some respect with a win?

No.

England are a class apart from the White Ferns, and took them apart again with relative ease. Having set a modest target of 128, England bowled the Ferns out for 96 in 18 overs. They’re really going to have to up their game before next year’s world cup.

There’s more international cricket later in the month when Bangladesh tour New Zealand for three ODIs and three T20 matches. We’ll be along to the Basin Reserve to see one of those, covid permitting. Meanwhile we’re back in Level 1, apart from Auckland, so life is again returning to normal. Tasman and Cook Island bubbles are being talked about again, although our roll-out of the vaccine seems to be progressing at snail’s pace. So far, 75% of border workers have received it, but for the rest of New Zealand it will be “in the second half of the year”, according to Chris Hipkins. Sorry, could you be a bit more vague?