Blackcaps vs. Australia

Australia are touring New Zealand and playing a T20 series and two test matches here. They haven’t played test match cricket in New Zealand since 2016, presumably through fear of the thrashing they’d get at the hands of the Blackcaps.

One of the test matches will be played in Wellington at the Basin Reserve, and is already sold out. If there’s play on day five we might be able to get along to it. However, the T20 matches are played in much larger stadium venues, and in Wellington that means Sky Stadium. We went along on Wednesday night to see the Blackcaps give the opposition a total thrashing.

We arrived with a bit of time to spare, so got drinks upstairs at the Mezz Bar. They also serve food up there, so I put in my order, only to be told there was a 30-minute wait for food. “But, no problem”, the barman told me; “they serve the same food downstairs”. So we finished our drinks, and Nicola went to take our seats whilst I went in search of alimentation.

Here is the news: they do NOT serve the same food downstairs. They serve typical stadium food downstairs, which is why we head up to the Mezz Bar in the first place. So I found some fush’n’chups and a cheeseburger of dubious quality, and we had those instead.

The Blackcaps started with a stutter, scoring three runs from the first over. This didn’t seem to bother them, and soon they were at 51/0 off 4 overs. First fall was Finn Allen at 61 runs off 5.2 overs. This brought in Rachin Ravindra, New Zealand’s new superstar, and he and Devon Conway made 113 for the next wicket, both making half centuries. New Zealand kept up the run rate, eventually finishing 215/3.

That’s a formidable target for a T20 match, and Australia set about chasing it. They managed to keep up with the run rate until towards the end, as wickets fell regularly. But not regularly enough, and with three overs to go, they were at 173/4, needing 43. The 18^th over went for eight runs, so now the equation was 35 off 12 balls. It looked like New Zealand’s game.

How do you lose a match from there? The penultimate over went for 19 runs, with Tim David hitting two sixes and a four off the last three balls. Suddenly, the target is 16. Tim Southee comes in to bowl, and bowls a wide! A leg bye on the next ball returns Tim David to the striking end, and the next two balls are also singles. They need 12 from three balls…a six and a two leave them needing a four off the last ball to win. Southee attempts the yorker to tuck him up, but David gives himself room and hits it to midwicket. There’s a despairing dive from Glenn Phillips but he can’t stop it reaching the rope, and Australia make it on the last ball. A true nail-biter!

Right, we’ve got them where we want them now, it’ll all be over in the next two matches.

A Ratshit Night In Paradise

Say what? Yes, this is the title of the show. Sven Olsen’s Brutal Canadian Love Saga is the name of the band, and they play a selection of songs, mostly about life in Wellington and New Zealand. They have a string section, and a few weeks ago Nicola was recruited to join it with her viola. For the past few weeks she’s been rehearsing, and now, finally, she got to play live in two gigs on Saturday and Sunday night, as part of the Wellington Fringe Festival. I went along for the second of these gigs.

Nicola set out early as she had to do a sound check before the show, so I met her later and we went for a quick Ruby beforehand. The venue was Newtown Community Centre, and Newtown, being at the more bohemian end of town, has a wide selection of curry restaurants to choose from. We selected Planet Spice, largely on the basis that it was close to the Community Centre. After dining on butter chicken and biryani, we headed back and I positioned myself in an ideal spot to take pictures and record one of the songs – Nicola had given me a heads-up that Adam’s Terrace would be a good candidate for this.

The gig started, and they played through a long set of songs, with some chat in between explaining the provenance and meaning of each song, as well as introducing the band, and general badinage. The band total 20 people – the main band on the stage, including vocalists, guitar, drums, and double bass; a flautist, a mandolinier, and the strings. The musical styles of the songs vary, but all have a quasi-country tone and feel to them. They also make videos which are projected onto the backdrop as they play. I took some pictures and recorded on my phone.

As Helmuth Von Moltke once said, “No plan survives first contact with the enemy”. What I hadn’t bargained for was the 1,000KW LED that Nicola uses to be able to read her music, clipped to the music stand. Yes, behind that blinding light is Nicola.

Fortunately, they all stood up at the end to take a bow.