Posts filed under 'Sport'
This has to be the most number of posts on one subject I have ever posted that doesn’t have a category of it’s own. Anyway, let’s have a look at how the Melbourne Cup went.
Firstly congratulations must go to Makybe Diva and my mum who tipped Makybe Diva.
I checked to see what the various Canberra radio station did for the Melbourne Cup, and I noticed that the ABC appeared to have their own coverage, the two major FM stations shared another coverage, and 2CC and 2CA both used a direct feed from race caller Greg Miles (presumably from the Southern Cross Syndication coverage).
2CC went to the news at about eight to three and then went to Welshy who then took us to Flemington, interupted to tell us there was a delay, played about 15 seconds of music and took us back to Flemington.
2CA ran a delayed version of 2CC’s news at five to three (or maybe it was pre-recorded and the stations played it when they were ready), At the end of the news Gregg Easton provided the weather report and then joined the Melbourne Cup coverage.
At this point in time I noticed that 2CC & 2CA were about 5 seconds ahead of Channel 7, who also used Greg Miles. At this time I turned off the radio and watched the race unfold on Channel 7.
As for my tips, well…
On A Jeune came 2nd
Leica Falcon came 4th
Railings came 14th
Nattie’s tip, Strasbourg came 18th.
I have added my quote of “I have to agree with most experts who say that Makybe Diva will not win” to the random quote list with the subtext “Samuel a few hours before Makybe Diva won the 2005 Melbourne Cup”. I suppose I had a 23 in 24 chance of being right about that!
Samuel
November 1st, 2005 at 08:32pm
Alrighty then, time for the top eight from the Melbourne Cup
1. Makybe Diva
16. On A Jeune
8. Xcellent
22. Leica Falcon
13. Lachlan River
14. Portland Singa
19. Envoy
2. Vinnie Roe
And last was Franklins Gardens which walked across the finish line.
For the record, Xcellent was the first horse in history to start the Melbourne Cup with a name starting with the letter X.
Update:
Full finishing results:
MAKYBE DIVA
ON A JEUNE
XCELLENT
Leica Falcon
Lachlan River
Portland Singa
Envoy
Vinnie Roe
Kindjhal
Rizon
Dizelle
Eye Popper
Demerger
Railings
Vouvray
Kamsky
Greys Inn
Strasbourg
Distinction
Umbula
Hugs Dancer
Bazelle
Mr Celebrity
Franklins Gardens
Whilst Channel 7 tell us that Franklins Gardens did finish the race, other sources say it didn’t…as Channel 7 provided that information after the other sources I am more inclined to believe Channel 7.
END UPDATE
Samuel
November 1st, 2005 at 03:58pm
We have Correct Weight!
1st: 1. Makybe Diva (Win: $3.60, Place: $2.00)
2nd: 16. On A Jeune (Place: $14.60)
3rd: 8. Xcellent (Place: $5.80)
UPDATE: Official finishing time 3:19.17
Trifecta 1-16-8 $4,951.70
Quinella 1 & 16 $164.60
Exacta 1-16 $197.50
Duet 1 & 16 $36.90
Duet 1 & 8 $19.90
Duet 16 & 8 $180.20
Running Double (Race 6 Number 6 & Race 7 Number 1) $117.90
Further placings as they come to hand.
Dividends are Super TAB which encompasses the Victorian TAB, ACTTAB and many more.
Samuel
November 1st, 2005 at 03:31pm
1st: 1-Makybe Diva
2nd: 16-On A Jeune
3rd: 8-Xcellent
4th: 22-Leica Falcon*
*4th place according to race caller
Samuel
November 1st, 2005 at 03:10pm
The time has come for me to announce my Melbourne Cup tips for this year.
I have to agree with most experts who say that Makybe Diva will not win. It was fairly obvious in my view that she wouldn’t be scratched, but she won’t win. Don’t get me wrong, I think she is a very good horse, but I just don’t think she will win.
Anyway, my top three selections
7: Railings
16: On A Juene
22: Leica Falcon
And a tip from Nattie
21: Strasbourg (Well it is a food word).
The race gets underway at 3pm (GMT+11). If you can’t be near a TV to see Channel 7’s coverage (or the Sky Channel coverage) and you can’t make it to a radio (most radio stations will cover it) then you could always listen to it on the 2KY Racing Radio webstream (Website is down, but webstream still works) or the Sport 927 webstream or even the ACTTAB Radio Webstream.
Of course I’ll bring you results from the race as well.
Whoever you pick, good luck and enjoy the afternoon.
Just like last year’s Melbourne Cup day, it is raining here in Canberra.
Samuel
November 1st, 2005 at 12:32pm
British Companies have been warned that they face a computer “meltdown” as zillions of british workers use their computers to track cricket scores during the fifth Ashes test.
One of the quotes from computer firm Network General was quite interesting and amusing
While every company is aware of the risks posed by computer viruses, few will have ever considered Ricky Ponting and Michael Vaughan’s men a potential threat to their computer networks
Interesting, this could be an opportunity to semi-solve the problem of yesterday’s “cricket score statusbar” searcher.
I personally use the resources of Channel 7 to keep up to date with cricket scores when I’m not near the TV, just hover on cricket and click scoreboard, and hey presto (or bingo, or bingo bango bongo) you have live cricket scores & stats.
Samuel
September 6th, 2005 at 10:51am
With the extended absence of Paul Vautin due to an injury, Ray Hadley will make a return to Channel Nine’s NRL Footy Show with a guest appearance.
It will be good to have somebody who knows what he is talking about on the Footy Show again, but in my opinion, they should scrap the existing Footy Show and replace it with a new version with the people from 2GB’s Continuous Call Team. It would be much more entertaining and would actually have meaningful discussions about football for a change.
Samuel
July 28th, 2005 at 04:32pm
Well, the One Day Internationals are over, and so is the Channel 7 coverage of cricket. Technically they didn’t cover any of it as they just sourced the cricket from Sky Sport and placed a bunch of people in a studio to make generic comments and announce that “South Australia are going to the news now.”
I must say that overall I was very pleased with the Channel 7/Sky Sport coverage of the cricket, the commentators were good, they knew what they were talking about and seemed interested in the game, which is more than can be said for the commentators over at Nine.
The Channel 9 commentators are a bunch of boring biddies. They sit there and tell you the same old stories year in year out. Tony Greig and Bill Lawry have the same old arguments year in year out. Heck, if it wasn’t for the fact they occasionally talk about the current game I would think it was a recording. Naturally they spend most of their time in broken record mode. Almost every catch is “the catch of the season”, and Bill Lawry insists on screaming “Got him…Yeah!” after every single wicket.
Regular readers of The Chronicle in Canberra would probably know that local media personality Rod Quinn said similar things about the channel 9 cricket coverage in his column in the late 90’s. Unfortunately, things haven’t changed in this time, there are a couple “new” faces, and Ritchie Benaud doesn’t host on his own any more, but ultimately the same old formula wins out each and every year.
Channel 9 also have a fetish for providing you with a lot of ads, not just between overs, but between balls. They are constantly trying to flog $500 (plus postage and handling) pieces of junk. Most of these items are bizarre line drawings with bits of paint splattered on them that, according to the channel 9 personalities at least, are “fantastic artworks depicting (insert semi-famous non-event here) by renowned artist (name of somebody nobody has ever heard of) , exclusive to the channel 9 cricket shop.”
A typical rundown of one of these ad break overs would be as follows:
Return from ad break
Commentator “Good delivery and a dot ball…Now here we have some artwork (blah blah blah blah blah)”
Commentator announces that the batsman got a half century and continues with advertising
“and it is by renowned artist……And it can be yours for only $599 plus postage and handling without a frame, or $699 plus postage and handling with a frame”
Commentator announces third ball of the over and reads the score
“It is a limited edition of 500, all are personally signed and numbered, call 1900 xyz xyz now for your copy of this limited edition, but hurry as they will sell fast”
Commentator announces fourth ball of the over and declares that it was a “swing and a miss”.
“You can also buy this fantastic artwork by (name) on our website (Veeeeery long URL) or visit (domain name) and click on about 20 links”
“Oh, that was a good delivery…(score)”
The commentator then recaps the important details of the picture or whatever other item they are trying to flog, announces the score at the end of the over and goes to an ad break.
It is worth noting that on most occasions, the item which was supposed to sell quickly is usually on offer again the next week with most of the limited edition still for sale.
Channel 9 also manage to ensure that any trivial event (usually a missed catch) is replayed and talked about ad nauseum for the next hour. It usually takes a couple overs for the current commentators to get over it, and then when the next batch of commentaors arrive, they have to talk about it……the bloke dropped the ball and wasn’t really going to catch it anyway, get over it!
Channel 7 haven’t stooped to such levels, their commentators haven’t managed to jinx every potential catch with the channel 9 line “Oh he can’t possibly drop this one, he is the safest catch on the field and…….OOOOOOOOHHHHHHH NOOOOOO, he dropped it, how did he manage that?”
In fact, it comes as no surprise to me that Sky Sport (who I believe cover cricket for most of the year) have a commentary team who are capable of covering the game, after all, these commentators do it all year, not just for a few weeks during the summer. I would personally be in favour of Sky Sport covering the Australian cricket season and selling free-to-air rights to one of the local stations.
I must, however, point out the two things that disappointed me about the Channel 7 coverage. My first minor complaint is that, due to cricket occurring on Thursday nights, it took the place of Stargate Atlantis, not to worry though, I got my dose tonight. My second, and much more potent complaint is Tony Squires. It has got me beat as to why Channel 7 hired the idiot in the first place, he is a pure, plain and simple pain in the neck who thinks he is funny. I can only assume that Bruce McAvaney was on holiday or didn’t want to be awake past midnight or something like that as he is truly the best sport commentator that Channel 7 have.
On that note, I hope that the AFL have learned their lesson, Channel 9 love NRL and have extended their contract, and in the process extended the number of games they will cover. Whilst I have no problems with more NRL on free-to-air TV, I do have problems with Channel 9 slotting in the AFL after two Friday night NRL games. Channel 10 have managed to uphold a sense of decency with the Saturday AFL coverage, but ultimately, nobody comes close to the professionalism and excellence of the Channel 7 AFL coverage. Lets just hope that the AFL don’t just blindly grab the highest bidder for the AFL TV rights, because if they do it will most likely end up in the hands of Channel 9 and Foxtel, whilst the new (and somewhat unofficially announced) partnership of channels 10 & 7 get left dangling a smaller wad of cash with better coverage.
It is no secret that since Channel 9 took over the AFL TV rights, AFL ratings and support in New South Wales have dwindled, this is because it receives no exposure on Friday night, very few people want to wait until midnight to watch a game of AFL, especially when it isn’t their favourite sport. Channel 10 have suffered as well, they have been trying to promote Saturday night AFL, but without the weeknight exposure, the Saturday night coverage has been a ratings disaster, which in turn makes Channel 10 less likely to run it at a decent time of the night because low rating programs don’t rake in advertising dollars.
Give the Channel 7 & 10 partnership the rights to the AFL and the game will flourish again. And thankyou to 2GB and 3AW respectively for providing such fantastic radio coverage of these sports…It wouldn’t be the same without you.
I look forward to more Sky Sport coverage of cricket (this time it is The Ashes tests) through SBS in the coming weeks. I wonder how Les Murray will go at cricket discussion, he is very knowledgable about most sports, so he should be fine….bring it on!
Samuel
July 15th, 2005 at 12:30am
I’ve discussed this numerous times on Google Groups, so I’ll make it brief. Thankyou to 2CA for making it possible to hear live AFL coverage on a regular basis in Canberra. They have cornered the market by providing the *only* commercial radio AFL coverage in Canberra, and they also are the only place that are regular with the coverage. The ABC do cover it, but they are not regular, they shuffle it over to News Radio whenever they take the NRL, and often News Radio just cut into other programs with it, and provide no information about when it will be on. 2CA are regular, they do Friday night from 7PM, Saturday & Sunday from Midday, and other special days whenever they happen.
I will be writing a letter to 2CA about this shortly.
Samuel
April 26th, 2005 at 07:35pm
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