Hayden Meikle

Like most people, I have a few secret shames that are generally kept well hidden beneath the veneer of my otherwise normal and respectable existence.

Skateboarding? Skateboarding? Isn't this Shaun White dude better known for snowboarding? He sure is.

One of the great things about cricket is it gives you, the reader and fan, plenty of opportunities to debate which players would fill a best XI.

Say, who is that athletic-looking fellow on the cover of this game?

North Otago chases its fourth piece of silverware in eight years when it hosts the Meads Cup final on Saturday. Clinging on to the side of the scrum, as he has in the three previous finals, will be rangy flanker Ross Hay. He tells sports editor Hayden Meikle this might be his last dance in gold.

Shaun Haig and Neil Broom made the most of their opportunities as the Otago trial wrapped up at Molyneux Park yesterday.

Eight years ago, North Otago rugby got a monkey off its back when it sealed an extraordinary resurgence with victory in the old third division final.

A football-loving colleague of mine always says the same thing when the new Fifa game hits my desk.

Intense has been the analysis and loud has been the wailing since the Black Caps returned from Bangladesh.

Two Otago Daily Times sports reporters have won significant awards this week.

Former New Zealand chef de mission Dave Gerrard is staggered Commonwealth Games organisers have not been able to produce adequate facilities for athletes in Delhi.

Otago successfully retained its place in the top tier of the New Zealand domestic competition with a meritorious 51-46 win over Waikato on Saturday.

My all-time favourite flying game is a World War 1 simulation called Knights of the Sky.

Alison Shanks has been a world champion but she is not expecting to be able to win a Commonwealth Games medal just by turning up in India. She talks to sports editor Hayden Meikle.