So, how are we feeling about Mike Hesson and Brendon McCullum now?
Black Caps II
Fine, fine. The magnificent glory of a memorable test series win was spoiled slightly by a great English rearguard for a draw.
But forgive me while I play the Otago card loudly and really rather proudly in the aftermath of an unexpectedly buoyant few weeks.
Imagine, if you will, a conversation between two Black Caps fans a couple of months ago - about the time the national team had been dismissed for 45 by South Africa.
England is coming, one points out. The No 2 test side in the world. To play the worst proper test team in the world.
One team will have Alistair Cook, Jonathan Trott, Kevin Pietersen, Ian Bell, Matt Prior, Stuart Broad, James Anderson and Steven Finn.
The other will have two new openers (one green as the University Oval outfield, the other a recycled journeyman with a test average of 20), a disaffected former captain returning to the fold, a couple of barely-established blokes called Dean and Bradley-John, and a spinner who has waited 13 years to make his test debut.
A 3-0 series win to the world-class team? Nup. It will finish 0-0. And the underdogs will dominate two of the three tests.
Don't obsess over the timing of New Zealand's declaration in the final test, or bemoan our bowlers' inability to finish the English off.
Be pleased and proud. And if you're from Otago, deliver the odd subtle ''nyah nyah'' to those who have given Hesson and McCullum a rocky ride in recent months.
The unlikeliest . . .
Speaking of Peter Fulton, sheesh. What a story.
Cruelly dubbed a ''walking wicket'' by sections of the English media, Fulton was almost certainly doubted by the majority of his own fans.
And why not? He had been out of the Black Caps for a long time, and his test record was on the poor side of mediocre.
The big man's response was to become just the fourth New Zealander to score two centuries in a test. Incredible.
. . . of heroes
Some other unlikely New Zealand sporting heroes. -
1. Stephen Donald. Another magnificent recent example. The story of how a fourth-string No 10 was whistled in from whitebaiting and fitted with an All Black jersey, which was too small, just in time to win the Rugby World Cup final is now a legend. But don't forget the poor bugger was BOOED by many of his own fans when he ran on to the field. Unlikeliest hero in the history of New Zealand sport, is our Beaver.
2. Lydia Ko. A 15-year-old schoolgirl is the biggest star in New Zealand golf. Fact.
3. Dillon Boucher. Basketballers. They'd be the tall, super athletic guys who put the ball through the hoop. Boucher is not tall, not athletic and not a scorer. But every team loves to have him.
4. Murray Halberg. The great man had a withered arm following a bad rugby injury but did not let it stop him winning Olympic gold.
5. Darren Liddel. Came out of nowhere to win three weightlifting golds at the 1998 Commonwealth Games. Got a ticker tape parade on his return to Te Atatu but quickly retired, due to injury.
6. Chris Harris. Everybody loved him, and I always found it odd. He was a decent cricketer but only his fielding was top-class.
7. Annelise Coberger. A New Zealander winning a medal at the Winter Olympics? Very unlikely.
8. Sir Tristram. Patrick Hogan bought the horse, sight unseen, despite being warned of his temper and his average appearance. ''Paddy'' transformed the New Zealand bloodstock industry on his way to siring 45 group 1 winners, including three Melbourne Cup winners.
Football epiphany
The Last Word enjoyed seeing the All Whites in the flesh last Friday, even though the crowd at Forsyth Barr Stadium was disappointing.
But attending the game - and writing a quick story for our website during it - and watching the replay on television the next day confirmed the battle sports face to get bums on seats.
It would have cost about $100 to take my family to the game, had I not been working. And on the big screen, we would have had virtually no replays, apparently because Fifa is wary of ''inciting riots'' during football games.
On the night, as the cramped press box hummed with fingers on keyboards, the incident where Shane Smeltz got booted in the head, sustaining an injury that would later require plastic surgery, passed in a flash. None of us had a clue what had happened.
Watching the game on the box the next day was, I am almost sad to admit, a more enjoyable and enlightening experience, mainly thanks to the multiple replays and up-close angles.
Being at a major sports event with a passionate crowd can still be an unmatched experience. The 2011 Rugby World Cup games at the Glasshouse were shining, spine-chilling examples.
But with a big screen and an HD ticket, and a monthly bill that covers hundreds of live events in any number of codes, the appeal of being an armchair fan is stronger than ever.
Perhaps, as a colleague suggested, sports will eventually have to pay ''fans'' to go the stadiums to provide atmosphere for the people at home.
Lob city
Those watching the netball game between our Southern Steel and the Queensland Firebirds last weekend would have noticed a familiar theme.
In classic Anzac netball style, the game revolved around a handful of home-grown players moving the ball through court ... and then firing it into an impossibly tall Jamaican.
As rugby teams were once obsessed with finding Fijian wingers, many netball teams now see recruiting a Jamaican shooter as the way to go. In Jhaniele Fowler, the Steel could have one of the best.
School cricket
Turns out boom King's batsman Taylor Cumberland was definitely NOT the first Otago schoolboy to crack a double ton in a major interschool match.
Cumberland's magnificent innings - 201 not out against Waitaki Boys' - featured in this newspaper at the start of the month, and it was thought it may have been a record.
But Roger Andrews, an ex-Waitakian of Patearoa, informs me at least two players from that fine school in Oamaru have done the double ton in a First XI interschool.
He remembers watching Waitaki annihilate Timaru Boys' by an innings and 317 runs in March 1947. The star was Michael Buckenham, who scored 213.
But wait, there's more. DT MacIntyre scored a remarkable unbeaten 284 for Waitaki against Southland Boys' in 1939.
Andrews' information is backed up by the first history of Waitaki Boys', by KC McDonald, which lists all of the school's interschool centuries up to 1958.
Birthday of the week
Ripper Collins would have been 109 today.
Christened James Anthony, Collins was a baseball player who won two World Series with the St Louis Cardinals. His 1934 Cardinals team was known as the Gashouse Gang because the players were rough, mean and often unwashed.
