New Black Cap Michael Bates has joined one-test All Black brother Steven Bates in the international sporting ranks.
Is this the first case of All Black and Black Cap brothers?
We've had double All Blacks, father-and-son All Blacks, All Black brothers, Black Cap brothers, and father-and-son Black Caps.
Colin Meads was an All Black and daughter Rhonda was a Silver Fern. Sandra (netball), Thomas (football) and Margaret (hockey) Edge all represented New Zealand. Otago's own Turner brothers (Brian, Glenn and Greg) had hockey, cricket and golf covered.
None of us here at the ODT can think of another example of brothers where one has played rugby for New Zealand and the other has played cricket for New Zealand.
We must be missing somebody.
Surely, the Bates boys can't be the first. Can they?
- Bragging rights
Speaking of family connections, I must send a tongue-in-cheek "nyah nyah" to my cousin and great friend, Dan Meikle, in Canada.
He has become a massive New England Patriots fan and was understandably distraught when his team was beaten in the Super Bowl on Monday.
In the battle of the quarterbacks, Eli Manning (New York Giants) trumped Tom Brady (Patriots).
Four years ago, after the same teams had met in the Super Bowl with the same result, two Meikle boys were born. One named Eli (after Manning), one named Tom (after Brady).
Eli wins!
- House of Pai . . er, Love
The Last Word hears a special occasion of a different sort was held at Carisbrook recently.
The old place is quietly mouldering away, waiting to be consigned to the pages of sporting history.
But it still provided a lovely setting for ice skating queen Morgan Figgins when she got married right in the middle of the pitch.
- Much ado about nothing
Ye gods. Sonny Bill Williams is New Zealand's heavyweight boxing champion, having accounted for a useless overweight bloke called Clarence.
SBW is a fine athlete and obviously has a few fans.
But the circus that surrounds him does nothing for the sport of boxing. And did anyone actually pay the ludicrous fee of $40 to watch the farce?
- The dope show
A famous French television show has got Spanish tennis officials in a spin, AP reports.
The Puppets, a Spitting Image-esque comedy show, ran a skit this week showing a Rafael Nadal character urinating into his car's petrol tank before racing off at immense speed.
A message followed: "Spanish athletes. They don't win by chance.""This time they have gone way too far," Spanish tennis president Jose Luis Escanuela said. "We at the tennis federation cannot tolerate the slander and damage to the prestige of our athletes."
The video followed the Court of Arbitration for Sport's decision to strip Spanish cyclist Alberto Contador of his 2010 Tour de France title for doping.
- Cool Runnings II
Have you heard the one about the Tongan luger representing a German underwear company?
The Guardian newspaper has the bizarre but true story of Bruno Banani, a 24-year-old Tongan training with Germany's Winter Olympic squad.
Promoted by marketing whizzes as the next big thing, with (cringe) a "coconut-powered" catchphrase, Banani was picked up by a major sponsor: Bruno Banani, purveyors of fancy lingerie.
What a coincidence. Then, of course, it emerged the bloke was actually called Fuahea Semi, and was somehow issued a passport under his sponsor's name.
- Scream and shout
Long-serving Otago Daily Times tennis writer Dennis Radford offers his thoughts on the Azarenka-Sharapova shrieking controversy, raised in this column last week:"There is a rule in tennis called a hinder where, if you call out or make a noise that puts off an opponent during a rally, they can get a replay on the first occasion.
Any repeat is a point against the perpetrator.
"This can be applied also to a hat blowing off or a ball falling out of a pocket. Surely if each shriek was treated as a hindrance, it would stop.
"This is entirely different from a genuine grunt or expelling of air as a big effort is made, especially as players tire."
Radford recalls managing a Southern team at a national event several years ago and encountering a mini-Azarenka.
"A Waikato girl, well known for shrieking, was warming up on the next court. Two of our girls, of Southland farming stock, started making animal noises as they hit each of their warm-up shots.
"The oinks, moos, baas and neighs reduced me to helpless laughter and unable to make any useful coaching contribution for some time."
- Willows boys
Three players from the Otago Boys' High School First XI have been selected for a tour of Sri Lanka with the Willows Cricket Club in April.
Tom Griffin (17), Marcus Frost (17) and Jack Hunter (16) will be part of a team, chosen from schools throughout the South Island, to play six games in Sri Lanka and three in Kuala Lumpur.
The Willows club, based at its picturesque home ground in North Canterbury, was set up to foster schools cricket.
The Otago Boys' trio follow in the footsteps of old boys Tom Rutherford and Ciaran McMeeking (2008), Blair Soper (2009) and Michael Collins (2010) in being selected in a Willows touring team.
Black Caps rookie Tom Latham was part of the first Willows tour in 2008.
- Birthday of the week
"It's all happening here at the MCG!"
"Got him, yes!"
The nose. The pigeons. The interplay with Tony Greig.
Happy 74th birthday, William Morris Lawry.
