The Sandman
The Sandman
Lydia Ko form check, Sarpreet Singh's Werder move collapses, plenty of kiwi cricket, some U20s football & Adam Sandler's Hustle
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Podcast
Reading Menu
All Whites vs Costa Rica: Final Words From The Scouting Notebook (Football)
Michael Bracewell Is The Latest Slow-Cooked Blackcaps Test Cricketer (Cricket)
The Many Wrinkles Of Glenn Phillips' Move To Otago Volts (Cricket)
Turns Out Trent Boult Is The Best Number 11 In Test Cricket (Cricket)
The Differing Fates of Junior Fa, Hemi Ahio & David Nyika at Kambosos vs Haney (Boxing)
27fm Weekly Playlist: June 13 (Music)
Scott’s Word
Lydia Ko is enjoying a supreme patch of LPGA form. Ko sealed a tied-4th finish this morning at the LPGA Classic and this is her third top-five finish in her last four tournaments. Of course Aotearoa media will highlight a bloke on the elderly tour first, then all that went wrong for Ko not to win and how long it's been since her last LPGA Tour win. Ko has just one win this year but she is operating with world-class consistency and is doubling down as the best wahine golfer in the world.
The LPGA Classic was played over three rounds and Ko keeps on shining with her putter. Ko averaged 26 putts per round over the weekend and this is well below her LPGA Tour average of 28.31 which is still 1st on tour. Ko is still 1st in Sand Saves as well, boosted by 2/2 Sand Saves in the final round. These are staples of Ko's excellent mahi and this amplifies the general theme of Ko not buzzing about the flashy stuff (booming drives), while being the best in the world at grit/grind elements of golf.
Ko continues to excel as a gritty kiwi. Unless you have been tracking the Lydia Ko Mixtape, you probably tap into Ko mahi when she grabs headlines. Those headlines don't express how consistent Ko has been (during a pandemic) and the phase of volatile results now seems to be drifting off in the pre-pandemic distance.
Reminder: Lydia Ko is the only golfer on this planet with two Olympic medals.
Greens in Regulation
2020: 68.91% - 36th
2021: 73.06% -34th
2022: 68.38% - 65th
Putts per GiR
2020: 1.77 - 4th
2021: 1.72 - 1st
2022: 1.72 - 2nd
Putting Average
2020: 29.13 - 5th
2021: 28.79 - 2nd
2022: 28.31 - 1st
Sand Saves
2020: 68.25% - 3rd
2021: 59.34% - 3rd
2022: 70% - 1st
Scoring Average
2020: 70.26 - 6th
2021: 69.33 - 3rd
2022: 69.90 -11th
LPGA tournaments are flowing like a estuary in winter with tournaments being played over the next two weekends. All these tournaments are in the eastern regions of USA so there won't be any travel niggle and as there is a wee break afterwards, expect Ko to lace up for these next two events.
Rachin Ravindra and Glenn Phillips grab County Championship centuries. Ravindra popped up to play with Durham for one game and he's on 178* ahead of the second day's play, while Phillips scored 125 as he continues to roll through T20 Blast and CC games. Durham are in Division Two which shouldn't diminish what Ravindra has done as any scores are beneficial to him at the moment and Gloucestershire are in Division One, but rooted to the bottom of that ladder.
Ravindra opened the batting for Durham and spent plenty of time batting alongside Scott Borthwick who has previously spent time with Wellington. Ravindra didn't hit a century in the Plunket Shield last summer but was solid (343 runs @ 38.11, 3 x 50) and this was his first score over 60 in his last 10 games. There is also a funky Durham wrinkle here as Will Young hit back to back centuries for Durham last winter which sparked his rise to Blackcaps Test opener.
Batters bowling spin is a clear trend in Aotearoa cricket and that context featured in this yarn about Michael Bracewell as well as this yarn about Glenn Phillips. Ravindra leap-frogged Mitchell Santner but hasn't quite kicked on and wasn't much of a bowling factor last summer...
Plunket Shield: 107ov, 9w @ 45.66avg.
Ford Trophy: 17ov, 1w @ 71avg.
Super Smash: 13ov, 3w @ 31avg.
All of those are worse than Bracewell and Phillips, although Ravindra is steadily developing as an opening batter. I'm curious to see if Durham give Ravindra some overs in this game, I'm also curious if Ravindra is heading in the opposite direction to these other Blackcaps as he zones in on his batting. Ravindra is a pure opening batter, Bracewell and Phillips are middle-order lads keen to add to their skillset.
Phillips for example, has bowled 8ov with 3w @ 20.33avg in the T20 Blast and will likely bowl when when Gloucs show up to bowl. Phillips was a dominant force in last year's T20 Blast but not as slick in County Champs, which is now parlayed into decent mahi across both competitions this winter. Phillips hit 125 @ 79.61sr in his first County game of the winter and is currently leading Gloucs for T20 Blast runs with 201 runs @ 33.50avg/133.11sr.
Phillips was batting against Jacob Duffy who has snared a gig alongside former Auckland seamer Matt Quinn at Kent. Duffy took 2w @ 5.05rpo and both his wickets were bottom-six batters. Duffy was the most expensive Kent bowler apart from some lad who went for 11 runs off his only over and while Duffy was graced with a loyalty Blackcaps Test squad selection, he's coming off a niggly Plunket Shield campaign; 13w @ 54.84avg.
Leigh Kasperek appears to have been the only kiwi playing in England’s Charlotte Edwards Cup (wahine T20). Kasperek played six games for Northern Diamonds with 5w @ 26.60avg and despite being Aotearoa’s best spinner since 2015, Kasperek has been treated horribly by White Ferns selectors. This may push Kasperek back to representing Scotland and she is another wahine cricketer who has laid everything out for Aotearoa, only to be shuffled along for worse cricketers.
Aotearoa needs as many wahine competing around the world as possible. The colonizer games will feature T20 cricket in England and while NZC love their high performance stuff, there would have been great benefit in getting some of this young White Ferns squad over to compete in England.
Grassroots observations...
Checking the weekend's Auckland Rugby League games reminded me of a note from last year as I pondered the difference between clubs who win on Saturdays and clubs who produce Kiwi-NRL players. Pt Chevalier are 5-0 to start this season and every week their team consists of players who used to be NZ Warriors juniors, or fringe NRL players who have returned to Auckland. Pt Chev are the big donnies of Auckland league and in the murky world of grassroots 'rewards', Pt Chev are the busiest Auckland club in terms of luring players to their premier blokes team.
Pt Chev barely have any Kiwi-NRL lads, or juniors in NRL systems. They just pay to win games on Saturday.
Auckland clubs like Marist Saints, Bay Roskill, Otahuhu, Mangere East, Papatoetoe, Manurewa, Ellerslie, Te Atatu and Glenora produce the most Kiwi-NRL players. Ellerslie has a fantastic junior set up and churn out Kiwi-NRL players, yet they don't have a premier blokes team in the Fox Memorial this year.
It's easy to celebrate the clubs who win on Saturdays and across all sports, those clubs are usually the richest or have the best connections to jobs etc. I would much rather be part of a club that produces the most Kiwi-NRL players (or professional players for other sports) and there is immense mana in that method. Don't complain about richer clubs buying players etc, just focus on the intention and purpose of your club.
Wahine grassroots footy threw up a funky doosra with Onjeurlina Leiataua listed in the Marist wahine rugby union team that played on Saturday, then in the Otahuhu rugby league team that played on Sunday. Leiataua is a top-17 Kiwi Ferns player and has previously played for Black Ferns which again highlights the ability of young folks from Aotearoa to excel in both codes - footy abundance.
Langi Veainu has played Black Ferns and Kiwi Ferns as well - she started at centre for Pt Chev wahine this round. Also in that team were Katelyn Vaha'kolo, Charlotte Scanlon and Annetta Nu'uausala who all played NRLW for Knights earlier this year. Manurewa wahine also had members from that NRLW Knights crew with Krystal Rota, Maitua Feterika, Ngatokotoru Arakua and Kararaina Wira-Kohu in their team this weekend.
If you want to see the best wahine rugby league players in Aotearoa, get along to these grassroots fixtures in Auckland. They are all competing for Kiwi Ferns selection, as well as Tonga and Samoa selection in a World Cup year. Plus they'll be hunting NRLW spots for the upcoming campaign.
Aotearoa jams…
Wildcard’s Notebook
The Sarpreet Singh x Werder Bremen Saga
Yeah so some bad news on this whole front. After writing a heap on Friday about what seemed then like a sure thing impending contract the whole thing has since fallen apart. Singh flew back to Germany to do his medical with Werder Bremen with personal terms already agreed but they didn’t even get around to a proper medical in the end with Singh’s pelvic bone injury immediately wrecking the deal before they went any further.
Slightly weird one as it’s not like they didn’t know he was injured. He hasn’t played since February and even missed the second fixture against Werder Bremen because of it so that would have come up immediately in their scouting. Yet the CEO was talking last week about this pretty much being a done deal.
But it seems the issue is that they’ve estimated him to be out for another 3-4 months which would mean he misses all of preseason and probably a fair few of the proper games too. That was the deal breaker for Werder Bremen. Instead he’ll remain in Munich to continue his rehabilitation.
Singh still has one year left on his Bayern contract and that last year comes in handy right about now. World class fitness facilities and all that. Unfortunately 3-4 months would also take him beyond the transfer window so barring a miracle recovery he’s going to have to wait until January to get his move, whether to Werder Bremen (who you’d imagine are still well keen given how close this came to happening) or elsewhere. There is of course a chance that he’ll get to showcase his talents at a FIFA World Cup prior to then and you never know what could happen with that. There’s also the Bayern reserve team waiting for him – way below his level but could still be useful for getting back up to pace once he’s ready to go again.
Bit of a pain in the arse but he’s just gotta get that injury right and this does at least give him plenty of time to do exactly that. Then once he’s raring to go again it’ll be showtime once more.
U20 Wahine Footy
Well now, how about this? The Aotearoa U20 women’s football team coming home strong with a comeback 2-1 win over Australia at Kiwitea Street on Sunday. It was free entry to the public but there was no livestream and I couldn’t spare the trip to Auckland so didn’t get to see any of it. From what I can gather though it looks like another impressive step for what’s fast becoming a really exciting team.
A couple months ago they played twice against the Aussies in Camberra, losing the first game 5-1 before rebounding nicely with a 1-1 draw in the second. Two mostly similar squads then met in Auckland this weekend and again there was an improvement from the kiwis.
Not initially because they conceded inside the first couple mins... but second half goals for Tui Dugan and Kate Taylor turned things back the other way. So that was cool. Here was the team:
Starters – Brianna Edwards, Zoe McMeeken, Jana Niedermayr, Kate Taylor, Marisa van der Meer, Aniela Jensen, Grace Wisnewski, Alyssa Whinham, Tui Dugan, Milly Clegg, Ava Collins
Bench – Ava Pritchard (on for Collins 45’), Emma Pijnenburg (on for Wisnewski 45’), Charlotte Lancaster (on for Dugan 74’), Ruby Nathan (on for Clegg 81’)
Goals – Tui Dugan (53’), Kate Taylor (70’ pen)
Right on.
Trent Boult’s Bat
Trent Boult has batted three times so far in the Test and a half that’s gone by logging in scores of: 14, 4no & 16no. He’s been involved in partnerships of 30 (with De Grandhomme), 4 (with Southee), and 33 (with Mitchell). Told you two weeks ago that he was the best number eleven batsmen on the planet and the evidence is only growing.
For example...
It’s a bugger he didn’t score one more run to take the lead outright but we all know it’s merely a matter of time. Look at his average compared to the rest of the guys in his range of runs. Insanity. James There is a sneaky chance that James Anderson could do something special before the series is out but that feels pretty unlikely to be honest. And anyway he’s batted more than twice as many times at 11 as Boult has. Same drama with all them Joe Root stats: England plays so many Tests that it’s just not fair. Case and point...
That’s actually 10 hundreds in that time for Root now because that tweet was from before the second Test. Which Williamson isn’t playing in. And, like, fair play to Joe Root for being a monster run consumer but he’s batted 42 times in that time frame. Kane Williamson, meanwhile, has only had 8 innings. No hundies in those eight innings but in the immediate four innings prior he did this: 251, 129, 21 & 238.
Hustle (2022)
Good news: I watched the new Adam Sandler/Netflix film Hustle and it was perfectly okay. Pretty stock standard sports movie starring the Sandman as a jaded scout who stumbles upon this unknown Spanish prospect (played by Juancho Hernangomez) and spends the rest of the movie trying to get him into the NBA Draft. There’s also this undercurrent about his own failed playing career, past trauma and all that. The prospect has his own baggage to deal with. You know how these things go.
Sandler’s great. Very reserved and controlled performance from that fella, a lovely dramatic role for a bloke who tends to nail those ones when they come around. Uncut Gems is still the best sports movie of the last decade. But what shines most about Hustle is the authenticity of the basketball.
Most of the baller roles are given to actual players, some of them just minor cameos but others definitely involved a few thespian chops. Anthony Edwards has a great heel turn as a rival draft prospect with a tendency for getting under Sandler’s prospect’s skin. Bo Cruz is the prospect’s name btw - a recurring joke is trying to find a good nickname for him.
Boban Marjanovic also gets a few comedic lines in early on (he’s already played a John Wick villain so you knew he had to be in this one somewhere). Always a delight. Most other basketballers play themselves but even then the way that the sport is filmed and presented is pretty excellent. There’s nothing takes you out of a sports movie quicker than sport scenes that don’t feel fake as hell. Hustle gets that right.
And I also thought that the ending was done with a cleverly realistic twist. No spoilers here but they did well to avoid the kind of perfect Disney-style wrap up that would never ever happen in real life. Other than that the script hit all the standard beats. Hit them nicely and assuredly but there’s nothing you’ve never seen before. It’s just done really well with good basketball on display. You’ll get a couple chuckles. You’ll recognise plenty of familiar NBA faces. There ya go.
Oh and also there’s a training montage scene, very Rocky (the film is mostly set in Philadelphia) midway through the movie over which the song Runnin’ by David Dallas plays. Didn’t expect that. Very enjoyable kiwi music shout out moment. Plus Robert Duvall is in it for a couple scenes at the start. Old mate Consigliere Tom Hagen still churning out the roles in his early 90s.
So, yeah, wouldn’t say this is anything groundbreaking whatsoever... but a decent couple hours of entertainment for NBA fans. Won’t change your life in any way. Will help you pass a fun couple hours some evening though.