Gobbledegeek 2.o

The Fighting Miners failed in their quest to win back-to-back premierships when they were defeated by the Puckapunyal Boars 6-5 in a quagmire at Puckapunyal last Saturday.

Torrential rain had covered the playing surface with about 50mm of water which soon cut up to become a quagmire. Adding to the difficult conditions were intermittent downpours and a strong wind.

The Miners had first use of the wind and were soon made aware that the Boars had come to play with spirit and determination. The normally dominant Miners’ scrum was shunted in the first two encounters.

Throughout the first half, the Boars dominated field position and possession. The Miners’ ball retention was poor as passes were pushed, catches spilled and lost in contact. The Boars capitalized on this superiority with a penalty goal in the 30^th minute to set up a 3-0 lead at the interval.

The Boars stretched their lead with a second penalty goal early in the second half.

From this point onwards, the Miners lifted their intensity. Inspired by some dominant tackles by the Tuitupou brothers, the Miners brought themselves back into the contest.

They finally troubled the scoreboard attendant in the tenth minute of the second half when centre Michael Crichton scored a try in the corner after a crisp passing movement by the backs.

Bendigo continued to press forward with Jesse Tuitupou, Konrad Fepuleai and Johneen Fagavao making strong runs.

They were rewarded with a penalty goal opportunity in the midway through the half in a handy position but the kick went wide.

From this point on, play rarely moved out of the area between the quarter lines as the two teams slogged it out in the mud.

The Tyson’s Reef Hotel player of the day award went to Jesse Tuitupou. Others to shine included Fepuleai, Nick Dehnert, Elson Tuitupou, Johneen Fagavao and Michael Crichton.

Scorer: Crichton try.

Team: 24 N. Poingdestre, 2 E. Tuitupou, 3 J. Tuitupou, 4 N. Dehnert (c), 5 B. Westley, 6 A. Saville, 7 D. Fallaver, 8 K. Fepuleai, 9 S. MacDonald, 10 Jon Solomon, 11 J. Learai, 12 J. Fagavao, 13 M. Crichton, 14 Jeremy Solomon, 15 J. Manderson.

Replacements: T. Henderson, L. Tuitupou, S. McGrail, S. Fagavao, P. Thomas.

Reserves: T. Mulvaney, J. Jeffries, S. Queally

Emergencies: L. Eriksen, N. Whittle, V. Liufau

W. Coulter 54439165

The Fighting Miners travel to Puckapunyal on Saturday seeking back-to-back premierships in the VRU Country Division.

The Miners will go in as underdogs against the minor premier Puckapunyal Boars who have beaten the Miners in two of three meetings this year. The Boars will also be rested after a week off while the Miners disposed of the Cobram Dust Devils in a bruising contest last weekend.

The Miners expect to be at full strength with only flanker Allan Saville under a fitness cloud. Saville strained a calf muscle in last week’s game but is hopeful of being fit to take his place.

The Fighting Miners are celebrating their fortieth anniversary this year and are hoping for a twelfth premiership to crown the celebrations.

The Fighting Miners playing squad is the epitome of multiculturalism and family traditions:

• there are five sets of brothers in the squad;
• seven of the players are sons of former players;
• players originate from seven countries – Australian both white and indigenous, New Zealanders both pakeha and Maori, PNG, Samoa, Tonga, Norway and Ireland.

The match kicks off at 3.00pm.

There are still seats available in the players & supporters bus which leaves Shadforth Park at 11.30am.

W. Coulter

Scoring records tumbled as the Fighting Miners humiliated a hapless Border Army team in the minor semi-final at Shadforth Park last Saturday.

Spearheaded by centre Michael Crichton, who scored an incredible nine tries, the Miners completely dominated proceedings, scoring twenty two unanswered tries.

From Crichton’s first try in the second minute of play till Vaai Liufau’s try in the final minute, the Miners were unrelenting. The longest period between tries was eight minutes midway through the first half.

The new records established for the Bendigo Rugby Club were:

•    most points in a match 140 eclipsing the 122  scored against Echuca-Moama in 2002;
•    most tries in a match 22, surpassing the 18 scored against Echuca-Moama in 2002;
•    most points in a match by an individual (Michael Crichton 45) easily beating the 33 scored by former Tongan test player Tevita Asi against Harlequins in 1994; and
•    most tries by an individual in a match (Michael Crichton 9) eclipsing the previous record of five held jointly by Leo Toma, Brent Karl, Warren Meeks, Gideon Tauelangi and Sione Uhi.

Had coach Alan Wilkinson not invoked the mercy rule by replacing Crichton with ten minutes left on the clock, Crichton would probably have reached double figures so easily did he breach the feeble Border Army defence.

The forward pack set the tone for the match when they took two tight heads at scrums in the first minute of play. By half-time, Bendigo had scored ten tries and established a 66-0 lead.

Referee Tony Miller took pity on the out-muscled Border Army scrum when he ordered uncontested scrums early in the second period.

Despite Wilkinson progressively emptying the bench, the scoring rampage continued in the second half. Crichton added three more tries to his first half six before being substituted.

The Tyson’s Reef Hotel player of the day award went to Crichton. Others to play well included Jesse Tuitupou, Johneen Fagavao, Elson Tuitupou, Josh Manderson, James Learai and Steve MacDonald.

Michael Crichton in action

Next week, the Miners will contest the preliminary final against the Cobram Dust Devils at Koonoomoo. The Dust Devils lost the major semi-final to the Puckapunyal Boars 7-12 in sudden death overtime after the scores were deadlocked at 7-7 at the end of normal time at Puckapunyal.

Scorers: M. Crichton 9, S.MacDonald 2, J. Tuitupou, K. Felupeai, Jon Solomon, J. Learai, J. Fagavao, V. Liufau, S. Fagavao, J. Jeffries, P. Thomas, T. Henderson, N. Poingdestre tries; J. Manderson 15 goals.

Team: 24 N. Poingdestre, 2 E. Tuitupou, 3 J. Tuitupou, 4 N. Dehnert, 5 B. Westley, 6 A. Saville, 7 D. Fallaver, 8 K. Felupeai, 9 S. MacDonald, 10 Jon Solomon, 11 J. Learai, 12 J. Fagavao, 13 M. Crichton, 14 Jeremy Solomon, 15 J. Manderson, 16 L. Eriksen, 17 V. Liufau, 18 S. Fagavao, 19 J. Jeffries, 20 P. Thomas, 21 N. Whittle, 22 S. Queally, 23 T. Henderson

By W. Coulter

As I said previously…..they’re all big games in the run in to the finals.

The Fighting Miners will be at full strength for their clash with competition leader Cobram Dust Devils at Shadforth Park this Saturday.

In their last outing, the Miners knocked Puckapunyal Boars out of top position with a convincing win.

Bendigo coach Alan Wilkinson is confident his team can repeat the feat against the Dust Devils. In their two previous clashes with the Dust Devils this season, the Miners have a loss and a draw.

In both matches, the Miners were in a winning position until the last fifteen minutes of play but allowed the Dust Devils back into the games with a drop off in intensity and lack of discipline.

Currently, the Miners are in third position on the ladder with 36 points, trailing Cobram on 47 points and Puckapunyal on 45 points.

If the Miners can win their remaining three games with bonus points, they can get to 51 points. Both Puckapunyal and Cobram have a bye to come and will meet each other in the final round of home and away games. Accordingly, the Miners need to win all their games and hope that other results go their way in order to finish in the top two and get the double chance in the finals.

This Saturday’s game kicks off early at 1.00pm due to the Bledisloe Cup match in Melbourne.

W. Coulter

Please go along and support the lads at Shadforth Park, if you can as I’m sure they will appreciate it.

A resurgent Fighting Miners thrashed competition leaders 46-20 in an eight try romp at Shadforth Park last Saturday.

After an indifferent start to the season, the Miners have now had an unbeaten streak of four matches.

In Saturday’s game, Bendigo ran in three tries in the first fifteen minutes through Jesse Tuitupou, Jeremy Solomon and Michael Crichton before Puckapunyal had gotten out of its own half.

Pucka then camped in the Bendigo half for a considerable period of time before the Miners’ defence was finally broken with a try in the 30^th minute.

On the stroke of half-time, Miners half-back Steve MacDonald pierced the Pucka defence in a strong 30 metre dash to establish a Bendigo lead of 20-5.

Pucka reduced the deficit to 10 points with a try early in the second half and appeared to be about to make a recovery.

However, the Miners switched back on, piling on four tries in the first 20 minutes of the second half to go out to a 46-10 lead

Scorers: Crichton 2, Thomas 2, Jeremy Solomon, J. Tuitupou, E. Tuitupou, MacDonald tries; Manderson 2, MacDonald goals.

W. Coulter

Read the full match report here.

The Miners have another bye this weekend (24th). They will be hoping for a reversal of fortunes against Cobram Dust Devils when the meet the following Saturday. The match is at Shadforth Park, North Bendigo on 31 July and kicks off at 1pm.

Note the 1pm kick-off! This is so that club members have time to get to Etihad Stadium for Wallabies v All Blacks game that evening. Tickets available at the time of this post.

In fact , it looks like they’re all big from here on in for Bendigo rugby team…

The Fighting Miners are at full strength for their clash with competition leader Puckapunyal Boars at Shadforth Park this Saturday.

After two weeks on the road where the Miners beat Border Army and drew with Cobram, they go into the match with some degree of confidence.

In their two previous encounters this season, the Boars have won both but the Miners consider themselves unlucky to have lost the last match at Puckapunyal where they scored three tries to the Boars’ one.

With four matches and a bye remaining before the finals, the Miners are in fourth place on the ladder behind Puckapunyal, Cobram and Border Army. However, three of the four games are at home and the Miners are confident of overtaking Border Army.

To sneak into the top two and get the double chance in the play-offs, the Miners need to win all their remaining games, pick up some bonus points and hope other results go their way.

The match kicks off at 3.00pm

W. Coulter

…so get your backsides along to Shadforth Park and give the boys as much support as you can. See you there!

Along with the referees, the new ball and the underwhelming standard of play, this contemptible contraption has conspired to mar the current FIFA World Cup in South Africa.

Worryingly, stores here in Australia are unable to keep up with demand. For sports fans, this cannot be good news. The 2010 World Cup will always be remembered for these monotonous, obnoxious horns and God forbid they be allowed to permeate the Aussie sporting culture!

My advice is say ‘No’ and particularly if you cannot confirm their origin. For instance, I would highly recommend against importing vuvuzelas from Papua New Guinea, where they are more commonly referred to as a koteka or phallocrypt.

Modern use of the infernal vuvuzela

More traditional use of the vuvuzela

Vuvuzela blowing technique demonstration

This lucky gal has two vuvuzelas to blow

An alternative use for the vuvuzela

Who in God’s name is searching for pictures of ‘julia gillard’s tits’, ‘julia gillard upskirt’, ‘dirty pictures of juilia (sic) gillard’ and ‘julia gillard porn’ in general? Seriously!

For the record, there are no sordid images of Julia Gillard on this site. There never have been and there never will be….even if she is a Barry Island girl.

Welsh, but definately not nude.

PS. In case you were wondering, the title is a rather tenuous reference to ‘Yes, We Have No Bananas’.

It goes without saying that an essential ingredient of going to watch a live International rugby match is the ticket but after days spent tracking down accommodation, I thought I’d left it too late….

Ticketek were telling me that only crap seats were available and that I might be confined to the temporary stand where die-hard fans actually stand and huddle around a 3 inch portable TV to share the experience. However, in the hope of a minor miracle, I called Waikato Rugby Union’s Sales Manager, John Mudford, who usually deals with the stadium’s hospitality goodness that us mere mortals only dream of affording. I explained my predicament and his response was short and sweet.

“Don’t worry, I’ll sort you out first thing in the morning”. It would have been rude to ask why he couldn’t sort it out there and then but he explained that he was out of the office and that I should send him an email with my preference.

Would you Adam and Eve it? This morning I receive an email confirming that they have reserved one of the best seats in the house for me. Apparently, they hide a few prime seats away from Ticketek and the like, for hospitality/corporate clients….and idiots who leave it very late, it appears.

So, for the icing on what could have been a rather disappointing cake, a big ‘thank you’ goes out to Waikato Rugby Union and especially, John Mudford and Sue Raynor.

I can only hope that Wales perform as well on the day!

I use the word ‘men’ to describe these degenerate miscreants but these are not the actions of real men.

TWO Bendigo men have been charged with the rape of a 12-year-old girl.

The men, both in their 20s, are alleged to have consumed drugs and alcohol and had sex with the girl in full view of their friends despite her pleading with them to stop.

Long Gully man Dale Goss, 25, and Jarrod Nadort, 23, of Lockwood were arrested on Tuesday after the girl made a report to police.

…and despite police protestations, the Magistrate, Jennifer Tregent, let the ‘alleged’ perverts out on bail!!

These sick paedophiles can consider themselves incredibly fortunate! They can thank their soon-to-be well-used sorry arses that this wasn’t my daughter, because I’d be locked up in their place and they’d be slowly decomposing in a urine soaked shallow grave at an undisclosed remote location.

Bendigo 12 lost to Cobram 24 at Koonoomooo, 5 June 2010.

The Fighting Miners suffered their first ever defeat at the hands of the Cobram Dust Devils at Koonoomoo last Saturday. The Dust Devils entered the competition in 2008 but have not been competitive until the current season.

In Saturday’s game, the Dust Devils got on top in the second half after the scores were deadlocked at 12-12 at the break.

Bendigo scorers were Jeremy Solomon in the tenth minute and Nick Poingdestre in the 35^th minute.

Bendigo had the upper hand in the first half with a dominant scrum, good rolling mauls and good hit-ups on the fringes of the rucks by the big men. This dominance resulted in a string of penalties to the Miners and kept the Dust Devils on the back foot.

Team: 1 N. Poingdestre, 2 T. Henderson, 3 J. Tuitupou, 4 S. Kelly, 5 E. Tuitupou, 6 S. McGrail, 7 D. Fallaver, 8 K. Fepuleai, 9 N. Dehnert, 10 Jon Solomon, 11 S. Queally, 12 S. MacDonald, 13 J. Learai, 14 Jeremy Solomon, 15 J. Manderson, 16 S. Paterson, 17 P. Clark

Scorers: Jeremy Solomon, Poingdestre tries; Manderson goal.

W. Coulter

Read the full match report here.

The Miners have a bye this weekend but you can still see them in action when they take on an ‘old boys’ selection as part of their 40th Anniversary celebrations. Why not head up to Shadforth Park and watch?

The Victorian Rugby Union Country Division competition resumes with round 6 on 26th June at home against the Deniliquin Drovers.

Searching for a ‘list of idiots in Bendigo’ brings a surprising number of visitors to Gobbledegeek 2.0, not as many as those searching for nude images of Julia Gillard though! For this reason, I thought it might be a worthwhile public service to actually compile a list of Bendigo-based half-wits.

Fortunately, these low-brows are not the majority in this otherwise ‘alright’ Victorian town, so it shouldn’t be a difficult task. So if you know a candidate for the list, please submit their details here. To avoid becoming a candidate yourself, please remember to include the gene pool contaminator’s name, reason for it’s nomination and a photo where possible.

The overwhelming majority of these knuckle-draggers will no doubt merit their own post but I will endeavour to list them here too. They appear in no particular order of idiocy or severity of crime.

Mark my words, the top twenty will be dominated by those repugnant in-bred fuckaloops we call hoons but you are welcome to prove me wrong…..

The List

Although not hoons, these three knob-jockey’s can get the ball rolling…..

Eighteen year old Stewart Love (you long time) and two younger wannabe robbers who stole thousands of dollars worth of gear in a mini-gay-crime-spree, were found guilty yesterday…..

The full (ish) story here.

I popped into the NAB in Strath Village shopping centre the other day to enquire about their merchant banking services and  ‘virtual terminal’ facility. As part of some research I was doing, I remembered reading something on the NAB website. Unfortunately, I assumed asking in person might prove more helpful should I have questions.

I asked for the information I sought but the two female tellers glanced at each other as if I had just asked them to theorise some impossible mathematical equation and expected an answer in fluent badger! After some umm-ing and ahh-ing, which clearly demonstrated a mutual cerebral void, I offered them  a release from their obvious agony.

I smiled sympathetically and headed for the door.

Despite scoring three tries to their opponent’s one, the Fighting Miners were narrowly defeated by the Puckapunyal Boars in wet, raining conditions last Saturday.

Lack of discipline when not in possession of the ball cost the Miners dearly as the Puckapunyal goalkicker took every chance offered to him, slotting 5/5 with four penalties and a conversion.

Team: 1 N. Poingdestre, 2 E. Tuitupou, 3 J. Tuitupou, 4 N. Dehnert, 5 S. Kelly, 6 D. Fallaver, 7 S. McGrail, 8 B. Westley, 8 A. Saville, 10 Jon Solomon, m11 S. Fagavao, 12 Jeremy Solomon, 13 J. Learai, 14 S. Queally, 15 J. Manderson, 16 T. Henderson, 17 C. Dalley, 18 Conrad, 20 M. Crichton, 21 P. Thomas, 22 L. Eriksen  Reserve: Julius Solomon

Scorers: J. Tuitupou, E. Tuitupou, N. Poingdestre tries; Manderson goal

Next week, the Miners travel to Cobram to take on the resurgent Dust Devils.

Read the full match report here.

Saturday’s opening match of the 2010 Country Victoria rugby season saw the Fighting Miners suffer a 14 – 26 defeat at the hands of Puckapunyal at Shadforth Park, Bendigo.

Defensive frailties on the fringes of the ruck and in the backline of the Miners gave the Boars repeated opportunities to score but the Miners held on to trail by only seven points at the break, 7-14.

Bendigo’s points were scored from a try to five-eighth Steve MacDonald when he sliced through the Puckapunyal defence at the back of a line-out and a conversion by Josh Manderson.

Puck opened the second half with an unconverted try to stretch its lead to 12 points at 19-7.

Bendigo responded with some strong running from improved set play. This led to a string of high tackles by the Boars’ players as the match threatened to become spiteful. Referee Wayne Pick took strong action, sending three Puckapunyal players to the sin bin simultaneously in the twentieth minute of the second half….

by W. Coulter

Read the full article here.

The Bendigo Fighting Miners are still in desperate need of players to sign for the proposed youth squad. If you aged between 14 and 16 and are interested or know someone who may be, please call Mark Luatutu on 5434 5822 (work) or 0427 315067.

The 2010 Country Draw is now available. You may download it here or alternatively from the Miners’ website.

Round 1 kicks off at 3pm against Puckpunyal at home (Shadforth Park, North Bendigo) on May 1st.

You might also like to know that the Fighting Miners have a practice match against Premier Division Side, Melbourne on Saturday April 17th Kick-off at 3pm at Shadforth Park.

Please go along and support.

If there is a more heinous crime than serving short measures (of beer), it has to be chucking fruit on a bloody pizza.

Pineapple is a prime example of when culinary creativity meets Mr. Stupid Bollocks. Coming in a close second with ways to totally bastardize an otherwise perfectly good pizza, is the desire to load it with meat. But just to clarify, it’s not simply the addition of meat, it’s the apparent need to stack so much of it on. You may as well rip the horns off a cow, shove your ball of dough up its backside and call that a pizza.

Other than ham or perhaps pepperoni, I don’t understand why anyone would saddle the humble pizza with lumps of assorted animal flesh. Don’t get me wrong, I love a steak as much as the next carnivore but the humble pizza is, in my humble opinion, simply not the place for it, it never was and there’s probably a rule about it somewhere.

One exception to the rule however, should be using minted lamb sausage meat with baked beans! Please, control your retching and hear me out.

Do yourselves a favour and buy a shit-load of minted-lamb sausages from the butcher in Strath Village. His web site is bloody awful but his snags are great. Treat yourself to bangers and mash one night but save one or two sausages for the pizza.

Chop and gently fry a small red onion in a little butter and a teaspoon of honey. Squeeze the meat out of the skins and add to the pan, making sure it’s well broken down. I use a potato masher for this. Add ground or crushed black pepper if you are so inclined.

Chuck in 1/3 tin of baked beans and mix together. There’s no need to cook the beans, we’re just making sure everything is well mixed.

Spread your tomato sauce thinly over your dough. You can skip this stage if you like, especially if your meat and beans mixture is quite wet.

Spread your sausage meat and baked bean topping evenly over your pizza base, top with mozzarella and a good pinch of mixed herbs and wack it in the oven until it starts to brown.

I kid ye not, it’s delicious but very, very rich. I only managed a small slice but the great thing is that I can have another slice for lunch and another for supper! There may even be some left over for breakfast!

To give this scrumdiddlyicious Italian number it’s full name….Peppered Chicken Fettuccine Tossed with Sun-dried Tomatoes, Wild Mushrooms & Spinach. It may very well be known by another name but I’m afraid I have no have no idea what it might be. The original recipe was passed to me by a talented young chef in Bendigo named Adam and so the credit, and thanks, go to him.

You will notice, perhaps with some panic, that I have omitted the proportions. The reason for this is that after making it a few times, I discarded the recipe and made it to taste. For instance, I love mushrooms but the kids balk at their texture and so the amount and the variety will vary. We all adore pesto but it can make the dish a little rich and heavy, so if you have plenty of chicken to go around, cut down on the pesto and vice versa. Experiment by adding and tasting as you go. Add more of what you like and less of what you don’t but don’t go mad otherwise it will become too salty or overly rich.

Referring back to the long-winded title, if you are partial to it, you might like to add more pepper and reduce the amount of pesto. Heck! Leave out the pesto, sun-dried tomatoes and substitute cream and you have yourself a completely different meal!

Ingredients

Fettuccine or Tagliatelle
Chicken Breast Fillets
Sun-dried Tomatoes
Mushrooms
Spinach
Pesto
Cracked black pepper
Garlic
Butter
Olive Oil
Parmesan Cheese

Method

Start by cooking the pasta in well salted water. This should take between 8 and 10 minutes once the water is boiling, just long enough to let you prepare the rest of the dish.

Slice the chicken into equal pieces and marinate in olive oil and black pepper while you get on with the other stuff.

Slice the mushrooms and cook in an equal butter oil mix. Season and add a little garlic. Personally, I prefer to just heat them through so they remain quite firm but not still crunchy. You can experiment with wild mushrooms and I would suggest Crimini (Cremini, baby bellas, Italian Brown and Portabellini) for their richer, more earthy flavour or for the more adventurous (and if you can get them), Pied de Mouton or Porcini (Penny Buns) but any mushroom imparting earthy or nutty flavours such as Portabello, would be great in this dish. If you manage to get your hands on some good ‘uns, reduce the impact of the other ingredients and make it more about the mushrooms.

Earthy Cremini Mushrooms

Add more olive oil for the sauce. You may leave this step out if you’re not a fan of olive oil but you don’t want it to be too dry.

Drain and add the cooked pasta, toss and add shaved Parmesan. Potato peelers are great for shaving but a standard grater will probably have the necessary grating slot.

Add the spinach, toss and add a knob of butter. If you’re not a big fan of spinach, try it anyway because it’s the marriage of flavours that make this dish so bloody lovely. If you really must, leave out the spinach, it won’t lessen the dish noticeably. You might also like to add lightly toasted pine nuts or even almond slivers.

Serve with shaved Parmesan on top and accompany with a chilly crisp white of your choice.

Perhaps I’ll add a few black olives when I do this next and I must remember to take photos. Here’s one I borrowed but it doesn’t have sun-dried tomatoes, mushrooms, spinach, Parmesan or any chicken for that matter!!

Yummy all the same

I hate the fact that I find it extremely difficult to sleep and ‘er indoors is forever telling me to visit the quack but tonight I was fortunate to be a light sleeper-cum-insomniac.

An unnatural noise outside caught my attention where random wind-related sounds don’t. Given that the missus is working away in Melbourne, I couldn’t wake her to deal with it and so I had little choice but to drag myself out of bed. A sneaky peak out between the blinds revealed some low-life miscreant creeping up the driveway.

Being ever so courageous, I poked my head out of the front door and politely greeted the bugger! Yes, I actually called out “hello?” My God! What was I thinking? I immediately came to my senses and attempted to rescue the awkward (for me at least) situation with some choice expletives but the little sod was obviously so confused and startled by my effeminate (particularly blonde) initial greeting, that he had long since scarpered.

Fearing law suits from the neighbours, I darted back in and donned my shorts and flip flops (thongs in ‘Stralian) but he was long gone; or so I thought.

I spotted a girls bike on the other side of the road, lying on the grass and having just watched a stellar performance by Robert Downey in Sherlock Holmes, I was inspired to deduce that this could be the prowlers getaway vehicle and so took a photo as evidence. I would have dusted for prints there and then but not having the appropriate training in forensic science, I decided I couldn’t be arsed. Anyway, the little git was probably going to be back for it.

At this point I thought it prudent to inform the authorities.

If only I hadn’t popped inside for a deserved smoke, I’d have caught the not-very-good-burgler because as I walked down the driveway to wait for the police, the would be tinker sprinted from the cul-de-sac, grabbed his girly getaway bike and shot off down the road with a parting “Fark you!”

Charming! I thought as I made a lame attempt at running after him in my traditional Aussie footwear. He disappeared out of site around the corner where I noticed the lights of a car turning in the road. I assumed this was either an accomplice manning a more suitable getaway vehicle or the troops arriving in the nick of time.

It turned out to be the police after all and not only did they collar the little criminal around the corner, they picked up his loyal partner in crime. Apparently, they admitted to being out harvesting parts for their BMX bikes.

The Bungling BMX Bandits of Bendigo!

Gobbledegeek 2 Bendigo BMX Bandits 0

The Girly Getaway Vehicle

Well bugger me if Setanta aren’t airing the IRB 6 Nations Championship this season! That subscription can consider itself well and truly canceled.

Fortunately, for those of us in Australia, ESPN is showing the Northern Hemisphere’s premier rugby showcase. Unfortunately, one is required to buy a new HD set-top box and subscribe to the new HD channels which will set you back another $20 a month. Looks like the kid’s Cartoon Network has been canceled…..at least for next couple of months.

If there’s anyone in Australia who can get hold of this live, please let me know.

Incidentally, Wales visit New Zealand in June so if anyone fancies a few days over the channel round about the 26th, let me know.