we ignored it. We're bike fanatics (and maybe some footie and cricket),
tennis? whats that. . . .
I've been ignoring him since he had hair.

Marty

Actually, we've been told many times that tennis is barely noticed in the US.
Those guys are like pop stars when they come down here

We had a major tennis boom back in the 80's large following
of McEnroe, Bjorg, McEwen, Laver, Connors, Ashe, then
the Agassi group (1st time) but its kind of died down. Right now
Womens is more interesting. They do get superstar status but
not as much as I've seen overseas.
I wouldn't say barely noticed, but nowhere as ignored as say cycling. and
not even close to Baseball of Football (or Basketball where there are serious
high dollar Pop star players).
Marty

They'll probably handle it like they normally handle it when an american gets beaten, mention it as a footnote very briefly and then move on - I won't see a report on that until this evening. The funnier thing was they tried to portray federer as the underdog against agassi! They still treat the williams sisters like they're the best players in the world but that's another story

As lotek said, tennis isn't a big sport over here - it's only really covered on espn, a cable sports channel, with the major finals normally being shown on tape delay on a major broadcast channel. If the final has an american in it the entire match will be shown at 'prime time', if there isn't then the coverage tends to get reduced.

I think you've told us before, but you don't get much cricket over there, do ya?

Cricket? bluddy hell we don't get it here (or if we do I haven't found it).
OLN will show Lumberjack Olympics, which is a REAL treat.
Paul, The finals show no matter who is in it. think Wimbeldon
during July. have been shown live since the Connors/McEnroe/Ashe era.
John Newcomb ruled
Marty

No cricket at all??!! Not even on ESPN or FOX?

I wish.
I get any news I can from "the Aussie Thread" or reading
aussie or southafrican newspapers online.
Remember, we are a savage, uncivilized land. . . (evidence the lack
of cricket)
Marty

The only cricket I've seen here is the occaisional highlights program covering world events on Fox Sports World. You can't even get it on pay-per-view. Even the rugby world cup was on ppv.

Still can't believe the england team took the gutless way out and played for a draw.

You can't break decades of apathy and disinterest with a handful of wins it would seem

Hey Paul, sports coverage everywhere is like that.

Sports broadcasts are a product that is meant to draw in advertising revenue. So even here sports in Oz are tainted with a liberal dose of bias. It's not 'in-yo-face' and piled on thick like some US stuff that I've seen, but more subtly inserted between the 'neutral' commentary. Thinking about it, our guys are pretty slick in how they do it. The crafty buggers!

I don't know, the South Africans never thought there was anything subtle about
the Aussie commentators for the Rugby or Cricket. . .
In fact they hated the commentators more than the all blacks. (will that be
seen as politically incorrect by the rest of the seppos who don't have a clue?)

Marty

Hey Munchie, managed to drag myself out of bed yesterday for a reverse loop round calga from home. Started at about 1600!!!!!!!

Met a couple of guys training for the Foster Ironman so went round with them from the servo... good fun.

Looking like 2:45 for the loop from green point at the moment....

Hey Munchie, another Vodafone sponsored event at Nobby's today. Sorry you missed it.

I think the US commentators are just more blatant about it. The british commentators (non-football) always seem pretty unbiased but that's due to a combination of years of low/no expectations and sky's (yet another rupert murdoch channel) habit of using a commentator from the opposing nation. Listening to David Campese commentating during the rugby world cup was amusing - I've never seen such a pained expression on someone's face while being forced to praise the england team

Hey Muncho, any other cricket sites that are as good as cricinfo.com?

I'm not Muncho, but BBC and FoxSprts will give you semi live scores.

I saw a guy on a Vesta today draging a few bike boys along beach road.........looked like a few we trying to join the train as well...probably about 10 guys trying to hang on....

Oh yeah the Bianchi boys were out this morning too...only two of them though....i think the third guy has given up....seems to always get left behind....

Any of you Melbourne boys go to the Belgian Beer Cafe's Music and Cycling festival today? Phil Anderson was there. Boy, does that man have some teeth.

Dragged yourself out of bed at 4PM???!!!! You lazy bugger

Those guys weren't Michael Hull (rides a white Look) and Mark Tucker were they? Top blokes them. Often joined by another guy by the name of Dave Hook/Hookes/Hookey.

Sounds like a good ride tho. How many climbs?

I suggest keeping your fly done up then

Many thanks for the advanced notice. Maybe next time...

...speaking of which, I might be up for a ride on Sunday. Missus hasn't made up her mind about when I'm dragging the kids home yet, so I'll let you know on Saturday.

Speaking of England, little JW reckins he'll be back (despite an almost constant stream of injuries)
https://www.thecouriermail.news.com.a...E23217,00.html

Ahem [clears throat and assumes an air of authority on all matters cricket]... errr, no?

The ABC experimented with live audio streaming, but not once did I manage to hear a peep out them. They were always down with 'technical problems'. Maybe OLN could show them how it's done: "Welcome to the ABC's coverage of the Cricket. Today's match will begin momentarily. yada-yada-yada...."

I'll believe it when I see him on the pitch again. The current team is nowhere near as good as the team that went to the world cup - no johnson, no dallaglio (or however you're supposed to spell it) and no wilko