I didn't know John Drake, I don't remember him as a player, in fact, I probably couldn't have picked him out of a line up. But I did know his voice.
It was the sane one that always gave the best commentary about the forwards and with very few commentator gaffes (though I do remember the first thing I heard him say was: [this game] is like poker, you gotta know when to hit and when to stand).
The Herald has posted an archive of Drake's material as well as a number of columnists chipping in with their memories.
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On to the cricket, because I will be drawn and quartered if I should mention rugby during the summer months. The West Indies travelled to Dunedin and luckily they were not greeted with smiling fans bearing "All White Here" placards.
As you may know I'm not a fan of the game but if I have to read about it (and I do), then I'm going to get my information from the horse's mouth. Not to call Ian O'Brien a horse. I was alerted to O'Brien's blog via Richard Irvine who was terrified that should it become popular the NZ Cricket PR folk would shut it down, and that almost happened.
But it's back in full swing and containing those interesting tit-bits of insight that only the players can bring:
Arrived at the ground this morning to be greeted by a helicopter hovering above the outfield. Not the normal thing to be seeing and we knew ‘Stanford' wasn't in town, so it could only mean one thing, the outfield is still wet. Someone forked out some cash to quicken the drying process up. Nice job!
And on the relationship between batsman and bowler, filled with veiled threats:
Normally when you hit a tail ender you check to see if they're ok; nothing of the sort out here today. That's fine with me, it's locked away…
Edwards follow through was getting longer and longer. Getting closer and closer to me, and not to see what I was going to be doing for tea!
At one point I pointed at the stumps and said, "Have a go at those." Edwards replied, "I'm having too much fun to worry about them." Ok, cool!
Ian O'Brien has done something no one else has been able to, he made interested in cricket.
I do have a quick post in the pipeline on the recent study looking at the competitiveness of various tournaments, but until then please consider this question that I saw on Twitter:
Does Willem Dafoe being in the Steinlager ad make it less awful?