PETE’S PUNCHLINE

The National Sports
  •  The Hunters have suffered a heavy defeat going down to Burleigh Bears 48-24 who claim the Kokoda Cup in round seven of the Hostplus Cup on Saturday. Paul Aiton’s men went into the Anzac battle leaving a host on wounded men behind in Port Moresby. Aiton now has a daunting task of steering the ship away from sinking to the bottom of the ladder this season.
  • A young Mudmen bowler had perhaps one of the worst overs in the Isuzu Women’s T20 Smash over the weekend. She struggled to bowl a legal delivery having multiple no balls and wides chalking up 14 runs in an over. In the end the umpire just allowed several wides to be counted as balls just to get the over done with. It was hard watching because everyone (teammates, opposition, the crowd, etc …) felt bad for her. In the commentary box Barrmundis coach Tatenda Taibu said it was a tough over for the lass but added that her teammates and especially her captain needed to keep encouraging her to get her through the over. If I was captain I would have quietly told her to go down, feign an injury, so I could get a senior bowler to complete the over.
  • Speaking of the women’s T20 Smash at Amini Park, how good is Brenda Tau? The consumate professional. Got through her innings for the Mariners without raising too much of a sweat. Kept well and batted like a woman warming up for bigger things. Every shot was copybook. And it took a great catch by Lewas teammate Tanya Ruma to dismiss her.
  • Barras coach Tatenda Taibu or ‘TT’ as the players and officials call him has been running his players hard over the last two weeks, ever since the Men’s T20 Smash ended earlier in the month. No respite for the Barras. You can see it in their faces after sessions, it’s like they’ve just finished boot camp with Sgt Slaughter. TT’s reason is that his players need the time out in the nets and the field going through the skills and continuously working at getting better having things become second nature but importantly being battle-hardened, and in TT’s own words “to make cricket boring”. It’s a bold and different approach but hopefully it pays off for the team when they compete at the T20 World Cup.
  • Australian Olympian Benny Pike who boxed for Australia at the 1980 Olympics in Moscow was up here as a guest of the PNG Boxing Union to be the ring announcer for the Kokoda Challenge show featuring fighters from NSW/Victoria and the PNG squad. Pike was asked what the most important attribute or quality a person needed to be a good boxer. He didn’t say power or a good chin, or speed or great stamina. He said heart and courage. He’s right.
  • My favourite Carl Weathers/Apollo Creed line in Rocky was: “Ding, ding.” In other words – let’s get it on! – PGTP ([email protected])