These sporting deaths

It started on Friday when Australia lost the first final of the Commonwealth Bank one-day cricket series to England. Bowler hats off to the Poms for fighting back from what have been described elsewhere as two "near-death experiences", but we made some crucial mistakes, eg. McGrath dropping Bell on 18 (he eventually reached 65 in a fine partnership with Collingwood).

Miraculously, I managed to rouse around 5-ish the following morning for the live telecast of the Sharks vs Waratahs Super 14 game from Durban in South Africa. Before the final whistle, I'd dozed off in disgust at the low standard of rugby union. Going down 22-9 is one thing, but when a point-scoring machine like Hewat misses 4/7 penalties, it pains the peepers.

Things didn't improve in the evening as my NBL team the Sydney Kings were mauled in Melbourne by the Tigers. Every time I switched over, we seemed to be missing baskets or they seemed to be making them. It finished 99-83, their way.

Overnight, my enjoyment of the BBC World Service's excellent "Sportsworld" radio program was marred by Newcastle United defeating Liverpool 2-1 (after we'd led early, through a successful Bellamy strike). Naturally, the two sides ahead of us in the EPL, Manchester United and Chelsea, both won - widening the gap.

The most important contest of the weekend was today's A-League preliminary final between the Newie Jets and Adelaide in the South Oz capital. It was gruelling. They scored first, forcing us to battle from behind as we'd done the entire season. After 90 minutes, it was a goal apiece. We dominated extra-time, creating a succession of chances as their inferior fitness showed, more than one player succumbing to cramp. But come the 120-minute mark, it was still level. Penalty shootouts are an unholy creation. We lost 4-3, their goalie Beltrame completing an indisputable blinder. I was too tired to curse and couldn't complain about how far we'd climbed from the bottom of the table.

Which brings us back to cricket and the second final (of a possible three)... England amassed an adequate total of 246, then savaged our top order batsmen before a downpour brought the hateful Duckworth-Lewis system into effect. Twice the Aussie target was readjusted due to rain. When the weather set in and time expired, they'd kept us pinned down enough to steal a surprise series victory and regain a measure of pride following their 5-0 Ashes drubbing. Collingwood was awesome again. (But why no mention of the Kiwi contribution in anyone's speech? A mite classless, I thought.)

Six drokking losses out of six - it's lucky I'm not a betting man or I'd be in deep stomm. And you don't need to be a "2000AD" reader to decipher that :-)