Apercu of This Sporting Life genus

Boxed-in boxing crowds crowd crowd, pickpockets caught off-guard

Ethan Switch - Friday, April 15, 2005 - 18:18:19 - print it raw

Boxing fans, business type onlookers and people walking their injured bikes flooded the Martin Place amphitheatre in Sydney's Martin Place. There to catch a glimpse of Kostya Tszyu in a public sparring session with IBF middleweight contender, "King" Sam Soliman.

The tightly gathered gaggle spent much of their Friday lunch hour foistering their necks and craning their warm bodies in an effort to stand ever more uncomfortably against each other in the throng. Voyeurs from behind the flanking bank windows were treated to a double act of human mass massage.

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Half empty until the End of Days

Jimmy Weasel - Tuesday, November 2, 2004 - 13:50:06 - print it raw

Rain looked set to destroy the race known to stop a nation and its inhabitants. One state has a holiday, the others sit slackjawed and glued to the television or whatever media they can muster. "It's raining like a bastard down here," said one bystander, "it may have an impact on the outcome, but possibly only made the entire pack muddier."

Despite the outcome, the real winner seems to (once again) be those taking money from the saps. Previously never seen "employees" of many companies squeeze out of the woodwork to wander 'round, gathering funds in some kind of crazy sweep scheme; possibly linked back to Nigerian banking scams. The Great Magnet will pick one winner and draw them towards the finish to financial gain and their allotted 15 minutes.

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Scud drops Delta, picks up Hilton, looks for puppet strings

Ethan Switch - Monday, October 25, 2004 - 19:46:11 - print it raw

Symbiotic despair lingered in the air of the days diving into the weekend of past. The tennis playing entity consisting of Lleyton Hewitt and Kim Clijsters were no longer. Their relationship now on separate sides of the court and orchestrations set in motion to one day see both names sit atop the rankings simultaneously. Weeks or so leading up to their final bonding as a sole unit the pair split with details casting doubt on the mark that they were more than the one being and stand-alones shimmering reflections merely as a side-effect of too many media adoptions into the bossum.

Then, in a sure sign of one-upmanship over his fellow player and countryman, Mark Philippoussis dumps cancer squeezing singer/songwriter Delta Goodrem for the model with the plumber's crack, Paris Hilton. With the split between Philippoussis and Goodrem came so close on the heels of Hewitt and Clijsters leans are made to stretch connections and all sorts of out turns for celebrity tennis entangled couples.

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Awash with regrets and time spent in the shadowed sun

Ethan Switch - Thursday, September 30, 2004 - 18:02:37 - print it raw

Shuffling on the sweep away, not to be seen again for another four years, and even then ever so briefly, the parathletes of the 2004 Paralympics held in Athens, Greece farewelled the remnants of a crowd still seated and still glazed over their doughnuts, fearful of a painful encounter with a hard surface.

Over the eleven days of the 12th Paralympic games, competition was hard fought to raise any kind of awareness back home. Advertisements and backhanded glares remarkably upbeat in the absent face of displayed sport beyond much delayed coverage provided ably by SBS.

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September moon and the winning threat of absence

Ethan Switch - Monday, September 27, 2004 - 18:41:31 - print it raw

Season 2004/05 of the National Basketball League is about to slide into full scale motion and the mind games and territorial land rights have already started between cross city rivals the West Sydney Razorbacks and reigning champions, the Sydney Kings.

Making a guest appearance at Cabramatta's Moon Festival yesterday, three players from the Sydney Kings—along with some radio DJ from The Edge 96.1 running under the moniker of Sharpy—where on show for the main stage surrounded by moon cakes, dancers and little children walking around with lighted (and flammable) paper lanterns.

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Blind see well, the sighted just look away

Ethan Switch - Friday, September 24, 2004 - 17:58:47 - print it raw

On the seventh day of paralysed competition in Athens, Greece, the pressure continues for the other sports to keep on their funding toes as search engine Google celebrates the birthday of Ray Charles, despite the singer/songwriter having been dead since June this year.

With the AFL grandfinals looming extremely soon on the weekend and the NBL to start up not far from now, tactics are getting desperate and highly questionable for the much forgotten, largely ignored Paralympians winning and losing medals and breaking their own world records.

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