Somerset
Cricketer Of The Year
I've ranked my favourites moments in 2008 from 5-1 so here goes:
5. The All Blacks' recovery after back to back losses against South Africa in Dunedin and Australia in Sydney. The performance against Australia at Eden Park the week after getting badly beaten in Sydney was outstanding, and then to keep South Africa scoreless in Cape Town was exceptional. Then throw in the grand slam, in which Scotland, Ireland, Wales and England failed to score a single try in 320 minutes of rugby against the ABs. A quality return to dominance after the disaster of 2007 and a less than convincing start to 2008.
4. New Zealand's golden Saturday at the Beijing Olympics. Drysdale's battle to secure a medal before collapsing due to illness, the Twins' gold medal by a shoelace, and Vili's complete domination of the shot put. Finishing the day with nearly half a dozen medals after heading into the day with zero.
3. Federer vs Nadal at Wimbledon. With the match meant to start at 1am New Zealand time, and Nadal two sets up a couple of hours later, it looked to be all over before the Monday newpapers had been packed. By 8.30am that was a different story after an absorbing match of tennis. I'd never liked Nadal before the match, and still would have preferred Federer to have won but his fighting spirit and the part he played in the greatest tennis match I've ever seen have made me appreciate his talents and acknowledge him as another champion of the game of tennis.
2. The Under 17 Women's World Cup in New Zealand and the performance of the New Zealand womens team in both the Under 17 and Under 20 tournaments, whilst hardly on the same global scale of any of my other moments, ranks as highly as number two for me. I was highly sceptical of the tournament before it started but after the first match between New Zealand and Canada had changed my tune. Somehow New Zealand lost by a goal to both Canada and Denmark after dominating both games. A 3-1 win in Columbia was a fitting way to end the tournament. The Under 20s conceeded a goal against England in the 94th minute of their final group game, which saw them knocked out - had they managed to hang on to their 1-0 lead, they would've been the first New Zealand team to qualify for the second round in a World Cup. Red cards in the second and third group games and plenty of goals made for fantastic games. And above all, it showed that soccer does have a future in New Zealand, and that as a country we'd provide excellent hosts for future tournaments.
1. Kiwis 34-20 Kangaroos. The so-called unbackable Australians beaten by New Zealand, the upset of the year for me. I still look back at some of the comments about the trophy being Australia's without a shadow of doubt, but a brilliant heart-stopping 80 minutes of rugby league - which isn't even my preferred rugby code - is all that was required to take top spot in Somerset's top moment of the 2008 sporting year.
5. The All Blacks' recovery after back to back losses against South Africa in Dunedin and Australia in Sydney. The performance against Australia at Eden Park the week after getting badly beaten in Sydney was outstanding, and then to keep South Africa scoreless in Cape Town was exceptional. Then throw in the grand slam, in which Scotland, Ireland, Wales and England failed to score a single try in 320 minutes of rugby against the ABs. A quality return to dominance after the disaster of 2007 and a less than convincing start to 2008.
4. New Zealand's golden Saturday at the Beijing Olympics. Drysdale's battle to secure a medal before collapsing due to illness, the Twins' gold medal by a shoelace, and Vili's complete domination of the shot put. Finishing the day with nearly half a dozen medals after heading into the day with zero.
3. Federer vs Nadal at Wimbledon. With the match meant to start at 1am New Zealand time, and Nadal two sets up a couple of hours later, it looked to be all over before the Monday newpapers had been packed. By 8.30am that was a different story after an absorbing match of tennis. I'd never liked Nadal before the match, and still would have preferred Federer to have won but his fighting spirit and the part he played in the greatest tennis match I've ever seen have made me appreciate his talents and acknowledge him as another champion of the game of tennis.
2. The Under 17 Women's World Cup in New Zealand and the performance of the New Zealand womens team in both the Under 17 and Under 20 tournaments, whilst hardly on the same global scale of any of my other moments, ranks as highly as number two for me. I was highly sceptical of the tournament before it started but after the first match between New Zealand and Canada had changed my tune. Somehow New Zealand lost by a goal to both Canada and Denmark after dominating both games. A 3-1 win in Columbia was a fitting way to end the tournament. The Under 20s conceeded a goal against England in the 94th minute of their final group game, which saw them knocked out - had they managed to hang on to their 1-0 lead, they would've been the first New Zealand team to qualify for the second round in a World Cup. Red cards in the second and third group games and plenty of goals made for fantastic games. And above all, it showed that soccer does have a future in New Zealand, and that as a country we'd provide excellent hosts for future tournaments.
1. Kiwis 34-20 Kangaroos. The so-called unbackable Australians beaten by New Zealand, the upset of the year for me. I still look back at some of the comments about the trophy being Australia's without a shadow of doubt, but a brilliant heart-stopping 80 minutes of rugby league - which isn't even my preferred rugby code - is all that was required to take top spot in Somerset's top moment of the 2008 sporting year.
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