Cleaver's Games: March 11

Head is slightly cloudy today due to Chiefs vs Crusaders and, in particular, Kelvin Deaker.

A few hardy souls found a public house near the CBD that agreed to show the rugby.

Not all the locals were impressed. What the %@ is this &%$, was the general theme, while the bloke down the front spent the entire second half weeding out his dandruff with a comb he had just found on the footpath outside.

There was also a naked woman, Chloe, painted on a full-length oil-on-canvas by Jules Lefebvre.

It was that sort of place.

Can't say I've ever understood Cantabrians. They're weird - a Pleasantville meets Deliverance sort of weird. But I will say this for them. They're passionate. Here, in the heart of AFL territory, you'll still see squat men with sideboards wearing Crusaders paraphernalia.

Some have emigrated, some are on holiday and some, apparently, are here especially to boo Aucklanders competing at the Games.

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After the righteous indignation shown by Australian Prime Minister John Howard to the selection of child-killer Soulan Pownceby in the New Zealand boxing team, he should consider this.

The Australian team has been sparring this week with Zdravko Micevic, the bouncer who threw the punch that killed former Australian cricketer David Hookes.

Micevic was found to have acted in self defence when he punched Hookes during a pub brawl in the seaside suburb of St Kilda in 2004.

He has been sparring with 81kg fighter Ben McEachran and heavyweight Brad Pitt.

Following the death of Hookes, who cracked his head on the road after being punched, Micevic's home was attacked and he received death threats.

Micevic said he was grateful for the opportunity and hoped people would let him get on with rebuilding his life.

There might be a lesson in there for Howard.

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Some sensational useless facts with which to impress your friends.

Norfolk Island is the smallest nation at these Games, with a population of 1912 to choose from.

India is the largest, with a population at the time of writing of 1,080,264,488. At the time of reading, that is expected to rise to 1,080,265,012.

Of the 71 nations competing, 10 have populations of less than 20,000 - Anguilla, British Virgin Islands, Falkland Islands, Montserrat, Nauru, Niue, Norfolk Island, St Helena, Turks and Caicos Islands and Tuvalu.

Four - India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nigeria - have populations in excess of 100 million.

New Zealand is the 23rd most populous country competing at the Commonwealth Games.

* Happy birthday Michelle.

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READERS' COMMENTS

I didn't realise that the Chief's and Crusaders were in the Commonwealth Games. Was it a warm up match?
- Rowan Greig

As a born and bred Cantabrian I object to some of the comments directed the intelligence of my fellow Crusaders fans, the majority of whom, in this PC environment forced upon us by the Clark Labour government, don't care about the result, as long as rugby is the winner on the day. In fact, on a brief return visit to Christchurch it was rugby supporters dressed in yellow and black and wearing gum boots (presumably pig farmers from Taranaki) who I noticed behaving like a hoard of Tasmanians in Cathedral Square in the early hours of Sunday morning. Dylan Cleaver (presumably not a Cantabrian) is obviously little irritated at the continued success of NZ's number 1 Super 14 franchise.
- Alan Bruce