The Great Victorian Bike Ride

The Great Victorian Bike Ride is an annual 9 day ride that has a different location in Victoria every year. It is a challenging, but rewarding and enjoyable way to get fit, or just get out and have fun. I did it a couple of years ago and it was a great experience, not only is it good for your fitness, it is always set in a picturesque setting.

This year the ride travels along the Great Ocean Road. Starting in Portland, the Ride travels out and back to Cape Bridgewater, before heading to Macarthur, down to Port Fairy, along the Great Ocean Road to Port Campbell and Apollo Bay where it stops for a rest day. A road closure gets riders from Apollo bay to Anglesea along the ocean road, then onto a final night party in Queenscliff, before finishing in Geelong. A total distance of 550 kilometres over the nine days.

http://www.visitvictoria.com/displayobject.cfm/objectid.6DDB6C20-96FE-4FA7-8DCD3AE547A1B407/

Australia Qualify for 2010 World Cup

The Socceroos secured their place into the world cup when they had a nill all draw against Qatar in Doha. It's a second consecutive appearance at football's greatest showpiece for the Socceroos for the first time in their history. They have now beaten Japan 2 gaols to 1 to sit on the top of their pool. Tim Cahill scored both of their goals which gave them a come behind win from 1-0 down.

Giant Japanese defender Marcus Tulio Tanaka outjumped Cahill from a corner to score with a header in the 38th minute to give the visitors a lead they richly deserve.
But the second half was a different story. Cahill equalised with a header in 58th minute and grabbbed the winner with 13 minutes remaining.

Andrew Gaze

Andrew Gaze (born 24 July 1965 in Melbourne, Victoria) is Australia's most widely known basketball player, and one of its most successful.
Son of Australian basketball legend Lindsay Gaze, Andrew began his career in the Australian NBL at age 18, being named Rookie of the year in 1984. His incredible shooting skills saw him the top scorer in the league for a total of 14 seasons. Gaze combined a great three-point shot with an equally good pass. A crowd favourite, one of Gaze's trademark plays was a pass to American import Lanard Copeland for an alley oop. He played for the Melbourne Tigers for his whole carrer and holds many NBL records, including:

• Rookie of the year in 1984


• Beeing named the league’s most valuable player (MVP) a record seven times


• Won two championships, 1993 and 1997


• Played 612 games in the league


• Lead the league in scoring a record 14 seasons (out of 16 seasons that he played)


• He averaged about 34 points per game for his entire NBL career


• In 16 seasons he has scored more than 16,000 points and recorded almost 3,000 assists


• He has been selected as a member of the All-NBL All-Star Team for a record 12 consecutive years


• Gaze won the NBL's Most Efficient Player Award for each year of its existence (8 years)


• In 1991 he became the first player to shoot over 1,000 points in a season


• Also the first player to lead both scoring and assists statistics in the same season

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Andrew also played in the international arena, playing in a recorrd total of five Olympic Games with the Boomers and led them to their best performance, fourth at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. The highlight of Andrew’s final Olympic campaign, 2000 Sydney Olympics, was the honour bestowed upon him as the role of flag bearer and Captain of the Australian Olympic Team.

In 1991, Andrew became the first Australian to play professionally in Europe, with the Italian club side, Udine. In a six-month stint in Italy, he averaged more than 30 points a game. He even played College Basketball in America for Seton Hall University and led them to the final. One of his career highlights was playing in the best league in the world, The American NBA for the Washington Bullets and the San Antonio Spurs, he even won an NBA Championship Ring with San Antonio in the 1998-99 season.

He still has alot to do with basket ball in Australia, since his retirement from the NBL in 2005, commentating NBL matches for SEN 1116 and Fox Sports. He also coaches for the Melbourne Tigers' Junior Basketball club and coaches my team along with his brother-in-law Nigel Purchase who also played professionally in the NBL.

http://www.interbasket.net/players/gaze.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Gaze

Lakers Win In 5

The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Orlando Magic 99-86 in game 5 to win the NBA finals series 4 games to 1. Kobe Bryant, their star player scored 30 points, along with gasol having 14 of his own and 15 rebounds. It was their 15th in franchise history, Kobe Bryant's 4th and coach Phil Jackson's 10th breaking a tie with legendary Boston coach Red Auerbach as the winningest coach in finals history.

Everyone played their role in the series, Fisher, who has four rings himself, if not for his two key 3-pointers in Game 4, this series would still be going, the addition of Gasol, who came over in a stunning trade from Memphis last season, filled O'Neal's massive shoes at centre and gave Bryant help. They got help from their entire roster as Odom, Trevor Ariza and Andrew Bynum, who missed most of last season and the playoffs with a knee injury, came through.

After losing Game 1 by 25 points, the Magic had their chance in Game 2 but rookie Courtney Lee missed an alley-oop layup in the final second of regulation time. In Game 4, Dwight Howard missed two free throws with 11.1 seconds to go, and the Magic allowed Derek Fisher to nail a game-tying 3-pointer to force Over Time.

http://www.nba.com/lakers/news/090614_gameday_magic.html

Bliss N Eso

Bliss N Eso are an ARIA award winning Australian hip hop group, Currently signed to Melbourne record label Illusive Sounds. The trio MC Bliss (Jonathan Notley), MC Esoterik (Max MacKinnon) and DJ Izm (Tarik Ejjamain) are Australian Hip Hop's most popular artists and have been active since 2000. The three have been friends (and have rapped together) since high school. Notley moved to Australia in 1992 when he was just thirteen and met MacKinnon at the Glenaeon Steiner School in Sydney. Notley later moved to Mosman High School which is where he met Ejjamai, they have been together ever since.

Bliss N Eso's tale goes to show that creating your own path can lead to a destination never reachable by following directions. And what an incredible journey it has been. From an early stage in their career, Bliss n Eso primarily built their fan base from their compelling and energetic live performances. A blend of fluid rhymes and banging beats teamed with beat boxing, impromptu freestyling and seamless turntablism make their live shows a brand in their own right, and has seen the group named as one of the best live acts in the country.They have developed their own sound and style which is why they are so popular.

http://www.blissneso.com/news.htm

Jade Rawlings takes over at tough time.

Jade Rawlings

The former AFL key player, Terry Wallace finished his unseccessful coaching season at the Richmond Football Club with a 68-point loss to the Western Bulldogs. Jade Rawlings came in to replace him after coming through this week's selection process. Rawlings was one of four Richmond assistant coaches to apply, along with three others from elsewhere. Richmond are putting that chapter behind them and starting a new AFL season from this weekend with Rawlings' first game against West Coast.

Rawlings, the former Hawthorn, Western Bulldogs and North Melbourne key position player would not comment on whether he woulod apply for the job beyond this season, but had this to say "We really want to give it some life in the second half of the year. We will get a style that we think is sustainable for the future, whether that's finals footy this year might be a bit hard. But we'll play a sustainable brand that's going to stack up for finals, for whoever takes over.''

“The one thing I can tell Richmond supporters is we'll be trying to win games in the second half of the year and finish off the year like we did last year. said President Gary March.

http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,8659,25595960-23209,00.html

Basketball - the best game in the world

Basketball is a team sport, each team having between 12 and 15 players, played on a wooden court with a round ball. The basic objective of the game is to shoot the ball into a 10 foot high ring, thus scoring points, to win you must score more points than the opposing team. There is a set of specific rules followed; Harsh Physical contact is not permitted and is known as a foul, the ball can be advanced up the court by bouncing it or passing between teammates.

Basketball has developed alot since its early days in Springfield, Massachusetts. It was once played with a Peach Basket, the ball having to be retrieved manually with a ladder. The Peach Basket was replaced in 1906 with a ring allowing the ball to just pass through, the backboard was also added in that year. The bakboard was initially introduced to stop fans from interfering with shots, it had the additional effect of allowing the ball to rebound off into the ring. Basketball is now one of the most popular and widely viewed sports in the world.

In my opinion Basketball is the best game in the world, it incorporates skill, speed, jumping, athleticism, strength, smarts and finesse. A smart player/team can beat someone stronger, taller, faster, etc. It is this combination of features that puts Basketball so far ahead of any other sport in the world.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basketball