by Andrew Gigacz
13th January 2011
A Happy New Year to Almanackers everywhere from the Useless Information Department at the Footy Almanac.
So, what can we glean from recent events in the world of sporting statistics and facts? Well…
- Peter Siddle’s batting average in the recently completed Ashes series was higher than that of Ricky Ponting
- England managed to beat Australia 3-1 in the series and yet still keep all Australian non-Magpie supporters happy because they included a poorly-performed Collingwood throughout.
- And Shane Watson made a half-century but not a hundred – sound familiar? – in the first Twenty20 match against England.
(With such obvious stuff all over the place, this stats column is pretty much writing itself.)
THERMO-STATS
Melbourne-based Almanackers who feel that they’ve been to some pretty hot New Year’s Eve parties in recent years are right.
Bucking a relatively cool December trend, which had seen Melbourne’s temperature climb to no higher than 30.9 degrees until the last day of the year, New Year’s Eve 2010 produced a scorching 41.1-degree day. It was the equal third-hottest New Year’s Eve in Melbourne’s 156-year weather record history. Amazingly (or perhaps not), three of the four hottest Melbourne New Year’s Eves have occurred in the last six years, with the daddy of them all being December 31st, 2005, when the mercury peaked at 42.9.
The Melbourne New Year’s Eve All Time Hot 10 is:
- 2005 42.9
- 1862 41.7
- 2010 41.1
- 2007 41.1
- 1899 40.1
- 1943 39.5
- 1990 39.4
- 1898 39.2
- 1960 37.5
- 1897 36.9
2009’s New Year’s Eve was also part of the Top 10 until recently. It now sits in 11th place, with a maximum temperature of 36.7 which was topped off by a cacophony of thunderstorms and fireworks
“ONE” FOR THE RECORD BOOKS
So just what were you doing on Tuesday morning this week? I reckon 11:11am on 11/1/11 would have been a pretty good time to have been painting or repairing that picket fence…
STOCKMARKET UPDATE
Good to see iShare’s EAFE fund reminding us that footy season’s not far away. The fund’s closing price on Wednesday was 58.38 and of course we don’t need reminding that 5.8.38 is just five goals shy of St Kilda’s final score of the drawn Grand Final.
RIDICULOUS ANAGRAM OF THE WEEK
North Melbourne fans would be pretty happy with the fighting spirit shown on the training track by players with the season still weeks away. Brent Harvey and Daniel Pratt appear to have taking the “fighting” just a little too seriously though.
But it’s not all been good news down at Arden Street. Hamish McIntosh will have a delayed start to the season after having Achilles surgery this week and the news has also been bad for North Melbourne’s Nathan Grima, who recently underwent back surgery to fix a bulging disc. My plan was the make mention of how the surgery would have ruined Grima’s no doubt perfect footballer’s summer tan, because NATHAN GRIMA is an anagram of HARMING A TAN. But Nathan’s name is so much more exciting than that for any cryptic crossword buff. Surely there can be no better rearrangement of the letters of NATHAN GRIMA than HINT: ANAGRAM.
About Andrew Gigacz
Well, here we are. The Bulldogs have won a flag. What do I do now?
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If 11/1/11 was exciting, how are you going to cope with a similar time on Armistace Day this year?
And are all the subbies on holidays? I didn’t see one “boxing kangaroos” headline.
Is Nathan Grima’s nickname “wormtongue”?
AF, I’ve booked the first ten days of November as holidays just so I can prepare.
Pity they waited till 1918 for armistace day Gigs.
Seven years earlier would have put you and ‘Stan the ssssssatistician from Ssssssstradbroke Island’ into a state of extreme bliss.
Just imagine if it were in ye olde days of the Normans.
11 past 11 on the 11th of the 11th 1111.
Take a cold shower Gigs.
That would certainly get Dickie Bird jumping up and down on one leg. He gets excited enough about ‘Nelson’.