The Pressbox Ep 108

The Examiner

Who knows the most about northern Tasmanian sports? It's these guys: Josh Partridge, Ryan Bentley, Ben Hann. Welcome to episode 108 of The Examiner's longest running, unmissable sports podcast, The Pressbox.

Transcript

00:00Welcome all to an episode of the Press Box. My name is Ben Hand, you're alongside me once again

00:13is Josh Partridge and Ryan Bentley here for episode 108. Well and truly, as was last week

00:21I declared, we are well and truly into cricket season. That is now moved ever closer to the

00:27Ashes. We've got T20 cricket underway. We have a grand final coming up and we've got of course

00:34regular Cricket North and TCL action on Saturdays and Sundays. So it is all happening plus a little

00:41bit of football and basketball and netball and we've got plenty coming your way. But before we

00:48get to any of the rest of that, we've got to of course do everyone's favourite segment, numerology.

00:57So to start off with boys, I was probably a little bit lax. Didn't get around to finding

01:04my brilliant number until a little bit late. But I've been saved by our friends across the

01:11other side of the world, the Poms, England. There have been 340 Ashes test matches played

01:18throughout history. England have won 108 of them. 108 wins for the Poms, but that obviously

01:26sounds pretty good news for the Australians. But before I reveal the number of wins that

01:30Australia have had over the years, can you boys give me a little quick sort of ballpark

01:37guess at how many wins Australia have had in Ashes test matches?

01:41Hmm. Let's go 146. 146? I'm going to go 131. You guys are both very close, but I'm going

01:53to have to give the points to Josh. It is 140. So there's actually a lot of draws in there

02:00as well. So clearly back in the day, sometimes the pitches were quite all that. But enough

02:07of the Ashes for now. We'll be watching those on Friday at the time of recording. I haven't

02:12quite started yet, but very exciting news. We're going to actually quickly go to UTAS

02:16Stadium where there will be some cricket this summer. Josh, probably not as much as in previous

02:20years as maybe we got used to there for a little bit with the Hurricanes and the Tassie Tigers.

02:24But it's obviously undergoing a reconstruction, a $130 million upgrade. It's had its fair share

02:30of controversies, namely with North Launceston and a few other things. But we will touch on

02:37those another day. One thing that James Avery Stadium of Tasmania, as CEO, has made clear

02:44to Parliament and I suppose the greater public as well, UTAS Stadium is underutilised. It needs

02:52to be used for more things. At the moment, the main tenants are obviously NTFA, the Hawthorne

02:58Hawks, Tasmania Devils, Coates Talent League and Grand Northern Raiders in the summer. What

03:06I suppose would you guys like to see come into UTAS Stadium content to make, I suppose, more

03:13use of what is a really, really good sports ground? Yeah, I think quite simply, I think getting

03:19the big bash back would be massive. But I think there's also a trickle down effect to that.

03:24I think there's a possibility that Cricket North games and things could be played there.

03:27Obviously, it is expensive to run UTAS Stadium and all that kind of thing for a local sports

03:32game. But yeah, I think that would be fantastic to get just more cricket played on there because,

03:37once again, you're going into the trouble of dropping in a wicket there, play on it.

03:40Yeah, I don't mind that. What about you, Ron? Well, I know Tasmania's adopted A-League team,

03:45Western United, and unfortunately, meta their end. But I'd like to see some more A-League. I don't

03:50think it will be Western United somehow, but I mean, it looks awesome. Saturday Twilight

03:55A-League games look amazing at UTAS Stadium. So, to see some more of that would be a potential.

03:59If they don't want to drop a wicket in to play a big bash, maybe throw some A-League on there

04:03over the summer, get a team involved there would be awesome. Yeah, I know in terms of something more

04:08left field and not necessarily covered by the press box is concerts and outdoor sort of

04:15entertainment events and conferences, anything like that. I think they're certainly looking

04:22at making a lot more use of that. And to be honest, I think it's all very welcome. I think

04:26the more events you can bring to Launceston, the better. And I think it will have a bit of a snowball

04:31effect. And hopefully, they can get some sort of consistency with use before the Devils arrive,

04:36because as we have written about previously, there is plenty of content coming its way once

04:43the Devils arrive into the AFL, AFLW, VFL and VFLW. So, certainly from next year, it's going to get a

04:49lot more busy. That leads us into the part of the show that I think everyone really tunes in for,

04:56and that is, of course, Hanni's Hard Hitters.

05:04So, Ryan and Josh, I have worded you up a little bit on this question, because it would take a little

05:10bit of scanning back on the brain. What is the best sports event you've ever witnessed in Launceston?

05:16Well, it was a massive St Kilda win back in the day. But outside of that, I think I'm going to go

05:22with the Ricky Ponting testimonial game just after his retirement to see that many Australian

05:27cricket legends racing. Our home stadium was really cool, and I think that's certainly one

05:33that sits top of mind for me. Are you right? Well, I was also there for that testimonial game.

05:37Very good, I must say. But I won't be going for an Adelaide win, because Adelaide never

05:41win the Launceston, unfortunately. It's always three points, though. It is always three points.

05:46But I'm going to go to the elimination final play of 2021 between Sydney and Jen and the US.

05:51Famous for Toby Green's, maybe one of the worst moments of his villain arc,

05:55touching an umpire and getting suspended. So, yeah, seeing Utah Stadium packed out,

06:01well, pretty close to packed out during COVID was a pretty cool experience.

06:05Yeah, two very good answers. I'm actually going to go something a little bit different. The

06:09Silverdome, when I watched the first, my first ever Jackjumpers game that I watched when I covered

06:15that there, it was actually a very rare Jackjumpers win against the Brisbane Bullets. It went down to

06:20the very final shot that former Jackjumpers Sam McDaniel missed. So, it was a very good game,

06:27and I think I really sort of got a great sort of feeling about why they're so popular in this state,

06:35and why everyone packs that crowd, and it was so loud, and it was a great atmosphere. So,

06:39something that I reflect on very fondly. But enough of, well, there was some winter sport there,

06:45and enough of basketball. We'll go straight to Cricket North, CTPL, and TCL. Josh, I'll let you

06:52sort of take the reins here. What's been going on?

06:54Yeah, I'll just give a quick, simple rundown of the weekend. So, it was back to Cricket North action,

06:59after being a bit of Greater Northern Cup, which sees the Cricket North sides play the North West.

07:03Riverside defeated Mowbray by six runs, and Launceston defeated South Launceston by 18,

07:09and both of those sides are really, all of the Cricket North sides really, are in some really

07:13impressive form, and it's making for a really interesting ladder towards the back end of that

07:17season. So, obviously, there's still a fair bit to play out when it comes to that competition, but

07:22it's going to be really interesting going forward. And in the TCL, Trevallon, Legana, and Georgetown-Beaconsfield,

07:29that's one outfit. They're a partnership. They all got wins on the weekend, and Georgetown-Beaconsfield,

07:35obviously, a new entity. They've only just come into the competition, but they're sitting atop the

07:38ladder at the moment, which is, I guess, a surprise to a lot of people. They've always had a fair bit

07:43of potential, especially at the Georgetown end of things, but they're putting it all together,

07:47and it's really exciting for the competition. Absolutely, and I think we've said it before,

07:50but I think Cricket North is really benefiting from having all of its best players being able

07:56to play and available, which obviously leads us into what's been going on in the CTPL. The Raiders

08:00have been playing a lot of Sunday cricket. Ryan, can you take us through, I suppose, what's the

08:04latest update with the Raiders? Well, the Raiders are in a semi-final in the one-day format on Sunday

08:10at Invoke Park Games Lindisfarne, and they've got the job done in a rain-affected game.

08:14Lockie Clark, 3 for 19 for his 10 overs, quite economical on a usually flatty at Invoke May Park,

08:21so very handy for him, especially considering the Saturday he was out with Gastro, so

08:26flu game, Michael Jordan, some of the same. And then with the bat, AT and Tom Dwyer got the job done,

08:33and sent the boys through to a grand final at Ninja Stadium against Kinga, I think, so next Sunday

08:39it will be very exciting. Although, I don't know Connor will be missing because he'll be out with

08:44the CA 11, and also worth sharing that the women got the job done in there. First T20 down in Hobart,

08:50Ava Curtis, 53-47, and a couple of poles as well, thanks for coming. And then the second game got

08:56washed out, and it looked like they were going to have a fair chase on their hands, so they'll be

09:00happy to take the point there, I think. Great run down, and of course, an iconic moment now,

09:05Lockie Clark's been compared to Michael Jordan, so that's what you get here at The Press Box.

09:11And that builds us on to what is the last segment, but certainly not the least segment, Josh. It is

09:15Josh's local hero of the week. Well, after that little shout out, I think it should be Lockie Clark,

09:23but unfortunately it isn't. I just get worded up that Ryan was going to drop that. My local hero of the

09:29week is Taisha Hines, who we mentioned Georgetown before, but they have entered the Cricket North

09:35Junior competition for the first time since 2019-20, so she's the Junior Development Officer there,

09:41and she's been doing a lot of work behind the scenes, so obviously got a lot of credit,

09:45a lot of praise this week, Taisha, but this is obviously the biggest award you're going to get,

09:48so congratulations. And once again, another examiner journalist, very unlucky,

09:53our Ryan Bentley to the left of me here, scoring 141. So he scored more runs on the weekend than

09:59England have Ashes wins. There you go. Just making my 99 feel incredibly inferior. Thank you, Ryan.

10:06There you go. And that is all the time we have for this week. We'll catch you guys for the next one.

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