Well, what's up guys & girls, this is Whetu here tuning into this Kiwiavenger blog thing, but first it's the Rugby as the Melbourne Rebels are offically out of the competition starting from next year due to a lack of funding according to the announcement from Rugby Australia that they had in late May meaning that the number of teams is reduced to 11 which consists of the 5 NZ franchises such as the Blues, Chiefs, Crusaders, Highlanders & Hurricanes as well as the 4 Australian teams are going to compete from now on of the Brumbies, Force, Reds (Who had suspended both Tate McDermott for 3 weeks for a blatant, deliberate but reckless abuse on a Moana Pasifika player during the match against the Reds during round 8 of Super Rugby Pacific & Fraser McReight for a fortnight for a dangerous high tackle on also a Moana player) & Waratahs then one from Fiji such as the Fijian Drua (Who had already suspended Fijian Drua halfback Frank Lomani before for up to 5 weeks for a cheap shot on Rebels player Josh Canham during the game against the Rebels in Melbourne during round 7 of the competition before Lomani was the victim of a vile racist abuse hurled from a unruly but fraudulent Rebels fan who got tossed & thrown out by security, but the fan should be given a ban for life for spewing racial hate towards Lomani) & one from the Pacific Islands of Moana Pasifika.
And onto tennis as something is bad at the French Tennis Open & Roland Garros when the drunk French fans who were rude & disrespectful towards the opposition player playing against a local French player by abusing them of using foul but colourful language when Carole told me & Pops at The Villa Cafe here in Whanganui on the last day of May when tournament organisers have declared war on alcohol according to the tournament director who is a former women's tennis player of Amelie Mauresmo who says that they enforced the crack down as a result from now on (And it's similar to Indycar introducing a clamp down on 'The Snake' maneuver as well as both the NRL & NFL had successfully made the controversial hip drop prohibited), in which the tennis world is crying ejection so I probably think that the tournament organizers had made the right decision to prohibit alcohol being served to customers (And its similar to the Evin law in France in 1991 where the nation had passed a bill of cracking down alcohol & tobacco advertising at sports events according to the French politican Claude Evin after so many French people have passed away from both perfectly legitimate drugs that they had) at the French Tennis open because of the French fans who were drunk hurled hate towards an opposition tennis player competing against a French player by booing an opposition player were felt like frauds to start with not only it was malicious intent.
And the latest of the Indy 500 such as the 2 time former Indycar champion, & one of the American competitiors of Josef Newgarden is now a twice Indy 500 winning driver (And the first since Brazilian Helio Castroneves who did it in 2002 a year after first winning it in 2001 to win back to back Indy 500s) when the race was delayed for 4 to 5 hours as a result of inclement weather (And the Formula One Grand Prix in Monaco went to their local boy in the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc who was on pole in his home race (And it looks like there has been a decline to the utter dominance of Max Verstappen & Red Bull with Verstappen's quest of a 4th straight world championship as well as his championship reign could mark the beginning of the end with both Ferrari & McLaren & their drivers of Charles Leclerc & Lando Norris are now catching up), but Shane van Gisbergen has taken victory at a NASCAR Xfinity Series event in the United States, & he celebrated by kicking a rugby ball towards the crowd as Pops told me on the 2nd of June this year), but I didn't watch this year's Indy 500 because of the drivers other than the 3 Kiwis of Scott Dixon (The winner in Long Beach who finished 3rd in that race according to the comment that I heard from Pops before turning it around on the streets of Detroit with a win then taking his championship lead back in which he has known for a reputation of conserving fuel during the race), Scott McLaughlin (Who was the polesitter going into the race & appeared on the Pat McAfee Show in which he became the first New Zealander in history to make an appearance on the show hosted by the ex-gridiron punter) & Marcus Armstrong (Last year's best performing rookie in Indycar just like both McLaughlin did in 2021 & Dixon in 2001 which was during the CART Champ Car era when he finished on the podium in 3rd behind the 2022 Indy 500 winner of Sweden's Marcus Ericsson (Who is an ex-Formula One driver) in Detroit therefore denying a Chip Ganassi Racing 1-2 finish as Armstrong during the race had been instructed by his race engineer to conserve fuel which allowed Ericsson to go on the maximum attack mode) were always going to win, & they did by managing to pull it off easily yet again just like last year (Then Australia's Will Power (Who I heard that he has a son while his wife Elizabeth is matured now) won the next race in Road America ahead of teammates Josef Newgarden in 2nd & our own Kiwi Scott McLaughlin who was on the podium in 3rd as they provided Team Penske a 1-2-3 finish, & now the defending series champion of Alex Palou would gone on to dominate at Weathertech Raceway Laguna Seca in the most recent round of the Indycar Series).
And finally in the football department such as the Erik Ten Haag coached Manchester United (The English club that Carole's bro Martin (Marty) always supports) break an 8 year drought of winning the FA Cup (They last did it in 2016 against Crystal Palace) as they ended their club rivals Man City's quest of defending the English Cup as well as completing the league & cup double at Wembley but something almost bad has happened as rival club fans trying to start a scuffle/altercation until security & police intervened to stay clear by distancing themselves between rival supporters, but there is a new club in town that is competing in the A Leagues with Auckland City are now in, being the latest club to accept the offer & become the 2nd New Zealand team to compete in Australia's toughest football soccer/competition after the Wellington Phoenix (Who had their semifinal appearance in the last men's A-League season, but their chances of reaching their first final had been short lived, after a tough game which ended in a loss against a dominant Melbourne Victory side who scored 2 goals to the Phoenix's 1 in the return leg at Sky Stadium).
So that is my 552nd blog of the year 2024 (MMXXIV) & my 28th of this year, viva Ukraine & Palestine.
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