Well, welcome to our readers here in New Zealand, & around the world, I'm Whetu Ngapo & you're tuning in to my KiwiAvenger blog here on blogger, but first that there was once a cricket story according to the Captain Courageous programme about the late Hansie Cronje (The one who was suspended for life due to match fixing way back in 2000, 2 years before taking his own life in a plane accident back home in South Africa, but the pronunciation of his name such as originally Johannes seemed to be difficult but tough according to one of the newspaper articles referring to his name, so they had to refer to him as someone else, like Hansie as a nickname for example, but he was the youngest member of the South African team that toured Australia in 1993-94, before becoming the youngest ever skipper of South Africa when he took the reins of former Aussie test player Kepler Wessels (The only member of the South African team with previous test experience than the rest of the players) who took over the captaincy from the injured Wessels as the stand-in captain who unfortunately went home that sent South Africa into a frenzy as they won the test by a narrow margin of five runs as they famously bowled the Aussies out for 111 in the second innings (They were 292 in the first, including one of the Aussie batters of Michael Slater who was 8 runs short of a century) whilst chasing a target of 177 (Even though the South Africans made 169 & 239, then the Aussies had posted 292 in response to their first innings), meanwhile also the late Warnie was instrumental for Australia in the first innings as he took 7 wickets for 56 (27 overs, but he took 5 for 72 (42 overs) in the 2nd innings), but it wasn't enough to secure a win (And there was a fifer from Fanie de Villiers during Australia's 2nd innings with 6/43, but it was a successful caught & bowled attempt from de Villiers had decided the fate of the test), & after that that Cronje went on to captain South Africa for the rest of the tour, including the ODI tri-series in which they came by a whisker of winning it.
And secondly that it's been 20 years since me, the late Nan & Pops went on a holiday in Samoa (20 years! Can you believe it) where I literally enjoyed that experience that I had with both of my grandparents such as the fish scare, me suffering food poisoning after I had a pasta meal that was uncooked, climbing Mount Vaea, as well as ice that it thought it got contaminated, & watching a game of rugby between Samoa against Fiji at Apia Park (And it was really, really hot out there, but we forgot to get our umbrella that it left at Aggie Grey's resort motel), but the key highlight for me during the holiday was getting that Samoa rugby jersey that I used to have despite that fact that it was getting dear.
And thirdly that I just recently rewatched the All Blacks game against the world champions at the time of England at Eden Park in Auckland from way back in 2004 (That was the week after the English were crushed as they got mauled by New Zealand in the first test in Dunedin) in anticipation to the England-AB's test at Allianz Stadium Twickenham in London on November 16th (15th there in the UK for which is our toughest test every damn time the All Blacks embark on a grand slam tour for that is our most significant of the Northern tour this year (And this could be our most difficult but demanding test since the encounter against the Springboks at Sky Stadium in Welly of Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington in that we lost by a record score according to the estimates, but this could be our 2nd most important test match of the year behind the South Africa one at Eden Park in the City of Sails of Tamaki Makaurau Auckland) when the match was played at Eden Park in Auckland where I only watched the first half that during the 2nd test that one of the English locks of Simon Shaw had been shown the red card for a blatant but deliberate knee to the head of an All Blacks player (Just like Danny Grewcock did for stamping in 1998 during a game at the old Carisbrook ground in Dunedin (It eventually got replaced by Forsyth Barr Stadium when it opened its doors back in 2011 in time for the men's Rugby World Cup tournament), meaning that they played with 14 players for the remainder of the game (And I remember Zaki telling me in 2020 when we watched it on TV meaning that he prefers supposed contests, not sheer humiliations such as blowouts like that thinking about that one), but I managed to watch the highlights including the 2nd half where one of my favourite rugby players back then (Used to be) of All Black winger Joe Rokocoko getting a hat-trick just like against France & the Wallabies way back in 2003, before we even won the test in Graham 'Ted' Henry's 2nd game in charge as coach of the AB's, as well as the series against England of course).
And finally that I prefer rock & metal music from 1991 onwards because of me being born in that year, even though that I'm always mainly listening to Brian FM since 2015 for that was the first time I heard that radio station a year after its launch & the reason why? Because it is ad-free (Compared to the Rock which has ads & stuff, but they have one similar to Brian which is Channel X for that is the mainstream version of Brian FM) + they have the annual Brian FM Reverse Countdown where they play the best tunes (Such as 'War Pigs' from Black Sabbath as the best in the reverse countdown this year followed by 'Nothing Else Matters' by Metallica as number 2, then number 3 would have to be Pink Floyd's 'Comfortably Numb' & 'Come As You Are' by Nirvana is the number 4 song indeed) starting from number one, until the most rubbish song such as 'Achey Breaky Heart' by Miley's dad Billy Ray Cyrus that they ever play at 2,500 for which has been expanded this year, up from the original 2,001.
So that is my 645th blog of the year 2025 (MMXXV) & my 69th of this year, viva Ukraine.
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