**not hugely sports-related, but I did ensure I could include it in the NHL, Football and NASCAR sections....apologies if you're hoping to find a sports story but I had to share this with everyone since I find this disgraceful**

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For three days in July (25, 26 and 27), the small town of Pemberton in British Columbia, Canada, will host an outdoor concert including such names as Tom Petty, Coldplay, The Flaming Lips and My Morning Jacket...a rather impressive feat for a town that has less than 2000 people living in it.

In fact, the only times Pemberton tends to get busy is when the Vancouver Canucks or the BC Lions are playing at home in the NHL or CFL respectively. I am yet to find out if they get any overflow from the Canadian Tire Series when they race in Vernon but I would imagine not.

Now, the organisers were nice enough to give the locals some $90 off ticket prices ($200 verses $290 for the rest) but had a limited number of 300 for them. A nice gesture right?

Wrong.

For reasons only known to the organisers, they elected to sell off the tickets to people who live in nearby Whistler...seems like Canada has a different perspective of the term 'local resident' to the rest of the world. The only excuse I can think of is that maybe they thought Pemberton wouldn't buy the 300 tickets which is extremely poor reasoning and shows a remarkable lack of faith in the host town. I understand that Whistler is less than 50 miles away, but to not give Pemberton first choice on the cheaper tickets is absolutely disgraceful and an outrage since I know the town has been buzzing with the news since finding out about the concert a few weeks ago.

But it could go deeper than that for Vancouver hosts the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. I wonder if they'll do the same for that; set aside a limited number of tickets purely for BC residents then fobb them off to the rest of the country before bothering to tell the 'locals'.

Not impressed, guys (John, you really should throw these morons under the bus next week, mate)...a very ####-poor way to treat a wonderful country town and I hope you get nowhere near the 40 000 people you expect to turn up over the three days.

Ahh yes, December. First month of Summer and the last month of the year…and what a brilliant way to end it.

Davis Cup final kicks off in Portland this morning…right about now actually now that I check the Sky guide…with the NZ Golf Open having their final two rounds. There’s something a bit different about that this weekend…it’s being held, for the first time, on a private course…bet that wouldn’t happen with a National Golf Open anymore. Also, David Beckham and the LA Galaxy are playing a friendly match against the Wellington Phoenix in Wellington tonight…which I can’t watch since we’re having our end-of-year work function…so I’ll tape it instead. Then we move into the best part of December; cricket.

First up will be the Chappell-Hadlee series between Australia and NZ starting on the 14th. The Aussies lost all three games last year…granted they didn’t send their best team but a 3-0 win’s a 3-0 win all the same so they’ll be fired up to not let that happen again. After that will be the Boxing Day test match which will be the second test series for the Aussies.

November saw the official start of the cricket season and brought Sri Lanka to our shores for a two match series from the Gabba in Brisbane and Bellrieve Oval in Hobart. Unfortunately for the ‘lankans, their star player, Kumar Sangakara, was recovering from an injury and didn’t play in Brisbane…and they were never in the show as Australia waltzed to their thirteenth consecutive test match win.

Let’s just take stock here…the New England Patriots have had a storming start to the NFL season and sit at a similar record so really is 13 straight a big deal?

Yes…very much so.

See, a test match lasts for a maximum of five days, and there’s no ‘backup’ day if it rains. The only way you can make up time in cricket is by starting earlier and finishing later…the old fashioned way in other words.

And given the fact that matches these days tend to be more about the batsmen and less about the bowlers, you tend to wind up with draws. Australia recognised this last decade and started to play like they do in the one-day version of the game. Whereas most teams would be happy to have 200 runs at the close of day one, the Aussies raised the bar to 300; the idea was to score quickly which would give them more time to bowl at other team. The downside, obviously, is that it’s a little more high risk and has potential to backfire spectacularly.

Well, it would if the Aussies didn’t have such names as Hayden, Ponting, Hussey, Clarke, Symonds and Gilchrist…their entire batting order really. Once you get one out, another guy averaging around 50 runs per innings comes in and sets about smashing you all over the park…not a nice thought for the fielding team.

Anyway, back to Sri Lanka.

Test two was a much better affair, with Sangakara back and managing to throw a major scare into the Australian camp until he got a rather dodgy decision which cut him eight short of a double ton. That was pretty much the death knell for Sri Lanka as, up until that point, they had been looking half a shot at pulling off a huge final innings run chase (over 500 runs) but in the end they fell 100 odd short leaving Australia to claim their 14th straight win, just two behind the all-time record set by the West Indians a couple of decades ago.

So to Melbourne on Boxing Day…when India comes to town. The Indians have a really good look about them, but the majority of their star players are in the twilight of their careers; Dravid, Tendaulker, Kumble…this might be the last time these guys play in Australia so I’m expecting them to draw a big crowd.

The Boxing Day test in Melbourne is a special moment in Australian sport…always has been. Last year saw Shane Warne grab his 700th wicket against England as the Aussies regained the Ashes from the old foe. I know that many of you have no idea about cricket or think it’s boring to watch and that’s fine with me, I’m not here to convince you. But this isn’t just an American sports site…if it were, they’d have to get rid of golf, tennis, football (the proper one where they use a round ball and actually kick it) and a few other sports they have on here.

All you have to know is this; there are only really two moments during the year that Australia stands still…and this is one of them.

First things first; I'm only putting this in both NFL and NASCAR since I make reference to them...it's not a post about either so if you don't want to read it knowing that now, then you don't have to.

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We had the AFL Grand Final on Saturday afternoon which led nicely into the NRL Grand Final on Sunday night. The only shame about both matches was that they were a bit one-sided in the end.

The Melbourne Cricket Ground (or MCG as those in the know refer to it is) was the venue for the Aussie Rules matchup between the Geelong Cats and the Port Adelaide Power. Port won the premiership back in 2004, snapping the hopes of the Brisbane Lions winning four in a row, while Geelong haven't tasted success since, well, I can't remember...they usually lose the GF anyway.

                                                         

But this season was different, Geelong were the minor premiers by quite a way (something I believe NASCAR should do with the Chase and give the driver leading after 26 races a nice little trophy or whatever) and were the favourites to win. Port were second on the ladder after the round robin games and went in as the marginal underdog despite thumping North Melbourne the week before in their semi. Geelong were under a bit more pressure due to the fact that one of their players, Jimmy Bartel, had won the Brownlow medal earlier in the week. The Brownlow is given to the best player, that hasn't been given any suspension, as voted by the umpires for the season (not including playoff games).

However, the Cats played like they had all season and kicked away from Port by halftime. The lead was over 50 points and they extended that to over 100 by fulltime (final score ended by being 163 to 44). That would probably be the equivalent of the Superbowl being won by 50+ points, or a NASCAR race by 5 laps.

So congratulations Geelong on a well-earned victory and I'll bet those Crown Lagers sure tasted sweet on Saturday night.

To Sunday then, where again we had the two best teams playing each other; the Melbourne Storm and the Manly Sea Eagles.

                        

Stadium Australia in Sydney was the place to be as the game kicked off around 7:30pm local time. The first 20 minutes were a bruising affair as both teams seemed intent on smashing each other at every available opportunity. The Storm were the better team as they dominated territory, yet by halftime Manly had stayed in touch as they scored right on the buzzer to cut the lead to six points (10-4), just a converted try behind.

However, that was as close as they got as Melbourne, and Greg Inglis in particular, ran riot in the second half as they won the game by the scoreline of 34 to 8. This went some way to avenge their GF loss last year to the, very much underdogs, Brisbane Broncos and was just desserts for the team that has been the benchmark in the game for the past two seasons.

That was pretty much how I spent my weekend; watching two great showcases of Australian sport...I just wish both games had been a touch closer in the end.