So it’s September 15, and this is currently the most valuable engine cover in the known universe:

Typical Duncraig kids.

Think about this, it took The Beatles well over a year to make it big in the United States….

Emma Raducanu did it in 3 weeks.

Coincidentally, neither Emma or The Beatles dropped a set when they visited New York.

Novak Djokovic, in having a chance at sporting immortality slip through his fingers at the 28th and final hurdle, gained the thing he’d longed for throughout his career….

…

….

…..

The love and support of a big crowd.

It’s beautiful and sad at the same time, and I’ll completely overlook the fact that it was a typical US Open crowd who were shouting while Medvedev was trying to serve.

Here’s photos of all the players who completed the calendar year Grand Slam in singles at Flushing Meadows on Sunday

Dutchwoman Diede de Groot in the Women’s Wheelchair Singles, who also won the Paralympic Gold Medal in the event in Tokyo, completing the Golden Slam just before Dylan Alcott did, in the process becoming the first player since Steffi Graf in 1988 to complete the calendar year Golden Slam:

And the aforementioned Dylan Alcott in the Quad Wheelchair singles, becoming the first man in history to win the calendar year Golden Slam, and the first man to win the calendar year Grand Slam since compatriot Rocket Rod Laver in 1969, which Dylan celebrated by chugging a Heineken out of the trophy.

Funnily enough, if you looked at that from afar, you’d think he was wearing a Pickelhaube.

10 years after winning the US Open Singles title, Sam Stosur won the Women’s Doubles title for the second time, a mere 16 years after her other US Open doubles title

There’s a way to restore relations between Australia and the PRC – Just show them what Sam Stosur and Zhang Shuai achieved with good old fashioned teamwork.

If Ping-pong diplomacy can work in 1971, so too can Tennis diplomacy in 2021.

Super Mega Six Day Bathurst 1000 Week in November-December

The Bathurst Regional Council, Repco, Supercars and ARG have joined forces to combine Australasia’s leading categories for the biggest motorsport event ever staged in Australia.

The historic first will see Mount Panorama host six-days of on-track entertainment and racing between Tuesday November 30 and Sunday December 5.

This year’s Repco Bathurst 1000 will be the first Great Race to be staged in December.

Supercars and ARG will be working closely with NSW health authorities around COVID-safe measures and Public Health Order requirements to ensure the safety of all staff and patrons attending the event.

The six-day Bathurst event will also feature the Dunlop Super 2 Series, Porsche Carrera Cup, Toyota Gazoo Racing 86 Series, TCR Australia, Touring Car Masters, S5000, GT World Challenge Australia, V8 SuperUtes and Trans Am.

From the Supercars website

A numerical coincidence I noticed on Sky Racing on Saturday

In race 6 at Kembla Grange, Marboosha, the Number 9, was $11….

What was the infamous date on Saturday?

9-11.

Nathan Jones won’t be there, but there is still one player from Melbourne’s 2009 wooden spoon team who will be playing in the AFL Grand Final

Bulldogs ruckman Stefan Martin, who played for the Demons between 2008 and 2012:

Here’s another fun fact about Stefan – When he graduated from Haileybury in 2004, his ENTER score, which is what Victoria used prior to ATAR, was 99.75, putting in the Top 40 students in the entire state.

Another fun fact is that Stefan, due to his basketball background, didn’t play any level of competitive footy until he was 19, playing for the Old Haileybury amateurs, and yet, within 2 years, he was picked by Melbourne in the AFL pre-season draft, and has now carved out 13 years in the league despite a few injury issues.

Last week’s AFL Preliminary Final margins didn’t even come close to the greatest losing margins in the history of Preliminary Finals

While last weekend was the most lopsided Preliminary Final weekend in history, at least in the current era of two Prelim Finals (1994-), the greatest losing margin in a Preliminary Final occurred in the Essendon vs Collingwood Preliminary Final of 1984 at Waverley, in which the Bombers won 28.6-174 to 5.11-41, with the 133 point margin still standing as the biggest winning margin in Finals history:

Rob Moody, aka Robelinda, had his video of Fatty Vautin’s ****in’ catch in 1993 taken down, not by Cricket Australia, but by the NRL

Considering Tim Horan was the batsman who wound up being humiliated, I’d have thought he was the one who tried getting it removed.

STILL, YOU WON’T GET IT TAKEN DOWN FROM HERE:

So it turns out Quade Cooper, after 70 Test caps for the Wallabies, only needed to comeback and score 23 points, including the game-winning penalty goal, against the reigning World Champions, AFTER THE SIREN, to get his Australian citizenship fast tracked

Quade Cooper is set to be granted Australian citizenship after the government announced changes to eligibility rules, clearing the path for “distinguished applicants” such as the Wallabies star.

The immigration minister, Alex Hawke, on Tuesday confirmed additional flexibility has been introduced to recognise the unique difficulties faced by individuals like Cooper.

Cooper had complained his touring schedule – and stints playing abroad – had led to four previous applications being rejected.

The current rules stipulate that citizenship applicants must have lived in Australia for the past four years and were not absent for more than 12 months during that time. They also state they must not have been absent from the country for more than 90 days during the 12 months before applying.

But Hawke indicated some exceptions could now be made for elite athletes like Cooper, along with artists, businesspeople and scientists.

From The Guardian

Talk about ironic – The Kiwi-born Cooper qualified to play for the Wallabies through Australian residency, yet he couldn’t get his Australian citizenship because he hadn’t resided in Australia long enough.

Oddly enough, Angus Young from AC/DC also applies under this rule, despite being in the most iconic Australian rock band in history, and I’d imagine Russell Crowe does as well, although Rusty probably threw a telephone at the Immigration Department officials when they told him.

There’s going to be three Australians in the Philadelphia Eagles – San Francisco 49ers game this weekend

1. Former St Kilda forward Arryn Sipposs, who made the conversion to punting several years ago after his footy career came to an end, which led to him being recruited by Auburn University, before he ironically beat out a fellow Aussie in Cam Johnston to get the starting job with the Philadelphia Eagles, and it appears his debut against the Atlanta Falcons went very well:

Then there’s fellow Eagle Jordan Mailata, the Bankstown Bogan who won the starting Left Tackle position after years of hard work, with the game against the Falcons coming a mere day after he’d signed a $64 million USD contract with $40.85m guaranteed, if you don’t mind umpire, and he played a big part in the Eagles winning 32-6…

And on the 49ers sideline there’s punters Mitch Wishnowsky, the Gosnells Goon, now into his 3rd season in San Francisco

Lachlan Lewis getting his contract terminated by the Bulldogs for stealing a soundbar from the club and trying to sell it on Ebay

He should’ve just stolen what most employees try to steal from their employer….

A shitload of office stationary equipment.

Good to see the NRL made a common sense decision about the timing of the Melbourne Storm Preliminary Final

Instead of being broadcast halfway into the 1st Quarter of the AFL Grand Final on the night of the 25th, the NRL made the call to move the game to 4pm on a Saturday afternoon, meaning they can also time it alongside the Golden Rose and the Underwood Stakes for the true multi-taskers.

That must also mean we’ve got the first afternoon NRL Preliminary Final since 2007, which coincidentally also featured the Melbourne Storm in a game that kicked off at 4pm, when they defeated Parramatta 26-10 at Docklands on a Sunday (September 23), well out of the way of any AFL games.

The Verstappen-Hamilton collision from the 360 degree camera on Hamilton’s Mercedes

Zak Brown giving Daniel Ricciardo another teaser of Dale Earnhardt Sr’s 1984 Wrangler Chevy

Here’s another fun fact about the Zak Brown/United Autosports connection to Australian motorsport….

He’s got the Garth Tander/Nick Percat Holden Racing Team 2011 Bathurst winner in his historical collection, and the purchase of the car is what led to Brown & United Autosports buying a share in Walkinshaw Racing at the end of 2017, leading to what is now Walkinshaw Andretti United.