So we’ve marched onwards to June, and yesterday marked 60 years since Tom Phillis died in a crash in the Isle of Man TT, a sad anniversary to think of given another three riders died in the notoriously dangerous Manx race this year.

Now for those of you who are totally oblivious to the name, Phillis has the distinction of being the first non-Japanese rider ever signed by Honda, and in Spain in 1961 the Sydneysider became the first rider in history to win a race for the legendary Japanese manufacturer (Who have now won 800+ races), and at the end of the year Phillis became the first rider to win a two-wheeled world title on a Japanese machine, winning the 125cc title thanks in part to rival Ernst Degner missing the last race in Argentina while defecting from East Germany to the West.

For good measure, Phillis finished 2nd in that season’s 250cc class to Mike ‘The Bike’ Hailwood, both riding Hondas, and as history tells us, while MV Augusta dominated the 500cc and 350cc class for another decade, the Japanese Big 4 of Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki and Kawasaki gained an iron grip on the lightweight classes before taking over 500cc racing from 1975 onwards, having now won a grand total of 144 championships in all classes past & present.

Sadly, much like Australia’s first motorcycle World Champion Keith Campbell, who won the 1957 350cc title, Phillis didn’t even live a year after winning his world title, dying while in the Junior TT 350cc category around Snaefell Mountain Course on June 6, 1962.

The tragic events also led to Tom’s friend and 1961 500cc World Champion Gary Hocking immediately retiring from 2-wheeled racing to take up a 4-wheeled career, just as John Surtees did in 1960…

Sadly for Hocking, he also died in a crash, on December 23, 1962.

An all too familiar theme in the dark old days of 1960s Grand Prix racing.

Ahead of State of Origin Game I tomorrow, we’ve just past a 20th anniversary from yesteryear…. Justin Hodges’ nightmare debut from Game II, 2002

June 5, 2002 was the scene for Game II at the old QSAC/ANZ Stadium in Brisbane, with New South Wales having taken an easy 1-0 lead in the series thanks to a 32-4 win in Game 1, and in Game II, Justin Hodges, a young centre from the Sydney Roosters via Cairns made his debut for Queensland, and made one of the more memorable debuts in Origin history.

It started when he somewhat botched a pick-up in the 5th minute, then in the 27th minute, Hodges covered himself in glory when he fired a stray pass to Darren Lockyer in the in-goal that completely missed his intended target, and was pounced on by Braith Anasta to give NSW the lead.

Then, after Lote Tuqiri and Chris McKenna tore the Blues a new arsecrack, in the 62nd minute Hodges found himself under more in-goal pressure, and instead of just taking the tackle, he threw another insane pass in the in-goal that Luke Ricketson pounced on and scored, leaving Ray Warren and Peter Sterling dumbfounded.

Eventually, Hodges was dragged by Wayne Bennett, and Queensland would ultimately win 26-18 thanks to Tuqiri’s hat-trick.

It got better from there from Hodgo…..

It took a few years, but it got better.

Melbourne are reverting from the carriage back into the pumpkin before our eyes

The beginning of the end was when Jake Bowey, then undefeated after the first 17 games of his AFL career, was Falconed by a ball at training.

Melbourne blew a 5 goal lead against Fremantle a few days later, and haven’t won since.

On top of that, there was today’s news that Stephen May had been handed a 1 game suspension for belting Jake ‘The Snake’ Melksham at a fancy restaurant, probably because Jake ordered Cab Sav instead of Shiraz, which also led to May being caught drinking while he’s in the Concussion Protocol.

Minjee Lee once again steps up to fill Ash Barty’s void as Australia’s current universal sporting hero at the US Open

And it should be noted Minjee is from Fremantle, so this is a sign that the Flagmantle magic also extends to LPGA Majors.

Unfortunately though, somebody didn’t tell the Australian Olympic Committee, who went to type in Minjee’s handle on Twitter…..

And congratulated former US First Lady Michelle Obama instead.

Yet another huge week full of good news for the Manning Bowling Club

A few weeks back the club submitted a nomination for Bowls WA Metro Club of the Year, and on Friday night at the Bowls WA Awards night, ‘we’ were lucky enough to get the gong, a well-earned award after a year that just seemed to keep getting better and better and better, from Chase The Ace, to the record-breaking Melbourne Cup Calcutta, to Shane Knott’s Marathon Bowls Challenge, to record participation in Jack Attack, and capped off by winning both the Men’s & Women’s State Singles, then the crowns of the Women’s Tuesday Premier League title (The 13th flag in the last 15 seasons), plus the Thursday & Saturday Men’s Premier League titles.

As Darryl Kerrigan would say:

So that’s the 8th time the club has won the award since it was founded in 1973, breaking a tie with Cockburn for the most Club of the Year titles, but that wasn’t even the most amazing achievement the club experienced on Friday….

Because Helen Heal spread the news that our own Jackaroo Kristina Krstic had qualified for the Australian team for the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, and not only is Kristina the only Western Australian-based player to make the 2022 Australian team, it’s the first time any Manning player has qualified for the Commonwealth Games.

And a few days later, Kristina played her milestone 100th game for Australia against New Zealand in the Trans Tasman Test Series.

We’ve been lucky enough to play host to the greatest dynasty in the history of Western Australian women’s pennants, we’ve had players win State Singles, Pairs, Triples and Fours titles, we’ve had a coach (Peter Bowden) win Bowls Australia Coach of the Year in 2011, our own Sue Hogg was Bowls Australia Volunteer of the Year in 2018, but getting a player to represent Australia in the most prestigious event that lawn bowls has to offer might just be the greatest individual achievement we’ve ever had.

Bravo to Kristina, and let me assure you, we’re going to be having a hell of a going away party for her at Manning next month… DON’T YOU WORRY ABOUT THAT.

New Zealand Warriors: “We want you to be based in New Zealand”

Nathan Brown: “I don’t want to move to New Zealand”

New Zealand Warriors: “Say no more fam”

And realising the Warriors had beaten them to the punch, Wests Tigers decided to terminate Michael Maguire when nobody expected it

Brent Naden has played for 2 clubs in 2022…. They’ve both had their coaches sacked.

What a great word, Terminated:

In an unrelated development, 20 Daily Telegraph sports writers have also resigned, as they now have nothing to write about.

On this day 20 years ago, David Beckham had his World Cup revenge against Argentina

In 1998, David Beckham was sucked in by Diego Simeone and sent off in the Round of 16 against Argentina in Saint-Étienne, contributing to England’s exit in a penalty shootout, and leading to the entire country despising Mr Posh Spice.

In 2002, Michael Owen was fouled by future Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino just shy of half time in Sapporo…

And the England captain didn’t waste his chance to sink the Argentinians, leading to England defeating Argentina at the World Cup for the first time since the 1966 Quarter Final.

Random stat from the SANFL – In a game marred by putrid conditions on Sunday, South Adelaide had more tackles than kicks against Woodville-West Torrens

In one of the strangest things ever seen in State level footy, the Panthers recorded 193 tackles to 184 kicks (Or 191 to 181 depending on your sources), one of the few times anyone has ever seen a tackle count surpass a team’s kick count, which is almost always the leading team statistic in a game.

The tackle count was 193-138 in South Adelaide’s favour, and summing up the absurdity of the scenario, the Eagles won the game by a point, 4.4-28 to 3.9-27, with just 1 behind kicked in the final quarter.

By a pure case of timing, the Essendon supplements saga comes back into the news cycle ahead of Essendon’s 150th anniversary night on Friday and right as a review into the club kicks off

Seems like a classic Kevin Sheedy move with the media – The club is under fire on all fronts, so why not throw in a Dororthy Dixer to draw a bit of heat his way, which is seemingly what Sheeds did with the Herald Sun, and what Essendon’s former football manager Danny Corcoran did in The Age.

For starters, this is Sheeds with the Hun:

“They were pathetic decisions of the past.”

“I would think, when you look back, the AFL didn’t handle it very smartly.”

“We were controlled by the government.”

“There wasn’t one positive drug test out of that whole drug saga and hasn’t been for 10 years, all those players and everyone involved through that period suffered a penalty of suspicion.“

“They were never found guilty in the eyes of positive tests.”

“It’s 10 years. What do I have to do, wait for another 10 years until I get to 85 years old until they get exonerated? It’s disgraceful.”

This was Corcoran in The Age:

“We all think back in hindsight, the lack of supervision, the lack of reporting, all those sort of things, come to the fore. But they can’t prove we did take performance-enhancing drugs and we can’t prove that we didn’t. That’s the dilemma,” Corcoran said.

“The handling and mismanagement on every level, including the AFL and ASADA, trying to deal with ASADA, trying to bully ASADA, they didn’t respond well to that. They became mortal enemies. People don’t know the whole story.”

So it makes you wonder, what’s going to come first..

The entire truth about the Drugs saga coming to light, or….

An Essendon finals win?

We’re just shy of the 20th anniversary of Rex Hunt vs The Smoker

Many moons ago, during a 3AW footy broadcast at Princes Park between Carlton and West Coast (Which the Eagles won by a point), 3AW’s talisman caller Rex Hunt launched an enormous on-air barrage against a bloke who was smoking a few metres from the 3AW commentary box, at a time when smoking was still permitted in the outer of Princes Park.

Luckily, the audio of the incident has existed on YouTube for well over 12 years:

However, by some divine miracle, Rhett Bartlett (Son of Kevin) has found the footage and uploaded it, just over a week short (June 15, 2002) of the 20th anniversary:

He came agonisingly close for 30 years, but Tim Henman finally got his hands on a Grand Slam trophy on Sunday

By holding La Coupe des Mousquetaires while interviewing Rafael Nadal on Eurosport:

It’s a great time to be Welsh

Sheep populations are at an all-time high, Wales have qualified for their first FIFA World Cup appearance since 1958:

And today is Sir Tom Jones’ birthday.

And finally, Fernando Alonso sets the record for the longest Formula 1 career in Baku this weekend

Defined as being the period between a driver’s first race and their last, Alonso’s F1 career as of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix will have lasted 21 years, three months and eight days since his debut for Minardi at the 2001 Australian GP.

Michael Schumacher’s career, from his first race at Belgium in 1991, to Brazil in 2012, lasted 21 years and exactly three months.

Much like most of Michael’s nigh-on unbreakable records when he retired for the second and final time, as they say in the classics, records are made to be broken….

Although in The Beatles’ case, records are made to be burned.