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/ 20 December 2005
Jacques Rudolph drew a line in the sand and defied Australia’s much-vaunted attack on Tuesday as South Africa edged closer to what had seemed an unlikely draw in the first cricket Test at the Waca ground. At tea on the final day the tourists had lost just two wickets for the day to go into the break at 190-4, just 50 runs more than their lunch score of 140-2.
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/ 20 December 2005
South Africa lost two morning wickets and was fighting to save the first cricket Test against Australia at the Waca, going to lunch on the final day’s play at 140-4 after being set 491 runs to win. Leg-spinner Shane Warne (2-29 from 20 overs) and paceman Brett Lee (1-49 from 17 overs) both made breakthroughs in the opening session.
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/ 19 December 2005
Australia set South Africa a near-impossible target of 491 to win in the first Test in Perth on Monday after declaring their second innings closed just before tea on the fourth day. Test newcomer Brad Hodge crafted an unbeaten 203 to steer the Australians to a massive 528 for eight before captain Ricky Ponting made the declaration.
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/ 19 December 2005
Veteran Australian Test opener Justin Langer may miss the remainder of the Test series against South Africa after straining his hamstring during the opening match at the Waca ground. Australian physiotherapist Errol Alcott said on Monday that Langer had a severe strain in his left hamstring and would miss the second Test starting in Melbourne on December 26.
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/ 19 December 2005
Middle-order batsman Brad Hodge’s maiden Test century lifted Australia to an overall lead of 363 runs at lunch on the fourth day of the first cricket Test against South Africa on Monday. Australia is 401 for six with Hodge unbeaten on 139 and Adam Gilchrist on 11 after Mike Hussey (58) and Andrew Symonds (25) were out in the opening session.
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/ 18 December 2005
Australia were 185-4 in their second innings at tea on day three of the fiercely contested first Test match against South Africa. Captain Ricky Ponting hit his second half-century of the match before being caught behind off Makhaya Ntini. Brad Hodge was not out on 22 with Michael Hussey on one with Australia 147 runs ahead.
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/ 17 December 2005
Australian paceman Brett Lee claimed the crucial wicket of Herschelle Gibbs just before lunch on Saturday as South Africa reached 128-2 on day two of the first Test. The South Africans, chasing Australia’s modest first-innings 258, were cruising until Gibbs dragged a delivery from outside off-stump onto his wicket.
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/ 16 December 2005
South Africa dismissed Australia for just 258 on Friday to seize the initiative on the opening day of the first Test. Captain Ricky Ponting top-scored with 71 as Makhaya Ntini scythed through the Australian line-up with figures of 5-64, exposing the middle-order vulnerability which South Africa had predicted before the match.
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/ 14 December 2005
South Africa once again extended the deadline for Jacques Kallis to prove his fitness for the opening Test against Australia starting on Friday, even though the brilliant all-rounder couldn’t lift a bat during a net session in Perth on Wednesday. Veteran fast-bowler Shaun Pollock said the team will adapt if Kallis is unavailable.
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/ 13 December 2005
Jacques Rudolph hit an unbeaten double century in a drawn match on Tuesday against Western Australia A in South Africa’s final warm-up match before Friday’s first of three cricket Tests against Australia. Jacques Kallis continues to struggle with an elbow injury, and is in doubt for the first Test.
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/ 13 December 2005
Australia was on Monday night in the grip of its worst race clashes since independence, with youths battering cars and shattering shop windows as violence spread through Sydney’s suburbs for a second day. The attacks came in retaliation for Sunday’s violence, in which 5 000 people rampaged across Cronulla beach.
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/ 12 December 2005
Injury came calling on South Africa again in Perth on Monday when pace-bowler Makhaya Ntini split the webbing on his hand during the second day of a three-day tour match against a Western Australian XI at Perth’s James Oval. Ntini — who bowls with his right hand — had five stitches to close the wound on his left hand.
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/ 12 December 2005
Many young Australians are either too drug-addled or too fat to join the army, according to a Defence Force report on recruitment that was released on Monday. Drug abuse and obesity levels are so high that the numbers of new recruits are likely to go down rather than up in the next five years, the report warned.
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/ 12 December 2005
A lion bit off and apparently ate a woman’s finger at Melbourne Zoo, after she climbed over a barrier to pick flowers next to the animal’s enclosure, an official said on Monday.
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/ 12 December 2005
Australian Prime Minister John Howard denied on Monday that government warnings of home-grown Islamic militants had fuelled weekend race riots targeting Middle Easterners. More than 30 people were injured and 16 were arrested in the some of the worst racial violence in Australian history.
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/ 10 December 2005
Injury-stricken South Africa will turn to a corporate psychologist to help them prepare for their first Test against Australia in Perth next Friday. South African coach Mickey Arthur confirmed that Johannesburg-based psychologist Francois Hugo is due to arrive in Perth on Wednesday.
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/ 8 December 2005
English World Cup-winning coach Clive Woodward has labelled Australia’s sacking of national coach Eddie Jones last week a mistake that could cost the Wallabies dearly at the 2007 World Cup in France. Woodward was also named in one Australian newspaper as a surprise contender to replace Jones at the Wallabies.
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/ 7 December 2005
Former All Blacks coach John Mitchell said on Wednesday he was not in the running to replace sacked Wallaby chief Eddie Jones, preferring to focus on building Perth’s new Super 14 team, the Western Force. Mitchell’s manager, John Fordham, said the New Zealander informed Australian Rugby Union selectors that he was not interested in the Wallabies coaching position.
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/ 7 December 2005
South Africa crashed to an innings defeat in their opening tour match against Western Australia on Wednesday after losing eight wickets for 139 runs on the third and final day. The tourists had been forced to follow-on after making just 179 in their first innings in reply to Western Australia’s 391 for 8 declared.
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/ 7 December 2005
South Africa’s hopes of salvaging their opening tour match in Australia were all but extinguished by lunch on Wednesday as they slumped to 120 for five in their second innings against Western Australia. Forced to follow on after making a paltry first innings of 179 in reply to Western Australia’s 391 for 8, South Africa were still 92 runs adrift of the Western Australian total.
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/ 6 December 2005
A spectacular meteor shower turned night into day across a large swathe of Western Australia at the weekend, witnesses said. ”It lit up the countryside for hundreds of kilometres around the southwest of Western Australia,” astronomer Peter Birch told ABC radio of the meteor flare late on Saturday night.
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/ 6 December 2005
The Proteas showed glimpses of their attacking potential but again failed to produce a killer punch against Western Australia by lunch on the second day of their three-day tour match at the WACA Ground in Perth on Tuesday. Half an hour before the interval the hosts declared their innings closed at 391 for 8 after losing three early wickets at the start the day.
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/ 5 December 2005
Australian researchers said on Monday they had scientifically proven a long-suspected link between emotional stress and illnesses ranging from the common cold to cancer. The group’s findings were published in Monday’s edition of the Journal of Experimental Medicine.
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/ 5 December 2005
An Australian bank apologised on Monday to staff upset at being told how to trim nose hair and hide fat legs. The Commonwealth Bank’s ”Grooming Handbook” declared flesh-coloured knickers were in but shiny stockings were out. Rings were also acceptable, but no more than two per hand, it said.
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/ 5 December 2005
South Africa sounded an early warning to Australia after piling on the pressure in the first session of a three-day tour match against a Western Australian state team led by Test opener Justin Langer here on Monday. At lunch in the match at the Western Australian Cricket Association Ground, the home team were struggling at 73-3 after being sent into bat in overcast conditions.
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/ 3 December 2005
Former Australian rugby coach Eddie Jones has blamed a decades-old feud with his predecessor Alan Jones for his sacking this week. Eddie Jones said that Alan Jones, the Wallabies coach from 1984 to 1987, was behind an orchestrated campaign to remove him.
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/ 3 December 2005
An Australian jet’s windscreen cracked mid-flight, causing a major scare when the cabin rapidly decompressed, ambulance officers said on Saturday. A Queensland state ambulance service spokesperson said nine people were treated in hospital for nosebleeds, nausea and earaches after the Virgin Blue Boeing 737 made an emergency landing at Brisbane airport on Friday morning.
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/ 2 December 2005
Wallabies coach Eddie Jones was sacked on Friday because his recent results were unsatisfactory, the Australian Rugby Union (ARU) said. ”This is a very difficult decision, but the ARU strongly believes we must give the Wallabies a fresh start with a new coach who will give us the best possible chance of future success,” ARU chief executive Gary Flowers said in a statement.
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/ 29 November 2005
Australia beat the West Indies by seven wickets in the third cricket Test to sweep the series 3-0 at Adelaide Oval on Tuesday. The Australians, set 182 runs for victory, mopped up the required runs at 182 for three just after lunch on the final day. Matthew Hayden remained unbeaten on 87.
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/ 28 November 2005
Australians were on Monday urged to mark a minute’s silence if a convicted drug-trafficker is hanged in Singapore this week, amid growing resignation that the city state will go ahead with the execution. Church leaders and politicians from across the political divide have backed the call for a minute’s silence for Nguyen Tuong Van, found carrying 400g of heroin in Singapore en route to Australia in 2002.
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/ 28 November 2005
Outstanding young West Indies all-rounder Dwayne Bravo stalled Australia’s push for victory in the third Test with a spirited half-century on the fourth day at Adelaide Oval on Monday. Bravo, a century-maker in the second Hobart Test and the taker of six wickets in the first innings, was the tourists’ last hope of building a challenging last innings total for the Australians to chase.
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/ 28 November 2005
Hawk-eye technology will be used to officiate matches in a world first at next month’s Hopman Cup mixed teams tennis tournament, organisers said in Perth on Monday. It will be the world’s first elite level tennis tournament to formally utilise the revolutionary tennis technology, they said.