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/ 17 February 2008
It’s a doggone chartbuster — a song audible only to dogs has topped New Zealand record charts, and is looking to go global. A Very Silent Night, recorded at a frequency only dogs can hear, was so popular among owners it hit number one at Christmas, but has been receiving mixed responses from listeners.
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/ 15 February 2008
England kept the five-match series alive by beating New Zealand by six wickets in the third one-dayer in Auckland on Friday. The visitors, chasing an adjusted victory target, cruised to victory with three overs to spare to cut their series deficit to 2-1.
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/ 15 February 2008
The Canterbury Crusaders moved straight into top gear as they started the new Super 14 season with a convincing 34-3 win over the ACT Brumbies on Friday. The four-try effort ensured maximum points for the perennial favourites, who have won the championship six times.
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/ 14 February 2008
The new Super 14 season, which begins on Friday, could help determine whether South Africa’s dominance of world rugby was a one-year wonder. South Africa provided both teams in last year’s Super 14 final — the Bulls beat the Sharks — and the Springboks went on to win the sixth World Cup in France.
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/ 14 February 2008
Former New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming is retiring from international cricket at the end of next month’s home Test series against England, he told a news conference in Auckland on Thursday. The 34-year-old quit one-day internationals after last year’s World Cup and is now giving up Tests to focus on his family and business interests.
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/ 14 February 2008
Global warming, which is threatening the viability of the drought-stricken wine industry in Australia, could be a boon for neighbouring New Zealand which has been enjoying a growing reputation for its quality wines. New Zealand’s subtle flavoured wines, mostly whites such as Sauvignon Blanc but also reds such as Pinot Noir, are appearing on the tables of fine restaurants from London to Los Angeles.
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/ 13 February 2008
New laws more than new faces will add an element of unpredictability to the 2008 Super 14 rugby competition that kicks off Friday. The shadow of last year’s World Cup hangs over the tournament, adding a touch of intrigue, but it may be the adaptability of players to the experimental law variations that bears most heavily on its outcome.
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/ 12 February 2008
A dominant batting performance by openers Brendon McCullum and Jesse Ryder powered New Zealand to a 10-wicket win over England in the second one-day cricket international on Tuesday. The overwhelming victory, completed with 17.5 overs to spare in the rain-shortened game, lifted New Zealand to 2-0 in the five-match series.
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/ 9 February 2008
In a stunning reversal of form, New Zealand thrashed England in their opening one-day cricket international by six wickets with 20 overs to spare at Westpac Stadium in Wellington on Saturday. The win came just days after England thoroughly outplayed New Zealand in all departments in two Twenty20 matches.
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/ 9 February 2008
All Blacks coach Graham Henry said he thought his international career was over after his team’s shock elimination from the Rugby World Cup last year, a newspaper reported on Saturday. In his first interview since being reappointed in December, Henry said he only stood for re-selection because of the public support he had received.
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/ 8 February 2008
A woman passenger on a New Zealand commuter plane has been charged with hijacking after she allegedly stabbed both pilots and threatened to blow up the 19-seat aircraft, police said on Friday. Neither pilot was seriously hurt and they were able to land the plane safely.
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/ 7 February 2008
England beat New Zealand by 50 runs in Christchurch on Thursday to complete a 2-0 series sweep of their two Twenty20 internationals. England followed up their 32-run win in Auckland on Tuesday with an even more emphatic victory to continue their perfect start to the two-month tour.
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/ 5 February 2008
England continued their perfect start to their tour of New Zealand by beating the Kiwis by 32 runs in their first Twenty20 international at Eden Park in Auckland on Tuesday. England, who opened their two-month tour with back-to-back wins over Canterbury last weekend, compiled an impressive total of 184-8 from their 20 overs.
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/ 31 January 2008
An opening game against Australia clearly illustrates the massive task awaiting the Springbok Sevens team on Friday, when the third International Rugby Board Sevens tournament of the 2007/08 season kicks off in the Kiwi capital, Wellington. The South Africans are grouped together with the Aussies, France and Kenya in Pool C, by far the toughest of the four pools.
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/ 28 January 2008
New Zealand will dump star paceman Shane Bond after he signed for the rebel Indian Cricket League, the country’s cricket board confirmed on Monday. New Zealand Cricket has been trying to persuade the injury-prone 32-year-old to stay in the official fold, but no solution could be found.
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/ 28 January 2008
A New Zealand anti-apartheid campaigner has rejected a nomination for a South African award, saying he is dismayed over conditions in the country. John Minto was the national coordinator of the Halt All Racist Tours movement, and said black South Africans were now ”worse off than they were under minority rule”.
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/ 22 January 2008
Saffron-robed Buddhist monks, Nepali Sherpas and grey-bearded mountaineers paid homage on Tuesday to Sir Edmund Hillary, the man who conquered Everest, as thousands gathered in New Zealand to watch his state funeral. ”His loss to us is bigger and heavier than Mount Everest,” Ang Rita Sherpa told the service in a small church in Auckland.
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/ 15 January 2008
A New Zealand man has been charged with driving a lawnmower while drunk, police said on Tuesday. Richard Gunn (52) was driving the lawnmower down a street in the northern New Zealand town of Dargaville late on Monday evening when police stopped him, police spokesperson Sarah Kennett said.
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/ 13 January 2008
Daniel Vettori and Stephen Fleming both fell agonisingly short of making hundreds after putting New Zealand in total command of the second test against Bangladesh on Sunday. Vettori scored 94 and Fleming 87 as the Kiwis posted a big first innings total of 393 on the second day the Basin Reserve.
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/ 11 January 2008
New Zealand’s Edmund Hillary, who along with Nepal’s Tenzing Norgay Sherpa became the first to conquer Mount Everest, died in hospital on Friday. He was 88. New Zealand flags flew at half mast at Scott Base in Antarctica on Friday, mourning the loss of one of the greatest adventurers of the 20th century.
New Zealand’s inspired bowlers wrecked Bangladesh’s hopes of survival in the first cricket Test on Sunday, setting up a comfortable nine-wicket win with two days to spare. Bangladesh started the day at a confident 148 without loss in their second innings, but within two sessions the game was over.
Former world number one Lindsay Davenport continued her impressive return to the WTA circuit on Saturday, outclassing France’s Aravane Rezai 6-2, 6-2 to win the Auckland Classic. The 31-year-old American comeback mum needed just 51 minutes to dispatch the 20-year-old Frenchwoman, offering fans a lesson in power and precision tennis.
Matthew Bell scored an unbeaten half-century in his first Test appearance in more than six years to ram home New Zealand’s advantage over Bangladesh on the opening day of the first Test in Dunedin on Friday. Bell made 74 not out to help the Kiwis recover from a slow start and reach stumps on 156-4 in reply to Bangladesh’s miserable first-innings total of 137.
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/ 31 December 2007
Daniel Vettori and Brendon McCullum put in record performances as New Zealand thrashed Bangladesh by 10 wickets with 44 overs to spare in a one-day international on Monday. Bangladesh were all out for 93 in the 38th over, with Vettori returning a magnificent 5-7.
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/ 28 December 2007
New Zealand produced a solid all-round performance to wrap up their three-match one-day series against Bangladesh with a 102-run victory under the Duckworth-Lewis system in the second game in Napier on Friday. New Zealand had scored 335-5 in their 50 overs, with Peter Fulton top-scoring with 83, before rain forced the players from the field.
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/ 22 December 2007
A magnitude-4,8 earthquake rattled a New Zealand city on Saturday after it was hit by a powerful temblor earlier this week that resulted in millions of dollars in damage. Thursday’s 6,8-magnitude quake wrecked an apartment building and two shops in the port city of Gisborne, 50km from the quake’s epicentre.
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/ 11 December 2007
A majority of New Zealanders support the reappointment of Graham Henry as All Blacks coach, although he recently led the team their worst performance in Rugby World Cup history, a survey shows. The survey, conducted by URM research and released on Tuesday, shows 61% of New Zealand approved of the decision last week to reappoint Henry for a two-year term.
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/ 7 December 2007
Graham Henry defied history on Friday when he was reappointed as All Blacks coach despite holding the reins during the team’s worst-ever World Cup performance this year. The New Zealand Rugby Union has traditionally been an unforgiving employer and no previous coach has survived a failed World Cup campaign.
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/ 6 December 2007
All Black coach Graham Henry attempted to save his job on Thursday during a grilling by New Zealand rugby officials in the wake of the team’s quickest-ever World Cup exit. In the past All Black coaches have quickly been discarded after failing to secure the World Cup. Henry has surprised commentators by choosing to fight to stay on.
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/ 30 November 2007
David Beckham proved his superstar status on Friday as he trained in front of more than 15 000 screaming school children ahead of a weekend friendly between his Los Angeles Galaxy team and the Wellington Phoenix. ”David Beckham is Hot. I’m Cold,” read one banner in acknowledgement of the biting wind.
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/ 27 November 2007
Four candidates have been shortlisted to coach the All Blacks but the real contest is expected to be between incumbent Graham Henry and Robbie Deans of the Canterbury Crusaders. The New Zealand Rugby Union said on Tuesday that Henry, Deans, Wellington Hurricanes’ Colin Cooper and Waikato Chiefs’ Ian Foster would be interviewed next week.
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/ 26 November 2007
All Blacks coach Graham Henry has re-applied for his job following the New Zealand Rugby Union (NZRU) decision to make the position contestable after the team’s failed World Cup campaign. Henry (61) had until 5pm on Monday to apply for the job after the NZRU rejected a proposal to reappoint his coaching team.