The Antipodes On Top of the Sporting World Quiz

Answer: Leg-spin bowling

Prior to Shane Warne's emergence on the international cricket stage in the early-mid 1990s, leg-spin bowling was very rarely seen except in old videos of matches from before World War II. Leg-spin (or wrist spin) bowling involves imparting an anti-clockwise spin on the ball as it leaves the right-hand bowler. When performed well, the ball lands on the pitch in front of the batter and moves sharply away from a right-hand batter and in towards a left-hander. The bowler will then vary this with a delivery that appears the same but does not spin, or even spins in the opposite direction. The reason leg-spin almost disappeared at high levels of cricket for such a long period is, that if not performed well, the deliveries can be very easily hit for lots of runs. Hence the opposition's total run score mounts quickly. Warne's cricketing genius was a combination of an amazing control over his bowling so there were very few bad deliveries, an ability to bowl several different types of delivery with imperceptible changes of action and an extremely astute mind which quickly analyzed a batter's weaknesses. Warne delighted cricket fans around the world with his abilities and even more importantly, he revived the art of leg-spin bowling to the point where most international teams and many more lower level teams turned to leg-spin bowlers. Warne's test cricket performances included being the first player to reach 600, then 700 test wickets. He also took nearly 300 wickets in international cricket in shorter forms of the game. Many cricket fans were deeply saddened by his passing in 2022 at the age of 52 from a heart attack.

This question was delivered into the quiz by Phoenix Rising member MikeMaster99, who hugely enjoyed watching Shane Warne's battles with the best batters in the world and marveled at his ability to make such a difficult art look so very simple.

Answer: Richard

The Hadlee family are a New Zealand (NZ) cricketing dynasty. Sir Richard Hadlee is the son of former NZ test cricket captain Walter Hadlee, while Richard's brothers Barry and Dayle both represented the country in the sport. He played in 86 test matches (five-day games) for NZ between 1973 and 1990. The object in this form of the game is to capture 20 of the opponent's wickets (by dismissing their batsmen) while scoring more runs. Hadlee was recognized as a world-class all-rounder (a player skilled in both batting and bowling) but his bowling (right arm fast) was where he really shone.

He was the first player to take 400 test wickets, ending his career with 431 at an average of 22.29 (runs scored off his bowling per wicket taken). His record lasted from 1988 until 1994 before being surpassed by India's Kapil Dev. Hadlee took five wickets in an innings (at least half of those possible) on 36 occasions and ten wickets in a match nine times. Sir Richard was knighted for his services to cricket in 1990. In 2002, cricketing 'bible' "Wisden" selected him as the second greatest test bowler of all time (behind Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan).

Cricket aficionado, Phoenix Rising's psnz nicked this question and was caught behind.

Answer: Barcelona 1992

In Barcelona in 1992, Australia was coming off a low gold medal count of three in Seoul in 1988. Consequently, any 1992 gold medal was going to be a major media event. When Andrew Cooper, Mike McKay, James Tomkins and Nick Green won an unexpected gold medal in the coxless fours (Australia's second gold at those games), the Australian media went into a frenzy with a Geelong daily newspaper running a page one headline that read "Oarsome Foursome". The name stuck. Prior to the moniker, they also won gold at the 1990 World Rowing Championships in Lake Barrington (Tasmania) and again in Vienna in 1991. They won another Olympic gold medal at Atlanta in 1996 when the retired Andrew Cooper was replaced by Drew Ginn. The team had a break in 1997 but won gold at the 1998 World Championships in Cologne.

This question was steered into the quiz, one row at a time, by Phoenix Rising team member 1nn1.

Answer: Identical twins

Born in October 1978, the identical twins competed for New Zealand in the double sculls rowing event. They were Olympic gold medallists in Athens (2004) and Beijing (2008). The Evers-Swindell twins were also world champion double scullers in 2002, 2003 and 2005. Double sculling refers to two rowers, each with a pair of oars, one oar on each side of the boat.

Noteworthy amongst their many successes was their victory at Beijing, by the narrowest of margins (1/100 of a second) against the German double of Annekatrin Thiele and Christiane Huth. In Women's Olympic double sculling, this was the first time that the title was successfully defended.

Phoenix Rising's resident Kiwi, psnz, swept this question into the quiz.

Answer: Winged keel

The America's Cup dates back to 1851 when the American schooner 'America' defeated fourteen boats from the British Royal Yacht Squadron in a race around the Isle of Wight. The New York Yacht Club (NYCC) won the trophy and, as hosts, managed 24 successful trophy defenses firstly in New York and then from 1930 at Newport, Rhode Island until the 1983 challenge by 'Australia II'. Owned by Alan Bond and skippered by John Bertrand, 'Australia II' featured a keel with 'side fins', the so-called winged keel, designed by Ben Lexcen. This novel design resulted in a legal challenge from the NYCC who argued, unsuccessfully, that the design and its implementation contravened race regulations. Once underway, the US yacht 'Liberty' took a 3-1 lead in the best of seven race series. 'Australia II' won the final three races to clinch a remarkable comeback and move the trophy to the Royal Perth Yacht Club. Many Australians were glued to their television sets in the early hours of September 27 watching race 7 unfold; an extremely proud Australian Prime Minister, Bob Hawke, famously declared "Any boss who sacks a worker for not turning up today is a bum"! Losing skipper Dennis Conner won the America's Cup back for the New York Yacht Club in 1987, but the 132 year winning streak was over.

This question was steered into the quiz by MikeMaster99, who remembers the 'all-nighter' watching a yacht race on TV with mates in 1983.

Answer: Black Magic

In May 1995, skippered by Russell Coutts, Black Magic swept the best of nine series, 5-0, to capture the title from Dennis Conner's Team 'Stars and Stripes' (USA) and bring the America's Cup to New Zealand for the first time in the race's 144-year history. In July 2002 Black Magic was donated to the Museum of New Zealand and formed the centerpiece of a tribute to Sir Peter Blake, who was the inspirational leader of Team New Zealand. Black Magic is suspended from the ceiling and is surrounded by much of Sir Peter's yachting memorabilia. In 1997 Sir Peter became head of expeditions for the Cousteau Society. Sadly, in 2001, he was murdered by pirates when his ship was anchored in the Amazon delta while waiting to clear customs.

This question was sailed into port by Phoenix Rising's Chiroman.

Answer: No

At the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Wales, the world took notice when Herb Elliott won the 880 (yards) and the one mile gold medals. In the mile race, where all three medallists were Australian, Elliott was the only runner to run faster than four minutes at 3.59.03. A month later in August 1958 he lowered the world record in the mile run to 3:54.5, 2.7 seconds faster than the record then held by Derek Ibbotson and a full five seconds below Roger Banister's world's first sub-four minute mile. In the same month he also lowered the world record for the 1500 metres by 2.1 seconds to 3:36.0. Less than two years later, at the 1960 Rome Summer Olympics, Elliott won the 1500 m gold medal in a world record time - 3:35.6. He started a university career at Cambridge soon after Rome, and retired from athletics altogether after running the half-mile in a 1962 University race. He was 24 at that time.

This question was raced into the quiz, at well, a comfortable jog at best, by Phoenix Rising team member 1nn1.

Answer: Running the mile in under 3 minutes, 50 seconds

As a child, Auckland-born John George Walker used to run a mile to and from the shops simply to pick up the newspaper for his father. Perhaps this was the impetus behind his later string of amazing athletic performances. He was the first man to run the mile in under 3 minutes 50 (3:49.4) in Sweden in August 1975. A year before that, he broke the world record for the 1500 metres but finished second to Tanzanian, Filbert Bayi. Injury finally drew his running career to a close when he just failed to be the first 40 year old to run a sub-four minute mile. However, prior to that he had completed the astounding feat of 100 times running the mile in under 4 minutes. In 2009 he received a knighthood for services to sport and the community where he'd served on regional councils for many years.

PR member MikeMaster99 sprinted the first 10 yards to submit this quiz question, but then tired badly to finish the mile in just under 14 minutes.

Answer: Torah Bright

Born in 1986, Torah Bright grew up in Cooma, near the NSW snowfields, and started her competitive career as a downhill skier before switching to the snowboard. It was a move that paid dividends for Bright, who won X-Games gold medals in 2007 and 2009 in the superpipe event. Given the honour of carrying the Australian flag at the opening ceremony of the Vancouver Winter Olympics in 2010, Bright entered the women's half-pipe event as the number 1 seed. After crashing in her first run in the final, she produced a near-flawless second run to take the gold medal, Australia's fourth such medal in Winter Olympics. Four years later she nearly repeated that feat at Sochi, narrowly finishing second (and with a silver medal) to winner Kaitlyn Farrington of the USA. The other three answer options are also Australian female winter olympic gold medallists - Camplin and Lassila in aerials and Anthony in mogul skiing.

This question was slid into the quiz by MikeMaster99 who, having attempted (and enjoyed) snowboarding, still prefers skiing as there is a little more scope to recover from a bad turn!

Answer: Zoi Sadowski-Synott

February 6 is New Zealand's National Day, marking the 1840 signing of the country's central document, the Treaty of Waitangi. On February 6, 2022, Zoi Sadowski-Synott created history by becoming New Zealand's first Winter Olympics gold medallist at Beijing in China. He's a snowboarder who has lived in Wanaka, New Zealand since the age of 6. Her specialist events are slopestyle and big air. At the Genting Snow Park in Zhangjiakou, she won the women's slopestyle over Julia Marino (USA, silver) and Tess Coady (Australia, bronze). Jamie Anderson (USA) was the defending champion, having won the event at the two previous Winter Olympics, and she finished in fifth place at Beijing.

Zoi Sadowski-Synott has a complete set of Winter Olympic medals. At Beijing a few days later, she was the silver medallist in women's big air. At the 2018 games in Pyeongchang, South Korea, she won the women's big air bronze medal. She was also the first New Zealander to win multiple medals at the Winter Olympics.

Making good use of the obstacles, Phoenix Rising's psnz impressed the judges when spinning this question for the quiz.