Taking a look at recent, positive, uplifting, news stories and yarns, from New Zealand and all around the world, to bring a smile and a bit of cheer.
Pub pays for footballs club’s success
Nottingham Forest are defying expectations this year in the English Premier League and Kiwi striker, Chris Wood is near the top of the league’s leading goal scorers chart.
You have to feel for the owners of the The Gedling Inn in Nottingham, however. Twenty minutes before kick-off against Brighton last weekend, they hit their social media pages, promising a free pint every time Forest scored. They were in for a long afternoon as Nottingham Forest netted seven times, with Chris Wood scoring a hat-trick.
“‘It got to half-time and I thought: ‘Oh my gosh, I don’t know if I can carry this on.’ But I decided I was sticking to my word,’ landlady Beccy Webster told the Guardian. ‘This is what I’ve said I’m going to do. Whether it’s four, five, six, seven, 10 goals, I’m seeing it through now. We ended up giving away 300 pints.’
“The pub has gone globally viral, we’ve been contacted from people in South Africa and France and Brazil. So for the £1,500, approximately, that it cost us, the publicity that’s come with it is quite a bargain.'” (Source: “‘Free pint when Forest score’: UK pub loses over $3000 in seven goals blitz,” by Ripu Bhatia, January 4, www.guardian.co.uk).
5 stars – despite the pub taking a bit of a financial hit this is still a cracking yarn – with a sizable upside!
Town goes bananas over banana mystery
Still in Nottingham in the UK, comes the tale of a banana mystery that has locals mystified and obsessed. For the past year, on the first days of each month someone leaves a plate of peeled bananas on a street corner in Beeston and despite rigorous enquiries the ‘culprit’ is as yet undiscovered.
“Residents told the BBC that inquiries into who leaves them behind have so far proved fruitless. Slough residents Luke Roberts and Jai Brewer travelled for hours to see the plate on Sunday (local time). But the pair were disappointed when they discovered the plate had gone missing.
“We came up at seven o’clock last night and there was nobody here. We’ve gone nuts about it,” Roberts told the BBC. ‘I love it, it’s a silly adventure and it’s harmless.'” (Source: “‘We’ve gone nuts about it’: Banana mystery in UK town deepens,” by Ripu Bhatia, January 3, www.stuff.co.nz).
5 stars – in a world that sometimes seems rather upside town, a tale like this reminds us all of the joy of the extraordinary.
Kiwi cricketer makes history
It may come as some surprise that no New Zealand cricketer has ever won the ICC (International Cricket Council) Player of the Year Award. Well, that is until last week. White Fern, Amelia Kerr held off substantial competition to be named women’s cricketer of the year, on the back of also being named the top women’s T20 cricketer of the year.
“‘As a kid I was looking up to the White Ferns and the Black Caps and I think of Sophie [Devine] and Suzie [Bates] who are role models and Amy [Satterthwaite] who in their own right have been the best players in the world for periods of their career and then people like Kane Williamson who I tried to model my batting off as a kid and you hear of those great names and to be standing here with this award it is obviously very special,’ Kerr said.”
“‘I feel experienced in a way that I’ve played x amount of games but I’m still so young in my career and I feel young and that’s the exciting thing with the women’s game it is growing and growing and I’m so fortunate that I’ve come into at this time in my career and as a player I have that drive and determination to get better.'” (Source: “White Fern Amelia Kerr named as ICC’s best female player,” by Felicity Reid, January 29, www.rnz.co.nz).
0 Comments