KEY POINTS:
Easter is a timely time to investigate, for the first time, the best times and worst times for the timing of sport at this time of year.
While many head for the hills and the beach during long weekends, for some it is a rare chance to factor
in some quality sports viewing.
But in this Easter break, there are sports timetables that have been compiled by some real eggs.
The cricket World Cup feels as though it's ground to a halt over Easter. Actually it felt like that before Easter. Still, before this morning the last match was on Thursday.
Daytime Good Friday should have been a sporting bunfight. Only Davis Cup tennis was on offer but it was nowhere to be seen on TV.
That night, the Super 14 rugby game in Auckland was well attended, proving that even during the holidays if you build it, they will come.
The Easter masterstroke was staging the Highlanders-Chiefs game in the holiday mecca of Queenstown yesterday. The result was a 10-try thriller in pristine conditions, with a stunning backdrop that almost made Anton Oliver weep.
But has Super 14 rugby gone far enough? There are no Easter Monday games, and I know I'm not the only one who would like to have seen the match ball wrapped in colourful foil.
In league, the Warriors are playing today and for many of the team's Christian fans, it clashes with their biggest Sunday of the year. True, kickoff is 4pm in Sydney but who knows how long the church services go on for?
You have to admire National Bank Cup netball for starting at Easter. Netballers earn a pittance to play high-level sport and juggle it with a day job, so they deserve a break. Instead they are hauled out on display in mini-dresses during the biggest holiday weekend of the year.
Again, however, Monday is clear.
Let's not repeat New Zealand's no-sport-on-holiday-Monday stance on Queen's Birthday.
I recall past Queen's Birthday Mondays with zero sport on a day crying out for action. Where were the minority sports who bemoan lack of media coverage? The day is free. They would be the only thing on.
With its early winter timing Queen's Birthday is the equivalent of America's Thanksgiving, the difference being the US are dished up wall-to-wall sports with time-outs.
And besides, I have pictorial evidence that the Queen herself relishes public holiday sport (right) so I'm sure she would approve of a run-around on her big weekend.
Like the guy in Hamilton studying bogans, I will be asking for a government grant of $100,000 to investigate the feasibility of holiday Monday sport. I look forward to bringing you the results.
Chief destroyer
In recent weeks, with the Chiefs requiring bonus point victories, it was curious that coach Ian Foster benched the team's top tryscorer - not to mention the Super 14's find of the season - Lelia Masaga.
Foster was making room for returning All Black Sitiveni Sivivatu. The problem with pinning your hopes on him is you're never sure who is going to turn up - Sitiveni or Sivivatu.
He was all but absent against the Reds and Blues. Yesterday both Sitiveni and Sivivatu turned up, as did Masaga, who returned to the first XV. Both scored two tries each in the Chiefs' 38-34 win over the Highlanders.
The moral of the story? Brilliance on the bench will make you Siti still.
Respect please
Once again Anthony Tuitavake has been sold short by the media.
The Blues scored the try of the Super 14 season so far against the Cheetahs on Good Friday, with Tuitavake finishing the movement. Yesterday's Herald reported that the wing "sped 30m to the left corner". In fact, he ran 41m. The report also didn't mention that Tuitavake fended off strapping flanker Duane Vermeulen on the way to the line. This broad brushstroke reporting is not helping my campaign to get Tuitavake into the All Blacks. No doubt Isaia Toeava, Daniel Carter or any other player in vogue would be credited with the full distance and fend.
Birthday news
This is an Easter of significant birthdays.
* Norwegian figure skater Sonja Henie, who won three Olympic golds and was the first to wear short skirts in the sport, would have been 95 today if she hadn't died in 1969.
* Australian test batsman Jack Badcock, described by cricinfo.com as "a punishing driver", would be turning 93 on Tuesday and if he were alive he would still be embarrassed by his name - Clayvel. What a shocker.
* Spanish golfer Seve Ballesteros (pronounced "Sevvy buy a stair Ross"), who was famous for coughing during an opponent's backswing, turns 50 tomorrow and good news: his cough has cleared up.
* Finally, All Black legend Michael Jones turns 42 today. He never played on Sundays so it's unlikely he will today unless it's the guitar in church.
Tennis etiquette
At the Davis Cup tie in Auckland yesterday, I sat in the stands in front of a New Zealand man who talked loudly during every point, whose cellphone rang loudly, and when it rang, he answered loudly, proclaiming: "I'm at the tennis!"
But when New Zealand won a point he barely raised his voice in support. The opposite was the case of the brilliant Filipino fans, who cheered their team on as if it was a thriller in Manila. For me, it was a living hell in Parnell.
Forward Rolls
It was interesting to read that retiring White Ferns cricketer Rebecca Rolls is a drug squad detective.
The police will be hoping she doesn't marry English rugby league player Chris Joynt and hyphenate her name, because a detective called Rebecca Rolls-Joynt wouldn't help the drug squad's image.
