3rd England-Australia cricket test Perth

I can't remember the last time I saw the beginning of a cricket test, but they seem to have evolved into something of a ceremony, with an Aboriginal welcome to country, and both anthems sung. The cricket establishment are obviously traditionalists in this regard with a pair of sopranos engaged to do the honours. The English one warbled her way through with a vibrato you you carve up into slices, but the Australian anthem was sung by Fiona Smyth who did an uncomplicated and straight-forward reading. 7.5 on this outing.

Another Netball test, Mebourne

Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne was the venue for this game and Netball Australia again used Alison Rae Jones NZ to sing the NZ anthem and Sarah deBono, with her disturbingly un-natural scarlet hair as the Australian representative. Not much difference really, the Kiwi nearly had her vibrato under control a couple of times and the hair colour of the Australian chartreuse was an ongoing distraction. Whatever I said for the Kiwi last week and a repeat for the Australian girl as well.

Australia / New Zealand Netball Test

The vibrato queen of the South Pacific warbled her way through the Kiwi anthem. She may have been nervous, but only rated a 3.5. There were a couple of patches of vibrato which would have worked as an anti-tank weapon.

The Australian anthem was done by a young person with distractingly scarlet hair and matching shoes. I am told she is/was a contestant on the X Factor or some such talent show and we really got the idea she wanted to launch into a modern R'n'B version, slipping and sliding all over the notes, but didn't dare. A 6 for this effort.

Others thought I was being overly generous with these ratings, but they were are least mostly in tune, which is always a good start.

Aust/NZ Netball test in Invercargill, NZ

Perhaps the pick of local talent but underwhelming for both. The Australian anthem was sung to a funereal backing track of unknown origin, the NZ one to a backing equally turgid and by a young woman determined to use at least three times as many notes in the melody than originally written. Maybe a 3 for each.

Australia /New Zealand Netball final 11 July

Following the surprise elimination of the NSW Swifts, losing both finals matches after not being beaten at all during the regular season, final was played in Adelaide between the Adelaide Thunderbirds and the Waikato/Bay of Plenty Magic. AAF was sung by Shannon Noll, former Australian Idol runner-up to a fingerpicked acoustic guitar. He didn't try to fancy it up at all,  and it was done with appropriate gravitas but there was a bit of rock singer swallowing of words which annoyed me a bit and I couldn't go past a 7.5. The daughter gave it a 'solid 8' and herself was impressed to an 8..5

Third State of Origin Rugby League match, 7 July

In the light of the debate about racism in sport, the NSWRL obviously decided to make some kind of reconciliatory statement by having the National Anthem sung in both an indigenous language as well as English before the game. The first verse was sung in what was announced as the Eora language by Corey Kirk, a 19 year old Aboriginal singer accompanied by digeridoo and boomerang clap sticks and then followed by an un-named tenor backed by a childrens choir and a different prerecorded backing track. Ms Kirk suffered from a thin quavery little voice, but I am sure there were some nerves in there as well. The tenor was, at best, bland and I haven't even been able to find out who he was. We could only manage a 5.

What has been more interesting than the performance itself has been the flurry of controversy about what language the first verse was actually sung in. The words were translated by Richard Green, a Darug man who apparently rejects the idea of an Eora language at all. A bit a googling quickly establishes that there is little agreement about what languages existed in pre-white settlement days or where the boundaries might be between them. The Eora people lived on the southern side of Port Jackson, out to around Balmain and south to the Cooks River. It seems likely that they were part of a larger grouping, the Gadigal, who may or may not have been within the Darug language group. The Darug area extended out from Parramatta westward to the Nepean River and no-one is really sure how different the language of the people around Sydney Cove was to those further west or even across on the northern side of the harbour. I would be interested to know how Green translated "girt by sea".

Australia /Ireland Rugby Test, Brisbane 24 June

It was interesting to hear the Irish anthem, or maybe it wasn't if they had players from Ulster in the team. Whatever it was, it was bland and unexciting. The Australian anthem was sung by Kate Gordon, about whom I know nothing, can't even find a MySpace page. A big solid contralto voice, more leagues club than opera and sung to the standard backing track. All OK until the last note where she drifted off key, but she did come back by the end. Maybe I was just feeling grumpy, but I couldn't be inspired beyond a 4.5, while herself manged a 6.