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.