Sime says

Stretching and contorting like an orb of sardines, the mass movement along the Great Ocean Road is not fish out of water. Totally at one on a scintillating stretch of bitumen, the lithe beings on bikes beetle towards the finish line. It’s September in the seaside township of Lorne in Victoria, where legions of cyclists gather to compete in Amy’s Gran Fondo (AGF). Batteries of bikes roll into town. Locked and loaded on top of vehicles they arrive in menacing numbers from all points north, south and west. There is safety in numbers: close to 4000 riders, spread across three events, bolster the ranks of a green army that rules the closed roads to traffic. Man is not a mouse but Mamil s (Middle-aged men in lycra) are in plague proportions at Gran Fondo time. From teens to 60+ veterans, mates and girlfriends assemble at the starting line. Age is no barrier but time is of the essence for stragglers who might fail to make the cutoff. Starting in rhy...

Koels aren’t the only birds creating a racket in Sydney. Plucky roosters are crowing from the rooftops and the din will continue well through summer. With sharpened spurs and clinical efficiency, the Sydney Roosters dispatched the high flying Manly Sea Eagles from their perch without barely ruffling their plumage during the 2013 NRL Grand Final. From early in the day, supporters of different feathers flocked together inside ANZ stadium to witness a back-to-the-70s, cage-fighting scrap between two of the NRL’s most polarising breeds. There was no love lost between the team that everyone loves to hate and their adversaries, whose roster value would top any winnings from chook lotto. In tennis circles the name Williams has a certain closeness about it, but in this game the Williams were poles apart. On one side a fledging eagle found himself incapable of launching off the ground and contesting the aerial bombardment. Weighed down by shaggy quills, wolf man W...