100 Greatest Sport Stars - Number 89 - Shirley Strickland

Coming in at number 89 on our list of the top one hundred ever sports stars is Shirley Strickland.

Why?  She has won more Olympic Medals than any other Australian athlete – which seems to us like a good enough reason.

Shirley was born, a farm girl, in 1925 – the second oldest of dive children.  The town of Pithara in Western Australia’s wheat belt had no idea of the talent they were about to nurture.

Yet she had pedigree: her father, Dave, has been an athlete: the only thing that had stopped him from taking part in the 1900 Olympics in Paris was the distance and the money that would have had to be spent to get him there.

Shirley would set the record straight for her family - and for Australia too.

Living on an isolated farm, Shirley Strickland received her early education by correspondence – but she did later go on to attend the Northam High School.  It was here that her promise as an athlete was first recognised – she won all but two of the 49 events that she entered while she was studying there.

The University of Western Australia was her next stop – she graduated from there in 1946 and wnt on to lecture in physics and mathematics at Perth Technical College.  While there she was the wing in the hockey team but what really marked her out was her ability as a hurdler and sprinter.  The former world professional sprint champion, Austin Robertson, coached her during her time at Perth.

As a result her 100m yards time went from 11.8 to 11 and she went on to win four Western Australian titles in 1947 – throwing in the shot put as a casual fifth. It was time to take things seriously.

In 1948 she took the national title in the 80m.  That gave her a ticket to the first post Second World War Summer Olympics in London where she competed in the 100m, 80m hurdles and took part in the 4x100 relay.  She came third in her solo events, taking silver with the team in the relay.

The British Empire was on the wane but that did not stop her from taking three gold medals at the Games in 1950.  Following this up, she participated in the 1950 Helsinki games where a gold medal in the 80m hurdles beckoned – a world record time of 10.9 seconds.  She also collected silver and bronze in the 4x100m relay and the 100m hurdles.



Another world record was beaten in 1955 where she was times at 11.3 seconds for the 100m hurdles.  The Olympics of 1956 on home territory in Melbourne brought gold in both the 80m hurdles and the 4.100m relay.

Following her athletic career she became fully involved with athlete administration in the Olympic movement and participated in this role in the 1968 and 1976 Olympics in Mexico and Canada.  She was one of the torch bearers at the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia in 2000.




The following year she gained some notoriety when she sold off all her memorabilia, including her Olympic medals.  The collection was acquired by the MCG Museum in Melbourne, purchased but a group of business people who remained anonymous but who, like Shirley, wished to see her outstanding collection remain in Australia.

Ashes Jokes 2011 - The Top Twenty

Say, did you know that the Australian's had lost the Ashes?  Well, just to thank them, we thought we would give you the top twenty Ashes jokes currently doing the rounds on a mobile phone near you!

What do you call an Australian with a champagne bottle in his hand?
A waiter.

Snow White returned to the cottage to find it had burned down. Distraught, she searches for the dwarfs in the forest and hears a lone voice chanting: "The aussies are going to win the ashes, the aussies are going to win the ashes" On hearing this, Snow White gave a little sigh of relief as she knew that at least Dopey was safe! 

What's the difference between Ricky Ponting and a Phoenix?
At the end of The Ashes, the Phoenix still has a future.

Why can no-one drink wine in Australia at the moment? 
They haven't got any openers ...

What do you call an Australian who is good with a bat?

A vet.

Mitchell Johnson  - two minutes after going out to bat..

What do you call an Australian with 100 runs against his name?

A bowler. 

I had to borrow a cup of sugar the other day. I asked Shane Watson - but he had run out.

What’s the difference between Ricky Ponting and a funeral director?
A funeral director doesn’t keep losing the ashes.

What is the main function of the Australia coach?
To transport the team from the hotel to the ground.

The ICC are investigating strange betting patterns on the Sydney test. Someone allegedly put $20 on Australia 

What's the Australian version of LBW?
Lost, Beaten, Walloped.

What’s the height of optimism?
An Aussie batsman putting on sunscreen.

Why don't Aussie fielders need pre-tour travel injections?
Because they never catch anything.

Why is Ricky Ponting cleverer than Houdini?
Because he can get out without even trying.

What did the spectator miss when he went to the toilet?
The entire Australian innings.
 

A phone call comes into the Australian dressing room
‘Is it possible to speak to Mr Ponting please?
‘I’m sorry’ says a voice at the other end, ‘he has, gone out to bat’
‘No problem, I’ll hold the line’

What do you call a cricket field full of Australians ?
A vacant lot.

Who spends the most time on the crease of anyone in the Australian team?
The woman who ironed the cricket whites.

What does an Australian batsman who is playing in The Ashes have in common with Michael Jackson?
They both wore gloves for no apparent reason.

100 Greatest Sports Stars - Number 92 - Adam Gilchrist

Anyone for cricket?  Number 91 on our list of the top 100 sports stars is Adam Gilchrist, who otherwise goes by the nicknames of Church or Gilly. He is the first but not the last cricketer to appear but this guy is not yet retired from the game and has redefined the role of the Australian national cricket team.

Born in 1971, Glichrist is an attacking left-handed batsman but it is for his wicket keeping that he holds world records.  He is the current holder of the record for the most dismissals by a wicket keeper by an Australian in test cricket and in One Day Internationals.  He is generally thought to be one of the best ever wicket-keeper-batsman combinations in the history of the sport of cricket.

There is more – he is the only player ever to have hit 100 (that’s ONE HUNDRED) sixes in Test Cricket.  Not only that, he has 17 Test centuries under his belt as well as 16 ODIs.  As a player who was destined to be primarily a wicket keeper, that is some achievement. 

He also has a unique record – the only player ever to score a minimum of fifty runs in successive World Cup finals (99, 03 and 07) and has actually won three titles – one of only three players to do so.

At the age of 17, Adam Gilchrist spent a summer with Richmond Cricket Club in London. He performed so well that he was interviewed by the regional BBC Sports Reporter, Michael Wale.

 
He has sometimes gone against the grain of the establishment in as much as he is a self-confessed walker.  That is, occasionally he disagrees with the umpire, who says he is in – and walks off!  Fair is fair, however, a player is more likely to know when they are out than the umpire yet many would make the contrary decision. Not so Gilchrist.

His first class debut was in 1992 and his first ODI (One Day International) debut followed four years later, with his Test debut in 99.  He has played for his home nation in 96 test matches and getting on for 300 ODIs.  In both forms he was Australia’s Vice-captain and captained the team when the regular captains were unavailable.

Here is Adam Gilchrist smashing a century in 57 balls in the Ashes 3rd test. He is the second fastest behind Viv Richards.



Although he has now retired from International cricket he still plays for the Indian Premier League with the Deccan Chargers.  He was made captain in 2009 and led the team to the Twenty20 title in the same year.

It was his style of attack batting that was key to Australia’s ODI successes when he was a member of the team, and as such it was Gilchrist who invariably opened the batting.  For a wicket keeper his batting average is more than reasonable – in the upper 40s in tests with a Test strike rate of 82 runs for every 100 balls and he is renowned for batting shots to every area of the field in a dynamic and consistent manner.

Outside of the sport Gilchrist serves as an ambassador for the World Vision charity in India – a country in which he is immensely popular.