From The Sidelines

Every summer since 1976, when unseeded Mark Edmondson upset defending champion John Newcombe,  Australians have wondered whether an...

Canadians voted last Monday using their non–compulsory first past the post voting system, Australians voted yesterday using their...

This evening at midnight a quirky feature of Australia’s electoral system comes into effect. A 48 hour ‘media blackout’ is enacted. This...

The unintended consequences of social changes are often far more potent than the intended ones. In the eras when workers were paid in...

Yes, it’s true. Australians can start voting on Easter Tuesday. In a mere eleven days.  There was a time, not so long ago in Australia,...

Yesterday, President Trump announced his most sweeping set of economic tariffs. He, alone amongst all considered opinion, believes the...

Earlier this week I attended an end of term retreat with senior students. It occurred to me that the event and its timing were...

What’s the quip?: “Never trust a used car salesman or a specialist”. Well, maybe we will have to add meteorologists to the list. Last...

It is often said that adaptation is the key to biological survival and evolution. Many sporting codes have clearly taken that advice to...

Americans had their Presidential and Congressional elections  last November.  Australia will have its Federal election by the end of May....

Christians prepare for the celebration of Christmas during the season of Advent.  In an increasingly secular Australia, the faithless...

Before we know it the summer season of tennis will begin in Australia. Both Djokovic and Kyrgios, along with the World’s No.1 female...

Happy Birthday Mr. President!  Joe Biden is 82 today.  He is busy trying to carve out his lame duck legacy, even strolling away from the...

Get used to hearing much more about Grover Cleveland! Rarely mentioned amongst the pantheon of American Presidents, Cleveland served as...

Imagine a tennis match where two old combatants are preparing to recontest the final, having contested it four years before. Suddenly,...

So, the world keeps producing its jolts. The unrelenting reminders of change and mortality. Ethel Kennedy, Robert Kennedy’s widow, dies...

It probably is a shock to all other than the most ardent of tennis fans that the US Open starts next Sunday with its qualifying rounds....

Today, 110 years ago, World War One begun. Arguably the defining moment of modern history, the Germans thought they could reach and...

Well, well, well. The inevitable has occurred. Joe Biden has succumbed to the relentless logic of politics. His party do not believe he...

Does anyone go to work on a Friday anymore? In this post-Covid world the relative absence of foot and car traffic at the end of a...

Last weekend I was treated to time in Adelaide, the capital of South Australia.  An underrated city, often overlooked by being in the...

Tasmania is Australia’s smallest and only island State within the Federation. The nation’s smallest State, it is close in the size to...

In 1948 George Orwell wrote an ominous novel predicting the destinies of citizens in the post-War world. In the same year photo-finish...

A spoiler warning: the following comments are not designed to offend. Please read in the cause of commentary not controversy. Sometimes...

I suspect many would agree that the current world is one where the practice of old certitudes has never been less guaranteed. Be it the...

Reluctant as I am to use contemporary expressions that may not be understood by all, may I begin by offering the following ‘spoiler...

The Australian Open has six days to run and the openings for Australian success have closed in the Men’s and Women’s draws. Yesterday’s ...

Isn’t it remarkable that, notwithstanding all that has come before, the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve generates a collective...

For my sins, but with constant delight, I have taught Australian students for over 30 years about the structures and processes of its...

The Christian season of Advent is nearly upon us, beginning on 3rd December, and marks the promise of something new and beginning with...

It is the fear of every tennis player to lose a set six games to love. If a player loses a traditional best of three sets match 0-6 0-6,...

Tomorrow in Australia at 4.49 p.m. is the spring equinox in the southern hemisphere. After then, days south of the equator will have more...

“Speaking of Serena, America’s Coco Gauff, fresh from an indifferent summer won the Women’s title at Cincinnati. Often touted as...

The forthcoming first day of September in the southern hemisphere is heralded as the first day of spring, whilst for Americans it is the...

So, another Wimbledon is about to begin! How it can be two years since Roger Federer played his final match on Centre Court, let alone...

We are told there are very few certainties except the oft quipped duo of death and taxes. For what seems the living memory of most the...

Halley’s comet have many across our stars once every 76 years. Its next scheduled appearance will be in 2061. Down here on earth there...

After the self-serving outpourings of Harry and Meghan and Novak Djokovic’s demonstrative implosion after the Australian Open Men’s...

As a new year beckons, it is inevitable that individuals and societies consider what their destiny may be in the months ahead....

This week Canada scored its first goal in World Cup history in Qatar and won its first ever Davis Cup in tennis in Malaga. The World Cup...

Was it only eighteen months ago that the world was living in a state of Covid anxiety without a war in Ukraine, England’s Queen was...

In one of the final scenes of the movie, The Queen, her late majesty is seen encouraging Tony Blair to conduct their weekly audience...

Well, the last thing I should have thought was that the 2022 US Open might be another predictable chapter in the game’s history. Too many...

Can you have two epiphanies in a week when writing about politics and tennis? As we prepare for the beginning of the final Grand Slam of...

Wimbledon starts tonight. All eyes of tennis fans will turn to its famous Centre Court whose flawless grass surface, only played on in...

Few probably realise that the French Open has provided Central America with its first ever Grand Slam champion. Marcelo Arevalo from El...

When, in a fortnight’s time, the finals of the French Open are played the respective champions will be awarded their trophies because...

Some days you remember more than others. 21st August 1983 is one of those days. In peaceful, democratic Australia, the newly elected...

With less than two weeks until polling day in Australia, we can be more certain about events after the election than its outcome. We know...

The political terms left and right wing were coined when what became known as the Tennis Court oath was taken during the French...