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Chappell-Hadlee: After being thrashed in the first T20 cricket game the Black Caps came back to win the second game in a nail biter of a finish. After each team batted through their 20 overs the scores were equal on 214 and the result had to come from a super over eliminator. This was essentially won by the super Tim Southee who took a wicket and restricted Australia to just six runs. The Black Caps took care of this in no time and gained some momentum leading into the main five game ODI series. They won the first game after some last minute heroics from Scott Styris but dropped the second game after coming within 13 runs of winning it despite a man of the match display by captain Daniel Vettori. If the rest of the series is this close, there are going to be some very exhausted cricketers.

Phoenix Charging: There are just two more games and three more teams left in this year's A-League football competition and Wellington are still in the hunt. The Phoenix and their supporters are certainly rising to the occasion. Last Sunday afternoon saw the Phoenix take care of the Newcastle Jets with a dominant display in front of a euphoric 33,000 strong crowd. The Phoenix now travel to Australia to play Sydney FC, the winner earning the right to face defending champions, the Melbourne Victory, in the Grand Final in two weeks' time.

New Zealand Sporting Heroes

New Zealanders show a lot of pride in their sporting heroes and rightfully so. In our history there have been moments that have inspired young kids around the country. Moments that have made a nation stand as one and moments that have made fans ecstatic.

Sir Richard Hadlee

Sir Richard Hadlee is the highest ever wicket taker in test match cricket for New Zealand with 431 wickets to his name, a record which was the best in the world for many years. He played as an all-rounder and was a hard hitting left hand batsman but was most feared for his swing bowling which netted him many fine figures and statistics, the most notable being his 9/52 against Australia in 1985. In his early days he bowled with a lot of pace and as he grew older it gradually decreased to be replaced with subtle variations as his main weapon. With the bat in hand Hadlee forged a respectable record as a lower middle order batsmen with over 3,000 runs to his name including two centuries. He was knighted in 1990 for services to cricket and in 2009 was inducted into the ICC hall of fame.

Sir Richard Hadlee has written a number of books himself about the game of cricket and the on-field personalities. Take a look at Hadlee Hits Out and Soft Deliveries, as well as Hadlee his autobiography.

Mark Todd

The New Zealand equestrian has competed at six Olympic Games in his career and earned a medal in four of those. He has also won over 20 other international riding events including the Burghley Horse trials, the World Championship, the European Championship. His two Olympic gold medals came with his most notable horse Charisma who partnered him for many years and across several types of events. His longevity and international success has endeared him to many Kiwis and in 1998 Todd was given the Supreme Halberg award and inducted into the New Zealand sports hall of fame.

For more information about Mark Todd's career take a look at his autobiography So Far, So Good or have a read about Charisma.

Sir Edmund Hillary

Sir Edmund Hillary began life in Auckland, 1919. He grew to be a tall young man and found an interest in tramping while on a school trip to Mt Ruapehu. He served briefly as a navigator during the second World War and from the late 1940's he was part of several expeditions around the world before, in 1952, he was invited to join a British expedition to Mt Everest. The rest, as you all know, is history. With the famous words "we knocked the bastard off" Hillary informed the world that Everest had at last been conquered. News reached Britain on the day of a young Queen Elizabeth's coronation and Hillary and his Sherpa Tenzing were duly knighted. What followed was a life of public attention and adoration (unwanted by Hillary himself) and, after numerous expeditions through the Himalayas Hillary started to devote his life to charitable causes. His main focus though was the Sherpa people and he founded the Himalayan Trust which was responsible for setting up many schools and hospitals throughout Nepal. Hillary was a modern day hero for a lot of New Zealanders and many more outside our country. His passing in January 2008 was mourned across the world.

Read more about 'Hillary in Sir Edmund Hillary : an extraordinary life' or check out our DVD section for TVNZ's memorial show, 'Sir Edmund Hillary, 1919-2008'.

Ricki Herbert

Ricki Herbert was part of that famous 1982 All Whites team that first made the finals of the football World Cup. Twenty-seven years later Herbert, still in the All Whites fold as head coach, echoes that great achievement and propels his team back into the final 32. Achieved by beating Bahrain in front of a record crowd in Wellington this match could well be one of the turning points in New Zealand football. As a player and as a coach, both with the Wellington Phoenix and the New Zealand All Whites, Herbert has been at the centre of Kiwi football for nigh on three decades. To find out more about the man read 'Ricki Herbert : a new fire' or find out some of his coaching tips in 'Winning ways : champion New Zealand coaches reveal their secrets'.

Recent items

MyLibrary:

MyLibrary is a part of our website which provides selections from the new books and DVDs at Wellington City Libraries. Our librarians compile these lists on a monthly basis across the different subject areas in the library's collection, and for many subjects these monthly lists are available going back a number of years. MyLibrary provides recommended databases and websites and also allows you to customise the page with your own selections from the lists, and add your own bookmarks.

Have a look at the libraries' Sport recent picks for more new books on sport and fitness.

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