Final day of the Tour Down Under means another stage in the parklands. This time it’s 20 laps around the parklands between North Adelaide and the City and includes the somewhat ironic climb up Montefiore Hill for King of the Mountains points. Allan Davis had the GC under control and his QuickStep team mates weren’t about to allow anything bad to happen but we got to see Lance Armstrong launch up Montefiore Hill and lead the race with a lap to go! A few more days in the Hills might have been more to his liking but he said he was enjoying himself so maybe we’ll see him again. More photos in the sport section of “Photos”.

The Adelaide Lightning got a second chance to get to the Grand Final of the WNBL next week and didn’t waste it. Fortunately for Adelaide Dandenong had a game to forget as they were finding hard to buy a basket. If it wasn’t for Michelle Brogan they wouldn’t have been in the contest.

Adelaide ended the season on top of the ladder and so they got to host the major semi-final against the Sydney Uni Flames. Adelaide never seemed to be in the hunt after half time and as the game progressed the shot selection got worse and Sydney punished them for it. getting into a 3pt shoot out didn’t help. Sydney get to host the grand final while Adelaide hosts Dandenong on March 1st to earn another shot at Sydney.

More photos from the game are available in the Sports photography section.

The Chinese national men’s team was in town and they played a few games against the Adelaide Hotshots (Australian Hockey League). Grant Ward and I went down to the hockey centre to see their final game on Sunday. There was a small crowd in the grandstand. I don’t know if this is typical of a hockey crowd or that they had just had enough hockey for the week.

Grant Ward and I went to see the Adelaide 36ers play their first game of the 2007/08 NBL season at the Distinctive Homes Dome against the Wollongong Hawks. Andrew Walton was unfortunately heading for the US so had to miss the game. The 36ers ended up winning the game 108-101.

The first preseason games were held at the Distinctive Homes Dome on Friday night. The Adelaide Lightning played the visiting Japan Energy Sunflowers while the Adelaide 36ers played the Cairns Taipans. It’s been a few years since I took the Nikon to the basketball (aside from last years first game in Singapore) and so I was pretty rusty. Lessons learned included use spot metering, up the ISO value and play with the white balance. It would be nice if the upgrades to the Dome included some better lighting.