One of our service clubs had a special presentation on Wednesday, seeking funding for cricket-oriented sports equipment for the Kalianna Special School including poles on which balls could be placed for batting and rebound nets. 

There was also a bowling practice thing which had three wickets made of Velcro and a soft fluffy cricket ball called The Sticky Wicky.

And yes, everyone had heard of the NT News front page headlines. If you haven’t you can look it up.

Needless to say, the chap had no problems in instantly raising the funds.

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Australia’s heart was broken watching former captain Stephen Smith on Thursday, but not enough to stem the flood of puns and quips, many involving mentions of true Aussie grit, roughage, balls and all the rest.

But to DTM’s mind, the most creative was the question about what linked the Australian Test team with the Australian bob-sledding team?

They’re both on a race to the bottom. Sorry.

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With its first outing in 1871, the Bendigo Easter Festival is Australia’s longest continuous-running festival, and while it has stretched and shrunk from 10 days to just one, it’s always been there.

Apart from the Christian festival of Easter, it’s celebrated a range of things, including carnival rides, ‘popular girls’ and the Chinese presence in Central Victoria – there’s been a dragon in the parade since 1892. It now has an estimated attendance of 100,000 each year.

Main business streets selected their Popular Girl candidate and began fundraising well before Easter. It was as much a retail contest, with the girls representing View Street, Hargreaves Street, Pall Mall, and Mitchell Street.

The Popular Girl contest lasted for more than 60 years and although it would not be very PC these days, it raised a small fortune for local charities.

In modern equivalents it was about $50,000 to $100,000 a year.