Rick Furphy

The Kiwi duo of Rick Furphy and Geoff Rissole are back and this time they're giving readers Sh*t Moments in New Zealand Sport.

Here Furphy and Rissole cover some of the greatest losses and terrible moments in New Zealand sporting history.

My favourite moment of the book was learning that in 1996 the America's Cup was on display in Auckland's Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron when it was damaged by a Maori sovereignty activist. He broke into the building and smashed the display case and hit the trophy so many times with a sledgehammer, it was feared the cup was beyond saving. I rushed off to Wikipedia to learn that it took silversmiths three months to restore the trophy to its original condition. How have I not heard about this? (Page 43)

While that was certainly the highlight of the book, the lowlight came on page 71, when authors explain that:

'The combined New Zealand and Australian Competitive Hill Climbing team travelled to Gallipoli in 1915 in their first international tour...Unfortunately, they copped a rough draw and ended up facing the very formidable Turkish team on home soil. Powered by Anzac biscuits and an unquestioned belief in God, King and Country, the New Zealanders gave it their best shot but ultimately ended up suffering a grievous loss.' Page 71

Now, you don't need to be a Veteran to take offence at this. Just re-reading it again so I could write this review had me wishing I'd set this book aside at this point. War is not a sport and it certainly shouldn't be fodder for jokes as low as this. This was incredibly poor taste and while I recognise Furphy and Rissole are experts at taking the piss, there's nothing even remotely funny about this.

Using the word poof on page 85 was also offensive and I'm surprised these two entries survived the editing process.

It was mildly interesting that New Zealand didn't win any gold medals at the Moscow Olympics in 1980 (Page 96), but by then I didn't care. With cricket and rugby dominating the content and the offensive content above, I was glad to reach the end.

Reflecting that Kiwis hate losing to Australia, I'll leave you with an amusing quote from page 102, the only shining moment of the book:

'Much like a horror-movie villain, Australian sports teams are never dead and buried until the head is decapitated, the body burnt to a cinder and whatever remains is flung into the sun.'

Ultimately, their first book Sh*t Towns of New Zealand (published by Anonymous) remains their best. I'd advise reading that instead and giving this one a miss.

* Copy courtesy of Allen & Unwin *… (mais)

I really enjoyed reading Sh*t Towns of New Zealand last year. A year on and Rick Furphy and Geoff Rissole have given us Sh*t Towns of Australia. Unlike the sister book, I wasn't chuckling and rushing to look up factoids from the book while reading and overall I found it a little underwhelming.

The town slurs were unimaginative and there were so many references to deros, drugs, hand jobs, STDs and the unemployed that it quickly became repetitive.

The humour was crass and the fan mail sections were a missed opportunity. Appearing to be fabricated feedback from readers defending their towns, the authors could have had real fun with this concept. Unfortunately the fan mail comments appealed to the lowest common denominator and didn't even raise a smirk.

The only thing I enjoyed was the section on 'big things' which was uniquely Australian and amusing and the mention of bin chickens. Despite being Australian, I've somehow missed the slang name 'bin chicken' for ibis birds. This then lead me to a very funny and catchy YouTube video about ibis' which is what I'll think of when remembering this book.

Featuring sixty towns and cities, Sh*t Towns of Australia will make a great stocking stuffer or gift for the bogan in your family who enjoys gutter humour. I guess I'm just not the target market for this book.

* Copy courtesy of Allen & Unwin *… (mais)