Sideline Sid Sports correspondant & historian www.sunlive.co.nz

For Sidline Sid, last week didn't get any better than watching the Australian cricket team put to the sword by the Poms in the second ashes test in Adelaide.

What makes me laugh is that all the sideline punters who just a short time again were lauding the Australian test side as invincible are now putting in the boot with a ferocity unseen on this side of the ditch.

Here at home in the land of the long white cloud we are well versed in the failures of the Black Caps and handle another loss with a shrug of the shoulders.

Across the Tasman, the Aussie cricket watching public sees being beaten by England in an ashes series at home as being on the same page as treason and defecting to the enemy.

For mine, the England win has set up what could be one of the most dramatic ashes series ever seen. It will only take the Baggy Green team to win the contest in Perth to really set the series alight.

However, the current England team has two major advantages. They have a top order batting line-up that refuses to be intimidated by the Australian bowlers. The other real plus they have is the Barmy Army.

There is real joy in going to test matches in New Zealand when England plays the Black Caps. Twice in the last decade I have been on hand at Eden and Seddon Park, to witness the Red and White Army, who support and follow their team to the other side of the world.

The Barmy Army are no lager louts, but thousands of dedicated cricket watchers who support their team in vocal full flight throughout the day's play. They are a joy to behold and always provide plenty of friendly banter during a days cricket.

This Sunday, one of the best players in the world will be on show in the HRV Cup match between the Northern Knights and the Otago Volts at the Bay Cricket Oval.

One of the biggest stars in world cricket has been signed by the Northern Knights this season. South African Herschelle Gibbs, who is a master blaster at the batting crease, is also one of the best fielders in world cricket.

He is best known as the first batsman to smash six sixes in one over in international cricket when he achieved the astonishing feat against the Netherlands in the 2007 World Cup.

Gibbs has just arrived in the country and is expected to play for the Knights on Sunday, then again be on hand against the Auckland Aces at the Bay Oval, on Monday, December 27.

One of the free sporting shows in town each week is the Baywide cricket competition. Usually just a handful of spectators spend a lazy few hours on a Saturday afternoon, watching the best club cricket players in the region strut their stuff.

This Saturday two Baywide games are in town, with Mount Maunganui taking on cross-town rivals Te Puke at Blake Park, and Greerton meeting Rotorua Boys' High at Pemberton Park

The Pemberton Park encounter is likely to feature one of the rising stars of Bay of Plenty rep cricket. In his last two hit outs Brett Hampton has blasted a century for Greerton in club cricket, and last weekend took a remarkable seven wickets against Counties Manukau, in a Fergus Hickey Rosebowl game.

Seeya at the Game.