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

Sideline Sid doesn't go a week without catching some live sporting action. In this week's edition he looks back at the good, the bad and the ugly of what he has watched live this year.

Early in the new year the HRV Cup Twenty20 roadshow stopped off at the BOP Cricket Oval at Mount Maunganui. Cricket has hit upon a winner in packaging the game together in a non-stop action show that is over in three hours.

Just as sevens has introduced rugby to a myriad of countries throughout the world, the Twenty20 game has introduced the multitudes to cricket.

On the three occasions that the HRV Cup came to town in January, the crowds came in their thousands to bear testimony to the popularity of the new form of the game. With an emphasis on big hits, Twenty20 becomes a classic bowler versus batsman contest.

A couple of days at the Black Cap's test match in Hamilton against Bangladesh was a time for enjoying the more traditional form of the game. It was a joy sharing Seddon Park with no more than a couple of hundred spectators each day with the undoubted highlight being big centuries from Martin Guptill and Brendon McCullum.

The Easter break brought a journey to Auckland to catch the New Zealand Warriors in action against the Manly Sea Eagles. The game summed up the Warriors' season.

Early hope, before poor play from the Warriors let the visitors into the game, with a late rally failing to produce the desired results.

Club rugby took centre stage for the winter months with the best come-from-behind victory coming in the Baywide Premier final at the Tauranga Domain. On a day where the weather gods threw the lot at players and spectators alike – Tauranga Sports defeated arch rivals Mount Maunganui to lift aloft their fourth successive Baywide Premier trophy.

In the classic sporting cliché of a ‘game of two halves' – the first half belonged to the Mounties, who looked to be on their way to their second title in five years. Behind 10-nil at the break, the defending champions put their heads down in the atrocious conditions and played the game in the Mount half to take the championship decider 19-10.

The prize for the biggest choker tag would have to go to a unnamed Division One team (whose field is near the Tauranga racecourse) who needed just a draw against lowly ranked Reporoa to grab a semi-final place. With the game in the bag and less than 10 minutes on the clock, the Western Bay side let in three Reporoa touchdowns, to bomb out of the post section series.

Following the Bay of Plenty Steamers is like living life on a roller coaster – with so many ups and downs it makes one dizzy. From the freezing cold of a pre-season hit out against Manawatu at Reporoa to the balmy days of spring at Baypark defeating Southland, the local side always gave their fans plenty of thrill and spills.

However, the undoubted highlight was being given the privilege of being a volunteer at the World Rowing Championships, held at Lake Karapiro.

To be on hand at what has been called by many the best World Rowing Championships EVER was outstanding. Memories of Super Saturday, where in the space of an hour and four races New Zealand claimed two Golds, and a Silver and Bronze Medal apiece will stay with me forever.

Seeya at the Game.