Sports correspondent & historian with Sideline Sid There were a few eyebrows raised by local cricket watchers when the Bay of Plenty Cup premier club competition underwent a change of format at the start of the 2023-24... Read More

Weather Eye with John Maunder The 'Maunder Minimum' is the name given to the period from 1645 to 1715 when the number of sunspots - 'storms' on the sun - became almost zero. The period is named after the solar... Read More

Roger Rabbits with Jim Bunny A heads up - there's 45 shopping days until Christmas. Or thereabouts. We might want to start thinking about it. We might also want to start thinking about the difference between... Read More

Music Plus with Winston Watusi watusi@thesun.co.nz Just occasionally, as we rush towards the precipice, it can feel like time is standing still. I've felt that recently, enjoying in the same week both a new Martin... Read More

Sports correspondent & historian with Sideline Sid History buffs tend to collect things - and I am no exception having collected sporting memorabilia over half a century. The oldest piece I have, is a 1936 Auckland... Read More

Weather Eye with John Maunder The graph below shows the range of Tauranga's October rainfalls, from an extreme high of 357 mm in 1916 to a low of only 7 mm in 1984. The second wettest October was 1928, when... Read More

Roger Rabbits with Jim Bunny 'The Day My Car Ate me'. I know it smacks of those outrageous British tabloid headlines - like 'I'm having a martian's baby' or 'Adam and Ed - gay couple were first humans'. Now that was... Read More

Music Plus with Winston Watusi watusi@thesun.co.nz I do love when local music gets released; today I have some new Tauranga tunes for you. Firstly, there's an album set for release which - due to the complicated... Read More

Sports correspondent & historian with Sideline Sid A big milestone in the advancement of Western Bay of Plenty women's cricket was announced last Saturday, with Bay of Plenty Women's Captain Tash Wakelin posting... Read More

Roger Rabbits with Jim Bunny He has the hands of a blacksmith - big, vice-like, scarred and calloused. But…oh my! He is also blessed with the touch and tenderness of Casanova himself. 'And,” says the... Read More

Music Plus with Winston Watusi watusi@thesun.co.nz Way back when, the New Zealand punk scene was a small fragile thing. For all the braggadocio and swaggering fashion violations, anything that radical was going to struggle... Read More

Sports correspondent & historian with Sideline Sid A number of the country's top elite boxers who came to town over Labour Weekend for the North Island Golden Gloves, are preparing to face the biggest challenges of their... Read More