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MATCH ANTICIPATED

Australia awaits today’s War on Court 21 between Serb Ilia Bozoljac and Croat Marin Cilic. Apparently the tiny venue only allows for 50 or so spectators; three times as many were involved in yesterday’s world-first Grand Slam tennis brawl. Meanwhile, in other local conflict news:

Fifty police supported by a helicopter descended on Cooks Park in Sans Souci at 6.45pm to control 60 young Middle Eastern men who were brawling and throwing rocks after a football hit a child attending a picnic …

Georges River Sailing Club manager Scott Hughes said the incident was not racially based.

“It was just two Lebanese families fighting. I haven’t seen that many police in my life. It was a sight to see and I hope I never see it again.”

UPDATE. The SMH’s report on the same incident (via David M.) displays the art of invisibleness.

Posted by Tim B. on 01/15/2007 at 09:53 PM
  1. “It was just two Lebanese families fighting. I haven’t seen that many police in my life. It was a sight to see and I hope I never see it again.”

    What we need is Michael Trotten to go in and tell us the straight poop.

    Posted by wronwright on 2007 01 15 at 10:01 PM • permalink

  2. Tennis hooliganism? Oh dear, what has the world come to?

    Better beef up security for the polo matches…

    Posted by Spiny Norman on 2007 01 15 at 10:06 PM • permalink

  3. I spoke with a taxi driver last year. We talked about rugby league football and it turned out we supported the same team, the Bulldogs.  He said his son no longer attended due to the violence.  I said I hadn’t really seen any violence and took my young daughter with me and besides his son was Lebanese so there should be no problem.

    He replied “my son wears a cross on a chain around his neck”.  There are Lebanese and Lebanese.

    Posted by allan on 2007 01 15 at 10:07 PM • permalink

  4. 50 or so spectators; three times as many…

    Reports said yesterday’s stoush involved 150… I think you mean one third as many?

    Meanwhile, if Maria Sharapova becomes overwhelmed by all that agression and wants to take some time out, I have a spare bedroom…

    Posted by RexW on 2007 01 15 at 10:21 PM • permalink

  5. No arrests, according to reports, but good to see that international law enforcement officers are on the job.

    Posted by Margos Maid on 2007 01 15 at 10:25 PM • permalink

  6. The SMH didn’t mention the ethnic background in regard to the Sans Souci incident (MOIO) but you could kinda guess as the extended family(s) had 200+ members.

    Posted by north01 on 2007 01 15 at 10:26 PM • permalink

  7. I had my buck’s party at Georges River Sailing Club twenty years ago. The Dolls Point area was a sleepy little backwater populated by sailors and fisherman in those days. And then Malcolm Fraser’s “Lebanese Experiment” kicked in. From todays’s SMH, Gerald Henderson explains why and how last weekend’s ruckus came about:-

    “Muslim Lebanese - and their descendants - who entered Australia under Malcolm Fraser’s “Lebanon concession” policy during that country’s civil war of 1975-76, despite the fact they were not refugees in the official sense of the term.

    Two cabinet submissions, released on New Year’s Day with other cabinet records from 1976, show the Fraser government was warned the administration of this policy was a shambles, the policy was “unsatisfactory” and there was a danger “the conflicts, tensions and divisions within Lebanon will be transferred to Australia”. The evidence indicates Fraser rejected this advice at the time”.

    I’m thinking Fraser was an even bigger catastrophe than Whitlam.

    Posted by Bonmot on 2007 01 15 at 10:27 PM • permalink

  8. Rex: Tim’s right - he says “...three times as many were involved (i.e., 150) in yesterday’s ...”

    Anyway, whatever the case, they should be dealt with as all hoons should with a short, sharp jail sentence and significant fine.

    I saw the family picnic fight news on the SMH site the other day and noted that ethnicity was absent in the report. I was guessing one of two groups…

    Posted by Hanyu on 2007 01 15 at 10:28 PM • permalink

  9. The question has tobe asked as to how hard was the kid hit with the ball? If it was aimed directly at the kid and booted with all the kickers might then maybe a bit of fisticuffs was warranted. Whats wrong with going over and pciking the kid up and dusting him off and apologising to the parents and the kid and then moving your game somewhere else.

    Posted by artful-dodger on 2007 01 15 at 10:28 PM • permalink

  10. #5 RexW:
    Tim wrote

    Apparently the tiny venue only allows for 50 or so spectators; three times as many were involved in yesterday’s world-first Grand Slam tennis brawl.

    I think Tim wrote exactly what he meant to write.

    Posted by Skeeter on 2007 01 15 at 10:31 PM • permalink

  11. looks like castro’s about to kick the bucket (fingers crossed) - rushed into intensive care because of complications after 3 failed operations, according to newsradio.

    will be interesting to compare the leftards reactions if he does die (fingers crossed) with their reactions to pinochet’s death

    Posted by eeniemeenie on 2007 01 15 at 10:33 PM • permalink

  12. Sheeze you are quick on the draw, Hanyu. That’s what happens when I spend too much time in Preview.

    Posted by Skeeter on 2007 01 15 at 10:34 PM • permalink

  13. It sounds like the same vermin that used to infest Gunnamutta Park at Cronulla prior to December 2005 have relocated to Dolls Point.My condolences to the residents of that delightful suburb.Even when there were no outbreaks of violence to announce their presence they always left their cultural calling cards.The park was left looking like a landfill depot and any available structures were vandalised.

    Posted by Lew on 2007 01 15 at 10:35 PM • permalink

  14. #7, Fraser was indeed arguably a greater catastrophe than Whitlam, confirmed by Chris Puplick’s pathetic defense of his record.

    Posted by ilibcc on 2007 01 15 at 10:46 PM • permalink

  15. The dispute is linked to cultural differences between exponents of the single handed and two-fisted backhand. A 1998 ITF brokered cease fire, ended when a resolution on the benefits of a western or continental grip could not be reached.

    Posted by Infidel Tiger on 2007 01 15 at 10:47 PM • permalink

  16. #11 Eeniemeenie: One of my favorite bloogers, Blue Crab Boulevard, has an appropriately grave and respectful (not!) take on Castro’s condition.

    As to the hostilities in Cooks Park, I believe that the Aussie neocons’ attempt to bring democracy to this region has failed, and all troops should be withdrawn. No blood for picnic baskets!

    Posted by paco on 2007 01 15 at 10:56 PM • permalink

  17. #16: I have no idea what a “blooger” is, but I kind of like it. Correction: Blue Crab Boulevard is one of my favorite b-l-o-g-g-e-r-s.

    Posted by paco on 2007 01 15 at 11:03 PM • permalink

  18. A blooger is an inadvertent nasal discharge that occurs when a post or comment elicits an involuntary snort.

    Posted by paco on 2007 01 15 at 11:05 PM • permalink

  19. ...to control 60 young Middle Eastern men

    Well, at least they have finally identified the mysterious “man of no appearance”!

    Posted by Patricia on 2007 01 15 at 11:13 PM • permalink

  20. “It was just two Lebanese families fighting”

    Why do I get the feeling they weren’t Maronite?

    Posted by Dan Lewis on 2007 01 15 at 11:15 PM • permalink

  21. If Castro is about to head off to that great cigar factory in the sky, no prizes for guessing what The Age’s Terry Lane will think.

    This (among other reasons why he hates America), from his virulent anti-American spray in last Sunday’s Age:- ”[America]Punishing Cubans for having the temerity to kick out their Mafia landlords…”

    Obviously a Castro big wet sloppy kisser. Only evil America could be so wicked as to well, ‘punish Castro Cuba….

    Start packing your bags Tezza - the funeral early next week….

    Posted by Bonmot on 2007 01 15 at 11:19 PM • permalink

  22. Castro won’t die. According to the left wing press, Cuba has the world’s best health system.

    Posted by Infidel Tiger on 2007 01 15 at 11:25 PM • permalink

  23. Why have there been no stories in any MSM about the Sudanese riots last week involving 700+ people in Dandenong with baseball bats, golf clubs.  People were seriously injured but the MSM ignores it because they were African ???

    Posted by gozzak on 2007 01 15 at 11:25 PM • permalink

  24. #23 gopzzak
    The Lebanese refugee program of the 1970’s looks like it has a bastard child of the 2000’s - and this is happening during Howard’s watch - we can’t blame Fraser, Whitlam or Keating for this one.

    Unfortunately, Howard has dropped the ball on immigration and if Rudd promises to tighten things up in this department, he will get in. Guaranteed. Howard is in the process of leaving one helluva legacy!

    Posted by Bonmot on 2007 01 15 at 11:41 PM • permalink

  25. #23

    Yep, that’s our latest attempt to import a Civil War.

    Obviously somewhere in the bowels of Government someone has decided that Australia is historically deficient for not having had a Civil War.

    They’re obviously hell-bent on rectifying the situation.

    Posted by rickw on 2007 01 15 at 11:44 PM • permalink

  26. A free kebab to anyone who can name a benefit of multi-culturalism that doesn’t involve food or sex with foreign chicks.

    Posted by Infidel Tiger on 2007 01 15 at 11:53 PM • permalink

  27. #21: If Castro is about to head off to that great cigar factory in the sky . . .

    No, no, Bonmot; wrong theological tack, entirely. He’s about to be packed in a box of Maldito Coronas for the devil’s after-dinner smoking pleasure.

    Posted by paco on 2007 01 16 at 12:02 AM • permalink

  28. #26, reasonably priced landscaping and lawn service, at least in the US.

    Posted by RebeccaH on 2007 01 16 at 12:02 AM • permalink

  29. #27 paco
    Hmmm. Interesting - Castro puffing a Cuban with the Devil. Nice if Terry Lane could join them….

    Posted by Bonmot on 2007 01 16 at 12:12 AM • permalink

  30. I searched all the paper web sites and found nothing on the 700+ Sudanese rioters?  What the hell is going on ?  I realise the MSM journo’s are left wing propagandists, but this is ridiculous…If a dozen white teenagers brawling at the tennis deserve this amount of attention, then how can the MSM justify not reporting on the Sundanese rioters?

    Posted by gozzak on 2007 01 16 at 12:13 AM • permalink

  31. If you work in the prison service you’re unlikely to get sacked.

    Posted by Rob Read on 2007 01 16 at 12:19 AM • permalink

  32. #9 artful-dodger, soccer balls being kicked at people was one of the complaints that led to the protest at Cronulla.  It is low-level aggressive behaviour that is intended to elicit a response.  Any response will do and the next thing you know you’re in the middle of a fight.

    Posted by anthony_r on 2007 01 16 at 12:37 AM • permalink

  33. #23 Gozzak

    Link?  Havent heard anything about this.

    Posted by pommygranate on 2007 01 16 at 01:14 AM • permalink

  34. 23# if Rudd gets “in” he will fix no migration trouble. Carmen Lawrence was on telly other night and her bleating heart was still bleating over the terrible way that Howard has treated the “poor asylum seekers and refugees”
    Labor let ‘em in and will continue to do so.

    Posted by waussie on 2007 01 16 at 01:15 AM • permalink

  35. #23 -  havn’t heard anything about that either. the use of baseball bats doesn’t say much for their level of intergration does it?- i mean surely a cricket bat would be a more fearsome weapon

    Posted by eeniemeenie on 2007 01 16 at 01:34 AM • permalink

  36. #8 & #10 - no matter how many times I read it, an extra “as” appeared in that sentence that quite clearly isn’t there.

    I can only plead that I’d just come from leading Terry Lane’s twaddle in the earlier post and my eyes were awash with sight of words being tortured into meanings they were never designed to have.

    Apologies Tim.

    Posted by RexW on 2007 01 16 at 01:59 AM • permalink

  37. #25

    that is a most astute observation. A civil war would shake us out of our suburban prosperity-addled complacency! Yessir!

    Posted by JonathanH on 2007 01 16 at 02:21 AM • permalink

  38. This is the only semi-reference to the Sudanese riot I could find.  It does say munch about the riot, and spends more time doing the left wing MSM thing about the poor suffering Sundanese.

    http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/finding-a-peaceful-life-is-not-always-an-easy-transition/2007/01/12/1168105181214.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1

    Posted by gozzak on 2007 01 16 at 03:09 AM • permalink

  39. #26

    “A free kebab to anyone who can name a benefit of multi-culturalism that doesn’t involve food or sex with foreign chicks.”

    A free kebab.

    Sorry. I am just really hungry.

    Posted by The Best Infidel on 2007 01 16 at 04:06 AM • permalink

  40. Margos Maid

    That’s a disgrace.  That Oraficer should be charged with assault and kicked out of the police force.

    Posted by murph on 2007 01 16 at 04:31 AM • permalink

  41. Georges River Sailing Club manager Scott Hughes said the incident was not racially based.

    Well of course not, there were no evil whiteys involved.

    Posted by murph on 2007 01 16 at 04:34 AM • permalink

  42. the tennis brouhaha reminds me of the goodies episode about   ballet hooliganism: ‘bol- shoi bol-shoi’

    #25- phatty phil seriously argued on LNL once that Australia would be a better place if we’d had some kind of revolution or civil war- what is it with ‘peace loving’ leftards and bloodlust?

    Posted by eeniemeenie on 2007 01 16 at 05:01 AM • permalink

  43. #42

    They’re not anti-war per se.  It’s just that our side is better at fighting wars.

    Posted by murph on 2007 01 16 at 05:14 AM • permalink

  44. #38 This non-reporting is even more concerning considering the thrashing Tamworth council is getting in the MSM. Vanstone is not helping either by wanting DIMA to meet with the Tamwoth council to sort out “the problem”. - For those out of the loop in the US, the Tamworth local government voted to refuse any more Sudanese refugee resettlements based on the violent/destructive behaviour of the current batch.
    Hats off to a rural/regional council to stand up and have the balls to tell the bleeding hearts in the city (including those current affairs media Whores harrassing locals) to send their refugee multiculti crap elsewhere. Note that John “I didn’t light the fires” Stanhope offered up the ACT as an alternative resettlement area - Great Idea I hope he parks them in Belconnen, right in DIMA’s backyard so the lefty policy freaks who thought up this crap can put up with them trashing their local coffee shop while out for their mid-morning Latte.

    Posted by CanberraNeoCon on 2007 01 16 at 05:45 AM • permalink

  45. Gozzak, go google Noble Park riot.

    It wasn’t the Sudanese, it was the bogans. I know because a few of my neighbours were there and had a right old time.

    Word is that they are heading back for another bash this weekend and looking forward to it.

    Posted by Nilknarf Arbed on 2007 01 16 at 05:48 AM • permalink

  46. #38, there was a similar incident in Newcastle NSW late 2005 involving Sudanese and aborigines at Wickham Park in the inner suburbs. No whites involved, but plenty of baseball bats and lumps of wood, lots of blood and mayhem. Seems the brothers of no appearance don’t like one another much. This event occurred despite a concerted effort by local welfare groups to smooth the refugee settlement process.

    I notice on tonight’s ABC news Tamworth has been forced to back down and toe the PC line by accepting previously rejected African settlers on a 12-month trial even though the town has serious concerns about its ability to provide the necessary support services to assist these families in resettlement.

    Thinking good thoughts doesn’t always make good things happen.

    .

    Posted by mareeS on 2007 01 16 at 05:53 AM • permalink

  47. #44 I’ve seen some of the Tamworth bashing on the 7.30 report, and those council officers interviewed said that they had sent out a survey, and of the 500 people who responded, the majority were concerned with refugees settling in the area.

    Some of the concerns were about practical things like healthcare, support and infrastructure to deal with those from an alien culture. All valid considerations if you ask me, but too radical for aunty, I guess.

    Posted by Nilknarf Arbed on 2007 01 16 at 05:56 AM • permalink

  48. #45 Nilknarf Arbed
    NO !
    There was a seperate riot by Sudanese the week before the Noble Park hoon riot.  This has nothing to do with the hoon riot.  Complete media cover up over this one.

    Posted by gozzak on 2007 01 16 at 07:44 AM • permalink

  49. i caught the last couple minutes of tonight’s 7:30 report about Sudanese in some country town, and it seemed to be about how the locals were enjoying the new foodie experience and how police needed sensitivity training because of their silly western assumption that women are equal

    Posted by eeniemeenie on 2007 01 16 at 07:52 AM • permalink

  50. #46, 47
    Tamworth/New England ABC Local Radio obviously weren’t impressed with the local rednecks’ objections (at a Town Hall meeting of c. 500) when interviewed on ABC Radio National about it (Tara Grimshaw, former ABC TV producer: can’t find transcript): bet some behind-the-scenes politicking went on to pull some strings ...

    Posted by egg_ on 2007 01 16 at 08:57 AM • permalink

  51. #49, I saw the same thing.

    It’s a shame you didn’t see the part about the clash at the tennis. It was quite creative.

    Posted by Ash_ on 2007 01 16 at 09:19 AM • permalink

  52. Andrea: Cleanup in Aisle 38!

    Posted by ErnieG on 2007 01 16 at 09:47 AM • permalink

  53. Gozzak, maybe this is what you’re referring to.

    By the way, use the URL button and you 1. won’t mess up page formatting and 2. will avoid a cuff under the ear from Andrea.

    Posted by Henry boy on 2007 01 16 at 09:22 PM • permalink

  54. You can take the peasants out of the Balkans but…

    Posted by Hump B Bare on 2007 01 17 at 03:40 AM • permalink

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