Ob 18jun14 d1

Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, June 18, 2014 - Page 27

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Horses

Page 28 - Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, June 18, 2014

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Craft

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Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, June 18, 2014 - Page 29

Page 30 - Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, June 18, 2014

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Golf

Senior Card Holder’s Special

Bonu Clubh s o u Vouc se her

Golf for Two People with Cart $80 Monday to Friday (until September 30) Book online at: www.rosebudcountryclub.com.au or phone the Golf Shop:

5950 0888 Subject to availability Most present Seniors Card 20 d, R osebud, 339 939 2077 Boneo R Rd, Rosebud,

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Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, June 18, 2014 - Page 31

Golf

Melbourne

Observer

Sport Extra

$75,000 in winner’s purse ■ Brilliant Victorian dog Xylia Allen claimed the Gold Cup Final at Albion Park in Brisbane last Thursday night.

From the coveted one box, Xylia Allen landed straight on the lead and was never headed, controlling the race to win by three lengths from New Zealand visitor Know Class, who finished off his race strongly. Another Victorian, Infinite Wish ran third.

Xylia Allen collected the $75,000 winners purse in 41.71 seconds, just outside the 710-metre track record held by Dashing Corsair.

Presentation ■ At Sandown Park last Thursday night (June 12) a presentation was made to the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia, during Men’s Health Week.

Victorian greyhound clubs raised $10,000 for the Foundation courtesy of a series of barbecues held oncourse at greyhound meetings earlier this year.

The BigAussie BBQ promotion will return to Victorian greyhound tracks in September.

33 lengths ■ The appropriately named Mr Wow captured the attention of greyhound followers when winning a Maiden at Sale on the holiday Monday (June 9).

His winning margin in the 520metre event was just under 33 lengths.

Admittedly there was severe interference during the event which put paid to the chances of most of Mr Wow's seven rivals, but such a winning margin is rarely seen and is none-

Greyhounds

GRV will continue to enhance its website into the future. The site is located at www.grv.org.au

Struggling

with Kyle Galley theless still a great achievement. Mr Wow is trained by Sale Greyhound Racing Club Manager, Des Dooley, who has raced some good dogs over the years.

The son of Bekim Bale was having just his second race start on Monday, after suffering an injury on debut at Sale on Australia Day. See You Win scored by 15 lengths and No No Notorious by over 12 lengths on the same program.

User-friendly ■ Greyhound Racing Victoria unveiled a more user-friendly layout on its website last week.

Designed particularly to assist those new to the sport who are looking to become involved, the site features easy access to latest news, upcoming events and information on how to become involved in greyhound ownership.

Regular visitors to the site haven't been forgotten either, with important information such as race fields and form guides and racing information.

■ Meanwhile, Greyhound Racing Victoria has reported that the Greyhound Adoption Program is struggling to keep up with the demand and enquiries for greyhounds as pets.

More and more people, particularly in the city and suburbs, are realising how well greyhounds adapt to different lifestyles, and in particular, apartment living.

A number of new initiatives will be introduced by the Greyhound Adoption Program to make it more convenient to prepare retired racing greyhounds for the program.

Starting next month, Sandown, Bendigo and Geelong tracks will host monthly sessions where greyhounds will be temperament tested to assess their suitability as pets.

Dogs that pass the tests will then be taken to the Adoption Program headquarters at Seymour before they go into foster care.

While operating in a restricted caretaker mode, the GBOTA has operated profitably required no financial underwriting from Greyhound Racing New South Wales, and had not experienced the financial and management difficulties of the previous operator.

It came as a surprise then to the GBOTA that tender to operate The Gardens on a long term basis has been unsuccessful.

GRNSW announced last week that the future management of the venue will be done by a new club which is in the process of formation.

The Newcastle based venue has had a massive amount of money poured into it in its relatively short life, and plays an important role in the sport in the Hunter Valley.

When The Gardens opened, fellow local venues such as Singleton and Cessnock became redundant, despite opposition from the industry.

The participants in New South Wales will surely be hoping that the right decision has been made regarding changing management of The Gardens again, and that the venue can remain profitable for the industry.

Troubled

Flashbacks

■ The troubled New South Wales greyhound racing venue, The Gardens, will be under a new management arrangement from July.

The NSW Greyhound Breeders Owners and Trainers Association has been caretaker manager of the venue since August 2013, when the previous owner, the NSW National Coursing Association was de-registered.

■ Minister for Youth, Sport and Recreation Brian Dixon announced in September 1974 that funds had been made available to construct a new trotting and greyhound racing complex near Geelong.

Mr Dixon said the complex would be situated on the Princes Highway 10 kilometres on the Melbourne side of Geelong.

It would enable the land previously occupied by the Geelong trotting and greyhound tracks to be used for community and parkland recreation.

Negotiations between the shire of Corio, both Geelong racing clubs and their controlling bodies had been ongoing.

Finance for the project would come from normal TAB payouts to the clubs.

Trotting began at the new site in 1978, while the greyhounds moved across in 1980.

Upcoming race meetings ■ Wednesday: The Meadows (Day), Bendigo (Twilight), Cranbourne (Night), Ballarat (N); ■ Thursday: Sale (D), Shepparton (T), Sandown Park (N), Warrnambool (N); ■ Friday: Warragul (T), Geelong (N); ■ Saturday: Bendigo (T), The Meadows (N); ■ Sunday: Sandown Park (D), Healesville (D), Shepparton (T), Sale (T); ■ Monday: Ballarat (D), Geelong (T), Shepparton (N); ■ Tuesday: Horsham (T), Warragul (N).

- Kyle Galley

Page 32 - Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Melbourne

Observer

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Travellers’Good Buys

with David Ellis

Kiel Canal was 8 years in the making ■ Germany’s Kaiser Wilhelm II reckoned his official opening in 1895 of the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Kanal across the Jutland Peninsula and connecting the North Sea with the Baltic Sea, would be pretty good reason to celebrate.

After all, the dream of just such a canal that would save a journey of over 450km in often storm-tossed seas around Denmark, had been ponderedover since as early as the 16th century. With it now becoming a reality, here was every reason for celebrations that would long remember his involvement in such a grand scheme.

A canal of sorts had actually been created in 1784 when the area now known as Germany’s Schleswig-Holstein was ruled jointly by Denmark and Norway, but it simply joined up sections of the Eider River via a series of cuttings over a rambling 175km between the two seas.

And with limited depth and width, this canal was of use only to small vessels under 300 tonnes, so when in 1864 Prussia (later the German Empire) won Schleswig-Holstein as a spoil of the Second Schleswig War, thought was finally directed towards a real canal linking the two seas.

Hamburg shipowner and businessman, Hermann Dahlstrom put forth the first concrete plans and possible route, designing it not only for commercial shipping traffic, but for the

● Kiel Canal official opening

Melbourne

Observer Wines & Liqueurs

with David Ellis

Bubbly Italian for dinner ■ An interesting and rewarding sparkling out of Italy that’s quite fruity yet at the same time nicely soft and dry, is Carpene Malvolti’s Prosecco 1868 Extra Dry, and which sells here for a very agreeable $25 a bottle.

Founded in 1868 in Italy’s Veneto region by Antonio Carpene, the company became the first in Italy to submit traditional still wines made from Prosecco grapes to the sparkling process; over the ensuing 146 years the company’s been handed down from father to son and still remains firmly in Carpene family hands today.

Fruit for this bubbly, that’s equally at home in the party-room and at the table, came from the picturesque Conegliano and Valdobbiadene hills of Veneto, and was produced under the Charmat method in which the wine is secondary fermented in bulk tanks and bottled under pressure; it is fruity, extra dry and aromatic, with strong hints of apple on the palate and bouquet.

Perfect as an aperitif, a party-room bubbly or at the table with light Mediterranean dishes – very popular in its home region is to share it with an octopus and potato salad – it is also equally at home mixed into cocktails with the likes of cranberry or orange juice, lemon-lime-and- soda, and a host of others.

- David Ellis

One to note ■ Peter Logan has come up with a great drop in his recently-released 2012 Logan Weemala Shiraz Viognier that’s got a lovely silky palate of red berries, plums, bay and tarragon and a nice long finish – and as we know, the longer the finish (the time the flavour lasts in your mouth) the finer the quality of that wine.

Peter grew fruit for this one at Mudgee 600m up in the Central Ranges of NSW, an area that produces reds with uniquely rustic characteristics and usually stronger savoury elements than most other regions, and which are recognised for strong acid, tight tannin structure and generous flavours.

At $19 this is a good-value lipsmacker to enjoy with cold-weather favourites such as Beef Wellington or a hearty steak and kidney pie.

Pictured ■ On its own or with light Mediterranean dishes, this one’s great $25 buying.

■ At $19 a beaut companion with a winter’s Beef Wellington or steak and kidney pie.

German Navy that had made it known it wanted quick access between its bases in the Baltic and North Seas, and without that lengthy and potentially dangerous 450km traipse around Denmark.

Finally in 1887 work began in the south on a route from Brunsbuttel on the North Sea, to Holtenau at Kiel on the Baltic in the north – an extraordinary task that would take 8,900 workers eight years to remove 100-million cubic metres of earth, and to then line the whole 98kms with concrete.

Finally on the morning of June 20 1895, 119 years ago this month, the German Imperial Yacht Hohenzollern with the Kaiser and an official party aboard entered the lock at Brunsbuttel.

The Kaiser cut a ribbon to declare that end of the canal officially opened, then lead a 24-ship convoy of mostly naval vessels from Germany and fourteen other nations the 98km to Holtenau, with Champers and Schnapps a-plenty for their 8-hour journey.

And in the lock at Holtenau next day, the Kaiser laid the final stone commemorating the official opening of the canal, which he named the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Kanal, not after himself, but after Germany’s Kaiser I. Grandstands of-near football stadium proportions were built for the thousands of official guests from Germany and neighbouring countries invited to the ceremony, with hundreds of them being further invited to two more days of partying to follow…

Between 1907 and 1914 Wilhelm had the canal widened to 102.5m to allow Germany’s massive Dreadnought class battleships to pass quickly through from their base in the Baltic to the North Sea. It was an ominous sign, and as we now know, the Kaiser went on to become possibly the most instrumental individual leading to the outbreak of WWI, while the Canal – today known simply as the Kiel Canal – is the busiest man-made waterway in the world, with an average 35,000 cargo, passenger, naval and pleasure vessels passing along it annually.

And every year the 13km-long Canal Cup rowing race, considered the world’s toughest rowing event, is held on the canal at Rendsburg, the only town of any size along its route – tough not just because of its 13km length, but because race competitors have to avoid shipping traffic and cross-canal ferries, neither of which give ground for the event, and to plough through their dangerous wash.

Over 100,000 spectators line the canal for the race, which has included teams from Australia at least twice; this year’s 14th annual race will be held as part of a 3-day regatta at Rendsburg from September 12 to 14.

Although eleven bridges that span the canal limit the height of vessels, a number of cruise lines still have medium-size ships use the waterway regularly – and this year, SeaDream Yacht Club will join them as part of the company’s first-ever sailing from the UK, when its boutique 112-passenger SeaDream I journeys from Dover to Denmark, Sweden, Estonia and 2-nights in St Petersburg, and including transiting the Kiel Canal twice.

Details www.seadream.com