Judd ready for marathon rally

Written by Fabien Kornél

One of New Zealand’s most experienced rally competitors, Jeff Judd, is ready to take on New Zealand’s only marathon rally, the Silver Fern Rally, when it gets underway on November 14.

Judd is highly respected around New Zealand as both a driver and co-driver, with achievements including contesting the Production World Rally Championship last year as co-driver to Mark Tapper.

The Christchurch Driver, along with co-driver Mark Smith, will contest the week-long rally in a Ford Escort RS1800 built to full classic specifications. The car has a strong history, winning the 1998 edition of the prestigious Otago Classic Rally as well as the 1999 Club Rally championship, which was later known as Rally Xtreme. After a crash at a classic race meeting in 2000, the car has been re-shelled across the last ten years and is ready for the demands of the Silver Fern.

Judd has been seeded second amongst an international field, just behind South African driver Geoff Bell in a similar car and is widely regarded as New Zealand’s best hope to win the Jim Clark Trophy for the first ‘period’ classic car home.

The Silver Fern Rally has run on three previous occasions with Judd having competed each time. After co-driving in 1990 and again in 2006 for Englishman Grant Shand, Judd got behind the wheel in 2008 in a similar car and was inside the top three on each of the five trouble-free days, however problems on the other three days meant the end result was 23rd overall.

The epay Silver Fern Rally gets underway on November 14, running for seven days with six stages on each day. Day one sees crews start the rally in Christchurch with a loop before returning for an overnight halt. The following day, crews will travel onto Timaru one night, then further south to Dunedin on day three. Day Four, which loops around Dunedin, has the longest distance of any day and two of the three longest stages of the event at 100.75km and 50.49 for a day total of nearly 250 competitive kilometres. Day five sees the crews head south to Invercargill, then north to Alexandra on Day six. The seventh and final day will lead the remaining teams to the Queenstown finish and the crews who get there will have traveled 1059km of special stages as well as 1850km of touring stages, where all road rules must be obeyed.

Judd’s 2010 Silver Fern campaign is backed by John Jones Steel, BNT, Fuchs Lubricants, VINZ Testing Stations, Waimate Pharmacy, Magnum Compliance Services, Balclutha Nissan, Canterbury Stoneguards, Import Part Specialists, Silvester V8 Performance, Garden City Helicopters and Windscreens Nationwide.

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IT/MIS-Programmer Vacancy at Sinar Mas

Job Information
Position IT/MIS-Programmer
Job Type Employee
Work Location Office
Employment Status FullTime
Work Place Jakarta
Salary Negotiable
Gender Both

Company Information
Company Name Bank Sinarmas
Industry Finance/Banking
Company Size Medium (51 – 149 employees)
Company Type Multinational Company
City Jakarta
Country Indonesia
Homepage http://www.banksinarmas.com
Company Profile
Bank Sinarmas
Requirements
Minimum Experience 1
Minimum Degree Bachelor (S1)
Skill 1. C++ Language – 1 years (Required)
2. ASP – 1 years (Required)
3. VB.NET – 1 years (Required)
Additional Information
• Minimum Degree in Computer Science, Computer/Electrical/Electronic Engineering or relevant discipline
• Willing to learn, and work independently, and as team player
• Possess positive work attitude, proactive, and initiative.
• Have a good analytical and logic thinking.
• Good knowledge on DBMS & RDBMS
• Have technical experience in programming language (like C or C++, VB or VB.net, ASP, etc)
• Have knowledge on banking products or having experience in programming for financial institution would be an advantage.

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Bayern on the mend with four-goal show

Defending German champions Bayern Munich scored a morale-boosting 4-2 win over Freiburg on Friday night after a sizzling second half brought three goals to move the Bavarians up to seventh spot.

Though foing well in the Champions League, Bayern have had a poor time of it in the league so far this term – but the three points lifted them provisionally level with sixth-placed Hamburg with 15 points after only their fourth win in 10 games.

Martin Demichelis scored the only goal of the first half to bolster Bayern’s confidence before Mario Gomez on the hour, Anatoliy Timoshchuk and then Toni Kroos completed the rout – Stefan Reisinger briefly putting Freiburg back in it at 2-1.

A late own goal from Bayern defender Edson Braafheid was scant consolation for the visitors, who started off the match three points clear of their southern rivals.

On Sunday, both Bundesliga leaders Mainz – nine points clear of Bayern with a match in hand – and closest rivals Borussia Dortmund will be looking to get over German Cup disappointments when they clash with top spot up for grabs.

Mainz suffered only their second defeat of the season on Wednesday when they were shocked 2-1 at second division Alemannia Aachen in the German Cup second round, while Dortmund lost 4-2 on penalties at third-tier Kickers Offenbach.

With a two-point lead, Mainz can open up a five-point gap at the top of the table if they can beat Juergen Klopp’s young guns.

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Raul to the rescue as Schalke end home win drought

Former Spanish international great Raul scored a brace as Bundesliga strugglers Schalke 04 finally ended their jinx at the Veltins-Arena with a 3-0 home defeat of St. Pauli on Friday.

Schalke finished runners-up last season but have made a disastrous start to the 2011 campaign with one win in their first 10 games, prior to this victory, leaving them hovering precariously around the relegation zone.

Raul moved to the German side in July on a two-year deal after making over 500 appearances for Real Madrid, and has come in for criticism in recent weeks despite scoring a brace in the Champions league against Hapoel Tel Aviv last month.

Felix Magath’s side went into this match with plenty of pressure — it is Schalke’s worst ever start to the season — but showed enough composure and determination to keep their first clean sheet since February 2010.

Raul opened the scoring on 14 minutes, with Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, a former teammate of Raul’s at Real Madrid, doubling the lead in the 53rd minute.

Raul put the match well beyond reach of St. Pauli with his second goal of the game nine minutes from regulation time.

“It’s a relief to win at home and I’m very happy for Raul, who as well as scoring two goals showed he can play alongside Huntelaar,” said Magath.

Central defender Christoph Metzelder, who has been a target for some Schalke fans in recent weeks, was more than happy at having conceded no goals.

“I hope this will be the start of better things for us. In any case, it has given us a confidence boost and showed that our defence is becoming a bit more solid,” said Metzelder.

Schalke were second from bottom and moved up two places to 15th on nine points, 16 adrift of league leaders Borussia Dortmund. St. Pauli remain in 13th on 13 points.

German champions Bayern Munich are seventh, 10 points off the pace, ahead of their away match Saturday to Borussia Moenchengladbach. BERLIN (AFP)

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Dortmund extend lead after seeing off Hamburg

Bundesliga leaders Dortmund underlined their credentials at the top of the table on Friday with a 2-0 home win over Hamburg in the rain to open a seven-point lead at the top of the table.

On a filthy night in Dortmund at a packed Signal Iduna Park in front of a sell-out 80,720 crowd, the home side picked up three more points to open the seven-point lead over second-place Mainz ahead of this weekend’s matches.

Dortmund are flying high at the moment this was their tenth league win of the season. Their defeat to Leverkusen back in August on the first day of the season is the only blot on their copybook this term.

“It was very difficult for us against an oppoent who played so defensively,” said Dortmund coach Jurgen Klopp.

“It took us a while to get into the game, but things worked better for us after the break.

“Hamburg came back into the game late on, which made life hard for us.

“But we are very happy with the win.”

Superb second-half goals by Japanese midfielder Shinji Kagawa, his sixth of the season, and Lucas Barrios, his seventh, sealed the win.

The hosts had plenty to celebrate in midweek when uncapped defender Marcel Schmelzer, 22, and 18-year-old midfielder Mario Goetze were called into the German squad along with striker Kevin Grosskreutz and defender Mats Hummels.

Goetze wasted the best chance of the first half when Schmelzer fired in a cross, but the teenager could not connect cleanly with the chance and the opportunity went begging.

With his side top of the league, coach Jurgen Klopp seems to be feeling the pressure when he clashed angrily with the fourth official when a decision went against his side in the first-half.

Dortmund took the lead when Kagawa rifled in a shot from the edge of the penalty area which took a deflection off Hamburg’s Germany defender Heiko Westermann and flew into the net on 49 minutes.

Barrios compounded Hamburg’s misery when he tapped home a cross from Grosskreutz on 70 minutes after Dortmund had ripped apart the Hamburg defence.

The defeat leaves Hamburg seventh in the table. (Afp)

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Eduardo howler hands Inter narrow Genoa win

An embarrassing mistake from Portuguese goalkeeper Eduardo handed champions Inter Milan a 1-0 victory away to Genoa at the Marrassi stadium on Friday.

Ghana midfielder Muntari Sulley scored the winner three minutes into first half stoppage time but it was Eduardo’s gaffe that proved crucial.

Inter moved second ahead of the weekend games, a point behind leaders Lazio and one above city rivals AC Milan, who host Juventus on Saturday night.

But Rafael Benitez’s side will also be counting the cost of this match having lost goalkeeper Julio Cesar and midfielder Esteban Cambiasso to injuries.

Benitez said he was happier with his side than following last week’s home draw with Sampdoria.

“It was a different game to the one against Sampdoria against a team that is difficult to play against and played well,” he said.

“Our character came shining through, it’s true that (Samuel) Eto’o missed an easy chance but after the break we created five or six more.”

Genoa coach Gian Piero Gasperini said his team had deserved more.

“I’m very disappointed with the result and for the fans, it should have ended differently because we didn’t deserve to lose,” he said.

“We played well and created many chances.

“We gave away too many balls but we played with organisation in defence and we counter-attacked with speed.

“At the end we played more physically, we could have got at least a draw.

“I’m disappointed we dropped these points but we played with great spirit.”

Inter had the first clear chance of the game on 13 minutes as French winger Jonathan Biabiany went on a mazy run, beating three players and slipping the ball to Wesley Sniejder, whose shot sent Eduardo plunging to his right to gather at the second attempt.

Genoa threatened next on 21 minutes as Luca Toni ran at the Inter defence, beat Lucio and let fly from just outside the area but Cesar leapt to his left to beat it away.

Giandomenico Mesto was then well placed to shoot on 24 minutes but curled his effort gently into Cesar’s arms.

Following 15 goals in 13 games before this one, Serie A top scorer Eto’o proved he was human with an incredible miss on 29 minutes as he ran onto Muntari’s inch-perfect pass but spooned his shot from 10 yards high and wide with only Eduardo to beat.

Inter full-back Davide Santon was lucky to stay on the pitch after driving his studs into Chico’s head, receiving only a booking.

Marco Rossi should have scored for the hosts on 42 minutes following sustained Genoa pressure as Chico centred from the right but the midfielder scuffed his shot from eight yards and it bobbled wide.

Into first half stoppage time Eduardo handed Inter a gift that had shades of England goalkeeper Robert Green’s World Cup howler against USA about it.

Muntari shot from distance but straight at the Portuguese, only for the ball to bounce in front of the keeper and bounce over his shoulder and in.

Sneijder created a glorious chance for Biabiany seven minutes after the restart with a flicked ball over the defence but Eduardo came out to block and make amends for his earlier error.

Sneijder had a pair of chances from free-kicks but fired both over the bar before Cesar was forced off with a hamstring problem, replaced by Luca Castellazzi, who saved comfortably from a Luca Toni header.

Genoa substitute Mattia Destro lost his balance as he shot from the edge of the area but then 11 minutes from time Domenico Criscito brilliantly took the ball on his chest only to send a volley arrowing just past Castellazzi’s left-hand post.

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What has happened to Maicon and Nesta?

Maicon was hailed as the best right back in the world not so long ago but Tottenham’s Gareth Bale has terrorised him twice in two weeks and Inter Milan fans are beginning to wonder if they should have cashed in and sold him to Real Madrid after all in the close season.

In the opposite San Siro dressing room, AC Milan’s Alessandro Nesta will also be getting a little twitchy after being exposed by Real Madrid on Wednesday.

He looked out of position for Gonzalo Higuain’s opener and his distribution was the worst I have seen from him. Even fans sat near me were surprised by his poor display, which shows what high standards Nesta has kept.

Nesta was among the very best centre backs in the world when Milan triumphed in the Champions League in 2007 but a long period of injury since has robbed the 34-year-old of some of his aura.

Juventus also really worried him in their 2-1 win last weekend.

Maicon is a different case, however. The Brazilian is still only 29 and should be in his prime. He was supposed to be the quickest and toughest right back around but speedster Bale completely dominated him.

Rumours of a move to Real were constant during the close season but Inter decided to end talks after deciding he was too good to let go after their treble triumph.

Did they make a mistake? I would say that last season Maicon was not quite as good as the season before or even the season before that. The signs were there that maybe he had peaked.

Players tend to have a purple patch — Ronaldinho at Barcelona, Crisitano Ronaldo in 2008 at Manchester United — and they are never quite as special afterwards.

In Maicon’s case, his hunger could well have diminished slightly after winning everything last season. Perhaps a transfer was exactly what he needed.

Maicon and Nesta are men enough to prove the doubters wrong but in the big games they need to start performing again. REUTERS/Dylan Martinez

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