Introducing the Nut Gurus
You've read them. You've cursed them. You've fallen madly in love with them. You've uncomfortably thought about them at three in the morning as the winds howl outside and you are deep under the doona. You've bummed a cigarette from them. You've rubbed their shiny heads. You've called them hoping they can sort you out with whatever illegal goodie you want. You've damned them for dropping a catch off your bowling. You've been so drunk with them you were willing to take 6/4-on that your liver was coming up next.
Ladies, Gentlemen, Distinguised Guests, Party Crashers, Tight Ends, Referees, former A Country Practice Actors, Disrguntled Employees….your very own, Nut Gurus…
Stu Warren
Having cut his teeth as a sports hack at a range of regional and rural newspapers, Stu Warren has finally hit the big-time as a Nut Guru.
A devoted Press Gang fan as a teen, Warren spent much of his formative years reporting on all types of local sport in his native north-west Tasmania and still counts an interview with many-times world champion axeman David Foster as one of his defining moments as a media professional.
Other highlights during this mid-90s golden period included reporting on the NW Tasmania Boags Originals 1996 SEABL championship run and operating the sight-screen at one end of Devonport Oval during a Tasmania vs. Sri Lanka tour match.
The continued onset of a nasty case of cynicism during his mid-20s saw Warren move from the mainstream media into a period of self-imposed exile in the old country where he mainly meditated over pints of cellar-temperature bitter and cheered Tottenham Hotspur FC through several managers and a series of fairly underwhelming EPL campaigns.
After six years of depressing weather and even more depressing Ashes series from the visitors in baggy green hats, Warren saw fit to return home where he sat like a coiled spring, waiting for two things: a Collingwood premiership and the chance to once again belt his keyboard in anger.
With the black and white heroics of October 2010 now etched in the annals of AFL history and the chance to write proffered by the establishment of Making The Nut, life is peachy and I'd love you to read about it.
Cliff Bingham
Cliff Bingham is a sports writer with a number-crunching bent and a penchant for all things statistical and analogous.
He is an avid sports fan with the pecking order of favourite sports a hotly contested one – in particular, Australian Rules football, rugby league, cricket, golf, the NFL and motor sport all compete for his attention. For a number of years, the title of his favourite sportsman was an epic battle between Allan Border, Peter Brock and Wally Lewis, while he will always hold fond memories of Super Impose, the horse whose incredible Group One victories over the Randwick mile led him to a love affair with the track and the punt.
By and large he is a lover of all things maroon (especially come State of Origin), a by-product of younger days growing up in Mackay and subsequently Brisbane. The one exception to this rule is the Brisbane Lions (nee Bears) AFL club – the club was such a shambolic mess in its early days that he stayed an Essendon fan and has done so to this day, although a soft spot is retained for the Lions.
He has written for the Big Tip and retains a day-to-day interest in crunching the numbers on a variety of issues.
Those who know him consider him the most honest man in town. He has approximately 6,742 nicknames.
Tim Napper
Tim Napper is a freelance poker writer. He has played in the World Series of Poker in Vegas and major tournaments in Macau, Melbourne and Sydney. He has failed to cash in any of these tournaments. A hometown hero of the poker scene in Canberra, Tim has been systematically crushed at the poker table at exotic locations all around the world.
Tim has lived throughout Asia, playing both cricket and poker all across the region. He represented Australia in the 2002 Mongolian Ashes clash in Ulaan Baater, (Australia was victorious); and also represented Australia in the Lao PDR 2009 Ashes clash in Vientiane (where Australia was again victorious). In Canberra, Tim was renowned for having the best hands and worst knees in Eastlakes City and Suburban Division 5. He holds the club record for ‘most runners required during the regular season after sustaining a knee injury’ (5 times in 2006 / 07).
Tim also holds the distinction of playing in the inaugural season (1993) of the Canberra Gridiron League for the Queanbeyan Wolverines – the first and last team in the history of the league to go through an entire season without scoring a single touchdown. Sadly, the proud Wolverines franchise folded in 2003.
When not playing poker, Tim is a bleeding heart socialist who doesn’t just speak truth to power, but screams it incoherently at the top of his lungs.
He is a regular contributor to http://www.pokerasiapacific.com/.
Matt Fisk
Matt Fisk is an expert on all things rugby league. Cursed with a love of the Western Suburbs Magpies, Fisky spent the best part of the 1980s and 1990s in a constant state of anger and despair. However the rise and rise of the Wests Tigers has seen him shake his "battler" tag.
But Fisk is no one-eyed footy fan. He is a rugby league philanthropist who has experienced the game first-hand at all major grounds in Australia, NZ, England and his favourite, France. Despite spending his days framing the odds for Australia's biggest bookie, he is connected to the game by anythingbut the mighty dollar. He is passionate about the NSW Blues, has a disturbing love of Benji Marshall and Gareth Ellis and cannot stand the self-interest of player managers and certain administrators/officials in the greatest game of all.
Each fortnight throughout the season, Fisky will shoot from the hip or just wax lyrical about his love of the game. He will touch on the wonderful and colourful types who support rugby league, he will try and shed light on the issues that confuse the common man and if you are lucky he may just take a trip down memory lane.
He has been known to fall asleep on top of cars and occasionally goes by the alias "Frank the Tank". If this man is seen, he should only be approached with caution.